LU-11 (Shao Shang) Lesser Shang

What does LU-11 Shao Shang do?

Shao Shang LU-11 is the Jing-Well and Wood point of the Lung channel of Hand Tai Yin, at the corner of the thumbnail, and its defining recorded action is to clear heat and benefit the throat. The classification is the explanation: Jing-Well points are the first points of the yin channels and the last of the yang ones, where the classics say channel qi begins to bubble up, and the whole group is recorded for acute, sudden and severe presentations. Sacred Lotus sources & references also record LU-11 as one of Sun Si-miao's thirteen Ghost points.

• Clears heat and benefits the throat — the defining action and the one for which the point is best known. A swollen, hot, acutely painful throat is the classical Shao Shang presentation, and the technique recorded with it is pricking to bleed rather than retained needling.
• Restores consciousness — the emergency action shared across the Jing-Well group. Loss of consciousness is a medical emergency requiring immediate emergency medical care; this records what the classical literature describes, not a course of action.
• Descends rebellious Lung qi — the channel action behind its recorded use in cough and wheezing, and the one that ties the point to the organ rather than only to the emergency group.
• Clears heat from the Lung — for febrile disease and for nosebleed, which the tradition attributes to heat driving blood upward through the Lung's opening at the nose.
• Calms the spirit — the Ghost-point action, recorded for mania and acute agitated states.
• Activates the channel locally — the minor use for spasmodic pain and stiffness of the thumb itself.

A point of orientation worth stating: LU-11 is not a routine clinic point. Most of the Lung channel's day-to-day work is done by LU-07 Lie Que, LU-09 Tai Yuan and LU-05 Chi Ze. Shao Shang belongs to the acute end of the repertoire — the sudden severe sore throat, the high fever, the collapse — and that is how the sources present it.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, Jing-Well and Wood classification, Ghost-point classification, and the existing action record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 90; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 139; Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties), chapter 68, on the five-shu indications; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is LU-11 Shao Shang used for?

LU-11 is used above all for an acutely swollen, painful throat, and for the acute febrile and collapse presentations that the Jing-Well points as a group are recorded for. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are set out below. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment. Loss of consciousness, collapse and stroke are medical emergencies requiring immediate emergency medical care.

• Sore throat, especially acute and severe
• Swelling of the throat and tonsils
• Loss of voice
• Cough
• Asthma and wheezing
• Fullness and oppression of the chest
• Epistaxis (nosebleed)
• Fever and febrile disease
• Loss of consciousness
• Windstroke patterns with sudden collapse
• Mania and acute agitated mental states
• Childhood convulsions
• Spasmodic pain of the thumb
• Numbness of the thumb and fingers

A note on the emergency indications. The classical texts record LU-11 among the points used in sudden collapse, and modern reference literature reports that record faithfully. It should be read as a historical and reference statement about what the tradition describes, and not as anything a reader should attempt. Anyone facing a collapse or a loss of consciousness needs emergency medical services immediately; nothing on this page is a substitute for that or a reason to delay it. The same framing is applied on this site to the extra point Shi Xuan and to DU-26 Shui Gou, the other two entries in the classical first-aid repertoire.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record; Shi Xuan and DU-26 records); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 139; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 90; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is LU-11 Shao Shang, and how is it used in practice?

Shao Shang sits at the outer corner of the thumbnail, on the side of the thumb nearer the index finger — about a tenth of a cun back from the corner, where a line along the edge of the nail meets a line along its base. It is the last point of the Lung channel, at the very end of a route that begins deep in the chest, and it is the smallest and most superficial point on that channel. Sacred Lotus sources & references hold two location records for it, one describing the radial side of the thumb and the other the junction of the two nail lines; they describe the same spot and neither has been altered here.

Which points is LU-11 combined with?

