REN-15 (Jiu Wei) Turtledove Tail

What does REN-15 Jiu Wei do?

Jiu Wei REN-15 is the Luo (Connecting) point of the Conception Vessel, and it is the point at which the front midline passes from the chest onto the abdomen, directly beneath the tip of the breastbone. Sacred Lotus sources & references record that classification, and it explains the point's two-sided character: it acts on the chest above it, calming the Heart and settling the spirit, and it acts on the epigastrium below it, descending rebellious qi. It is a point used sparingly, and it carries an explicit caution set out under needling.

• Regulates the Heart and calms the spirit — the defining action, recorded first in our own action record. REN-15 is one of the classical points for palpitations, anxiety, agitation, mental disturbance and epilepsy, and its use in these presentations is among the oldest documented in the corpus.
• Descends Lung qi and unbinds the chest — for qi travelling the wrong way and for the tight, oppressed chest: cough, wheezing, breathlessness, a band of fullness beneath the breastbone.
• Descends rebellious Stomach qi — for nausea, vomiting, hiccup, belching and difficulty swallowing. The point sits directly over the junction of chest and abdomen, and the tradition uses it where the two are at odds.
• Benefits the diaphragm — the derived action, and the one modern research has looked at most directly. REN-15 lies immediately below the point where the diaphragm attaches to the lower breastbone, and the classical use for hiccup and for a "knotted" chest belongs here.
• Connects the Conception and Governing Vessels — the Luo-point action. The Connecting branch of the Conception Vessel is described as spreading from REN-15 over the abdomen, which is the theoretical basis for the point's recorded use in abdominal skin pain and abdominal itching.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, Luo Connecting classification, existing action record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 515); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 239); Luo-point scheme per Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), Chapter 10; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is REN-15 Jiu Wei used for?

Jiu Wei REN-15 is used for pain and oppression in the chest and cardiac region, for nausea and hiccup, and — most distinctively — for disturbances of the spirit, including epilepsy and mental agitation. The indications below are those carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references together with those set out in the standard reference literature. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment, and this point carries an explicit classical caution and the measured depth limits set out under needling.

• Pain in the cardiac region and beneath the breastbone
• Fullness, tightness and pain of the chest
• Palpitations and anxiety
• Mental disturbance and agitation
• Epilepsy and convulsive disorders
• Nausea and vomiting
• Hiccup and belching
• Difficulty swallowing; a sense of obstruction beneath the breastbone
• Cough, wheezing and shortness of breath
• Abdominal distension in the upper abdomen
• Skin pain and itching of the abdomen

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 515); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 239).

Where is REN-15 Jiu Wei, and how is it used in practice?

Jiu Wei lies on the front midline of the upper abdomen, one cun below the tip of the breastbone — that is, just below the xiphoid process, where the ribs meet at the bottom of the sternum. Sacred Lotus sources & references also give it as seven cun above the navel, and note that it is located with the person lying on their back and the arms raised, which lifts the ribcage and makes the landmark reachable. That instruction to change posture before locating the point is unusual in the literature and is a clue to the point's character: it is a difficult point to find reliably, and it sits over structures that move.

In practice REN-15 is used sparingly and is very often treated with moxibustion, acupressure or a shallow oblique needle rather than as a routine point. It is the point a practitioner reaches for when the presenting complaint is felt at the pit of the stomach — the tight, knotted, breathless, anxious sensation beneath the breastbone — and it is one of the classical points for epilepsy and disturbed spirit.

Which points is REN-15 combined with?

• With REN-14 Ju Que — its immediate neighbour one cun above, the Front-Mu point of the Heart. REN-14 and REN-15 share almost all of their territory, and where an established Front-Mu classification is wanted for a Heart complaint, REN-14 is the point chosen.
• With P-06 Nei Guan — the Connecting point of the Pericardium at the wrist and the standard distal point for the chest, nausea and palpitations. Local point on the midline with distal point on the arm is the usual structure.
• With REN-12 Zhong Wan — the Front-Mu point of the Stomach and the Hui-Meeting point of the fu organs, three cun below on the same line, for the digestive half of REN-15's range.
• With DU-20 Bai Hui and HT-07 Shen Men — for epilepsy and disturbed spirit. This grouping is not a modern invention: an analysis of 205 acupuncture prescriptions for epilepsy drawn from the classical texts found the commonly used points to be Baihui DU-20, Jiuwei REN-15, Shenmen HT-07, Shenting DU-24 and Xinshu BL-15, with treatment given mainly by moxibustion or by moxibustion combined with needling (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(1):123–30, PMID 39777888). REN-15 is the second most frequent point in that entire ancient record.
• With REN-17 Shan Zhong — the Hui-Meeting point of qi on the breastbone above, where the chest rather than the epigastrium is the focus.
• With ST-36 Zu San Li — for hiccup and rebellious Stomach qi, the abdominal Command Point at the leg.

