SP-15 (Da Heng) Great Horizontal

What does SP-15 Da Heng do?

Da Heng SP-15 is a local abdominal point on the Spleen Channel of Foot Tai Yin whose recorded action is short and exact: it moves qi and regulates the intestines. It sits on the flank of the abdomen level with the navel, and its clinical range follows what lies directly beneath it — the large intestine as it turns across the abdomen. Sacred Lotus sources & references also classify it as a Meeting Point of the Spleen Channel with the Yin Linking Vessel (Yin Wei Mai), a classification it shares with three of its immediate neighbours on the same channel.

• Moves qi and regulates the intestines — the defining recorded action, and the reason a single point carries both constipation and diarrhoea among its indications. The tradition frames intestinal disorder in either direction as a failure of orderly movement rather than as too much or too little of anything, and this is the point recorded for restoring that movement locally.
• Relieves abdominal distension and pain — the local action, for fullness, cramping and colicky pain across the abdomen at the level of the navel.
• Strengthens the Spleen and resolves damp — the channel action underlying its use in chronic loose stools and dysenteric disorders, and the reason it appears in the Spleen-deficiency and damp-retention patterns.
• Regulates the Yin Linking Vessel locally — the Meeting-Point classification. The Yin Wei Mai is described as binding the yin channels of the body together, and SP-15 is one of the points at which the Spleen channel and that vessel are held to cross. Its Confluent point — the point from which the vessel is actually opened — is P-06 Nei Guan, held here.
• Relaxes the lateral abdomen — for tension, guarding and dragging sensations along the flank at the level of the umbilicus.

It should be said plainly that SP-15 carries no five-shu, Yuan, Luo, Xi-Cleft, Back-Shu or Front-Mu classification in Sacred Lotus sources & references, and none has been invented for it here. It is valued for where it sits.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, Meeting-Point classification and existing action record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 200; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 161; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SP-15 Da Heng used for?

Da Heng SP-15 is used for the abdomen and the bowel, and for very little else. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are abdominal pain and distension, diarrhoea, dysentery and constipation; the wider reference literature sets the list out as below. These describe traditional use, not proven treatment, and this is an abdominal point carrying the depth and pregnancy cautions set out under needling.

• Constipation, including habitual and post-stroke constipation
• Abdominal pain, particularly around and beside the navel
• Abdominal distension and fullness
• Diarrhoea
• Dysenteric disorders
• Borborygmus (rumbling of the intestines)
• Intestinal parasites — a classical indication recorded for this point
• Weakness and heaviness of the four limbs attributed to Spleen deficiency
• Excessive sweating with aversion to cold — recorded in the classical literature
• Central obesity and abdominal fat accumulation — the modern indication for which it most often appears in current trials
• Melancholy and low spirits with abdominal symptoms — recorded classically, and not among the point's main uses

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 161; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 200.

Where is SP-15 Da Heng, and how is it used in practice?

Da Heng sits on the abdomen, out to the side, level with the centre of the navel. The two sourced location records held in Sacred Lotus sources & references describe that position by different methods, and both are retained unchanged. One gives it as four cun lateral to the centre of the umbilicus, outside the rectus abdominis muscle; the other places it in the depression at the lateral border of the rectus abdominis, level with the umbilicus. In most adults these describe the same spot, since the outer edge of the rectus muscle at navel level falls roughly four cun from the midline — but the two are not identical devices, and a practitioner comparing texts will meet both.

Note on the location records. One record locates SP-15 by measurement (four cun lateral to the umbilicus); the other locates it by palpable landmark (the lateral border of the rectus abdominis at umbilical level). Neither has been rewritten and neither is presented as correcting the other. The practical difference is small and concerns body shape: in a broad or heavier abdomen the muscle border can lie a little further out than four cun, and in a narrow one a little closer in. Reference texts are not perfectly uniform here, and readers should be aware of it.

Which points is SP-15 combined with?

• With ST-25 Tian Shu — the constant comparison and the constant partner. ST-25 sits at exactly the same level, two cun lateral to the navel; SP-15 sits further out at four. ST-25 is the Front-Mu point of the Large Intestine and the more powerful of the two; SP-15 is the lateral point that extends the same horizontal line outward across the abdomen. The pair is used together in nearly every abdominal prescription that includes either, and they appear together in the trial literature described below.
• With REN-12 Zhong Wan and REN-06 Qi Hai — the midline points above and below the navel, completing a cross over the abdomen with the two lateral pairs. All are held here.
• With ST-36 Zu San Li — the standard distal point for the abdomen and the Stomach channel's He-Sea point, added to essentially every abdominal treatment.
• With SJ-06 Zhi Gou and ST-37 Shang Ju Xu — for constipation, adding the distal points on arm and leg to the local abdominal points.
• With SP-06 San Yin Jiao and SP-09 Yin Ling Quan — for the damp and Spleen-deficiency patterns, joining the local abdominal point to the channel's own leg points.
• With GB-26 Dai Mai — the Gall Bladder channel point at the waist, added in the abdominal-obesity protocols where the Girdling Vessel is the organising idea.
• Method — Sacred Lotus sources & references record moxibustion as applicable at this point.

