Jian Qian Front of the Shoulder

What does Jian Qian do?

Jian Qian is a local point on the front of the shoulder joint, and everything documented about it concerns that joint — pain at the front of it, stiffness in it, and difficulty lifting the arm. It is an extra point, belonging to no channel, so it carries no channel-theory action. What the reference literature records is a site on the anterior shoulder, needled where the pain is, and used above all in frozen shoulder.

• Relieves pain of the front of the shoulder — the defining documented use and the reason the point exists as a named site. It is chosen specifically when the pain sits at the front of the joint rather than on top of it or behind it.
• Eases stiffness and restricted movement of the shoulder — the frozen-shoulder presentation, known in the Chinese literature as scapulohumeral periarthritis, which is by a wide margin the commonest modern application of this point.
• Relieves numbness of the arm and shoulder — carried in our own record alongside the pain indications.
• Used in immobility and paralysis of the shoulder joint — including the post-stroke hemiplegic shoulder, which is the second setting in which the point appears repeatedly in the published literature.
• Serves as the anterior member of the four-point ring around the joint — this is arguably its real clinical identity. The shoulder is treated from four sides, and Jian Qian is the point that covers the front; the other three are channel points.

A correction worth stating plainly. Our earlier record described Jian Qian as one that "benefits the anterior shoulder joint and frees the local flow of Qi and Blood". The second half of that phrase has been removed. Freeing the flow of qi and blood through the local channels is channel-theory language, and Jian Qian lies on no channel — it holds no five-shu, yuan, luo, xi-cleft, back-shu or front-mu classification, and no channel course passes through it that could be freed. The points around this joint that genuinely carry that reasoning are all held in Sacred Lotus sources & references and were queried directly rather than recalled: LI-15 Jian Yu ("Shoulder Bone"), just in front of and below the tip of the shoulder, a Meeting Point of the Large Intestine channel with the Yang Motility Vessel and the principal channel point of the shoulder; SJ-14 Jian Liao ("Shoulder Bone Hole") behind and below the same bony tip; SI-09 Jian Zhen ("True Shoulder") above the back of the armpit; LI-14 Bi Nao on the outer upper arm, a Meeting Point of the Large Intestine channel with the Small Intestine and Bladder channels; and, for the sinews of the joint specifically, GB-34 Yang Ling Quan, the Hui-Meeting Point of the Sinews, which is why a point below the knee appears in shoulder prescriptions at all. Those are the points that move qi through a channel. Jian Qian treats the tissue it sits in — and, on the evidence of the published trials, it is chosen precisely because it sits there.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing action and indication record, corrected as described; the LI-15, LI-14, SJ-14, SI-09 and GB-34 records and their category classifications queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 581); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 249); PubMed PMID 38413037, 24796051; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is Jian Qian used for?

Jian Qian is used for the shoulder, and essentially for nothing else — frozen shoulder above all. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are stiffness and pain of the anterior aspect of the shoulder, numbness, and paralysis and immobility of the shoulder joint. The wider reference literature and the published trial literature add only closely related presentations of the same joint. These describe traditional and documented clinical use, not proven treatment.

• Pain at the front of the shoulder joint
• Frozen shoulder — scapulohumeral periarthritis — with anterior pain and restricted movement
• Stiffness of the shoulder and difficulty raising or rotating the arm
• Numbness of the shoulder and upper arm
• Immobility and paralysis of the shoulder joint
• Post-stroke hemiplegic shoulder pain
• Post-stroke shoulder–hand syndrome
• Shoulder subluxation following stroke
• Rotator cuff injury, in the modern clinical literature
• Heaviness of the arm and upper limb

What it is not used for. The reference literature records nothing at Jian Qian away from the shoulder and upper arm — no internal disorder, no systemic indication, nothing in the head or trunk. Where a shoulder problem is one part of a wider pattern, the points that carry that reasoning are on channels: LI-15 Jian Yu and LI-14 Bi Nao on the Large Intestine channel, SJ-14 Jian Liao and SI-09 Jian Zhen around the rest of the joint, SI-11 Tian Zong over the shoulder blade, and GB-34 Yang Ling Quan for the sinews. All are held here, and Jian Qian is used alongside them rather than in place of them.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record; LI-14, LI-15, SJ-14, SI-09, SI-11 and GB-34 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 581); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 249); PubMed PMID 38413037, 37577885, 29354931, 25233646; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is Jian Qian, and how is it used in practice?