Where does REN-15 sit among the Connecting points?

Sacred Lotus sources & references hold the complete set of fifteen Connecting (Luo) points: the twelve channel Luo points LU-07, LI-06, ST-40, SP-04, HT-05, SI-07, BL-58, KI-04, P-06, SJ-05, GB-37 and LIV-05, together with REN-15 Jiu Wei for the Conception Vessel, DU-01 Chang Qiang for the Governing Vessel, and SP-21 Da Bao, the Great Connecting point of the Spleen. The twelve channel Luo points each send a branch to their interior–exterior partner channel; the three extra ones are different in kind. REN-15's Connecting branch is described as spreading out over the abdomen rather than crossing to a paired channel, and the Ling Shu records its disorders accordingly — pain of the abdominal skin when the branch is in excess, itching of the abdominal skin when it is depleted. Those two unusual indications, which look out of place beside palpitations and epilepsy, come directly from that passage.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and Luo Connecting classification; the full fifteen-point Connecting set queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 515); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 239); Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), Chapter 10; PMID 39777888; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is REN-15 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 515): On the midline of the abdomen, 7 cun above the umbilicus and 1 cun below the sternocostal angle.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 239): On the anterior midline, 1 cun below the xiphosternal synchondrosis. Locate the point in supine position with the arms uplifted.

How is REN-15 Jiu Wei needled, and why does it carry a classical warning?

Stated plainly: REN-15 lies immediately below the tip of the breastbone, and what lies behind it is the liver — the largest solid organ in the body, reaching up under the lower ribs — with the diaphragm above and, in some people, the heart and its surrounding sac within reach of a needle angled the wrong way. It is one of the small number of points to which the classical texts attach an explicit caution against needling, and modern imaging has since measured why. The published MRI figure for perpendicular insertion at this point is under 17 mm. Everything below is recorded as neutral reference data describing what the textbooks and the published imaging studies state. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique. Needling is carried out only by a qualified, licensed practitioner.

The angle and depth the texts record

• Sacred Lotus sources & references record oblique insertion, directed downward, of 0.4 to 0.6 inch, with moxibustion applicable. Both elements matter: obliquely, so the needle travels along the abdominal wall rather than into what is behind it, and downward, away from the diaphragm and the chest.
• Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 515) and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 239) both record oblique, downward-angled insertion in a comparable shallow range, and both attach an explicit caution against deep or upward-angled needling because of the structures beneath. All three of our records converge on the same restriction, which is worth noting in itself — for most points the sources differ on depth, but here they do not.
• The classical caution. REN-15 belongs to the small group of points that the classical literature records as dangerous to needle; in some texts it appears among the points said to be forbidden to needling and to be treated by moxibustion instead. The prohibition is old and it is not decorative — it names, in the language available at the time, the same anatomy the MRI studies below have now measured. Modern texts do not forbid the point, but every one of them bounds it.
• Moxibustion is recorded as applicable and is the technique most associated with REN-15. The classical epilepsy prescriptions in which the point appears most often were moxibustion prescriptions (PMID 39777888), and the most recent clinical trial of the point used moxibustion rather than needling.

