LIV-02 (Xing Jian) Moving Between

What does LIV-02 Xing Jian do?

Xing Jian LIV-02 is the Ying-Spring and Fire point of the Liver channel of Foot Jue Yin, and the tradition's principal point for draining fire from the Liver and subduing Liver yang. Two classifications converge on the same job. Ying-Spring points are the heat-clearing members of the five-shu set, and because the Liver is a yin Wood channel, its Ying-Spring point falls on Fire — the child of Wood. That makes LIV-02 the Liver channel's five-element sedation (child) point as well as its heat point, and it is the reason the reference literature reaches for this point rather than any other when the presentation is hot, rising and forceful.

• Clears Liver fire — the defining action recorded in Sacred Lotus sources & references. The tradition describes Liver fire as blazing upward along the channel to the head and eyes, producing red painful eyes, throbbing one-sided headache, a bitter taste, tinnitus, a red face and a short temper.
• Pacifies Liver wind and subdues rising Liver yang — for dizziness, vertigo, convulsion and the twitching and trembling the classics attribute to internal wind stirring out of heat.
• Spreads Liver qi — for hypochondriac pain and distension, chest oppression and abdominal fullness, though this is the action LIV-03 Tai Chong is more usually chosen for.
• Clears heat and stops bleeding — the recorded basis for its traditional use in nosebleed, heavy or untimely uterine bleeding and blood in the urine, all understood as heat pressing blood out of the vessels.
• Benefits the lower jiao — the Liver channel encircles the genitals, and the point carries painful or difficult urination, retention of urine, hernia pain and genital swelling and itching.

The through-line is direction. Almost every LIV-02 indication involves something moving upward or outward that the tradition wants brought down — fire to the head, yang to the eyes, wind to the limbs, blood out of the vessels. This is an excess point, used to drain.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, five-shu and element classifications, and the recorded actions above); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 474; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, pp. 221-222; Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties), on the five-shu indications; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is LIV-02 Xing Jian used for?

Xing Jian LIV-02 is used above all for red, swollen, painful eyes, for headache and dizziness of the rising-yang type, and for hypochondriac pain — the classic picture of Liver fire. The indications recorded in our sources fall into a head-and-eye group, a chest-and-flank group, a lower-burner and urinary group, and a spirit and wind group. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment.

• Congestion, swelling and pain of the eye
• Headache
• Dizziness and vertigo
• Pain in the hypochondrium
• Abdominal distension
• Deviation of the mouth
• Hernia
• Painful urination
• Retention of urine
• Irregular menstruation
• Insomnia
• Epilepsy
• Convulsion

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, pp. 221-222; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 474.

Where is LIV-02 Xing Jian, and how is it used in practice?

Xing Jian sits on the top of the foot in the web between the big toe and the second toe, just behind the edge of the web where the pale skin of the sole meets the darker skin of the instep. It is the first point of the Liver channel that lies above the toe itself, and it is found by sliding a fingertip back from the notch of the web until it drops into the small hollow between the two toe bones. LIV-03 Tai Chong lies further back along the same groove, so the two are found by the same movement and are easy to confuse.

Which points is LIV-02 combined with?

• With GB-20 Feng Chi and the extra point Tai Yang — the standard combination for red painful eyes and one-sided headache attributed to Liver fire rising, joining the distal draining point to the local points at the nape and temple. All three are held in this library.
• With LI-11 Qu Chi — the pairing used in the clinical hypertension literature described below, alternating with the Four Gates. LI-11 is the He-Sea and Earth point of the Large Intestine and a strong general heat-clearer.
• With LIV-03 Tai Chong and LI-04 He Gu — the Four Gates combination is properly LIV-03 with LI-04, but LIV-02 is the substitution the texts record when the presentation is markedly hot rather than merely stagnant.
• With HT-08 Shao Fu — where fire is not confined to the Liver. HT-08 is the Heart channel's own Ying-Spring and Fire point, and the two together address the irritable, red-faced, sleepless picture the tradition frames as Liver and Heart fire flaring together. This pairing is described the same way in our HT-08 record.
• With KI-01 Yong Quan — a needling of LIV-02 directed toward KI-01 for insomnia is recorded in the clinical literature, on the reasoning that Liver fire is drawn down toward the Kidney point at the sole.
• With LIV-01 Da Dun, LIV-03, LIV-04 and LIV-08 — the whole five-shu set of the channel, used together in one of the small trials described below.
• With the eye points — the Liver is said to open into the eyes, and LIV-02 is one of the genuine channel-theory carriers of that relationship. Our record for the extra point Yu Yao names LIV-02 in exactly this role: Yu Yao and Qiu Hou are local eye points, while LIV-02 supplies the distal channel action.

Where does LIV-02 sit among the Liver channel's points?