Jian Qian sits on the front of the shoulder, halfway between the front edge of the armpit and the point LI-15 Jian Yu at the tip of the shoulder. Sacred Lotus sources & references place it on the anterior aspect of the shoulder joint, midway between the anterior axillary crease and Jian Yu LI-15. In our own words: let the arm hang, find the fold of skin at the front of the armpit and the bony tip of the shoulder above it, and the point lies on the soft flesh at the midpoint between the two, over the front of the joint itself. Because the landmarks are a crease and a bone rather than a proportional measurement, the point is straightforward to find and reasonably consistent between people.

It is used on the affected side, in one setting above all: the painful, stiff shoulder that will not lift. In the published Chinese trial literature it appears in almost every frozen-shoulder and post-stroke-shoulder protocol, and it is used with an unusual variety of methods — plain needling, warm needling, electroacupuncture, red-hot needling, elongated-needle techniques, floating needling, moxibustion and even laser. That variety tells you something about the point: it is valued as a place to treat the front of the shoulder, and practitioners apply whatever method they favour there.

Which points is Jian Qian combined with?

• With LI-15 Jian Yu, SJ-14 Jian Liao and SI-09 Jian Zhen — the standard four-point ring around the shoulder joint, and by far the commonest combination. Jian Qian covers the front, LI-15 the upper-outer aspect, SJ-14 behind and below the bony tip, SI-09 the back above the armpit. A randomised trial comparing manual acupuncture, warm needling and electroacupuncture in chronic scapulohumeral periarthritis used exactly this shape — Jianqian, LI-15, SI-09, Ashi points and GB-34 (PMID 38413037) — and a trial of the effect of visual occlusion on pain during treatment used Jianqian with LI-15, SJ-14 and SI-09 (PMID 40551650). All four points are held in Sacred Lotus sources & references.
• With LI-14 Bi Nao — on the outer upper arm below the shoulder, a Meeting Point of the Large Intestine channel with the Small Intestine and Bladder channels. It appears with Jian Qian in the electroacupuncture and rotator-cuff protocols, and in the surface-electromyography study described below (PMID 29354931, PMID 24796051).
• With GB-34 Yang Ling Quan — the Hui-Meeting Point of the Sinews, below the knee. It is the classical distal addition for any sinew or tendon disorder, which is why a leg point turns up in shoulder prescriptions.
• With SI-11 Tian Zong and GB-21 Jian Jing — over the shoulder blade and on the top of the shoulder, added where the pain spreads back and up.
• With LI-04 He Gu — the Yuan-Source point of the Large Intestine channel on the hand, the standard distal partner for the whole upper limb, and the point paired with Jian Qian in the 1990 experimental-pain study described below (PMID 2087329).
• With Ashi points — tender points found by palpation around the joint, which in practice are what a shoulder prescription is usually built around.

Where does Jian Qian sit among the extra points of the arm?

Sacred Lotus sources & references hold a small group of extra points on the upper limb, and Jian Qian is the only one of them at the shoulder. The others sit further down: Zhou Jian ("Elbow Tip") at the point of the elbow; Er Bai ("Two Whites") on the forearm; Bi Zhong ("Arm Middle") between the forearm bones; Zhong Quan at the wrist; and on the hand Ba Xie, Si Feng, Shi Xuan, Zhong Kui, Luo Zhen and Yao Tong Xue. That makes Jian Qian the extra-point repertoire's single contribution to the shoulder — which is part of why it appears so consistently in shoulder prescriptions despite having no channel behind it.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location; existing use record; the LI-04, LI-14, LI-15, SJ-14, SI-09, SI-11, GB-21, GB-34 records and the full extra-point set of the arm and hand queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 581); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 249); PubMed PMID 38413037, 40551650, 29354931, 24796051, 2087329; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is Jian Qian located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 581): On the anterior aspect of the shoulder joint, midway between the anterior axillary crease and Jianyu LI-15.

