KI-16 (Huang Shu) Huang Shu

What does KI-16 Huang Shu do?

KI-16 regulates qi and alleviates pain, and it regulates and warms the intestines — and it sits half a cun from the centre of the navel, closer to the umbilicus than any other named point on this channel.

• Regulates qi and alleviates pain
• Regulates and warms the intestines — the action behind its bowel indications

It is also a Meeting Point of the Kidney channel with the Penetrating Vessel (Chong Mai), a designation shared across the whole abdominal run up to KI-21.

The fourth huang point, and the only one not on the back. Huang is the classical term for the membranes and the spaces between the organs. Querying every point name in our data returns four that carry it: BL-43 Gao Huang Shu at T4, BL-51 Huang Men at L1, BL-53 Bao Huang at S2 — all three on the 3-cun outer Bladder line — and KI-16 Huang Shu, here on the abdomen beside the navel. KI-16 is the odd one out, and it is where the idea is anchored: the umbilicus is the classical centre of the huang, and this point is its shu. The outlier turns out to be the origin rather than a stray. (A search caution: chuang, as in GB-16, SI-16 and ST-16, shares the same letters but means a window.)

A naming caution. Its name ends in -shu, and it is not a Back-Shu point — those all sit on the inner Bladder line at 1.5 cun on the back, and this point is on the front of the body. Our BL-26 record counts nineteen -shu names on the Bladder channel of which seven are not organ Back-Shu points, and our DU-02 record documents the same trap on the Governing Vessel.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action, location and translation records; every point name containing huang queried and the four counted, and the BL-26, BL-43, BL-51, BL-53, DU-02 and KI-21 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is KI-16 Huang Shu used for?

KI-16 is used for abdominal pain and distension, vomiting, constipation and diarrhoea. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — four entries, all digestive.

• Abdominal pain and distension
• Vomiting
• Constipation
• Diarrhoea

Constipation and diarrhoea appearing together is not a contradiction. The classical framing is regulation of the intestines — restoring normal function in either direction — which is exactly what our recorded action says. Our DU-01 record carries the same pairing for the same reason. It is worth stating because a list containing opposites can look like an error and is not.

An honest note. Abdominal pain that is severe, sudden or persistent requires medical assessment; its causes include surgical emergencies. A lasting change in bowel habit, or constipation or diarrhoea with blood, weight loss or vomiting, requires assessment. Persistent vomiting causes dehydration and needs care, and vomiting blood or material like coffee grounds is an emergency. This record documents classical use only, and nothing here should delay any of that.

How it is combined. With REN-08 Shen Que at the centre of the navel — half a cun away, and a point our records treat quite differently, as set out below. With ST-25 Tian Shu, the Front-Mu point of the Large Intestine, 2 cun lateral at the same level. With REN-06 Qi Hai and REN-12 Zhong Wan on the midline. With ST-36 Zu San Li distally. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the DU-01, REN-06, REN-08, REN-12, ST-25 and ST-36 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is KI-16 Huang Shu located?

KI-16 is on the abdomen, half a cun to each side of the centre of the navel.

• 0.5 cun lateral to the centre of the umbilicus
• REN-08 Shen Que is the navel itself; ST-25 Tian Shu sits 2 cun lateral at the same level
• KI-17 lies two cun above, still at 0.5 cun from the midline — there is no Kidney point at one cun above the navel

The navel is the best landmark on the body, and this run uses it. Nothing about locating KI-16 depends on a counting chain or a proportional measure — the umbilicus is unmistakable, and the point is half a cun beside it. Every point on the Kidney abdominal run is measured from it: KI-16 at the navel, then KI-17 two cun above, KI-18 three, KI-19 four, KI-20 five and KI-21 six — all at 0.5 cun lateral, confirmed against our own location records. Note the jump: the run goes from the navel straight to two cun, with no point at one cun above, and then proceeds a cun at a time.

Half a cun is a finger’s breadth, and the crowding is real. Three channels sit within two cun of the midline at this level: the Conception Vessel at the navel, KI-16 at 0.5 cun, and ST-25 at 2 cun. Our BL-35 record notes the only comparable 0.5-cun measurement on the back. At this distance the measurement has to be made rather than estimated.

