兌端 Duiduan
“Tip of the Mouth” · GV27
Governing Vessel · 27 of 28
Where. At the centre of the upper lip's edge, where the groove meets the red of the lip.
For. Sore, swollen gums; a blocked nose.
Press. Light touch with a fingertip, about a minute.
兌端，在唇上端按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Duiduan Sits on the Face
On the face, at the tip of the upper lip — that is where the dataset places Duiduan, adding that it lies where the skin at the lower end of the philtrum joins the red lip. The philtrum needs little introduction once named: it is the vertical groove every face carries between the base of the nose and the upper rim of the mouth. Follow that groove downward and it gradually flattens out where dry skin begins its transition into the softer red of the lip. Duiduan sits on the centreline exactly in that transition zone, at the highest meeting point between the lip’s pink border and the groove’s end.
The neighbourhood deserves gentleness rather than force. Lips are thin, richly threaded with blood vessels and sensitive nerves, and they stand at the doorway of the mouth, where cleanliness matters as much as technique. Unlike points resting on a broad muscle, this one offers no cushion between fingertip and nerve endings, so sensation arrives quickly and clearly — a feature that makes light touch effective and heavy touch pointless. Nothing about working here requires strength; the whole practice happens in the topmost layer of the skin, and the smaller and slower your attention, the more the spot rewards it.
A glance along the midline shows how the point fits the vessel it belongs to. The du — the governing vessel of classical theory — runs up the midline of the back and head, uniting all yang meridians, and the face carries the front stretch of that line. Directly above Duiduan, in the philtrum groove, sits GV26, Shuigou; tucked just below, inside the mouth where the upper lip folds back toward the gum, waits GV28, Yinjiao. Duiduan holds the small visible interval between them — the last midline station before the channel slips beneath the lip. Knowing the neighbours aids orientation: once you have found the groove’s end on the lip, the point is already under your finger.
Finding Duiduan by Touch
Begin with freshly washed hands — this point borders the mouth, so hygiene is part of the technique, not an optional extra. Sit facing a mirror in good light, letting eyes and fingertips work together. Rest the pad of your index finger just below the nose, settle it into the philtrum groove, and glide slowly down the groove’s floor. You will feel the furrow shallow as it approaches the lip; where the dry skin of the groove melts into the redder softness of the lip’s edge, right on the centreline, is the junction the record describes. Pause there, and let the fingertip rest rather than press.
A few quiet confirmations help. Touch feather-light and compare: the true centreline spot usually announces itself as a faint dull awareness or a heightened sensitivity, while a finger-width to either side feels ordinary. Notice the texture change under the pad — the boundary between outer skin and lip border is distinctly perceptible to a patient fingertip, and the point hides in that boundary. If you feel the wetter, smoother surface of the inner lip instead, you have travelled past the mark; return to the dry-to-red transition and settle again.
The classic mistakes are small ones. Drifting off the centreline is the commonest, because the lip curves; keep checking in the mirror that your finger rides the vertical line through the nose and the notch above the upper lip. Sliding onto the inner, wet surface of the lip overshoots the location. And pressing hard is its own error — the area is tiny and sensitive, and force teaches nothing that gentleness does not teach better. When in doubt, return to the base of the nose and walk the groove down once more, slowly.
Reading the Name: Mouth’s Extremity
The name rewards character-by-character reading, with tones checked against the dictionary rather than recalled from memory. Dui 兌 sounds duì, landing squarely on the fourth tone; in everyday Chinese it turns up in words about exchange, such as exchanging money. In the older symbolic world of the Book of Changes, dui is also the name of a trigram — the image of the open lake or marsh — and tradition pairs that trigram with joy and, among the parts of the body, with the mouth. Commentary on the classic describes the pairing just as plainly: this is the trigram whose bodily counterpart is the mouth.
Duan 端 sounds duān, riding the flat, level first tone. Its core senses are end, tip, and extremity — the farthest reach of a thing — and it carries a secondary shade of uprightness and proper bearing. Read together, traditional commentaries have long taken Duiduan as the tip or extremity belonging to the mouth, and the geography agrees: the point occupies the very place where the mouth’s upper rim begins, the outermost edge where lip meets face. A name like this doubles as directions — stand at the mouth’s threshold and you have arrived.
