LU-04 (Xia Bai) Guarding White

What does LU-04 Xia Bai do?

LU-04 descends Lung qi and regulates qi and blood in the chest — an upper-arm Lung point, used for cough and chest fullness.

• Descends Lung qi — restoring the Lung’s downward-bearing function, behind its use for cough (cough being rebellious, upward-driven Lung qi)
• Regulates qi and blood in the chest — easing fullness and constraint in the chest

An upper-arm point that acts on the chest. LU-04 sits on the inner upper arm, yet its actions are chest-and-Lung — the Lung channel beginning in the chest and running down the arm, so an arm point carries the chest action. It lies between LU-03 Tian Fu above (a Window of Heaven point) and LU-05 Chi Ze at the elbow (the Lung’s He-Sea point), sharing their chest-and-breath character.

On the name. “Xia Bai” means Guarding White or Clasping White — xia to hold, clasp or guard, bai white. White is the colour of the Lung and of Metal in five-element theory, so the name marks this as a Lung point (the arm “clasping” the white, the Lung); it is a rare instance of a point named for its organ’s five-element colour.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; the LU-03 and LU-05 records queried against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is LU-04 Xia Bai used for?

LU-04 is used for cough, fullness in the chest, and pain on the inner side of the upper arm. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Cough
• Fullness in the chest
• Pain in the medial (inner) aspect of the upper arm

Chest and breath, plus the local arm. Cough and chest fullness are the descend-Lung-qi and chest-regulating action; the inner-upper-arm pain is local, the point sitting there along the Lung channel’s arm course. It is a coherent Lung-and-local list.

An honest note. A cough lasting more than three weeks, or with blood, breathlessness, weight loss, or fever, requires medical assessment. Chest fullness or pain requires assessment to exclude cardiac and other serious causes. This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With LU-05 Chi Ze at the elbow and LU-01 Zhong Fu on the chest for cough and the Lung, and with LU-07 Lie Que distally. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the LU-01, LU-05 and LU-07 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is LU-04 Xia Bai located?

LU-04 is on the inner upper arm, four cun below the front of the armpit fold, on the thumb side of the biceps muscle.

• 4 cun below the anterior end of the axillary (armpit) fold
• equivalently, 5 cun above the cubital (elbow) crease
• On the radial (thumb) side of the biceps brachii — the outer edge of the biceps muscle

Placed on the inner arm along the biceps edge. The Lung channel runs down the inner arm on the thumb side of the biceps; LU-04 sits on that edge, one cun below LU-03 Tian Fu (which is 3 cun below the armpit fold). Finding LU-03 first and stepping one cun down, along the outer border of the biceps, reaches LU-04.

On the name. “Xia Bai” — Guarding White, white being the Lung’s colour, as noted above.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the LU-03 record queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 80): On the antero-lateral aspect of the upper arm, 4 cun inferior to the axillary fold and 5 cun superior to Chize LU-5, in the depression between the lateral border of the biceps brachii muscle and the shaft of the humerus.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 136): On the medial aspect of the upper arm, 4 cun below the anterior end of the axillary fold, or 5 cun above the cubital crease, on the radial side of m. biceps brachii.

How is LU-04 Xia Bai needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.5–1.0 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: perpendicular, 0.5–1.0 inch, into the arm on the outer edge of the biceps.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the point lies on the inner upper arm at the lateral border of biceps brachii; the brachial artery and the median nerve run in the groove on the inner side of the biceps, medial to this point; the cephalic vein and musculocutaneous nerve are nearby; the humerus lies deep.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: no body cavity, no pleura, no organ. The brachial artery and median nerve run medial to the biceps — the point is on the radial (thumb-side) border, away from them — and our record carries no arterial caution at LU-04, nor is it among the nine points that do. Staying on the outer edge of the biceps keeps clear of the neurovascular bundle on the inner side.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at LU-04 could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report naming LU-04 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; the nine arterial cautions queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on LU-04, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates LU-04. Where the point appears it is one component of a respiratory protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. LU-04 Xia Bai (“Guarding White”) is an upper-arm Lung point that descends Lung qi and regulates qi and blood in the chest — its indications being cough, chest fullness and inner-upper-arm pain. It sits on the thumb-side edge of the biceps, one cun below LU-03 Tian Fu. Its name records the Lung’s five-element colour, white. It carries no five-shu element and no special classification.

A note on searching for it. “LU 4”, “L 4”, “LU-4” and “Xiabai” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and this channel is coded LU, L and P (poumon) across the literature. Our library uses LU-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication and location records; the LU-03 and LU-05 records queried, against our own data).