The measured anatomy — and this point has genuinely been measured

• An MRI study that measured safe depth at CV-15 itself. Ten healthy adults of both sexes were scanned by MRI at Jiuwei CV-15 and the safe depth and minimum dangerous angle were derived for nine separate needling directions. The reported safe depths were 16.99 ± 2.86 mm for perpendicular needling, 22.72 ± 5.35 mm at 45° downward, 24.61 ± 2.92 mm at 45° upward, 53.47 ± 5.72 mm at 15° downward and 25.76 ± 2.61 mm at 15° upward, with further figures for lateral angles. Body mass index correlated with the minimum dangerous angle and with the dangerous depth in several directions; sex did not (Cheng WP, Dong SP, Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2012;32(6):515–18, PMID 22741258). Two things stand out. First, this study measured this point, which is rare enough to be worth stating. Second, the numbers say something the textbook range does not: the shallowest permitted depth is the perpendicular one, and the tolerance triples once the needle is laid down almost flat against the abdominal wall. The angle, not the depth, is the primary safety variable at REN-15.
• What lies behind it, mapped in three dimensions. A digital-visible-human study built an interactive three-dimensional model of Jiuwei CV-15 from virtual Chinese human datasets in order to display the point and its adjacent tissue at every layer. The authors' stated conclusion was that CV-15 should be punctured obliquely downward to avoid injuring vital organs including the heart and liver, and that the safe depth of insertion is 1.0 to 1.5 cm (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2011;31(12):1097–1100, PMID 22256646). That figure is consistent with the MRI perpendicular measurement above, arrived at by a different method.
• Where the liver actually is. The liver occupies the upper right of the abdominal cavity and extends leftward across the midline beneath the lower breastbone, sitting directly under the diaphragm. Its upper surface rises well above the level of the lowest ribs. REN-15, one cun below the xiphoid on the midline, is over the left lobe of the liver in most adults — not near it, over it. In people with an enlarged liver the organ extends further down and further across, and the reference texts specifically note hepatomegaly as a circumstance in which the risk at points in this region is greater.
• The xiphoid process itself. The point is defined by the tip of the xiphoid, and the xiphoid is the most variable part of the sternum — it may be short, long, forked, deflected forward or backward, or perforated. The meta-analysis of sternal foramina, pooling 35 studies and 16,666 subjects, reported an overall prevalence of a foramen in the sternal body and/or the xiphoid process of 8.9 per cent (95% CI 6.5–11.7), roughly twice as common in men as in women (Pasieka P et al., Surg Radiol Anat 2023;45(5):623–635, PMID 36918418, PMC10129975). REN-15 lies below the xiphoid rather than on it, so a foramen is not the mechanism of injury here as it is at REN-17 higher up the breastbone — but the variability of the landmark that defines this point is part of why it is difficult to locate consistently.

What the case literature documents — and what it does not

• Liver injury from acupuncture is documented. A radiology case report describes acute haemoperitoneum — bleeding into the abdominal cavity — from direct liver injury caused by acupuncture, and states that it was the first such case reported (Seah EZ, J Radiol Case Rep 2023;17(8):15–20, PMID 37654899, PMC10435255). A separate forensic case report describes death from multiple organ injuries attributed to improper acupuncture practice (Forensic Sci Med Pathol 2026;22(2):463–468, PMID 41582237). Neither case names REN-15 as the point involved, and no injury is attributed to this point here. They are cited for what they establish — that a needle can reach and damage the liver — which is precisely the organ the imaging studies above place behind REN-15.
• Cardiac injury. A systematic review of vascular injuries from acupuncture identified 31 published cases across the world literature, of which pericardial tamponade — bleeding into the sac around the heart — was the commonest serious event (Bergqvist D, Int Angiol 2013;32(1):1–8, PMID 23435388). The best-known such case followed needling through a congenital hole in the breastbone (Lancet 1995;345(8958):1175, PMID 7723561). Again, these did not occur at REN-15; they are the reason the digital-anatomy study named the heart among the structures its recommended downward angle exists to avoid.
• No single agreed safe depth exists for any point. Two systematic reviews of the safe-depth literature — 33 studies in the first, 47 in the second — both concluded that measured depths for the same point differ greatly between subject groups and methods, and that "safe depth" has never been standardised (J Altern Complement Med 2011;17(3):199–206, PMID 21417806; Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2013;2013:740508, PMID 23935678). The CV-15 MRI study had ten subjects; it is the best measurement this point has, and it is still ten people.

The proportion of the risk

A meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies estimated serious adverse events in acupuncture at approximately 1 per 10,000 patients and around 8 per million treatments, placing it among the safer treatments in medicine (Bäumler P et al., BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268). A systematic review of the Chinese case-report literature from 1956 to 2010 found 1,038 adverse events across 167 articles and attributed them chiefly to improper technique rather than to acupuncture as such (He W et al., J Altern Complement Med 2012;18(10):892–901, PMID 22967282). REN-15 is best understood as one of the handful of points where that small residual risk concentrates — which is why the classics warned about it, why every modern text bounds it, and why it is so often treated with moxa instead.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 515); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 239); PMID 22741258; PMID 22256646; PMID 36918418 (PMC10129975); PMID 37654899 (PMC10435255); PMID 41582237; PMID 23435388; PMID 7723561; PMID 21417806; PMID 23935678; PMID 34489268; PMID 22967282; PMID 39777888 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation.

What does the name Jiu Wei mean?

Jiu Wei means "Turtledove Tail", and the name describes the bone the point is found beneath. Jiu is a dove or turtledove; wei is a tail. The xiphoid process — the small cartilaginous spur at the lower tip of the breastbone — was seen by the classical anatomists as resembling the tail of a dove, and the name became the name of both the bone and the point below it. Sacred Lotus sources & references translate it as Turtledove Tail. The name is therefore a landmark rather than a metaphor for function, and it is one of the more literal names in the repertoire: find the dove's tail, and the point is a thumb's width below it.

Why does the Luo-Connecting classification matter here?