And its neighbour is not needled at all. REN-08 Shen Que, the navel itself, is classically a moxibustion-only point — needling is not done there. So half a cun separates a point our records treat normally from one treated only with heat, which is worth knowing before working in this small area.

On the name, and a gap in our data. “Huang Shu” means the shu point of the huang, the deep membranous spaces — but our translation field for this point simply repeats the pinyin, holding no English rendering. Querying every record, exactly five points are in that position: BL-14, BL-43, BL-45, KI-16 and LI-01. This record discloses the gap rather than filling it in with a translation our data does not carry. Our BL-45 record sets out the same finding from its own side.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged, with every translation field compared against its pinyin and the five matching records counted; the BL-35, BL-45, KI-17 to KI-21, REN-08 and ST-25 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 355): On the abdomen, 0.5 cun lateral to the centre of the umbilicus.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 195): 0.5 cun lateral to the umbilicus, level with Shenque (REN-8).

How is KI-16 Huang Shu needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.5–1.0 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.5–1.0 inch — deeper than the 0.3–0.7 inch our record gives at KI-21 higher up the same line, which is consistent with the upper abdomen having the liver beneath it and the region around the navel not.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: rectus abdominis and its sheath lie beneath thin skin, with the linea alba at the midline; the peritoneal cavity and the small intestine lie directly deep; the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava run in the retroperitoneum well behind, and the umbilicus itself is a scar with little tissue beneath it.

Hazard, stated proportionately. There is no bone anywhere beneath the abdominal wall to stop a needle, and the peritoneal cavity lies directly under it — which is why every abdominal record in this library carries a bounded depth rather than an open one. Our record for this point carries no organ-injury caution. Only four points in the library do, counted by query: KI-21 (liver), KI-22 (heart), LU-01 and LU-02 (lung). KI-21 is on this very line, five cun above — and this page does not import its caution any more than it invents one.

One practical point worth stating. Abdominal points behave differently with a full bladder, in pregnancy, and after abdominal surgery where scarring and adhesions change what lies beneath. Our records do not hold a pregnancy contraindication for KI-16, and none is asserted here — but abdominal treatment in pregnancy is a matter for a qualified practitioner who knows the pregnancy.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at KI-16 could be located, and none is borrowed. The two measured-depth studies this library uses cover points on the back and shoulder and on the lower back; neither reaches the abdomen. No case report naming KI-16 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and KI-21's depth compared; every needling record queried and the four organ-injury cautions counted; the point lists of PMID 26922245 and PMID 36075596 confirmed not to include KI-16), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on KI-16, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates KI-16. Where the point appears it is one component of a digestive or abdominal protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

The neighbour with the literature is ST-25 Tian Shu, 2 cun lateral at the same level — the Front-Mu point of the Large Intestine, which appears widely in constipation and irritable-bowel protocols. Evidence about ST-25 is evidence about ST-25, and the short distance makes that worth stating.

What this page can state with confidence. KI-16 sits half a cun from the centre of the navel, on a line where every point is measured from the umbilicus rather than by any counting chain — the most reliable landmark on the body. It is the fourth of the four huang points and the only one not on the back; the other three sit on the 3-cun outer Bladder line, and KI-16 at the umbilicus is where the term is anchored. Its indications are entirely digestive, including constipation and diarrhoea together, which is regulation rather than contradiction. And half a cun away sits REN-08, a point classically treated with moxibustion only.

A gap in our own data, disclosed rather than filled. This point’s translation field holds only the pinyin — one of exactly five records in that position (BL-14, BL-43, BL-45, KI-16, LI-01), counted by query. No English rendering has been invented for it here.

A note on searching for it. “KI 16”, “KID 16” and “Huangshu” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and note that huang and chuang transliterations are easily confused, and that several Bladder-channel points end in -shu and are Back-Shu points while this one is not. Our library codes this channel KI- while some sources use KID-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and translation records; every huang name and every translation-equals-pinyin record counted by query, and the BL-43, BL-51, BL-53, REN-08 and ST-25 records checked, against our own data).