LI-05 (Yang Xi) Yang Ravine

What does LI-05 Yang Xi do?

LI-05 clears heat and alleviates pain, clears yangming fire, calms the spirit, and benefits the wrist joint — and it is the Jing-River and Fire point of the Large Intestine channel.

• Clears heat and alleviates pain — applied to the head, eyes, teeth and throat the channel serves
• Clears yangming fire — the strong-heat action, yangming being the Large Intestine and Stomach channels together
• Calms the spirit
• Benefits the wrist joint — the local action, the point sitting in the wrist

Its five-shu role: the controlling element, and therefore no named role. The Large Intestine is a yang Metal channel, and LI-05 is its Fire point — and Fire controls Metal, so LI-05 is the controlling-element point, none of tonification, sedation or horary. From our own element data: LI-11 Qu Chi Earth (tonification, Earth generates Metal), LI-02 Er Jian Water (sedation, Metal’s child), LI-01 Shang Yang Metal (horary), LI-05 Fire (controlling element), LI-03 Wood. Our LI-01 record sets out the same series from the Jing-Well end.

“Clears yangming fire” is worth a word. The yangming is the Large Intestine and Stomach channels — the pair richest in qi and blood, and the channels of the face, mouth and teeth. Their heat produces the toothache, sore-throat and red-eye presentations, and a Fire point that clears yangming fire is a strong distal point for exactly those. Our LI-04 He Gu, the neighbouring Yuan-Source point, is the classical partner for the face and teeth.

On the name. “Yang Xi” means Yang Ravine — yang the yang (dorsal) surface of the wrist, xi a ravine or mountain stream. The ravine is the hollow between two tendons the point sits in, deeper than a marsh — the naming of the five-shu points as springs, streams, rivers and seas runs through the system, and a Jing-River point named for a ravine fits.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, element, action and translation records; the full Large Intestine five-shu series queried and LI-05 confirmed the Fire/controlling-element point, and the LI-01 and LI-04 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is LI-05 Yang Xi used for?

LI-05 is used for headache, red painful swollen eyes, toothache, sore throat, and wrist pain. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Headache
• Redness, pain and swelling of the eye
• Toothache
• Sore throat
• Pain of the wrist

Head-and-face heat, plus the local wrist. The headache, eye, tooth and throat entries are the yangming-fire action reaching the face the channel serves; the wrist entry is local, the point sitting in the wrist joint. It is a coherent list — distal heat-clearing and local joint pain, the two things a Jing-River point at the wrist does.

An honest note. A RED, PAINFUL EYE REQUIRES MEDICAL ASSESSMENT — some causes are sight-threatening and urgent, and it cannot be told from harmless conjunctivitis without examination. Sore throat with difficulty swallowing or breathing is a medical emergency, and one lasting more than a week or two needs assessment. Toothache with facial swelling and fever is a medical emergency. Sudden severe headache, or headache with fever and neck stiffness, requires urgent assessment. This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With LI-04 He Gu just distal — the Yuan-Source point, and the classical distal point for the face, teeth and throat. With LI-11 Qu Chi at the elbow for heat, and LI-01 Shang Yang at the fingertip for the throat. With SJ-05 Wai Guan for the wrist. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the LI-01, LI-04, LI-11 and SJ-05 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is LI-05 Yang Xi located?

LI-05 is on the thumb side of the back of the wrist, in the hollow that appears when the thumb is stretched out — the “anatomical snuffbox”.

• On the radial (thumb) side of the wrist, at the wrist crease
• In the centre of the hollow between the tendons of extensor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis — the two thumb tendons
• This hollow is the anatomical snuffbox, which deepens when the thumb is extended

The snuffbox is one of the most definite landmarks on the body. When the thumb is stretched out and back, two tendons stand up on the back of the wrist and a triangular hollow appears between them — the anatomical snuffbox, so named because snuff was once placed there to be sniffed. LI-05 sits in the centre of it. A named, palpable, movement-revealed hollow is as reliable a landmark as the point system offers, and no measurement is needed.

A structure to know, in the floor of the snuffbox. The radial artery crosses the floor of the snuffbox, deep to the point, on its way to the palm — and the scaphoid bone lies beneath. Our record carries no arterial caution here (the artery is deep and the recorded depth shallow), and LI-05 is not among the nine points whose record carries one; but the radial artery’s course through the snuffbox is worth knowing, and the scaphoid is the bone most often fractured in a fall on the outstretched hand, tender in exactly this spot.

On the name. “Yang Xi” — Yang Ravine, the ravine being the snuffbox hollow.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the nine arterial cautions queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 106): On the radial side of the wrist, in the centre of the hollow formed by the tendons of extensor pollicis longus and brevis (anatomical snuffbox).
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 140): On the radial side of the wrist. When the thumb is tilted upward, it is in the depression between the tendons m. extensor pollicis longus and brevis.

How is LI-05 Yang Xi needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.3–0.5 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, 0.3–0.5 inch — shallow, appropriate to a wrist point with bone close beneath.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the point lies in the anatomical snuffbox, between the tendons of extensor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis; the radial artery crosses the floor of the snuffbox deep to the point; the superficial branch of the radial nerve and the cephalic vein’s origin run over it; the scaphoid and trapezium bones form the floor.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: bone close beneath, no cavity, no organ. The one structure worth naming is the radial artery in the floor of the snuffbox, deep to the recorded shallow depth — our record carries no arterial caution, and LI-05 is not among the nine points that do, but the vessel’s presence is why the depth is modest. The superficial radial nerve crossing the snuffbox is densely sensory, so needling here is sharply felt.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at LI-05 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the wrist. No case report naming LI-05 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; the nine arterial cautions queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on LI-05, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates LI-05. Where the point appears it is one component of a wrist, head or febrile protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

The neighbour with the reputation is LI-04 He Gu, just distal — one of the most-used points in acupuncture, for the face, teeth and pain generally. Evidence found near LI-05 usually belongs to it.

What this page can state with confidence. LI-05 is the Jing-River and Fire point of the Large Intestine channel, and because that is a yang Metal channel and Fire controls Metal, it is the controlling-element point — none of tonification (LI-11), sedation (LI-02) or horary (LI-01). Its yangming-fire action makes it a distal point for heat in the face, eyes, teeth and throat. And it sits in the anatomical snuffbox, one of the most definite landmarks on the body — with the radial artery in the floor and the scaphoid beneath, both worth knowing.

A note on searching for it. “LI 5”, “L 5” and “Yangxi” searches return protocol trials and a very large volume of unrelated material — “Yangxi” is a common Chinese place name and personal name, and a city. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (element, action, indication and location records; the Large Intestine five-shu series and the nine arterial cautions queried, against our own data).