大陵 Daling
“Great Mound” · PC7
Hand Jueyin · 7 of 9 · shu-stream, yuan-source
Where. At the middle of the wrist crease on the palm side, between the two tendons.
For. Palpitations; stomach ache; wrist pain.
Press. Gentle fingertip pressure, about a minute each wrist.
大陵者，土也。在掌後兩筋間陷者中按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Daling Sits at the Wrist
Turn your hand palm-up and the map appears immediately. Where palm meets forearm runs the palmar wrist crease, and the dataset places Daling at its exact midpoint, in the depression between the tendons of palmaris longus and flexor carpi radialis. Those Latin names describe two slender cords anyone can see: let the hand relax, then curl the fingers into a loose fist or tilt the wrist gently inward, and the cords rise and stand taut across the front of the wrist. Of the pair, the palmaris longus cord runs closer to the little-finger side and the flexor carpi radialis closer to the thumb side, with the hollow we want bracketed neatly between them. A note for the many people whose wrists show only one such cord: an absent palmaris longus is a familiar anatomical variant, not an obstacle — simply take the soft hollow just beside the surviving cord, on its little-finger side.
The ground under this hollow asks for gentleness. Beneath the skin lie the carpal bones forming the floor of the wrist, spanned overhead by a tough band through which the finger-flexor tendons glide into the hand; travelling directly between our two landmark tendons runs the median nerve, the large nerve serving much of the palm and fingers, with small blood vessels nearby. None of this forbids touching the point — fingertips resting on skin engage none of those structures — but it explains why lightness is the house style of wrist work everywhere. One more orientation worth knowing: continuing along the same crease toward the little-finger side brings you before long to Shenmen, the heart channel’s own wrist point — two channels companioning each other across this narrow bridge.
Daling does not sit alone. The same inter-tendon corridor runs straight up the forearm, and the channel’s next point back, Neiguan (PC6), rests in that line two cun above the wrist crease — a cun being the proportional body-measure of Chinese point-location, about one thumb-width. Cross the crease into the palm and you enter the territory of Laogong (PC8), at the palm’s centre; follow the line to its end and it arrives at the tip of the middle finger at Zhongchong (PC9). The registry describes the pericardium meridian as running from the chest down the inner arm to the middle finger, nine points in all, and Daling stands seventh of the nine — the last station on the forearm before the channel spills into the hand.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit upright on a firm chair with shoulders heavy and rest the forearm on a cushion or the edge of a table, palm turned to the ceiling. Let the whole hand go slack first — tension blurs every landmark on this part of the body. Now curl the fingers into a loose fist or bend the wrist gently inward until the two cords rise on the front of the wrist, and identify them: one leaning toward the thumb side, one toward the little-finger side. Find the crease that marks the border between palm and forearm, and picture its midpoint. Bring the pads of the index and middle fingers together and settle them into the hollow exactly halfway between the two cords, right on the crease itself. Repeat the whole search on the other wrist, unhurried, so both sides receive the same careful reading.
A few quiet confirmations help before any real pressure begins. Touch feather-light and compare wrists: many people notice a faint, dull awareness at the true spot and almost nothing a finger-width away. If what greets you is a bright, buzzing, or faintly electric feeling, your pad has found the nerve rather than the point — slide slightly within the hollow until the sensation settles back to dullness, and stay lighter still. Re-check the midpoint by dividing the crease into halves mentally, and confirm you are sitting in a dip between cords rather than perched atop one. Everything about this location rewards patience over force; the hollow announces itself to a still fingertip far more clearly than to a pressing one.
The classic slips are predictable. Pressing too far into the palm leaves the crease behind and wanders toward Laogong’s neighbourhood; sliding toward the thumb side abandons the hollow and crowds the flexor carpi radialis cord and the vessels beside it; hunting on the back of the wrist searches the wrong country entirely. Tension is the quiet saboteur — a braced hand hides both cords and the crease alike, so whenever the picture goes blurry, put the arm down, breathe out slowly, and start again from slack. And use finger pads throughout, never tips or nails: this is reading by touch, not digging. When in doubt, relax completely and find the two cords once more; the midpoint between them has not moved.
Reading the Name: Great Mound
The name reads plainly once unpacked. Da means great or grand — the character began as a simple drawing of a person standing with arms spread wide, largeness itself. Ling carries the sense of a great earthen mound, a lofty hill, and by extension the grand raised tombs of rulers. Together, Daling is the Great Mound. Commentators across the centuries have connected the name to the landscape underfoot: moving from the crease into the palm, the heel of the hand rises like a broad rounded hill, and the point waits at its foot gate, where the mound meets the forearm. Others have read the name as pointing to the two soft eminences that flank the palm, with the hollow between them as the pass through. Whichever reading you favour, the geography lesson agrees with itself: something big rises here, and the point marks its threshold.