The twelve channel Connecting points each send a branch across to their interior–exterior partner channel, which is why, for example, LU-07 on the Lung channel is used for complaints of the face and mouth. The three additional Connecting points work differently. REN-15 is the Connecting point of the Conception Vessel, and its branch is described in the Ling Shu as spreading out over the abdomen rather than crossing to a paired channel — which gives REN-15 an influence over the abdominal wall itself, and accounts for the two indications in its classical list that otherwise look misplaced: pain of the abdominal skin when the branch is in excess, and itching of the abdominal skin when it is depleted. DU-01 Chang Qiang performs the equivalent role for the Governing Vessel, and SP-21 Da Bao — the Great Connecting point of the Spleen — for the network of vessels through the flanks.

Is there research on REN-15 Jiu Wei?

REN-15 has an unusual research profile: its best point-specific evidence is anatomical rather than clinical, and it has one randomised trial of the point on its own — using moxibustion, and measuring the diaphragm.

• The randomised trial of moxibustion at CV-15. Eighty patients recovering from stroke complicated by pulmonary infection were randomised to rehabilitation training, routine internal medicine and conventional acupuncture, or to that same treatment plus mild moxibustion at Jiuwei CV-15 with a moxa stick for fifteen minutes daily, five days a week for four weeks. Diaphragm thickness, thickening fraction, excursion and contraction velocity were measured by musculoskeletal ultrasound, alongside trunk-impairment and postural-assessment scores. Both groups improved; the moxibustion group additionally showed increased diaphragm thickness and increased contraction velocity during quiet breathing (Cai JX et al., Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2025;50(4):426–432, PMID 40262941). It is a single-centre, unblinded, add-on design, so it shows the effect of adding moxa at this point rather than the effect of the point in isolation — but the added element was this point alone, and the outcome was an objective ultrasound measurement of the structure the point sits directly beneath. That is a well-chosen study.
• The anatomical studies described under needling — the MRI safe-depth measurement of nine needling directions at CV-15 (PMID 22741258) and the three-dimensional digital reconstruction of the point and its surrounding tissue (PMID 22256646) — are genuinely point-specific and are, on any practical reading, the most important research attached to REN-15.
• The historical record, quantified. An analysis of 205 acupuncture prescriptions for epilepsy extracted from the classical texts found Jiuwei CV-15 to be the second most frequently used point in the entire ancient literature on the condition, after Baihui DU-20 and ahead of Shenmen HT-07, Shenting DU-24 and Xinshu BL-15 (PMID 39777888). A separate data-mining study of the earliest ancient prescriptions for chest obstruction and heart pain found the leading points to be Daling P-07, Neiguan P-06, Taixi KI-03, Taichong LIV-03, Shangwan REN-13, Yongquan KI-01 and Xinshu BL-15, with Jiuwei CV-15 appearing in the next tier (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(10):1505–1511, PMID 41074530). These measure what was chosen, not whether it worked; but they establish that REN-15's association with epilepsy and disturbed spirit is not a modern gloss.

What is missing should be said plainly: there is no sham-controlled randomised trial of REN-15 for palpitations, for chest pain, for hiccup or for epilepsy. Given the point's documented hazard and the fact that it is so often treated with moxa rather than needles, that gap is unlikely to close soon.

How does REN-15 compare with the points around it?

Ju Que REN-14 lies one cun above, between REN-15 and the xiphoid, and is the Front-Mu point of the Heart. The two overlap almost completely in their recorded uses, and REN-14 is generally the point chosen where a Heart complaint is being treated on the midline, because it carries the Front-Mu classification that REN-15 does not. Shan Zhong REN-17, higher up on the breastbone, is the Hui-Meeting point of qi and the point for the chest as a whole; it carries its own transverse-only needling convention and the sternal-foramen anatomy that goes with it. Zhong Ting REN-16 sits between them at the base of the breastbone. Zhong Wan REN-12, three cun below REN-15 and halfway to the navel, is the Front-Mu point of the Stomach and the Hui-Meeting point of the fu organs, and is the safer and more commonly used choice for a purely digestive complaint. Ju Que, Jiu Wei and Zhong Ting are the three points of this short stretch of midline most often confused with one another. And Nei Guan P-06 at the wrist is the point that reaches all of REN-15's chest and stomach territory from a distance, without any of its anatomy — which is why, for most of what REN-15 is used for, P-06 is used more.

Source: Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 515); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 239); Sacred Lotus sources & references (REN-15 record; the fifteen Connecting points and the neighbouring midline points queried directly); Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), Chapter 10, for the Luo-point signs; PMID 40262941; PMID 22741258; PMID 22256646; PMID 39777888; PMID 41074530 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.