• With LI-01 Shang Yang — the standard partner, and the most consistently documented one. LI-01 is the Jing-Well point of the Large Intestine at the corner of the index-finger nail; the Lung and Large Intestine are an interior-exterior pair, and the two Jing-Well points are treated together as a unit for acute throat heat and fever. Both modern trials of Shao Shang bloodletting listed below used exactly this pair.
• With the extra point Er Jian at the ear apex — the tip of the ear, held in Sacred Lotus sources & references, which is bled alongside LU-11 for acute throat heat in both of the modern trials cited on this page.
• With LI-11 Qu Chi, LI-04 He Gu and DU-14 Da Zhui — the standard heat-clearing channel points, added where a fever rather than the throat itself is the presentation.
• With Shi Xuan — the extra-point set at all ten fingertips, a few millimetres beyond the Jing-Well points and used for closely similar acute purposes. A review of the relationship between the two groups concluded that jing-well points are generally the choice for internal disease, local disease and disease along a channel's course and can stand alone, whereas Shi Xuan is the first option in acute tense syndrome and syncope (PMID 32394666).
• With DU-26 Shui Gou — the channel point classically named for restoring consciousness, and the partner in the traditional first-aid group.
• With LU-10 Yu Ji — the Ying-Spring and Fire point on the thenar eminence, the Lung channel's own heat-clearing point and the other Lung point recorded for sore throat. Where a throat complaint is less acute, LU-10 is the more usual choice.
• With the other eleven Jing-Well points — the twelve are frequently treated as a set rather than individually, particularly in the emergency literature. Sacred Lotus sources & references hold all twelve; they are listed in full below.

Which twelve Jing-Well points does this site hold?

Sacred Lotus sources & references hold all twelve Jing-Well points — one at the end of each of the twelve regular channels — and their five-element assignments follow the classical rule exactly. On the six yin channels the Jing-Well point is a Wood point; on the six yang channels it is a Metal point. The twelve, as our own records classify them:

• LU-11 Shao Shang (Lung) — Wood. Radial corner of the thumbnail. This point.
• LI-01 Shang Yang (Large Intestine) — Metal. Corner of the index-finger nail.
• P-09 Zhong Chong (Pericardium) — Wood. Middle finger.
• SJ-01 Guan Chong (San Jiao) — Metal. Ring finger.
• HT-09 Shao Chong (Heart) — Wood. Radial corner of the little-finger nail.
• SI-01 Shao Ze (Small Intestine) — Metal. Ulnar corner of the little-finger nail.
• SP-01 Yin Bai (Spleen) — Wood. Medial corner of the great-toe nail. Also a Ghost point.
• LIV-01 Da Dun (Liver) — Wood. Lateral corner of the great-toe nail.
• ST-45 Li Dui (Stomach) — Metal. Second toe.
• GB-44 Zu Qiao Yin (Gall Bladder) — Metal. Fourth toe.
• BL-67 Zhi Yin (Bladder) — Metal. Little toe.
• KI-01 Yong Quan (Kidney) — Wood. The exception: alone among the twelve it is not at a nail corner but on the sole of the foot, in the hollow that appears when the toes are curled.

The six on the hand — LU-11, LI-01, P-09, SJ-01, HT-09 and SI-01 — are often treated as a sub-group in their own right, and are the set used in the modern imaging and animal studies of "the twelve jing-well points of the hand" cited further down this page.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (both location records, point categories, and the full twelve Jing-Well point records, queried directly; LI-01, LU-10, LI-04, LI-11, DU-14, DU-26, Er Jian and Shi Xuan records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 90; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 139; PubMed PMID 32394666; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is LU-11 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 90): On the extensor aspect of the thumb, 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 thumb, about 0.1 cun posterior to the corner of the nail.

How is LU-11 Shao Shang needled in the textbooks?

Reference record only — this sets out what the standard texts document, not instruction for a reader, and nothing here is something to attempt. Sacred Lotus sources & references record two things at LU-11: shallow insertion of about 0.1 inch, and — the technique the point is actually known for — pricking the point to cause bleeding. Deadman & Al-Khafaji record a comparable shallow depth, together with the bloodletting method, in which the site is cleansed and punctured superficially with a fine lancet or three-edged needle so that a few drops of blood are expressed.