The tomb-tinted half of the name resonates with older physiology. Classical teaching crowned the heart the monarch of the organs, wrapped and guarded by the pericardium, its protective envelope; a name evoking royal ground suits the deputy who keeps the sovereign’s court. The point’s formal titles deepen the picture. Each of the twelve channels keeps one source point, where tradition says the channel’s original qi pools closest to the surface, and an old teaching preserved in the classical literature urges paying heed to the source points when the organs fall ill. On yin channels a curiosity of the system applies: the source point occupies the stream position as well — one of the five transport stages through which classical theory pictured channel flow maturing from well to spring, stream, river, and sea. This is why the record labels Daling both shu-stream and yuan-source: two offices held in one small hollow.
Pinyin writes the name Dàlíng. The first syllable da takes the fourth tone, a falling pitch like a stamp brought down firmly; ling takes the second tone, rising like the lift at the end of a question. The hanzi pair 大陵 is spare enough to memorise at a glance, and like so many points of the channels — gates, ravines, courtyards, ponds, and mounds among them — the name belongs to a landscape tradition that treats the body as inhabited terrain. A mound is where things accumulate and settle; read as instructions, the name suggests a place of gathering, which is precisely what the source-point doctrine claims for it. The metaphors of this literature are not decoration. They are how the tradition remembered its map.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: cardiac pain, palpitations, chest and hypochondriac pain, mania and epilepsy, stomachache, vomiting, wrist and arm pain, and sore throat. Grouped, they tell a coherent story. The first three belong to the chest cluster — weight, ache, and turmoil in the region the channel sets out from. Mania and epilepsy translates a classical umbrella term covering severe disturbances of mind and spirit, from frantic agitation to convulsive collapse. Stomachache and vomiting form the stomach cluster; wrist and arm pain is the local complaint any wrist point would be consulted for; and sore throat stands a little apart, discussed below. Framed as tradition rather than promise: classical practice traditionally gathered these complaints around this one hollow, the way a village gathers at its well.
The channel map explains most of the grouping. The registry describes the pericardium meridian running from the chest down the inner arm to the middle finger — so chest complaints ride the channel’s home territory. Classical texts describe the pathway’s interior descent passing through the diaphragm and linking in turn with the three burners, the upper, middle, and lower regions of classical physiology; the middle burner governs the stomach’s neighbourhood, which is how vomiting and stomachache come to be read on a wrist line. Another classical description sends a branch across the chest and out to the ribs, matching the hypochondriac pain in the record. As for the spirit disorders: the heart houses the spirit in classical physiology, the pericardium acts as the heart’s deputy and shield, and later formularies even preserved a list of thirteen so-called ghost points for grave disturbance, with Daling among them. The site’s own overview of this channel calls it a primary circuit for nausea and anxiety — a modern summary of a very old pattern.
Sore throat rounds out the list and puzzles modern readers most. The tradition’s own explanations lean on the deputy doctrine again: classical descriptions give the closely allied heart channel a climb that passes beside the throat, and where the monarch’s own line travels, the deputy’s points may be sent. Add the old habit of addressing conditions anywhere along a channel through points far down the limb, and the entry begins to look less eccentric. All of this is traditional reasoning, offered for understanding rather than as assertion. It bears repeating plainly that these are uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature — cultural and historical material, not proof 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 tied to any single point remains thin. Hold the tradition lightly; hold the safety rules firmly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point found, settle into the practice. Seated, spine tall but unforced, lay the forearm along a cushion with the palm up, and rest the joined pads of index and middle fingers in the hollow. Begin with contact alone for a few slow breaths; then add small, unhurried circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue beneath rather than grinding down onto it. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharpness — at a wrist this aware of nerves, dullness is the whole vocabulary you want. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, matched where possible to slow exhales so each circle rides the breath out. Swap hands and give the other wrist its equal share, keeping the sessions symmetrical.
Quality outranks duration here, as everywhere in self-care. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact is the register this page practises; jabbing or grinding teaches the body nothing and annoys a busy nerve corridor. Warm cold hands before beginning, because chilled tissue guards itself. Choose a quiet corner rather than a screen, and let the practice double as a pause: inhale through the nose, feel the breath arrive under still fingertips, press gently on the long exhale. People who keep such routines often anchor them to an existing habit — after morning washing, before opening the laptop — because what the traditions actually ask for is consistency, not intensity. Small and steady outlasts long and rare.
