SP-02 (Da Du) Great Metropolis

What does SP-02 Da Du do?

SP-02 regulates the Spleen, resolves dampness and damp-heat, and harmonises the middle jiao and clears heat — and it is the Ying-Spring and Fire point of the Spleen channel, which makes it the channel’s TONIFICATION point.

• Regulates the Spleen — the organ action, and the tonifying one
• Resolves dampness and damp-heat — the Spleen’s classical role in fluid metabolism
• Harmonises the middle jiao and clears heat

Its five-shu role, derived from our own element records. The Spleen is a yin Earth channel, and SP-02 is its Fire point — and Fire is Earth’s mother, so SP-02 is the tonification point. That matters clinically more than most five-shu roles: the Spleen is the organ most often treated for deficiency in the tradition, and its tonification point is correspondingly one of the more used. The full Spleen series, from our data: SP-01 Wood (controlling element), SP-02 Fire (tonification, this point), SP-03 Tai Bai Earth (horary, and the Yuan-Source point), SP-05 Metal (sedation), SP-09 Water. Our SP-03 record, if written, sets out the same series.

Why tonification and clearing heat sit in one record. Ying-Spring points are classically indicated for heat, and SP-02’s clearing action reflects that — while its identity as the tonification point reflects its element. A point can carry both: the five-shu category (Ying-Spring, for heat) and the five-shu element (Fire, mother of Earth, for tonifying) are two different classifications of the same point, and our record holds both.

On the name. “Da Du” means Great Metropolis or Great Capital — da great, du a capital or gathering city, the same character as in KI-19 Yin Du (Yin Metropolis). The reading usually offered has qi gathering here in abundance, as people gather in a capital.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, element, action and translation records; the full Spleen five-shu series queried and SP-02 confirmed the Fire/tonification point, and the KI-19 name checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SP-02 Da Du used for?

SP-02 is used for abdominal distension, gastric pain, constipation, and febrile disease without sweating. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Abdominal distension
• Gastric pain
• Constipation
• Febrile disease with anhidrosis (fever without sweating)

Three digestive entries and one febrile, and the febrile one is a Ying-Spring signature. “Fever without sweating” is a classical pattern the Ying-Spring points address, and it recurs across them — our LI-01 and ST-45 records carry the same kind of febrile entry. The digestive entries are the Spleen’s and the middle jiao’s, matching the organ action.

An honest note. Gastric pain that is severe, persistent, or comes with weight loss, vomiting, black stools or difficulty swallowing requires medical assessment — and upper-abdominal pain can originate in the heart. A lasting change in bowel habit requires assessment. A high or persistent fever, or fever with confusion, stiff neck or a rash, needs medical care. This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With SP-03 Tai Bai, the Yuan-Source point, just proximal — the two are used together to tonify the Spleen. With SP-01 Yin Bai at the nail corner, and SP-06 San Yin Jiao and ST-36 Zu San Li for Spleen and Stomach deficiency. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the LI-01, SP-01, SP-03, SP-06, ST-36 and ST-45 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SP-02 Da Du located?

SP-02 is on the inner side of the big toe, in the hollow just in front of and below the knuckle at the base of the toe.

• On the medial (inner) side of the big toe
• In the depression distal and inferior to the first metatarsophalangeal joint — the big-toe knuckle
• At the junction of the darker and paler skin along the border of the foot, the boundary the classical texts use here

The Spleen’s five-shu points climb the inner border of the foot in order. SP-01 at the nail corner (Jing-Well), SP-02 here in front of the toe knuckle (Ying-Spring), SP-03 behind it (Shu-Stream and Yuan-Source), SP-05 in front of the inner ankle bone (Jing-River). Four of the five within a short stretch of the medial foot, distinguished by their relation to the toe joint and the ankle — and, as this library repeats wherever points crowd, mistaking one for a neighbour substitutes a five-shu category.

The skin-boundary landmark. Along the side of the foot the skin of the sole (thicker, paler) meets the skin of the dorsum (thinner, darker) at a fairly definite line, and the classical texts locate SP-02 on it. It is a real, visible boundary and a more reliable guide than a measurement at a point this small.

On the name. “Da Du” — Great Metropolis, qi gathering in abundance.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including the skin-boundary landmark; the SP-01, SP-03 and SP-05 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 183): On the medial side of the big toe, in the depression distal and inferior to the first metatarso-phalangeal joint.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 157): On the medial side of the great toe, distal and inferior to the first metatarsodigital joint, in the depression of the junction of the red and white skin.

How is SP-02 Da Du needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.1–0.3 inch, with moxibustion applicable — shallow, as befits a point on the toe with bone close beneath. 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, 0.1–0.3 inch.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable — and worth noting, because as a tonification point moxibustion is a common choice here: warming a deficient Spleen is exactly what moxa is classically used for, so the treatment given at SP-02 often involves heat rather than needling alone.
• Regional anatomy: abductor hallucis runs along the medial border of the foot; the medial plantar nerve and the digital branches supply the region; the first metatarsal and the proximal phalanx of the big toe lie beneath.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: no cavity, no organ, no major vessel, and bone close beneath. The medial border of the foot is thinly covered, which is a matter of sensation rather than danger.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at SP-02 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the foot. No case report naming SP-02 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SP-02, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SP-02. Where the point appears it is one component of a digestive or Spleen-tonifying protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. SP-02 is the Ying-Spring and Fire point of the Spleen channel, and because the Spleen is a yin Earth channel, Fire is Earth’s mother, which makes it the tonification point — checkable against our own element records. That is a clinically weighty role, since the Spleen is the organ most often treated for deficiency, and moxibustion is a common choice here for that reason. Its indications are digestive plus the fever-without-sweating pattern that the Ying-Spring points classically address. And it sits on the medial foot in the Spleen’s five-shu run, located by the skin-colour boundary along the foot’s edge.

A note on searching for it. “SP 2”, “Sp 2” and “Dadu” searches return protocol trials and a very large volume of unrelated material — “Dadu” matches place names (including a historical capital), personal names and ordinary vocabulary, which makes it one of the poorer search terms. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (element, action, indication and location records; the Spleen five-shu series queried and SP-02 confirmed the Fire/tonification point, against our own data).