KI-06 (Zhao Hai) Shining Sea

What does KI-06 Zhao Hai do?

KI-06 Zhao Hai is the Confluent point of the Yin Motility Vessel (Yin Qiao Mai) — the point from which that extraordinary vessel is said to begin and through which it is reached — and it is the constant partner of LU-07 Lie Que, which opens the Conception Vessel. Everything the point is used for follows from those two facts joined to its channel. It sits on the Kidney channel of Foot Shao Yin, so it nourishes yin and settles the deficiency heat that rises when yin is depleted; and because the Yin Motility Vessel ascends the inner side of the body to the throat and the eye, that yin-nourishing action is delivered specifically to the throat, the chest and the head.

• Opens and regulates the Yin Motility Vessel — the defining action. The vessel begins at this point below the inner ankle, ascends the inner leg and thigh, passes the genital region, the abdomen and the chest, reaches the throat, and terminates at the inner corner of the eye, where it meets its yang counterpart rising from BL-62 Shen Mai.
• Benefits the throat — the action KI-06 is best known for and the first one our own record names. It is the classic point for a dry, sore or constricted throat, particularly the chronic dryness of yin depletion rather than the acute heat of an invasion, and for the sensation of something lodged in the throat.
• Nourishes the Kidneys and clears deficiency heat — the Shao Yin channel action, applied to night sweats, afternoon heat, a dry mouth and throat at night, and the restless irritability that accompanies depleted yin.
• Calms the spirit and regulates sleeping and waking — the Motility-vessel action. Reinforcing at KI-06 with reducing at BL-62 is the classical treatment for insomnia; the technique is reversed for the opposite complaint of daytime somnolence.
• Regulates the lower burner — the recorded action behind its use in irregular menstruation, vaginal discharge, prolapse, genital itching, urinary difficulty and constipation. The Yin Motility Vessel passes directly through this region.
• Moistens dryness in the intestines — the reading behind its use in the dry, hard constipation of yin depletion, as distinct from constipation of stagnation or cold.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel and Yin Motility Vessel Confluent classification, existing action record — the broken list markup in that record corrected here); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 344; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 193; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is KI-06 Zhao Hai used for?

KI-06 is used above all for three things: a dry or sore throat, disturbed sleep, and disorders of the lower burner — the menstrual, urinary and bowel complaints that the tradition traces to depleted yin. The indications recorded in Sacred Lotus sources & references are set out below. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment.

• Dry, sore or constricted throat, and hoarseness
• The sensation of something stuck in the throat
• Insomnia, particularly with restlessness and heat at night
• Excessive sleepiness by day (the reverse presentation, treated by reversing the technique)
• Irregular menstruation and painful periods
• Vaginal discharge (morbid leukorrhoea)
• Prolapse of the uterus
• Itching of the genital region
• Frequent urination, and difficulty passing urine
• Dry, hard constipation
• Epilepsy and seizure disorders, especially night-time attacks
• Night sweats and afternoon heat
• Asthma and difficult breathing
• Dry eyes and red, painful eyes

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 193; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 344; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

How is KI-06 Zhao Hai used in practice?

Zhao Hai sits on the inner side of the foot, in the hollow immediately below the bony knob of the inner ankle. It is among the easiest points on the body to find: run a finger down the inside of the ankle bone until it drops into the depression beneath. BL-62 Shen Mai, its opposite number, sits in the corresponding hollow below the outer ankle bone on the other side of the same foot — the two face each other across the ankle, which makes the yin-and-yang symmetry of the two Motility vessels physically obvious. KI-03 Tai Xi lies behind rather than below the ankle bone, a distinction worth holding on to, since the three points are close together and easily confused.

Note on the location records. The two sourced location references held in Sacred Lotus sources & references describe this hollow slightly differently. One places the point in the depression directly below the tip of the inner ankle bone; the other places it about one cun below the prominence of that bone, in the groove formed between two ligamentous bundles. Both are retained unchanged and neither has been rewritten. The difference is small and concerns whether the hollow is taken immediately beneath the malleolus or slightly further down between the ligamentous bands; practitioners should be aware that reference texts are not perfectly uniform here.

Which points is KI-06 combined with?