• Angle documented: shallow, oblique or perpendicular at the nail corner. There is almost no soft tissue here.
• Depth documented: approximately 0.1 cun — one of the shortest recorded depths on the body, set by the anatomy of a nail corner.
• Bloodletting documented: pricking to bleed, a few drops expressed. This is the technique recorded for the acute sore-throat and febrile presentations, and the one used in the modern trials described on this page.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable in the reference literature, though it is little used at a heat-clearing point.
• Instruments: where bloodletting is described, the literature specifies sterile single-use lancets or three-edged needles and standard clean-needle practice throughout.

What is the safety position on LU-11?

The most important thing to state is about context, not anatomy. LU-11 appears in the classical literature among the points used in loss of consciousness and sudden collapse. Loss of consciousness, stroke, cardiac arrest and heat stroke are medical emergencies. Anyone facing them needs emergency medical services immediately. The classical record of pricking the thumb is documented here as a historical and reference fact about what the texts describe — it is neither a substitute for emergency care nor a reason to delay it. Where the technique appears in modern practice at all, it appears as an adjunct applied by a trained practitioner within a wider emergency or clinical response, never as a stand-alone measure and never as something for a bystander to attempt. This site applies the same framing at Shi Xuan and at DU-26 Shui Gou.

The local anatomical hazard, by contrast, is small. LU-11 is a superficial point at a nail corner with no body cavity, organ or major vessel anywhere beneath it, and none of the pneumothorax caution that governs points over the thorax and upper back applies here — a distinction worth making explicitly, because LU-11 is on the Lung channel and LU-01 and LU-02 at the front of the shoulder, on the same channel, do carry that caution. What bounds LU-11 is that the fingertip is among the most densely innervated sites on the body, so the procedure is sharply painful, and that the dorsal digital artery and nerve of the thumb run within millimetres of the point.

Two documented findings bear on the recorded depth. A musculoskeletal-ultrasound validation study of the five-phase points examined what actually lies within their stated insertion-depth ranges and identified a group — LU-11 among them, with HT-09, P-09, LI-01, SI-01, ST-45, GB-44, SP-01, LIV-01 and BL-67 — for which the recorded depth ranges needed modification (Complement Ther Med 2013;21(6):641–8, PMID 24280473). Separately, bleeding technique anywhere carries the ordinary considerations of an invasive procedure: bloodborne infection where instruments are reused, local infection, and unwanted bleeding in a person with a clotting disorder or taking anticoagulant medication. The reference literature treats those as the limiting factors. Acupuncture and bloodletting are carried out only by qualified, licensed practitioners; this record documents the literature and is not a technique guide.

Pregnancy. Our sources record no pregnancy contraindication for LU-11. That caution attaches to LI-04 He Gu, SP-06 San Yin Jiao, GB-21 Jian Jing and the lower-abdominal and sacral points, and should not be transferred here by assumption.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record; LU-01, LU-02, Shi Xuan and DU-26 records); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 139; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 90; PubMed PMID 24280473 — verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation.

What does the name Shao Shang mean?

Shao Shang means "Lesser Shang" — shao, lesser or minor, and shang, the second note of the classical Chinese five-tone scale. The name is a piece of correlative theory rather than a description of a landmark. In the five-phase correspondences the note shang belongs to Metal, and Metal is the phase of the Lung and Large Intestine — so "Shang" in a point name is a signal that the point belongs to the Metal pair. Shao, lesser, marks it as the smaller or terminal member: this is the last point of the Lung channel, at the very tip of the limb, where the channel's qi is at its most superficial and its most concentrated.

The name has a deliberate counterpart. LI-01 Shang Yang — "Shang Yang", the Metal note on the yang channel — is the Jing-Well point of the Large Intestine at the corner of the next fingernail, and the two names together state the interior-exterior pairing of Lung and Large Intestine in the language of music. That pairing is not decorative: LU-11 and LI-01 are the two points bled together in the classical throat treatment, and in both modern trials described below.

Why does the Jing-Well classification matter at LU-11?