The Liver channel's five-shu set is complete in this library: LIV-01 Da Dun (Jing-Well, Wood), LIV-02 Xing Jian (Ying-Spring, Fire), LIV-03 Tai Chong (Shu-Stream, Earth, and the channel's Source point), LIV-04 Zhong Feng (Jing-River, Metal) and LIV-08 Qu Quan (He-Sea, Water), with LIV-05 Li Gou as the Connecting point and LIV-06 Zhong Du as the Cleft point. Among the Ying-Spring and Fire points of the yin channels — a group that also includes LU-10 Yu Ji, SP-02 Da Du, HT-08 Shao Fu, KI-02 Ran Gu and P-08 Lao Gong, all held here — Xing Jian is the one whose channel is most often described as generating heat in the first place, which is why it is the busiest of the group in practice.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location, categories and the cross-referenced point records — the channel's five-shu set and the Ying-Spring group were confirmed by query, not from memory); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 474; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, pp. 221-222; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is LIV-02 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 474): On the dorsum of the foot, between the first and second toes, 0.5 cun proximal to the margin of the web.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 221-222): On the dorsum of the foot between the first and second toe, proximal to the margin of the web at the junction of the red and white skin.

How is LIV-02 Xing Jian needled in the textbooks?

Reference record only — this documents what the standard texts state, not instruction for a reader. Sacred Lotus sources & references record oblique insertion of 0.3-0.5 inch at LIV-02, with moxibustion noted as applicable. Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (pp. 221-222) and Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 474) record a comparably shallow range at this point, with the oblique angle directed proximally along the channel — that is, back toward the ankle, following the groove between the first and second toe bones.

• Angle documented: oblique, directed proximally along the channel.
• Depth documented: approximately 0.3-0.5 inch — shallow, as the five-shu points of the extremities generally are, and set by the thin tissue of the web rather than by any hazard beneath.
• Moxibustion: documented as applicable in our record, though a heat-draining point is used sparingly with heat in practice.

Safety reference. LIV-02 lies in the soft tissue of the first web space, between two long bones of the foot and well away from any body cavity; it carries no organ, lung or major-vessel hazard. The structures present are the dorsal digital vessels and nerves of the web, so local bleeding, bruising and a sharp sensation are the ordinarily documented occurrences. The point is characteristically tender, and measured work bears that out: a study of mechanical pain thresholds across the leg in 66 healthy volunteers compared the Ying-Spring points lying in the toe webs — SP-02, LIV-02, ST-44 and GB-43 — and found significant differences between them, with the threshold lowest at ST-44 and highest at GB-43 (PMID 23650804). That study measured LIV-02 itself, as one of four named comparators, and it measured sensitivity rather than safe depth; no imaging study of safe needling depth at LIV-02 was found. Our sources record no pregnancy contraindication for LIV-02; the classical cautions of that kind attach to LI-04, SP-06 and BL-60. Standard clean-needle practice applies. Acupuncture is performed by qualified practitioners; this record documents the literature and is not a technique guide.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, pp. 221-222; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 474; Wang ZZ, Zhang J, Li DH, Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2013;38(1):68-72, PMID 23650804 (checked as active and not retracted).

What does the name Xing Jian mean?

Xing Jian means "Moving Between" or "Walking In Between" — xing, to walk, move or travel, and jian, a gap, interval or space between two things. The name is topographical and functional at once: the point sits in the interval between the first and second toes, and it is where the channel qi is described as travelling on from its origin at LIV-01 Da Dun on the great toe. The oldest layer of point names tends to describe position in this plain way, and Xing Jian belongs to it — as does its neighbour Tai Chong, "Great Surge", which names what happens further along the same groove.

Why is LIV-02 called the Liver's sedation point?

The five-shu points run from the tip of each limb inward, and the classics assign each a stage in the flow of channel qi: Jing-Well where it begins, Ying-Spring where it "glides", Shu-Stream where it pours, Jing-River where it flows, He-Sea where it enters the deep. The Nan Jing attaches an indication to each stage, and the Ying-Spring point's is heat and febrile disease. That alone would make LIV-02 the Liver's heat point.

The element assignment adds the second layer. On yin channels the Ying-Spring point is a Fire point; on yang channels it is a Water point — which is why ST-44 Nei Ting, held here, is Water on the Earth channel of the Stomach. The Liver is a yin Wood channel, and Fire is the child of Wood. Under the mother-child rule, one drains a channel through its child point and supplements it through its mother point. So on the Liver channel:

• Sedation (child) point — LIV-02 Xing Jian, the Fire point. The classical choice for draining Liver excess.
• Tonification (mother) point — LIV-08 Qu Quan, the He-Sea and Water point, Water being the mother of Wood. Held in this library.
• Horary (self) point — LIV-01 Da Dun, the Jing-Well and Wood point, Wood on a Wood channel. Also held here.