• With LU-07 Lie Que — the Confluent pair, and the most important combination this point has. LU-07 opens the Conception Vessel from the arm, KI-06 opens the Yin Motility Vessel from the ankle, and the two are needled together as a matched upper-and-lower unit governing the throat, the chest, the lung and the diaphragm. This is the standard pairing for a chronic dry or sore throat, for a lump-in-the-throat sensation, for hoarseness, and for the gynaecological patterns the Conception Vessel commands. The pair remains in use as a pair: a randomised trial of sixty patients with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnoea used bilateral Lieque LU-07 and Zhaohai KI-06 in both study arms alongside a small number of other points (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(7):911–917, PMID 40670167).
• With BL-62 Shen Mai — the Motility-vessel pair, and the combination most associated with sleep. The classical account holds that when defensive qi fails to pass from yang into yin at night the Yang Motility Vessel is full and the Yin Motility Vessel empty, and the eyes will not close; the treatment reinforces at KI-06 and reduces at BL-62, and reverses the technique for daytime somnolence. A Chinese clinical observation of 78 patients with insomnia randomised them to reinforcing at Zhaohai KI-06 with reducing at Shenmai BL-62 plus pattern-selected points, or to pattern-selected points alone, and reported higher cured and total effective rates in the Motility-vessel group (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2005;25(11):771–772, PMID 16335201). This is an unblinded trial reporting "effective rates" and it does not establish effectiveness, but it does test the pair as a pair.
• With KI-03 Tai Xi and KI-04 Da Zhong — the Kidney-channel group around the inner ankle, used together where the presentation is read as depletion of Kidney yin. All three are held in Sacred Lotus sources & references.
• With SP-06 San Yin Jiao — added for the menstrual and urinary indications; SP-06 is the meeting point of the Spleen, Liver and Kidney channels a little higher up the same side of the leg.
• With HT-07 Shen Men and DU-20 Bai Hui — the additions made when the sleep or spirit aspect predominates.
• With LU-10 Yu Ji — a throat pairing recorded in modern clinical work; a controlled study in 106 patients with hoarseness after thyroid surgery applied acupoint massage (not needling) at Yuji LU-10 and Zhaohai KI-06 in addition to standard care, reporting improved subjective and objective voice measures against standard care alone (BMC Surg 2025;25:148, PMID 40205594). Both points are held here.

What are the eight Confluent points, and which does this site hold?

Sacred Lotus sources & references hold all eight Confluent points of the extraordinary vessels, in their four traditional pairs, and KI-06 is the point that opens the Yin Motility Vessel. The eight Confluent points (ba mai jiao hui xue) are the points on the ordinary channels at which the eight extraordinary vessels can be reached and opened. Each is paired with one other — always one point on the arm and one on the leg — and each pair commands a defined region of the body:

• LU-07 Lie Que (Conception Vessel) with KI-06 Zhao Hai (Yin Motility Vessel) — the throat, the chest, the lung and the diaphragm. This pair.
• SI-03 Hou Xi (Governing Vessel) with BL-62 Shen Mai (Yang Motility Vessel) — the inner corner of the eye, the neck and occiput, the ear, the shoulder, the spine and the back.
• SJ-05 Wai Guan (Yang Linking Vessel) with GB-41 Zu Lin Qi (Girdling Vessel) — the outer corner of the eye, the cheek, behind the ear, the neck and the shoulder.
• P-06 Nei Guan (Yin Linking Vessel) with SP-04 Gong Sun (Penetrating Vessel) — the heart, the chest and the stomach.

Four of the eight — LU-07, P-06, SJ-05 and SP-04 — are Connecting (Luo) points as well and so appear on two classification lists at once; KI-06, BL-62, SI-03 and GB-41 are not. The system was set out in Dou Hanqing's Zhen Jing Zhi Nan in the Yuan dynasty and later elaborated into the Ling Gui Ba Fa, the Mystical Turtle Eight Methods, in which the eight points are opened according to the day and hour of treatment. That framework remains in clinical use: a case report of oculomotor nerve palsy describes a treatment built on the Ling Gui Ba Fa opening of all eight — Wai Guan, Zu Lin Qi, Gong Sun, Nei Guan, Zhao Hai, Lie Que, Shen Mai and Hou Xi — with local and distal points added (PMID 41558712). A single case report proves nothing about outcome; it shows the framework in current use.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location records, Confluent-point classification, full eight-point Confluent set and the LU-07, BL-62, SI-03, SJ-05, GB-41, P-06, SP-04, KI-03, KI-04, SP-06, HT-07, DU-20 and LU-10 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 344; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 193; Zhen Jing Zhi Nan (Dou Hanqing, Yuan dynasty); PubMed PMID 40670167, 16335201, 40205594, 41558712; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is KI-06 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 344): 1 cun below the prominence of the medial malleolus, in the groove formed by two ligamentous bundles.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 193): In the depression below the tip of the medial malleolus.

How is KI-06 Zhao Hai 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 perpendicular insertion of 0.3 to 0.5 inch at KI-06, with moxibustion noted as applicable. Deadman & Al-Khafaji record a comparable shallow perpendicular range. Both are short figures, and the reason is straightforward: there is very little soft tissue at this point before bone and ligament.