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 wells up and begins, Ying-Spring where it glides, Shu-Stream where it pours, Jing-River where it flows freely, He-Sea where it enters the deep. Jing here is the character for a water well; the image is of a spring emerging from the ground at the very end of the limb. The Nan Jing attaches an indication to each stage, and the Jing-Well point's is fullness below the Heart — the oppressed, blocked feeling in the upper abdomen and chest. That classical indication sits somewhat apart from how the Jing-Well points are actually used today, and it is worth recording the difference honestly rather than smoothing it over.

What the Jing-Well points are used for in practice is acute conditions. Three features explain it. They are the points at which yin and yang channels turn into one another, which the tradition reads as the sharpest point of transition and therefore the place to intervene when a change is sudden. They are the most superficial and most densely innervated points on the body, so stimulation there is intense. And they are the group with which the technique of pricking to bleed is most closely associated. Between them, those three features account for the whole emergency and acute-heat repertoire of the group — collapse, high fever, convulsions, and the acutely swollen throat that is LU-11's own territory.

The element assignment adds the last piece. On yin channels the Jing-Well point is a Wood point, and the Lung is a yin Metal channel — so LU-11 is a Wood point on a Metal channel. Sacred Lotus sources & references record its classification as Jing-Well & Wood. It is not the tonification or sedation point of the Lung: by the mother-child rule those are LU-09 Tai Yuan, the Earth point, and LU-05 Chi Ze, the Water point. The Lung channel's five-shu set held here is completed by LU-10 Yu Ji (Ying-Spring, Fire), LU-09 Tai Yuan (Shu-Stream, Earth, and also the Source point) and LU-08 Jing Qu (Jing-River, Metal).

What is a Sun Si-miao Ghost point?

The thirteen Ghost points are a group assembled by the Tang-dynasty physician Sun Si-miao in the Qian Jin Yao Fang for the treatment of what the period called ghost possession — the presentations a modern reader would recognise as severe mental and behavioural disturbance, mania and seizure. Each carries a gui (ghost) name alongside its ordinary one, and the reference literature records LU-11's as Gui Xin, "Ghost Faith". Sacred Lotus sources & references record LU-11 among the group; other Ghost points held here include DU-26 Shui Gou, DU-16 Feng Fu, LI-11 Qu Chi, SP-01 Yin Bai and BL-62 Shen Mai. The grouping is historical and is recorded as such; it is not a claim about causation, and the points remain in use on the strength of their ordinary channel indications rather than the demonological framing.

Is there research on LU-11 Shao Shang?

There is a small body of research that genuinely names LU-11, and almost all of it is about bloodletting rather than needling. It is limited, mostly Chinese-language, and none of it establishes clinical effectiveness. It is also worth stating at the outset that no trial has tested bloodletting at LU-11 in a human emergency, and none could ethically be run against emergency care — so the point's most famous indication has no trial evidence at all and none is cited here as though it had.