The name also records membership. Points along the body’s centreline belong to the du vessel, whose recorded course runs up the midline of the back and head, and whose face stations tend to be named for what they overlook — stars higher up, the groove and the lip here. Where limb points borrow valleys, streams, and gates, the face’s centreline borrows thresholds. Duiduan wears its address honestly: the extremity of the mouth’s doorstep, written in two characters any reader of this page can now sound out with confidence.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications fall naturally into two groups. The nearer group gathers complaints of the mouth and nose: swollen painful gums, deviation of the mouth, nosebleed, and nasal congestion. Framed as tradition rather than promise, classical practice reached for this point for troubles of its immediate neighbourhood — the reasoning of a system that often tended a region partly through the points stationed upon it. In the traditional frame, gum swelling and pain, nosebleed, and blocked nostrils were read as disturbance of heat and qi around the mouth and nose, and the midline points of the face stood ready at hand in such discussions.
The farther group belongs to emergencies, and it deserves careful handling. The record lists mania, fainting, and lockjaw alongside the mouth-and-nose items — categories classical texts grouped together as abrupt, alarming states calling for decisive point work, for which the du vessel’s face points were considered a traditional mainstay. These are historical groupings, and this page reports them as heritage, not as home advice. Anyone experiencing fainting, sudden confusion or agitation, inability to open the jaw, or — most urgently — sudden drooping of the mouth or face, slurred speech, or weakness in a limb needs emergency medical care now, not acupressure. Modern readers can hear those classical entries as a map of what ancient practitioners feared and reached for, nothing more.
It bears repeating plainly: these are the traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered for cultural and historical understanding. They are not claims that pressing this point treats disease. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. Hold the tradition lightly, hold the safety rules firmly, and let urgent symptoms go straight to urgent care.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point found and hands freshly washed, settle in: seated or standing before the mirror, shoulders easy, breath unhurried. Place the pad of one index finger — never the nail, never a knuckle — on the junction you located, and begin with contact alone for two or three slow breaths. Then add the smallest circles you can manage, letting the pad carry the skin a hair’s width while the fingertip itself barely seems to move. Pair the motion with the exhale: one slow circle released with each long breath. Ten or twenty seconds is plenty for a first session; this point answers to precision, not persistence.
Keep the register gentle throughout. If the touch turns ticklish, ease off and slow down rather than pressing through it; if the lip begins to feel numb or tingly in an unpleasant way, finish for the day. For healthy adults curious about the practice, once daily and briefly is a sensible, conservative rhythm — repeating it many times a day adds nothing worth having. Wash hands again afterwards, and skip the session entirely whenever you feel unwell, or whenever the lip or surrounding skin is chapped, cracked, or broken, since broken skin at the mouth’s edge is a boundary no self-care routine should cross.
Treat the exercise as a minute of attention rather than a treatment. What shifts across weeks may be subtle: perhaps the area feels less tense, perhaps you simply gain a surer map of your own face. Those outcomes fit the honest scope of self-acupressure. Escalation does not — pressing harder, longer, or more often to force a result misunderstands what practices like this are for. Curiosity about the point is welcome; force was never part of the method.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This point carries a caution worth stating prominently, and the licensed record states it directly: do not apply moxibustion at Duiduan, as recorded in classical literature. Old warnings sometimes encode accumulated observation and sometimes simple prudence, and the page does not adjudicate between them — it follows the record. The practical meaning survives intact either way: the tradition itself treats this small facial point conservatively, and home practice extends that conservatism to every heat remedy — hot-water bottles, heat pads, steam from a mug held close to the face — none of which belong aimed at the lip.