How is Jian Qian needled in the textbooks?

Reference record only — this sets out what the standard texts document, not instruction for a reader. Sacred Lotus sources & references record two documented approaches at Jian Qian: perpendicular insertion of 1 to 1.5 cun, and oblique or oblique-transverse insertion directed distally towards the elbow, 2 to 3 cun. Deadman & Al-Khafaji and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion record comparable figures, with moxibustion documented as applicable.

• Angle documented: perpendicular; or oblique to oblique-transverse, directed distally, down the arm towards the elbow. The distal direction is the significant part, and it is discussed under safety below.
• Depth documented: 1 to 1.5 cun perpendicular; 2 to 3 cun for the oblique-transverse approach, which travels a longer path through a shallower plane rather than going deeper into the joint.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Electroacupuncture: widely recorded at this point in the published trial literature, including protocols pairing it with LI-14 Bi Nao and LI-15 Jian Yu (PMID 29354931, PMID 23620934).
• Other methods recorded in the literature: warm needling, red-hot needle technique with cupping, elongated-needle and spike-hooked-needle techniques, floating needling and laser stimulation have all been applied at this site in published studies (PMID 38413037, 26669201, 22043668, 25233646, 2087329).

Depth records differ slightly between sources, and both are carried rather than averaged. Our own record for the closely related entry Jian Nei Ling notes that Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion gives 0.8 to 1.2 cun perpendicular while other reputable references give roughly 1 to 1.5 cun, and records the combined range instead of choosing one. The same applies here. The difference is small and of no practical consequence, but it is set down rather than smoothed over.

What are the safety considerations at Jian Qian?

Jian Qian sits over the head of the arm bone, lateral to the ribcage — so the hazard that governs points on the top of the shoulder and the upper back does not arise here. There is no lung beneath this point. That is worth stating positively, because the shoulder region as a whole is one where pneumothorax is a genuine documented hazard: our own record for GB-21 Jian Jing on the top of the shoulder carries a shallow recorded depth for exactly that reason, and the record for BL-43 Gao Huang Shu on the upper back sets out the pneumothorax risk of that band in full. Jian Qian is further out on the limb, over the shoulder joint itself, and the pleura does not extend that far laterally.

What the region does contain, and what the reference literature accordingly records, is as follows.

• The armpit lies immediately medial and below. The axilla carries the axillary artery and vein and the cords of the brachial plexus — the nerve bundle supplying the whole arm — and it is the one direction from this point in which a needle would meet major structures. This is the anatomical reason the recorded oblique approach is directed distally, down the arm towards the elbow, rather than medially into the axilla. Direction, not depth, is the safety-relevant variable at this point.
• The shoulder joint itself lies beneath. The joint capsule and the tendon of the long head of the biceps in its groove sit directly under the point. As at any point overlying a synovial joint, joint infection is the theoretical serious event, and strict clean-needle technique is the standard practice that addresses it. A shoulder that becomes hot, swollen and increasingly painful after any needling requires prompt medical assessment. A prosthetic shoulder joint is treated in the reference literature as a reason for particular caution at local points, on infection grounds.
• The cephalic vein runs in the groove between the deltoid and the chest muscle just medial to this territory, and the region is well supplied with smaller vessels; bruising is among the commoner minor events after needling here.
• A sudden electric or radiating sensation down the arm is a recognised warning of direct needle contact with a nerve rather than a sign of correct technique. A review tracing the history of the recognised needling sensations concluded that the electric shock is caused by the needle entering a nerve and should be treated as a warning of possible peripheral nerve injury (Guo Y et al., Neural Plast 2020;2020:8834573, PMID 33204248, PMC7655260).
• No agreed safe depth exists for any acupuncture point. Two systematic reviews of the safe-depth literature — 33 studies in the first, 47 in the second, measured by MRI, CT, ultrasound and cadaveric dissection — both concluded that depths measured for the same point differ greatly between subject groups and between measuring methods, and that "safe depth" has never been standardised (J Altern Complement Med 2011;17(3):199–206, PMID 21417806; Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2013;2013:740508, PMID 23935678). Neither reports a figure for this point.
• Risk in proportion. A meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies estimated serious acupuncture-related adverse events at approximately 1 per 10,000 patients and about 8 per million treatments, with roughly half of all recorded events being bleeding, pain or flare at the needle site (Bäumler P et al., BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268).