• Angle documented: perpendicular into the hollow below the inner ankle bone.
• Depth documented: approximately 0.3–0.5 cun. This is one of the shallower recorded depths in the repertoire, and it is set by local anatomy rather than by any hazard to a body cavity.
• Moxibustion: documented as applicable.
• Insertion toward KI-03: the reference literature also describes needling directed across the ankle toward Tai Xi KI-03 on the other side, and our KI-03 record notes the converse — insertion from KI-03 directed toward KI-06.

What are the safety considerations at KI-06?

KI-06 is a low-hazard point, and it should be described plainly as one rather than have a generic warning attached to it. It is on the side of the foot — as far from the chest, abdomen, skull and eye as a point can be — so none of the organ-injury cautions that attach to points over the thorax, the abdomen or the orbit apply here. What bounds it is entirely local, and it can be stated precisely.

• What lies immediately beneath. Below the thin skin and subcutaneous layer are the ligamentous bands under the medial malleolus and, close behind them, the tendons of tibialis posterior and flexor digitorum longus passing down into the foot. The floor of the region is the bone of the talus and the sustentaculum tali of the calcaneus, typically only a few millimetres deep, which is exactly why the recorded depth is so short.
• What is nearby but not under the point. The posterior tibial artery and vein and the tibial nerve pass behind the inner ankle bone, in the tunnel beneath the flexor retinaculum — the region of KI-03, not of KI-06. The distinction between "behind the malleolus" and "below the malleolus" is the practical reason the two points are described so carefully in the location records.
• What is actually reported. The events documented at points of this kind are local: striking periosteum, which is recorded as sharply painful; entering a tendon or its sheath; a transient radiating sensation into the sole or the arch where a cutaneous branch is contacted; and superficial bruising. A meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies put serious adverse events across all acupuncture at roughly 1 per 10,000 patients, with about half of all recorded events being bleeding, pain or flare at the needle site (BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268).
• Pregnancy. The needling record held in Sacred Lotus sources & references carries no pregnancy caution at KI-06. The classical restricted-point lists concern other points, and a caution recorded elsewhere should not be transferred here by assumption.

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

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record; KI-03 record for the cross-insertion note); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 193; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 344 (surface and deep anatomy of the medial ankle); PubMed PMID 34489268.

What does the name Zhao Hai mean?

Zhao Hai translates as "Shining Sea" — zhao meaning to shine, to illuminate or to reflect, and hai meaning sea. Two readings run through the commentaries and both are recorded. In the first, hai is the hollow itself: a depression below the ankle bone in which the Kidney qi gathers as water gathers in a sea, and zhao is the brightness of that water — the classical image of a still pool reflecting light. In the second, the "shining" is what the point does at the far end of the vessel it opens: the Yin Motility Vessel terminates at the inner corner of the eye, and the point is credited with brightening the eyes. The Kidney is the water organ, so a water name on a Kidney-channel point is not incidental. The point also carries the alternative classical names Yin Qiao — simply the name of the vessel it opens — and Lou Yin, "Leaking Yin". Other translations render it "Shining Sea", "Bright Sea" or "Illuminated Sea".

What is the Yin Motility Vessel?

The Yin Qiao Mai — Yin Motility, Yin Heel or Yin Stepping Vessel — is one of the eight extraordinary vessels. Qiao refers to the heel and to nimbleness of movement. Its described course begins at KI-06 below the inner ankle, ascends the inner side of the leg and thigh, passes the external genitals and the abdomen, enters the chest, emerges at the collarbone, passes beside the throat and the nose, and ends at the inner corner of the eye, where it meets the Yang Motility Vessel rising on the outer side of the body. Three clinical consequences follow from that course.

• The throat and the chest. The vessel passes directly beside the throat, which is the structural reason KI-06 is the throat point among the Confluent points and why its pairing with LU-07 commands the throat, chest, lung and diaphragm.
• The eyes and the sleep-wake cycle. Both Motility vessels end at the inner canthus, and the Ling Shu ties them directly to whether the eyes open or close: defensive qi travelling in the yang by day keeps the eyes open, and its passage into the yin at night lets them close. When that passage fails, the yang vessel is full and the yin vessel empty and sleep does not come. This is the classical mechanism behind the KI-06 and BL-62 sleep combination, and it is one of the tidiest pieces of reasoning in the whole point system.
• The tone of the inner side of the limbs. The two vessels are described as balancing the muscular tone of the inner and outer aspects of the limbs — the classical reading of presentations in which one side is tight and the other slack.

How does KI-06 differ from KI-03 and BL-62?

