KI-24 (Ling Xu) Spirit Ruins

What does KI-24 Ling Xu do?

KI-24 unbinds the chest, lowers rebellious Lung and Stomach qi, and benefits the breasts — and these are word for word the actions our record gives for KI-23, one space below.

• Unbinds the chest
• Lowers rebellious Lung and Stomach qi
• Benefits the breasts

KI-23 and KI-24 are completely identical in our records. Comparing the two directly: the same three actions in the same order in the same words, and the same four indications in the same order in the same words. Not similar — identical, in both fields. The only difference our data records between them is the intercostal space each occupies. This library states that plainly on both pages rather than writing two differently-flavoured records to disguise it, which would misrepresent what we hold. Our BL-31 and BL-34 records document the nearest comparable case — identical actions, but three differing indications, so a weaker identity than this one.

Its “spirit” is a different word from its neighbours’. Three consecutive chest points on the Kidney channel are named for the spirit — KI-23 Shen Feng (Spirit Seal), KI-24 Ling Xu (Spirit Ruins) and KI-25 Shen Cang (Spirit Storehouse) — but KI-24 uses ling where the other two use shen. Our translations render both as “spirit”, and the distinction is invisible in English. Ling also names DU-10 Ling Tai (Spirit Tower) on the mid-back and GB-18 Cheng Ling on the scalp.

And the run has a limit worth stating. None of the three spirit-named points records a single mental-emotional indication — their recorded indications are respiratory, thoracic and mammary throughout. The naming carries the spirit association; the indication data does not. Our BL-44, BL-47 and BL-49 records found exactly the same pattern on the outer Bladder line.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; KI-23 and KI-24 compared field by field and confirmed identical, and the KI-25, DU-10, GB-18, BL-31, BL-34, BL-44, BL-47 and BL-49 records queried, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is KI-24 Ling Xu used for?

KI-24 is used for cough, asthma, fullness in the chest and flank, and mastitis. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — and it is word for word identical to KI-23’s.

• Cough
• Asthma
• Fullness in the chest and hypochondriac region
• Mastitis

Where the breast entries sit in the run. Comparing all six Kidney chest points: KI-23 and KI-24 record mastitis; KI-26 carries a breast action but no breast indication; KI-22 and KI-25 carry neither. The breast entries cluster in the middle of the ladder, which is where these points lie nearest the breast tissue — the third and fourth intercostal spaces.

An honest note, and both the chest and the breast entries need one. CHEST PAIN OR TIGHTNESS IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY until proven otherwise — especially with breathlessness, sweating, or pain spreading to the arm or jaw. These points sit directly over the heart. MASTITIS REQUIRES MEDICAL ASSESSMENT AND OFTEN NEEDS ANTIBIOTICS; untreated it can form an abscess, and a breast infection with fever needs prompt care. Any new breast lump, skin change or nipple change requires medical assessment without delay, and must never be attributed to mastitis without examination — some breast cancers present with inflammation that resembles it. Asthma can be fatal and requires prescribed management. This record documents classical use only, and nothing here should delay any of that.

How it is combined. With KI-23 below and KI-25 above on the same 2-cun line. With REN-17 Shan Zhong on the midline — the Hui-Meeting point of qi and a principal point for the chest and breasts. With ST-18 Ru Gen beneath the breast — two spaces lower, in the fifth — and SI-01 Shao Ze distally, the classical point for breast conditions. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record, compared entry by entry against KI-23's; the KI-22, KI-25, KI-26, REN-17, SI-01 and ST-18 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is KI-24 Ling Xu located?

KI-24 is on the chest, two cun out from the midline, in the third space between the ribs.

• In the third intercostal space, 2 cun lateral to the midline
• KI-23 Shen Feng lies one space below in the fourth; KI-25 Shen Cang one space above in the second
• REN-18 Yu Tang sits on the midline at this level; ST-16 Ying Chuang further out at 4 cun

The position is the only thing separating this point from KI-23 in our data, which makes locating it accurately the whole of the practical difference between them. The intercostal spaces are real landmarks — the ribs can be felt directly, and the conventional reference is that the nipple line in men sits at the fourth space, with the third immediately above it. That reference is not reliable in women or in older men, and our KI-23 record says so; counting from a felt rib is the dependable method either way.

The 2-cun chest line. Six Kidney points climb the chest at a constant 2 cun from the midline, one per intercostal space from the fifth up to the first, then KI-27 below the clavicle. Between the Conception Vessel on the midline and the Stomach channel at 4 cun, all three can be present in one space — and at these small intervals the lateral distance has to be measured rather than estimated.

On the name. “Ling Xu” means Spirit Ruins, sometimes rendered Spirit Mound or Spirit Burial Ground. Xu is a mound, a ruin, or the site of an abandoned settlement, and the readings offered for it vary considerably — our data holds Spirit Ruins and does not settle the sense. It is one of the more striking names in the system, and it sits over the heart.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the KI-23, KI-25, KI-27, REN-18 and ST-16 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 360): In the third intercostal space, 2 cun lateral to the midline.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 197): In the third intercostal space, 2 cun lateral to the anterior midline

How is KI-24 Ling Xu needled?

Our own record states oblique insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle and depth as recorded: oblique, 0.3–0.5 inch — the same insertion recorded at every point in this chest run. On the chest the obliquity is the safety feature and not a stylistic detail: a needle laid along the intercostal space stays in the chest wall, while a perpendicular one is aimed into the thorax.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable. It carries none of these hazards.
• Regional anatomy: pectoralis major overlies the intercostal muscles; the intercostal nerve and vessels run along the lower border of the rib above; the pleura and lung lie deep to the intercostal muscles, and the heart lies behind the sternum and medial chest wall in this region.

A distinction our own data draws, and this page keeps. KI-22, two spaces below, carries an explicit warning in its needling record — “to avoid injuring the heart, deep insertion is not advisable” — and querying every needling record in this library, KI-22 is the only point in the table that carries a heart-injury caution. KI-24’s record does not. This page does not import it. What does apply here, as across the whole chest and rib region, is pneumothorax — and the recorded oblique angle and shallow depth are what address it.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at KI-24 could be located, and none is borrowed. The paediatric CT study this library uses measured 23 points on the back and shoulder; our BL-45, BL-46, SI-14 and SI-15 records hold figures from it, and every one of those belongs to a point on the back. No case report naming KI-24 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; every needling record queried for a heart caution and KI-22 confirmed the only one; the BL-45, BL-46, SI-14 and SI-15 figures attributed to those points), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on KI-24, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates KI-24. Where the point appears it is one component of a respiratory or breast protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence, and the first item is the honest one. KI-24 is indistinguishable from KI-23 in our data — three identical actions, four identical indications, word for word in both fields. The only recorded difference between them is which intercostal space each occupies. A reference that wrote two distinct-sounding pages here would be inventing a difference our source material does not contain.

What is genuinely its own. Its position in the third intercostal space, and its name: Ling Xu, using a different word for spirit than the shen of KI-23 and KI-25 either side of it — a distinction that disappears in English translation, where all three read as “spirit”. And none of the three spirit-named points records a mental-emotional indication, the same pattern this library found at BL-44, BL-47 and BL-49.

A note on searching for it. “KI 24”, “KID 24” and “Lingxu” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — Lingxu matches place names and personal names, and the syllable ling is common across the point system (GB-18, DU-10, GB-34 all carry it in different senses). Our library codes this channel KI- while some sources use KID-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and translation records; KI-23 and KI-24 compared field by field, and the KI-25, DU-10, GB-18, BL-44, BL-47 and BL-49 records queried, against our own data).