The household rules follow from that picture. Finger pads only, freshly washed; no tools, rollers, or devices. Pressure stays feather-light and strictly superficial. Skip the point completely over cold sores, chapped or cracked lip skin, or any break in the skin, and allow a generous pause after dental work or facial procedures until everything is fully healed — the mouth’s vicinity recovers quickly but is no place to experiment. Stop at once on any sharp, electric, or radiating sensation, and do not try again that day. Pregnant readers should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice, as with any change to a self-care routine.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Seek prompt medical care — not a pressure routine — for sudden drooping of the mouth or face, slurred speech or limb weakness, a nosebleed that will not settle with ordinary first aid or keeps returning, gum swelling that spreads or arrives with fever, a mouth ulcer persisting beyond two to three weeks, or any symptom that frightens you. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. The safest gift this smallest of points offers most people is better acquaintance with their own face, handled kindly.
Duiduan sits at the very tip of the upper lip, where the skin at the lower end of the philtrum meets the red lip — a small midline post on the du vessel’s long route. Classical records reached for it around swollen gums, nosebleed, congestion, and certain acute crises. This guide covers finding it by touch, reading its name, and pressing it cleanly, gently, and safely.
Cautions from the classical sources
- No moxibustion, per the classical texts.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- Can I locate Duiduan without knowing anything about cun?
- Easily — this point never asks for measurements. Look in a mirror, find the vertical groove between nose and lip, and follow it downward with a clean fingertip until the groove’s dry skin meets the red of the lip, right on the centreline. That junction is the location the dataset describes. Some points encode landmark sequences into proportional cun distances; this one simply is a landmark.
- Is pressing a spot so close to my mouth actually safe?
- For healthy adults, gentle fingertip contact on clean skin is generally reasonable self-care — the practice engages only the surface, far short of anything that could do harm. What changes the calculus here is proximity to the mouth: hygiene stops being optional, chapped or broken skin rules the session out, and lightness matters more than at almost any other point. Sharp or radiating sensation at any moment means stop immediately.
- Why is moxibustion ruled out at this point?
- The dataset’s caution advises against applying moxibustion at Duiduan, recording classical literature as the source of the warning. Old prohibitions sometimes preserve accumulated observation and sometimes plain prudence, and the page does not attempt to settle which applies. It follows the record — and extends the same conservatism to home heat remedies, keeping hot packs and similar tools away from the lip entirely.
- What did classical practice use Duiduan for?
- The traditional record lists swollen painful gums, deviation of the mouth, nosebleed, and nasal congestion, alongside emergency-group entries such as mania, fainting, and lockjaw. Classical texts describe the du vessel’s face points as traditional early considerations in acute crises — a historical framework for understanding the literature, documented for context, not evidence-backed treatment claims. Genuine emergencies today belong in emergency care.
- When should I stop self-care and see a practitioner instead?
- Whenever anything on the red-flag list appears: sudden drooping of the mouth or face, changes in speech or limb strength, nosebleeds that resist ordinary first aid or keep returning, gum swelling that spreads or comes with fever, or an ulcer that outlasts two to three weeks. Beyond the red flags, persistent symptoms of any kind belong with a licensed practitioner. Self-acupressure lives downstairs as a comfort practice; clinical medicine keeps the consulting room upstairs, and neither substitutes for the other.
Sources
- 01WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region (2008), World Health Organization — nomenclature conventions.
- 02A Manual of Acupuncture, Peter Deadman, Mazin Al-Khafaji and Kevin Baker — point-name tradition and du-vessel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for GV27 Duiduan — location, actions, and moxibustion caution record.
Last reviewed
牌記This leaf, for machines
Old books ended with a colophon saying who printed them. Every leaf here carries the same facts as structured data for agents and search, with no layout in the way.
- GET /en/points/gv27/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/gv27/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/gv27/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "GV27",
"name": {
"en": "Duiduan",
"gloss": "Tip of the Mouth",
"zh-Hant": "兌端",
"zh-Hans": "兑端"
},
"channel": {
"id": "GV",
"order": 27,
"of": 28
},
"location": {
"text": "At the centre of the upper lip's edge, where the groove meets the red of the lip."
},
"for": [
"sore",
"swollen gums",
"a blocked nose"
],
"press": {
"text": "Light touch with a fingertip, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/gv27",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}