KI-03 Tai Xi lies behind the inner ankle bone rather than below it, level with its tip, in the hollow between the bone and the Achilles tendon. It is the Source, Shu-Stream and Earth point of the Kidney channel — the general Kidney point, used for depletion of either yin or yang, and the choice when the organ itself is the target. KI-06 Zhao Hai lies below the ankle bone and is the Confluent point of the Yin Motility Vessel; its recorded strengths are the throat, the lower burner and sleep, and it belongs with LU-07 rather than standing alone. KI-04 Da Zhong is the Connecting point of the channel, behind and below KI-03 on the front border of the Achilles tendon. BL-62 Shen Mai is KI-06's exact counterpart on the other side of the same ankle, below the outer bone, opening the Yang Motility Vessel — the two are used together and are best read side by side. Put simply: KI-03 for the organ, KI-06 for the extraordinary vessel, KI-04 for the connection to the Bladder channel, BL-62 for the yang half of the Motility pair.

Is there research on KI-06 Zhao Hai?

KI-06 is better served by research than most extraordinary-vessel points, because the two things it is famous for — the sleep pairing with Shen Mai and the throat pairing with Lie Que — have both been carried into trial design. The evidence is nevertheless limited, mostly Chinese-language, weakly blinded, and none of it establishes clinical effectiveness. What follows is what genuinely names this point.

• Insomnia, testing the Motility pair directly. Seventy-eight patients with insomnia were randomised to acupuncture with reinforcing at Zhaohai KI-06 and reducing at Shenmai BL-62, added to pattern-selected points, or to pattern-selected points alone. The treatment group reported a cured rate of 62.5 per cent and total effective rate of 97.5 per cent against 31.6 and 68.4 per cent (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2005;25(11):771–772, PMID 16335201). Unblinded, with "effective rate" outcomes — but the design does isolate the contribution of the pair.
• Delayed sleep-wake phase disorder. A randomised controlled trial in 84 patients compared real acupuncture with placebo needling at the same points, the prescription led by KI-06 Zhao Hai and BL-62 Shen Mai with LI-04, LIV-03, ST-36 and SP-06 added. Over eight weeks the real-acupuncture group showed longer total sleep time, better sleep efficiency and fewer awakenings on actigraphy, with gains persisting at one and three months (PMID 36858383). A multi-point prescription, so it does not isolate KI-06 — but the Motility pair is the prescription's organising idea.
• Hoarseness after thyroid surgery. A controlled study in 106 patients applied acupoint massage at Yuji LU-10 and Zhaohai KI-06 in addition to standard neurotrophic drug treatment, reporting better Voice Handicap Index scores, lower jitter and shimmer, and a far higher cure rate than standard care alone (BMC Surg 2025;25:148, PMID 40205594). Two points, no sham, and pressure rather than needling — but it is a throat outcome tested on the point the tradition names for the throat.
• Constipation of yin depletion. A sham-controlled randomised trial in 84 elderly patients used a Kidney-nourishing prescription of Zhaohai KI-06, Dazhong KI-04, Taixi KI-03, Tianshu ST-25 and Shangjuxu ST-37 against blunt non-penetrating needles at non-points, reporting more complete spontaneous bowel movements and better symptom and quality-of-life scores in the acupuncture group over eight weeks with successful blinding (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2026;46(1):16–21, PMID 41558699). Five points at once, so again the point's individual contribution is not isolated — but the trial is sham-controlled, which most in this literature are not.
• The classical record, measured. A documentary analysis of acupoint selection for somnolence in ancient medical books found "Taixi KI-03 with Zhaohai KI-06" among the three highest-frequency point combinations in that literature (Medicine 2025;104(11):e41676, PMID 40101083); a data-mining analysis of 37 studies and 60 prescriptions for insomnia in older adults identified Zhaohai KI-06 with Shenmai BL-62 as one of the most frequently used combinations (PMID 34936283). Both document prescribing practice, not effect.
• Whole-protocol studies that name the point. The obstructive sleep apnoea trial using bilateral LU-07 with KI-06 in both arms tests a needling technique rather than the points (PMID 40670167); a randomised trial in 42 patients with chronic pharyngitis needled all eight Confluent points together, KI-06 among them, against an oral Chinese patent medicine (PMID 31820603). Eight points at once cannot show what KI-06 contributed. An older clinical-experience paper on the application of Zhaohai is indexed without an abstract (J Tradit Chin Med 2002;22(3):218–220, PMID 12400434) and is recorded here only as a bibliographic reference.

What this does not support is any claim that KI-06 treats insomnia, sore throat, constipation or menstrual disorders. The fair summary is that the classical pairings have been carried into modern trial design, that several small trials built around them report positive outcomes, and that the point's standing rests on the classical and clinical record rather than on strong evidence.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 344; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 193; Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot) on the Motility vessels and the closing of the eyes; Zhen Jing Zhi Nan (Dou Hanqing) for the Confluent-point system; PubMed PMID 16335201, 36858383, 40205594, 41558699, 40101083, 34936283, 40670167, 31820603, 12400434, 41558712 (each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.