• Acute tonsillitis in children. One hundred and fifty children with acute tonsillitis, stratified into mild and severe groups, were randomised within each stratum to bloodletting acupuncture, intravenous penicillin, or both. The bloodletting points were LI-11 Qu Chi, LI-04 He Gu, DU-14 Da Zhui, LU-11 Shao Shang and the ear-apex extra point. In the mild stratum the bloodletting and combined arms both reported higher effective rates than penicillin alone (92.0% and 96.0% against 68.0%); in the severe stratum only the combined arm was superior (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2013;33(12):1091–3, PMID 24617235). Twenty-five children per arm, unblinded, with an "effective rate" composite outcome — suggestive at best, and the severe-stratum result argues against bloodletting as a stand-alone measure.
• Acute pharyngitis. Eighty-eight adults with acute pharyngitis of the lung-stomach-heat pattern were randomised to a Chinese herbal decoction alone or to the same decoction plus bloodletting at bilateral LU-11 Shao Shang, LI-01 Shang Yang and the ear-apex Er Jian point, 0.1–0.5 mL per site, three times over six days. The bloodletting arm reported greater reductions in sore-throat and pharyngeal-redness scores and in white cell count, C-reactive protein, interleukin-1β, interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor-α (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(11):1565–1570, PMID 41261540). An unblinded add-on trial of a combined intervention; the inflammatory markers are its most interesting feature, and it is the closest the literature comes to testing LU-11's classical throat indication.
• Severe community-acquired pneumonia in older adults. Sixty-two patients meeting criteria for severe community-acquired pneumonia received standard consensus care, with one arm additionally given bloodletting at Shaoshang (LU-11) and Shangyang (LI-01), 2–3 mL per session on three consecutive days. The bloodletting arm reported a higher clinical effective rate and lower temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate and severity scores (Dis Markers 2021;2021:3295021, PMID 34737837, PMC8563111). Treat this one with particular caution: 31 patients per arm, no sham, an implausibly wide gap in the reported effective rates, and a journal that has since ceased publication. The record was checked and carries no retraction notice at the time of writing, but it is thin evidence and is included only because it names the point directly.
• Brain imaging of the twelve hand jing-well points. Thirty healthy volunteers were scanned with resting-state functional MRI before and after bloodletting at the six hand jing-well points bilaterally — LU-11, LI-01, P-09, SJ-01, HT-09 and SI-01 in sequence. The procedure was followed by measurable changes in low-frequency fluctuation amplitude and regional homogeneity in the thalamus and temporal cortex, and by altered thalamo-cortical functional connectivity and cerebral blood flow (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2026;46(4):500–506, PMID 41987435). A within-subject study in healthy people with no control condition — it demonstrates that the procedure has a measurable central correlate, not that it does anything clinically.
• Animal mechanism work. A mouse model of traumatic brain injury compared bloodletting at the same six hand jing-well points against untreated and sham-operated groups, reporting improved regional cerebral blood flow, reduced brain water content and better neurological scores in the treated animals (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2019;39(10):1075–80, PMID 31621260). Animal work on a combined point set; it does not transfer to human practice.
• The jing-well points as a group. A review tracing the origins of the jing-well points and of Shi Xuan back to the Huangdi Neijing set out how the two groups differ and how they are chosen (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2020;40(5):553–556, PMID 32394666). Documentary rather than clinical.

The honest summary is that LU-11's throat indication has two small unblinded add-on trials behind it, that its emergency indication has none and cannot easily acquire any, and that the mechanistic work concerns the twelve jing-well points as a set rather than this point alone. The site does not claim that LU-11 treats sore throat, tonsillitis, pneumonia or loss of consciousness.

How does LU-11 differ from the points near it?

LI-01 Shang Yang is the closest comparison and the point LU-11 is most often used with: the Jing-Well point of the paired Large Intestine channel, at the corner of the index-finger nail, Metal rather than Wood, and bled alongside LU-11 in the classical throat treatment. LU-10 Yu Ji is the Lung channel's other throat point, on the fleshy thenar eminence below the thumb, the Ying-Spring and Fire point and the choice where a throat complaint is less acute. LU-09 Tai Yuan, at the wrist, is the Source and Shu-Stream point and the Lung channel's principal tonifying point — a completely different clinical proposition. Shi Xuan, held here as an extra point, sits at the very tips of all ten fingers rather than at the nail corners, and belongs to the emergency literature rather than to any channel.

One name to keep straight. Two different points in this library are called Er Jian. LI-02 Er Jian ("Second Space") is a channel point on the index finger, the Ying-Spring point of the Large Intestine. The Er Jian referred to in the throat trials above is the extra point at the apex of the ear, a bloodletting point on the head. They are different points sharing a romanisation; the trials cited on this page used the ear point.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, both location records, point categories, the full twelve Jing-Well point set queried directly, the Lung five-shu series, and the LI-01, LI-02, LU-05, LU-08, LU-09, LU-10, DU-26, DU-16, LI-11, SP-01, BL-62, Er Jian and Shi Xuan records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 90; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 139; Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties) on the five-shu indications; Qian Jin Yao Fang (Sun Si-miao) for the Ghost points; PubMed PMID 24617235, 41261540, 34737837 (PMC8563111), 41987435, 31621260, 32394666, 24280473 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.