P-03 (Qu Ze) Marsh at the Bend

What does P-03 Qu Ze do?

P-03 clears heat from the qi, nutritive and blood levels, harmonises the Stomach and intestines and stops vomiting, and activates the channel — and it is the He-Sea and Water point of the Pericardium channel.

• Clears heat from the qi, nutritive and blood levels — naming three of the four levels of the warm-disease heat schema, which is uncommon
• Harmonises the Stomach and intestines and stops vomiting
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain

The four-level heat schema is what makes this action distinctive. The warm-disease tradition describes heat penetrating the body in four stages — the wei (defensive), qi, ying (nutritive) and xue (blood) levels, from most superficial to deepest. A point recorded for clearing heat at the qi, nutritive AND blood levels is described as reaching deep, serious heat — and P-03’s bleeding technique, set out below, is the classical method for exactly that. Its febrile and irritability indications belong to this action.

Its five-shu role: the controlling element, and therefore no named role. The Pericardium is a yin Fire channel, and P-03 is its Water point — and Water controls Fire, so P-03 is the controlling-element point, none of tonification, sedation or horary. With P-03 written, the whole Pericardium series is now in place, all derived from our own element column: P-09 Wood (tonification), P-08 Fire (horary), P-07 Earth (sedation, and Yuan-Source), P-05 Metal, P-03 Water (controlling element). Our P-07 and P-09 records set out the same series from their ends.

On the name. “Qu Ze” means Marsh at the Bend or Crooked Marsh — qu bent or crooked, the crease of the bent elbow, the same character as in LI-11 Qu Chi and SI-13 Qu Yuan; ze a marsh, the shallow water where the channel’s qi pools at the elbow, as at SI-01 Shao Ze.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, element, action and translation records; the full Pericardium five-shu series queried and P-03 confirmed the Water/controlling-element point, and the LI-11, P-07, P-09 and SI-01 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is P-03 Qu Ze used for?

P-03 is used for cardiac pain and palpitations, febrile disease and irritability, stomach ache and vomiting, elbow and arm pain, and tremor of the hand and arm. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Cardiac pain
• Palpitations
• Febrile diseases
• Irritability
• Stomach ache
• Vomiting
• Pain in the elbow and arm
• Tremor of the hand and arm

Heart, stomach and heat — and one entry stands out. The cardiac and palpitation entries are the Pericardium’s; the stomach entries the recorded digestive action; the febrile and irritability entries the four-level heat action. Tremor of the hand and arm is the distinctive one — a local indication at the elbow, and uncommon phrasing in our data, which this record preserves.

An honest note, and two entries are urgent. CARDIAC PAIN IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY — chest pain with breathlessness, sweating, or pain spreading to the arm or jaw requires emergency care immediately. New or persistent palpitations require assessment. High or persistent fever, or fever with confusion, needs medical care. A new tremor of the hand or arm requires assessment — it has treatable causes, some neurological, that should be identified. This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With P-07 Da Ling at the wrist and P-06 Nei Guan for the cardiac indications. With LU-05 Chi Ze beside it at the elbow crease — the two He-Sea points of neighbouring channels — both classical bleeding points for acute heat. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the LU-05, P-06 and P-07 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is P-03 Qu Ze located?

P-03 is on the crease of the elbow, on the little-finger side of the big tendon in the middle of the crease.

• On the transverse cubital crease — the crease at the front of the bent elbow
• Immediately to the ulnar (little-finger) side of the biceps tendon, which stands out in the middle of the crease when the elbow is bent
• LU-05 Chi Ze sits on the radial (thumb) side of the same biceps tendon

The biceps tendon divides two He-Sea points at the elbow. The tendon stands out clearly when the elbow is flexed against slight resistance, and it separates P-03 on its ulnar side from LU-05 Chi Ze on its radial side — two He-Sea points, on two channels, one tendon apart. Getting the side right distinguishes them, the same principle this library notes at the wrist and the toes.

On the name. “Qu Ze” — Marsh at the Bend, the marsh at the crook of the elbow.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the LU-05 record queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 372): On the transverse cubital crease, in the depression immediately to the ulnar side of the aponeurosis of the biceps brachii muscle.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 200): On the transverse cubital crease, at the ulnar side of the tendon of m. biceps brachii.

How is P-03 Qu Ze needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.5–0.7 inch, or pricking with a three-edged needle to cause bleeding, 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, 0.5–0.7 inch.
• Bleeding technique: our record documents pricking with a three-edged needle. This is the classical method for the deep heat the action describes — the qi, nutritive and blood levels — and for acute febrile and heat-stroke presentations. It 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 procedure, and this page does not describe how it is performed.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the biceps tendon and the bicipital aponeurosis lie at the point; the brachial artery and the median nerve run just medial to the biceps tendon in the cubital fossa — on the ulnar side, the same side as this point — which is why the depth is bounded; the veins of the elbow crease (the median cubital vein and its tributaries) are superficial here, which is also why the region is a classical bleeding site.

Hazard, stated proportionately. The structures worth knowing are the brachial artery and median nerve, which lie in the cubital fossa on the ulnar side of the biceps tendon — the region of this point — and the recorded depth of half to seven-tenths of an inch keeps a needle clear of them. Our record carries no arterial caution — nine points in the library do, counted by query, and P-03 is not among them — but the fossa’s vessels are the reason the depth is modest, and the superficial veins are the reason bleeding is a recorded option here.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at P-03 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the elbow. No case report naming P-03 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; the SJ-18 bleeding-technique set and 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 P-03, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates P-03. Where the point appears it is one component of a cardiac, digestive or febrile protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

The channel’s evidence belongs to P-06 Nei Guan — the one acupuncture point with a strong Western evidence base, as our P-04, P-06 and P-07 records set out. Nothing from that literature is about P-03.

What this page can state with confidence. P-03 is the He-Sea and Water point of the Pericardium channel, and because that is a yin Fire channel and Water controls Fire, it is the controlling-element point — and with it written, the whole Pericardium five-shu series is now complete in this library, every role derived from our own element column and agreeing. Its action reaches the qi, nutritive and blood levels of heat, unusually deep, and its bleeding technique is the classical method for that. It sits on the ulnar side of the biceps tendon at the elbow, LU-05 on the radial side.

The cardiac warning is the operative content. Cardiac pain is an emergency.

A note on searching for it. “PC 3”, “P 3” and “Quze” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and our library codes this channel P- while much of the literature uses PC-. 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 Pericardium five-shu series and the fourteen bleeding-technique points queried, against our own data).