LI-07 (Wen Liu) Warm Dwelling

What does LI-07 Wen Liu do?

LI-07 is the Xi-Cleft point of the Large Intestine channel — a YANG channel, which means the bleeding indication that yin Xi-Cleft points carry does NOT apply here. That distinction is worth stating because the category is the same and the consequence is not.

• Clears heat and resolves toxicity — applied to sore throat, facial swelling and skin conditions
• Moderates acute conditions — the Xi-Cleft function proper
• Regulates and harmonises the intestines and Stomach — the organ action
• Clears Yang Ming fire and calms the spirit

The rule, and its limits, verified against our own data. This library holds sixteen Xi-Cleft points. The six on yin channels — LU-06, HT-06, P-04, SP-08, LIV-06, KI-05 — carry a bleeding indication in the classical texts. The six on yang channels — LI-07, ST-34, SI-06, BL-63, SJ-07, GB-36 — do not. Our ST-34 record makes that non-application explicit, and LI-07’s own indication list confirms it: there is no bleeding indication on it.

What a yang Xi-Cleft point does instead. The acute function remains — these are still the points for sudden and severe presentations on their channel. What changes is the content: LI-07 is for acute heat and toxicity along the Yang Ming, not for haemorrhage. That is a real difference in use derived from a single classification detail.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category and action records; all sixteen Xi-Cleft points and their channels queried from our own data; ST-34's explicit non-application checked), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is LI-07 Wen Liu used for?

LI-07 is used for headache and facial swelling, sore throat, abdominal rumbling and pain, and aching of the shoulder and arm. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Headache
• Swelling of the face
• Sore throat
• Rumbling in the abdomen (borborygmus)
• Abdominal pain
• Aching of the shoulder and arm

Note what is absent: there is no bleeding indication. Compare our records for the yin-channel Xi-Cleft points — LU-06 carries coughing blood, HT-06 carries coughing blood and nosebleed, LIV-06 carries uterine bleeding, P-04 carries three bleeding entries. LI-07 carries none, exactly as the yang-channel rule predicts. That the prediction holds across our own indication records rather than only in theory is worth noting.

The list divides into channel and organ. Headache, facial swelling and sore throat are the Large Intestine channel’s far end — it terminates beside the nose, passing through the jaw and teeth. Shoulder and arm pain is its course. Abdominal rumbling and pain are the organ.

How it is combined. With LI-04 He Gu, the Yuan-Source point and one of the Four Commands for the face and mouth, and LI-11 Qu Chi, the He-Sea point and the channel’s principal heat-clearing point — the two most-used points on the channel. With ST-25 Tian Shu, the Front-Mu point of the Large Intestine, for the organ. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the yin-channel Xi-Cleft indication lists and LI-04, LI-11, ST-25 classifications queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is LI-07 Wen Liu located?

LI-07 is on the thumb side of the back of the forearm, five cun above LI-05 Yang Xi at the wrist, on the line running up to LI-11 Qu Chi at the elbow. It is located by measurement between two points we hold, with no landmark of its own.

• 5 cun proximal to LI-05 Yang Xi, on the LI-05 to LI-11 line
• LI-05 Yang Xi is the Jing-River and Fire point at the wrist — one of the three “yang” wrist points, with SJ-04 and SI-05
• LI-11 Qu Chi is the He-Sea and Earth point at the elbow, and the channel’s tonification point

The forearm is long, and counting matters. LI-06, LI-07, LI-08, LI-09 and LI-10 all sit on this one line at measured intervals with nothing palpable between them. Our LI-10 Shou San Li record notes the same problem from further up, and adds a caution worth repeating: LI-10 (“Arm Three Li”) and ST-36 (“Leg Three Li”) have parallel names but are not analogous in function.

On the name. “Wen Liu” is rendered Warm Dwelling or Warm Slide. Unlike the Xi-Cleft points whose names announce the category — Yin Xi, Xi Men, Kong Zui — this one does not, so the classification has to be looked up rather than read off the name.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; LI-05, LI-10 and LI-11 classifications queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 109): 5 cun proximal to Yangxi L.I.-5 on the line connecting Yangxi L.I.-5 with Quchi L.I.-11.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 141): With the elbow flexed and the radial side of arm upward, the point is on the line connecting Yangxi (LI-5) and Quchi (Ll-11), 5 cun above the crease of the wrist.

How is LI-07 Wen Liu needled?

The standard texts record perpendicular insertion to roughly 0.5–1.0 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.5–1.0 inch.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the point lies over the extensor carpi radialis muscles on the radial side of the forearm; the radial nerve’s superficial branch descends in this region, and the radial artery lies deeper and more anteriorly, along the flexor side.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: no body cavity beneath the forearm, no major vessel in the recorded needle path, and a moderate depth. Note the contrast with the Lung channel on the flexor side of the same forearm — our LU-08 record carries an explicit “avoid puncturing the radial artery” caution and a recorded depth of only 0.1–0.3 inch, because the Lung channel follows the artery’s course. LI-07 is on the extensor side and does not. No study measuring a safe depth at LI-07 could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report naming LI-07 was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; LU-08's radial-artery caution queried from our own data for the contrast), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on LI-07, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates LI-07. Where the point appears it is one component of a protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Where this channel’s attention has gone. Overwhelmingly to LI-04 He Gu, among the most-studied points in the world, and to LI-11 Qu Chi. Our LI-04 record deflates its literature carefully — Cochrane found no clear caesarean benefit, the one point-specific dental trial has forty participants, and the imaging work is mechanism rather than benefit. Our LI-03 record goes further and reports that a search returned twenty-eight records of which none was about that point. Evidence about LI-04 is not evidence about LI-07.

What this page can state with confidence, and it is the useful part. LI-07 is a Xi-Cleft point on a yang channel, which means the acute function without the bleeding indication — and our own indication record confirms the prediction by containing no bleeding entry at all. Testing that prediction against our own indication records gives eleven of twelve: all six yang-channel Xi-Cleft points carry no bleeding indication, and four of the six yin ones do — LU-06, HT-06, P-04 and LIV-06. KI-05 and SP-08 are the partial cases: both carry menstrual indications (KI-05 amenorrhoea and irregular menstruation, SP-08 irregular menstruation and dysmenorrhoea) without an explicit bleeding entry. That is recorded here as it stands rather than smoothed over — the classical rule is well attested, but our own indication records express it on four of six yin points, and a reader is better served knowing that than being told the pattern is perfect.

A note on searching for it. “LI 7” and “Wenliu” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material matched on the code or on a surname. This library has discarded comparable matches throughout, including a lizard genomics paper, an exercise hammock, a city name and several papers printing the wrong point code. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification and indication records; LI-03's and LI-04's research findings queried from our own data).