LI-01 (Shang Yang) Shang Yang

What does LI-01 Shang Yang do?

LI-01 clears heat, reduces swelling and alleviates pain, and it revives consciousness — and it is the Jing-Well and Metal point of the Large Intestine channel, which on a yang METAL channel makes it the HORARY point.

• Clears heat, reduces swelling and alleviates pain — applied to the throat, gums and face, where the channel runs
• Revives consciousness — the Jing-Well emergency function

Its five-shu role, derived from our own element records. The Large Intestine is a yang Metal channel, and LI-01 is its Metal point — the element matching its own channel, which makes it the horary point, not the tonification or sedation point. On a yang channel the tonification and sedation points are the mother and child elements: LI-11 Qu Chi Earth (tonification, Earth generates Metal) and LI-02 Er Jian Water (sedation, Metal’s child). The full series, from our data: LI-01 Metal (horary, Jing-Well), LI-02 Water (Ying-Spring), LI-03 Wood (Shu-Stream), LI-05 Fire (Jing-River), LI-11 Earth (He-Sea). Horary-mistaken-for-tonification is the trap our P-08 record flags on another channel.

Its name carries the Metal note, matching its element. “Shang” is one of the five notes of the classical pentatonic scale — the note paired with the Metal element and the Lung and Large Intestine. That the Metal point of the Metal channel is named for the Metal note is a genuine correspondence, not a coincidence, and the same shang names LU-11 Shao Shang (Lesser Shang) — the Lung’s Jing-Well point, the Metal channel’s paired yin organ. Our KI-17 Shang Qu record notes the same note elsewhere.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, element, action and translation records; the full Large Intestine five-shu series queried and LI-01 confirmed the Metal/horary point, and the LU-11, KI-17 and P-08 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is LI-01 Shang Yang used for?

LI-01 is used for toothache, sore throat, swelling under the jaw, numb fingers, fever without sweating, and loss of consciousness. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Toothache
• Sore throat
• Swelling of the submandibular region (under the jaw)
• Numbness of the fingers
• Febrile disease with anhidrosis (fever without sweating)
• Loss of consciousness

Throat and face from the fingertip — the channel’s far end treating its own course. The Large Intestine channel runs from the index finger up the arm to the face, ending beside the nose, and it passes through the lower teeth and the throat. A point at its start carrying toothache, sore throat and jaw swelling is treating the head from the hand, the distal logic this library documents across the channels.

An honest note, and two entries are urgent. SORE THROAT WITH DIFFICULTY SWALLOWING OR BREATHING, DROOLING, OR A MUFFLED VOICE IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY, and swelling under the jaw with fever and difficulty swallowing can indicate a deep neck infection that needs urgent care. LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY requiring immediate care — this record documents the historical role of the Jing-Well points in first-aid; it is not a suggestion that collapse be managed with acupuncture, and nothing here should delay calling for help. Fever with confusion needs care, and new numbness of the fingers requires assessment.

How it is combined. With LI-04 He Gu, the Yuan-Source point, for the face and teeth — the classical distal combination. With LU-11 Shao Shang at the thumb for the throat, and the other Jing-Well points for collapse. With LI-02 Er Jian and LI-11 Qu Chi for heat. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the LI-02, LI-04, LI-11 and LU-11 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is LI-01 Shang Yang located?

LI-01 is at the corner of the index fingernail on the thumb side — the first point of the Large Intestine channel.

• On the index finger, at the junction of the radial (thumb-side) nail border and the base of the nail
• Located by the standard two-line method: a line along the thumb-side nail edge, a line along the nail base; the point is where they meet, about 0.1 cun from the nail
• LI-02 Er Jian lies proximal, in front of the index-finger knuckle

The radial side is the one to take, and it matters. The index finger has two nail corners; the Large Intestine channel takes the radial one — the side toward the thumb — because the channel runs up the radial (thumb) side of the arm. The ulnar corner belongs to no channel point. Getting the side right is the whole of locating a Jing-Well point accurately.

Eleven of the twelve Jing-Well points sit at a nail corner, located this same way; our LU-11 and P-09 records note that KI-01, on the sole, is the exception. LI-01 is a textbook case of the two-line construction.

On the name, and a gap in our data. Our translation field for this point simply repeats the pinyin, “Shang Yang”, giving no English rendering. Querying every record, exactly five points are in that position — BL-14, BL-43, BL-45, KI-16 and LI-01 — and our BL-45 record sets that finding out. The name is understood: Shang the Metal note, yang the yang channel — but our data does not hold an English translation, and this page discloses that rather than inventing one.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; every translation-equals-pinyin record counted by query, and the LI-02, LU-11 and P-09 records checked, against our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 100): On the dorsal aspect of the index finger, at the junction of lines drawn along the radial border of the nail and the base of the nail, approximately 0.1 cun from the corner of the nail.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 139): On the radial side of the index finger, about 0.1 cun posterior to the corner of the nail.

How is LI-01 Shang Yang needled?

Our own record states insertion of about 0.1 inch, or pricking the point to cause bleeding — the shallow depth and the bleeding option both being standard for a Jing-Well point. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Depth as recorded: about 0.1 inch — there is almost no soft tissue at a fingertip.
• Bleeding technique: our record documents pricking to bleed, the classical method for the collapse and heat indications. This is one of fourteen points in the library whose record documents a bleeding technique, counted by query and set out on our SJ-18 page. It is recorded as documented practice, not as procedure, and this page does not describe how it is performed; any technique drawing blood is carried out only by a qualified practitioner with single-use equipment.
• Moxibustion: our record does not state it, and none is asserted.
• Regional anatomy: the nail bed and the tip of the distal phalanx lie beneath thin skin; the dorsal digital nerves and the digital arteries run along the finger’s margins; bone is immediately deep.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: no cavity, no organ, no major vessel, and bone a fraction of an inch beneath. Fingertips are densely innervated and needling here is sharply felt — a matter of tolerability. Where blood is drawn the ordinary considerations of any skin puncture apply.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at LI-01 could be located, and none is needed at a tenth of an inch. No case report naming LI-01 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; the SJ-18 record and the fourteen-point bleeding-technique set queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on LI-01, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates LI-01. Where the point appears it is one component of a protocol — often a resuscitation or sore-throat protocol using several Jing-Well points — and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. LI-01 is the Jing-Well and Metal point of the Large Intestine channel, and because that is a yang Metal channel, the Metal point is the horary point — not tonification, which is LI-11, nor sedation, which is LI-02. Its name carries Shang, the Metal note of the pentatonic scale, matching its element exactly — shared with LU-11 on the paired yin channel. It is located by the two-line method at the radial corner of the index nail, the side toward the thumb. And it is one of the five points whose translation field holds only the pinyin, disclosed rather than filled in.

A note on searching for it. “LI 1”, “L 1” and “Shangyang” searches return protocol trials and a large volume of unrelated material — “Shangyang” is a famous historical statesman’s name and a common place and personal name, which dominates results. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (element, action, indication and translation records; the Large Intestine five-shu series and every translation-equals-pinyin record queried, against our own data).