How does SP-15 compare with ST-25 Tian Shu?

They are the two points most often set beside one another on this site, and the comparison is worth making carefully because they occupy the same horizontal line.

• Position. Both are level with the centre of the navel. ST-25 is two cun lateral, over the belly of the rectus abdominis; SP-15 is four cun lateral, outside the muscle at or beyond its border.
• Classification. ST-25 is the Front-Mu point of the Large Intestine — one of the twelve points at which the qi of an organ is said to gather on the front of the body, and one of the most heavily used points on the abdomen. SP-15 carries only its Yin Linking Vessel meeting classification. That difference in status is the main reason ST-25 is reached for first.
• Action. Both regulate the intestines and both carry constipation, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. ST-25's recorded range is wider, taking in menstrual disorders and the Stomach channel's broader remit; SP-15's is narrower and more purely intestinal.
• Recorded depth. Our records give the same figure for both — approximately 0.7 to 1.2 cun perpendicular — which is a useful reminder that the two sit in comparable tissue over comparable structures.

In practice they are not alternatives so much as a set: the level of the navel is treated with a line of points running out from the midline, and SP-15 is the outer station on it.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (both location records, the Meeting-Point classification, and the ST-25, REN-06, REN-12, ST-36, ST-37, SJ-06, SP-06, SP-09, GB-26 and P-06 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 200; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 161; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SP-15 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 200): On the abdomen, in the depression at the lateral border of the rectus abdominis muscle level with the umbilicus.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 161): 4 cun lateral to the centre of the umbilicus, lateral to m. rectus abdominis.

How is SP-15 Da Heng needled, and what cautions are recorded?

Reference record only — this sets out what the standard texts document, not instruction for a reader. Sacred Lotus sources & references record perpendicular insertion of 0.7 to 1.2 inches at SP-15, with moxibustion applicable. Deadman & Al-Khafaji record a comparable perpendicular range. SP-15 is an abdominal point, and the two cautions the reference literature attaches to abdominal points are the two set out below: depth, and pregnancy.

• Angle documented: perpendicular, through the abdominal wall lateral to the rectus abdominis. Oblique insertion along the abdomen is also recorded in the reference literature.
• Depth documented: approximately 0.7–1.2 cun — the same recorded range as at ST-25 Tian Shu, its neighbour at the same level. Deeper needling at abdominal points appears in specialist Chinese hospital protocols and in the trial literature and should not be read across from the general reference figure.
• Moxibustion: documented as applicable.

Safety reference — depth over the abdomen. This is a point over a body cavity, and that is the whole of the caution. A perpendicular needle at SP-15 passes through skin, subcutaneous fat, then the three flat muscles of the lateral abdominal wall — external oblique, internal oblique and transversus abdominis — and then the transversalis fascia and the parietal peritoneum. Beyond the peritoneum lie the intestines: at this level and this distance from the midline, the ascending colon on the right and the descending colon on the left, with loops of small intestine beneath and behind. The abdominal wall at this point is a matter of a few centimetres in most adults and considerably less in a thin one, which is precisely why the recorded depth is a bounded range rather than an open figure.

The published safety literature records that deep needling at abdominal points can injure underlying viscera, and that the margin is narrower in thin patients, in children, where an organ is enlarged, and where the stomach or bladder is distended. A systematic review of 115 Chinese-language articles reporting 479 adverse events found traumatic organ injury among the serious events on record and concluded that most such events followed improper technique rather than acupuncture as such (Zhang J et al., Bull World Health Organ 2010;88(12):915–921C, PMID 21124716, PMC2995190). A 2024 review of acupuncture safety likewise lists abdominal organ injury among the small number of genuinely serious adverse events documented (Am J Chin Med 2024, PMID 39460372).

Safety reference — pregnancy. Across the reference literature the points of the abdomen are routinely listed among those to be treated with caution or avoided during pregnancy, and SP-15 is an abdominal point. The same caution is recorded here for its neighbour ST-25 Tian Shu. Set out as reference fact.

Proportion. A meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies estimated serious adverse events in acupuncture at approximately 1 per 10,000 patients and around 8 per million treatments, placing it among the safer treatments in medicine (Bäumler P et al., BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268). Bounded depths at points like this one are part of the reason those figures look as they do. It is also worth noting that in the sham-controlled trials of abdominal acupuncture that include SP-15, described in the notes, the incidence of adverse events was comparable between real and sham groups.

Acupuncture is performed by qualified, licensed practitioners. This record documents what the literature states and is not a technique guide.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record, and the ST-25 record for the comparable abdominal cautions); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 200; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 161; PMID 21124716 (PMC2995190); PMID 39460372; PMID 34489268 — each checked as active and not retracted.

What does the name Da Heng mean?

