Liver Channel
Yin Border
阴廉Yīn LiánAnatomical location
On the medial side of the thigh, 2 cun below ST30 (Qichong), on the lateral border of the adductor longus muscle.
Main function
Regulates the Liver, benefits the Lower Jiao, relieves pain.
Therapeutic indications
- Groin pain
- dysmenorrhea
- leukorrhea
- dysuria
- abdominal pain
- irregular menstruation
- infertility
- thigh pain
- hypogastric pain
Name and classical tradition
Yinlian, 阴廉, is the “yin edge.” 阴 (陰) is Yin, the inner side; 廉, the edge, the boundary, the border. The point is on the upper part of the inner thigh, at the boundary of the genital region, and the name describes it plainly. Some glossaries give 廉 the sense of modest or restrained, but the locational reading is the most widely accepted.
It is the same 廉 as in LI8 and LI9, the edges of the forearm. The Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion), in book 3, places it “在羊矢下，去氣沖二寸動脈中”: below the “goat droppings” (羊矢), the lymph node felt in the groin, two cun from ST30, Qichong, over the pulsing artery. It is needled eight fen deep and given three moxa cones. The Zhenjiu Dacheng attributes female infertility to it, “主婦人絕產.” No alternative names are known for it.