Treat the exercise as a short ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks you might notice the wrist feels less guarded, that the hands quiet down while you press, or simply that you spent a few minutes attending to your own body — every outcome inside the honest scope of self-acupressure. What falls outside that scope is escalation: pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a result. Curiosity pulls that way sometimes; answer it by returning to gentleness, or by stopping for the day altogether. The point has been pressed for centuries and will keep; your wrist prefers kindness to ambition.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This entry arrives with an empty warning column: the licensed records attach no special caution to Daling, unlike certain chest and neck points that carry explicit danger notes. Empty is not permission, however — it means no site-specific hazard was recorded, not that force becomes welcome. The anatomy already argued for lightness: a large nerve and small vessels travel directly between the very tendons that frame this point, and the wrist is among the most tightly packed crossings in the body. Gentle surface work engages none of that; heavy work invites protest. The universal disciplines of self-acupressure therefore apply here undiminished, with one extra ear tuned to anything electric.
The practical rules are short. Use finger pads, never elbows, knuckles, or tools. Stop at once — and for that day — on sharp, electric, or radiating sensation, and on numbness or tingling spreading into the fingers. Skip the point over broken or irritated skin, during feverish illness, and after recent wrist injury or surgery, or while wearing a cast or splint, until ordinary activity has been cleared by a clinician. Anyone living with carpal tunnel symptoms, wrist arthritis, or circulation problems in the hands should ask a qualified practitioner before adding new point practice. Pregnant readers should consult a qualified practitioner before taking up any new acupressure routine. None of these rules weighs much; all of them earn their keep.
And the wider rule stands over everything. Palpitations accompanied by fainting, chest pain, breathlessness, or a racing heartbeat that will not settle call for prompt medical assessment — a pressure routine is not a substitute, ever. Persistent wrist pain, numbness, or weakness deserves professional eyes as well. Beyond that, this page is educational: acupressure is self-care and comfort, not diagnosis or therapy, and persistent or frightening symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, whether physician or East Asian medicine practitioner as suits the complaint. Daling’s safest gift to most people is quieter than any claim: a better acquaintance with the small, intricate architecture of their own wrists, treated kindly.
At the midpoint of the wrist’s front crease, in the hollow between two tendon cords, lies Daling — the Great Mound. Tradition honours this hollow as the pericardium channel’s source point, where its qi gathers nearest the surface. Classical practice reached for it when the heart raced or nausea unsettled the stomach. This guide walks you through finding it by touch and pressing it gently.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Daling without knowing anything about cun?
- Good news — Daling needs no measuring at all. Unlike its neighbour Neiguan (PC6), which sits two cun up the forearm, Daling lies right on the wrist crease itself: find the two cords, take the crease’s midpoint, and settle between them. Cun measurements simply encode the same landmark sequence in proportional language.
- Is pressing Daling myself actually safe?
- Gentle fingertip pressure held at the surface is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults. The one honest caution specific to this spot is nervous rather than dangerous tissue: a nerve runs between the very tendons that frame the point, so buzzing or electric feeling means slide slightly aside and lighten. Sharp pain, worsening discomfort, or numbness spreading into the fingers — all mean finish immediately.
- What did classical practice use Daling for?
- The record lists cardiac pain, palpitations, chest and hypochondriac pain, mania and epilepsy, stomachache, vomiting, wrist and arm pain, and sore throat. As the channel’s source point — where tradition says original qi surfaces — it anchored classical discussions of each. These are traditional frameworks documented for cultural understanding, not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- What is the difference between Daling and Neiguan?
- Same corridor, different address. Both sit in the hollow between palmaris longus and flexor carpi radialis, but Neiguan (PC6) climbs two cun up the forearm while Daling stays on the crease itself. Tradition gives Daling the deeper posting: as source point it is where the channel’s own qi gathers, which is why classical writers reached for it when the chest and the spirit were involved.
- Can acupressure at Daling replace seeing a doctor about palpitations?
- No. Palpitations deserve professional assessment, especially with fainting, chest pain, breathlessness, or racing that persists. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not diagnosis or therapy. Think of daily gentle practice as living downstairs in the building of self-care, with clinical medicine keeping the consulting room upstairs — visit upstairs promptly whenever symptoms persist, escalate, or frighten you.
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, five-transport theory, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for PC7 Daling — location, point class, actions, and the empty 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/pc7/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/pc7/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/pc7/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "PC7",
"name": {
"en": "Daling",
"gloss": "Great Mound",
"zh-Hant": "大陵",
"zh-Hans": "大陵"
},
"channel": {
"id": "PC",
"order": 7,
"of": 9
},
"location": {
"text": "At the middle of the wrist crease on the palm side, between the two tendons."
},
"for": [
"palpitations",
"stomach ache",
"wrist pain"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle fingertip pressure, about a minute each wrist.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/pc7",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}