A distinction students commonly get wrong. Being the Ying-Spring and Fire point does not automatically make a point the sedation point — it depends entirely on the channel's own element. On the Liver, a Wood channel, the Fire point is the child and so is the sedation point. On the Heart, a Fire channel, the Ying-Spring and Fire point HT-08 Shao Fu is Fire on Fire — the horary point, not the sedation point; the Heart's sedation point is HT-07 Shen Men, the Earth point. Our HT-08 record makes the same correction from the other side. The rule to carry away is that the five-shu position tells you the classical indication, while the element relationship to the channel tells you the tonification-sedation role, and the two only coincide by arithmetic.

How does Xing Jian differ from Tai Chong LIV-03?

This is the comparison worth learning, because the two points sit a finger's width apart in the same groove and are constantly substituted for one another. LIV-03 Tai Chong is the Shu-Stream, Earth and Source point of the Liver. As a Source point it may be used in deficiency as well as excess, and its centre of gravity is regulating and spreading — moving stagnant qi, smoothing the emotions, settling the whole channel. LIV-02 Xing Jian has no Source status and is not used to supplement; it is the draining point, and its centre of gravity is heat. Put simply: where the presentation is stuck, the reference literature reaches for LIV-03; where it is hot and rising — red eyes, a pounding temporal headache, a red tongue with dry yellow coat, a wiry rapid pulse, a short fuse — it reaches for LIV-02. Our LIV-03 record draws the same line from its own side. In practice the two are often needled together, which is why the division of labour has to be stated rather than assumed.

Is there research on LIV-02 Xing Jian?

LIV-02 has a modest point-specific research literature, mostly small Chinese-language trials in which it is one of two or three named points, plus measurement work on the point itself. No adequately powered trial isolates it, and the site does not claim otherwise.

• Essential hypertension, randomised trial. Sixty patients with essential hypertension of the yin-deficiency-with-yang-hyperactivity pattern were randomised to acupuncture or to captopril. The acupuncture arm alternated two small point groups on successive days — the Four Gates (LI-04 with LIV-03) and LI-11 with LIV-02 — over three seven-day sessions. Both arms showed significant blood-pressure reduction; diastolic pressure at 14 and 21 days fell further in the acupuncture arm, which also reported greater improvement in dizziness, lumbar and knee weakness and palpitations, and fewer adverse reactions (Xie B, Lin YP, Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2014;34(6):547-50, PMID 25112085). It is a small single-centre trial without blinding, and LIV-02 is one of four points used — but the pattern treated is exactly the rising-yang picture the point is classically chosen for.
• Point sensitisation in hypertension, case-control. A cross-sectional matched study measured mechanical pain and tenderness thresholds at sixteen candidate points in 224 people with hypertension and 224 matched healthy controls. Thresholds were significantly lower throughout in the hypertensive group, and the points with the highest incidence of sensitisation were LI-11, LIV-03, ST-40, LIV-02, KI-03 and ST-09 (J Tradit Chin Med 2026;46(3):684-94, PMID 42365415, PMC13266324). This measures tenderness, not treatment effect — but it is direct evidence that LIV-02 behaves differently in this population, and it names the point rather than a protocol.
• Depression, small randomised trial. Thirty outpatients were randomised to fluoxetine or to acupuncture of the Liver channel's five-shu points — LIV-02, LIV-03, LIV-04 and LIV-05 — followed by pricking LIV-01 to release a little blood, over two months. Overall response rates were statistically indistinguishable between arms; the acupuncture arm scored better on one severity scale at weeks 6 and 8, and both arms improved on blood-rheology measures (Xie HW et al., Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2012;37(2):140-4, PMID 22764601). With fifteen patients per arm this is far too small to support a conclusion, and it tests the five-shu set rather than LIV-02 alone.
• Sensory measurement. The pain-threshold study described under needling compared LIV-02 directly against the three other toe-web Ying-Spring points in 66 volunteers (PMID 23650804).
• Insomnia, clinical note. A brief clinical report describes needling LIV-02 through toward KI-01 for insomnia (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2013;33(4):313, PMID 23819230). It is a single-page note without a controlled design and is recorded here only because it documents the technique, not as evidence of effect.

Trials of acupuncture for headache, hypertension or insomnia that include LIV-02 among a dozen needles are studies of a protocol, not of this point, and are not presented here as though they were.

How does LIV-02 differ from the points near it?

LIV-02 sits in a crowded part of the foot. LIV-01 Da Dun lies at the corner of the great toenail and is the Jing-Well and Wood point — the more acute, reviving and bleeding-technique choice, and the channel's horary point. LIV-03 Tai Chong lies proximally in the same groove and is compared above. ST-44 Nei Ting sits one web over, between the second and third toes, and is the Stomach channel's Ying-Spring point — the same classical function on a different channel, weighted toward toothache, mouth ulcers and hot digestion rather than the eyes and flanks. The extra point group Ba Feng, held here, occupies all four toe webs including the one LIV-02 sits in, but is a local point group for the foot rather than a distal point for the head and the flanks.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, categories and cross-referenced point records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 474; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, pp. 221-222; Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties), on the five-shu indications and the mother-child rule; PubMed PMID 25112085, 42365415, 22764601, 23650804, 23819230, each checked as active and not retracted; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.