Da Heng means "Great Horizontal" — da, great or large, and heng, horizontal, transverse or crosswise. Two explanations are recorded and they reinforce one another. The first is topographical: the point marks a horizontal line drawn across the abdomen at the level of the navel, and it is the outermost of the commonly used points on that line — a "great horizontal" in the sense of the widest transverse reach. The second is anatomical, and is the one most commentaries prefer: heng refers to the transverse colon, the horizontal stretch of large intestine that crosses the upper abdomen, and the name records the classical association of this point with the bowel that lies across the belly. Both readings point at the same clinical fact — this is the intestinal point of the lateral abdomen. Classical alternative names recorded for it include Shen Qi ("Kidney Qi") and Ren Heng.

What does it mean that SP-15 is a Meeting Point of the Yin Linking Vessel?

A Meeting Point (jiao hui xue) is a point at which more than one channel or vessel is described as crossing, so that needling it is held to reach all of them. The Yin Linking Vessel (Yin Wei Mai) is one of the eight extraordinary vessels; wei means to link, tie or bind, and the vessel is described as binding together the yin channels of the body and as governing the interior. Sacred Lotus sources & references carry this classification on four adjacent Spleen-channel points on the lower and lateral abdomen — SP-12 Chong Men, SP-13 Fu She, SP-15 Da Heng and SP-16 Fu Ai — so the vessel is described as running up this part of the abdomen along the Spleen channel's line.

The distinction that matters is between a Meeting point and a Confluent point. A Meeting Point is a place the vessel passes through; a Confluent point is the point from which the vessel is deliberately opened, and each of the eight extraordinary vessels has exactly one. For the Yin Linking Vessel that point is P-06 Nei Guan on the forearm, held here, paired with SP-04 Gong Sun for the Penetrating Vessel. SP-15 is on the vessel's road; P-06 is its gate.

Is there research on SP-15 Da Heng?

No trial isolates SP-15, and we will not present the literature as though one did. What exists is a small group of controlled trials of abdominal acupuncture in which SP-15 is a named component of the prescription — and, unusually for abdominal points, several of them are sham-controlled.

• Central obesity, sham-controlled randomised trial. One hundred and sixty-eight adults with a body mass index of 25 or above and raised waist circumference were randomised to electroacupuncture or to non-invasive placebo needling at the same eight points — ST-25 Tian Shu, SP-15 Da Heng, GB-26 Dai Mai, REN-06 Qi Hai, REN-12 Zhong Wan, ST-36 Zu San Li, ST-40 Feng Long and SP-06 San Yin Jiao — twice weekly for eight weeks with eight weeks of follow-up. The acupuncture group showed greater reduction in waist and hip circumference, body weight and body mass index; adverse events were similar in the two groups (Lam TF et al., BMC Complement Med Ther 2024;24(1):62, PMID 38287303, PMC10823622). An eight-point protocol, so it tests the prescription rather than this point — but a properly blinded one.
• Post-stroke constipation, multi-centre sham-controlled trial. Two hundred and ten patients with post-stroke constipation were randomised to acupoint thread-embedding or sham embedding at ST-25 Tian Shu, SP-15 Da Heng, REN-10 Xia Wan, REN-12 Zhong Wan, REN-06 Qi Hai, REN-04 Guan Yuan and ST-27 Da Ju, once every two weeks for four treatments, with complete spontaneous bowel movements as the primary measure (Du J et al., Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2020;40(5):493–7, PMID 32394656). Again a multi-point protocol, and the intervention is thread embedding rather than ordinary needling.
• Diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome, randomised trial. Sixty-one patients were randomised to abdominal acupuncture or to oral pinaverium bromide for four weeks. In that system SP-15 is used bilaterally as the "regulate Spleen qi" station of the prescription, alongside the midline and Stomach-channel abdominal points. Symptom-severity and individual symptom scores improved more in the acupuncture group, with the difference maintained at three months (Qin Y et al., Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2017;37(12):1265–8, PMID 29354989). Single centre, unblinded, and an active rather than sham comparator.

For a local abdominal point that is the honest state of the evidence: consistent selection by practitioners, inclusion in several reasonably designed trials, and no test of the point on its own. None of it supports a claim that SP-15 treats constipation, irritable bowel syndrome or obesity.

How does SP-15 compare with the points around it?

ST-25 Tian Shu lies at the same level two cun from the midline and is the Front-Mu point of the Large Intestine — the stronger and far more used of the two, and the comparison set out in full above. SP-14 Fu Jie lies 1.3 cun directly below SP-15 on the same line and is its lower neighbour on the Spleen channel, weighted toward periumbilical pain and diarrhoea. SP-16 Fu Ai lies three cun above the navel on the same lateral line and carries the same Yin Linking Vessel classification, with indications running more toward the upper abdomen and digestion. REN-08 Shen Que at the navel itself and REN-06 Qi Hai below it are the midline points of the same region. For the intestinal action approached from a limb rather than the abdomen, the points are ST-37 Shang Ju Xu, the Lower He-Sea point of the Large Intestine, and SJ-06 Zhi Gou on the forearm — both held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, channel and Meeting-Point classification, and the SP-12, SP-13, SP-14, SP-16, SP-04, ST-25, ST-37, SJ-06, REN-06, REN-12, GB-26 and P-06 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 200; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 161; PubMed PMID 38287303 (PMC10823622), 32394656, 29354989 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.