Standard clean-needle practice applies. Acupuncture is carried out only by qualified, licensed practitioners; this record documents the reference literature and is not a technique guide.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record; the Jian Nei Ling, GB-21 and BL-43 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 581); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 249); PubMed PMID 38413037, 29354931, 23620934, 26669201, 22043668, 25233646, 2087329, 33204248 (PMC7655260), 21417806, 23935678, 34489268 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation.

What does the name Jian Qian mean?

Jian Qian means "Front of the Shoulder" — jian is the shoulder, qian is front or before. It is a purely positional name, which is what extra points usually get: it says where the point is and leaves the reader to infer what it does from that. The whole extra-point family of the shoulder region is named on this pattern — jian plus a direction — and so are the channel points around it: Jian Yu ("Shoulder Bone", LI-15), Jian Liao ("Shoulder Bone Hole", SJ-14), Jian Zhen ("True Shoulder", SI-09), Jian Jing ("Shoulder Well", GB-21). Learning this cluster of names is largely a matter of learning which side of the joint each one is on.

Two names, one point? Sacred Lotus sources & references appear to hold this point twice, and we are flagging it rather than quietly merging it. This library also carries a separate record for Jian Nei Ling ("Inner Shoulder Mound"). That record's own notes state that it is "also known as Jianqian / Jian Qian, reflecting its location on the front of the shoulder", and classify it as EX-UE 13 in the standard extra-point numbering and M-UE-48 in the older "M" scheme. Its recorded uses — anterior shoulder pain, frozen shoulder with anterior involvement, numbness and paralysis of the arm — match this record's, and its listed combination of LI-15, SJ-14 and SI-09 matches too. It holds no location reference of its own, while this record carries the sourced location from Deadman & Al-Khafaji (midway between the anterior axillary crease and Jian Yu LI-15). On the evidence available these are the same point, held under two headwords, and readers who arrive at either page should treat them as one. We have not merged them and we have not altered either location; that is a decision for the site's editor rather than something to resolve inside a monograph, and stating it openly is better than presenting two entries as though they were two points.

The extra-point number is also inconsistent, in our own records and in the published literature alike. Our Jian Nei Ling record gives EX-UE 13 and M-UE-48. Published trials that name the point print EX-UE 12 — a randomised trial of three needling techniques in chronic scapulohumeral periarthritis writes "Jianqian (EX-UE12)" (PMID 38413037), as do a trial of visual occlusion during shoulder acupuncture (PMID 40551650) and a post-stroke shoulder pain trial (PMID 31475496). Many other trials simply print "Jianqian (Extra)" or "Jianqian (EX-UE)" and give no number at all (PMID 37577885, 29354931, 24796051, 23620934, 25233646). The point sits beyond the eleven upper-limb extra points of the standard scheme, and the numbering above that has never settled. We record all three forms and flag the inconsistency rather than picking one and presenting it as agreed.

A third name is sometimes attached loosely and should not be. Jian Qian is occasionally called "Naoshang" in secondary sources. Naoshang is properly a distinct extra point in the middle of the deltoid muscle, not this anterior site at the midpoint between the axillary crease and LI-15. Treat it as a commonly confused name, not a synonym.

Is Jian Qian a channel point?

No. Jian Qian is an extra point. Extra points sit outside the fourteen channels: they were recorded for an observed clinical effect at a particular site rather than derived from channel theory, so they carry no five-shu, yuan, luo, xi-cleft, back-shu, front-mu or meeting classification. That is why our record shows no channel and no point categories, and why the actions above are framed as documented use rather than as channel mechanics. Three channels do cross the shoulder region — the Large Intestine, the Sanjiao and the Small Intestine — and their points LI-15, SJ-14 and SI-09 surround this one on three sides, which is exactly why Jian Qian is so easily mistaken for a channel point. The front of the joint is the gap those three leave, and filling a gap is what extra points do.

Is there research on Jian Qian?

Jian Qian appears in a large body of Chinese trial literature on the shoulder — and almost none of it is evidence about the point, because it is never the only point used. Two studies are genuine exceptions and are worth setting out.

• A study that measured the point's own effect on muscle activity. Twenty-six patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis were treated at LI-15, Jianqian (Extra), SJ-14 and LI-14, with surface electromyography of the deltoid recorded before, during and after needling. Statistically significant changes in deltoid myoelectric activity were reported during specific manipulations at Jianqian — the second, third and fifth — and at LI-14 (second, third and sixth) and at LI-15 (all six) (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2014;34(2), PMID 24796051). This is small, uncontrolled and physiological rather than clinical, but it is one of very few studies to record a measurement attributable to this individual point rather than to a protocol.
• An early Western experimental-pain study that used the point by name. A double-blind study of experimentally induced pain in healthy volunteers compared helium-neon laser acupuncture in 39 subjects with needle acupuncture in 40, stimulating LI-04 He Gu and Jianqian (Extra) bilaterally in each (Pain 1990;43(2):181–5, PMID 2087329). It is notable chiefly for being one of the very few appearances of this point in a mainstream Western pain journal, and for showing that the point was in Western use by 1990.
• Everything else is protocol evidence. Jian Qian is a fixture of frozen-shoulder and post-stroke-shoulder trials: a comparison of manual acupuncture, warm needling and electroacupuncture in chronic scapulohumeral periarthritis using Jianqian, LI-15, SI-09, Ashi and GB-34 (PMID 38413037); a trial of electroacupuncture frequencies in post-stroke hemiplegic shoulder pain (PMID 37577885); an electroacupuncture and Mulligan's-mobilisation trial in rotator cuff injury (PMID 29354931); bloodletting with electroacupuncture in acute scapulohumeral periarthritis (PMID 29231387); herbal-cake moxibustion with round-sharp-needle technique in cold-damp periarthritis (PMID 33415870); red-hot needling with cupping in cervicogenic periarthritis (PMID 26669201); floating-needle therapy in post-stroke shoulder–hand syndrome (PMID 25233646); electroacupuncture waveforms in post-stroke shoulder subluxation (PMID 24377221); a comparison of electroacupuncture, TENS and acupoint magnetism (PMID 23620934); and a multicentre trial of elongated-needle and spike-hooked-needle technique with cupping (PMID 22043668). In every one of these the point is one of four to eight, and no result can be attributed to it.

The fair summary: Jian Qian is a standard, near-universal local point for the front of the shoulder whose standing rests on long and consistent clinical use and on its inclusion in essentially every shoulder protocol studied — not on evidence about the point itself. No trial isolates it against a credible control. That is the same position as most local points in the repertoire, and it is worth saying rather than implying otherwise by listing trials.

How does Jian Qian compare with the points around it?

LI-15 Jian Yu is the one to read alongside it. LI-15 is the principal channel point of the shoulder, a Meeting Point of the Large Intestine channel with the Yang Motility Vessel, with a far wider indication list that reaches beyond the joint to wind-damp patterns, skin disorders and the arm as a whole. Jian Qian has the joint and nothing else. SJ-14 Jian Liao sits behind and below the same bony tip and is chosen when the pain is posterior-lateral; SI-09 Jian Zhen covers the back of the joint above the armpit; LI-14 Bi Nao lies further down the outer arm and is a meeting point of three channels. Together with Jian Qian these enclose the joint, and the whole art of using this point is knowing that it is the one for the front — the reference literature is explicit that it is not the point of choice for posterior or lateral shoulder pain alone.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name; extra-point status; the Jian Nei Ling, LI-04, LI-14, LI-15, SJ-14, SI-09, SI-11, GB-21 and GB-34 records queried directly, including the duplicate-headword and numbering findings above); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 581); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 249); PubMed PMID 24796051, 2087329, 38413037, 40551650, 37577885, 31475496, 29354931, 29231387, 33415870, 26669201, 25233646, 24377221, 23620934, 22043668 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.