SI-05 (Yang Gu) Yang Valley

What does SI-05 Yang Gu do?

SI-05 is the Jing-River and Fire point of the Small Intestine channel — and because the Small Intestine is itself a yang FIRE channel, Fire on Fire makes SI-05 the HORARY point. A horary point is a channel’s own element expressed on itself, and it is not the sedation point — a distinction this library has had to make repeatedly, because it is the most common student error in the five-shu system.

• Clears heat and reduces swelling — applied to the neck, jaw and the wrist itself
• Calms the spirit — from the Small Intestine’s paired relationship with the Heart

The Small Intestine five-shu roles, derived from this site’s own element records: SI-01 Shao Ze is Metal, SI-02 Qian Gu is Water, SI-03 Hou Xi is Wood, SI-05 is Fire, SI-08 Xiao Hai is Earth. The channel is yang Fire, so:

• Horary point — SI-05 Yang Gu (Fire on a Fire channel) — this point
• Tonification (mother) point — SI-03 Hou Xi (Wood, the mother of Fire)
• Sedation (child) point — SI-08 Xiao Hai (Earth, the child of Fire)
• Controlling-element point — SI-02 Qian Gu (Water, which controls Fire)

That agrees with the SI-02 and SI-08 records, both of which derived the same set independently. The horary-versus-sedation trap is worth naming because it recurs: our HT-08 record flags it for the Heart channel and our P-08 record for the Pericardium. On a channel whose own element sits at one of the five-shu positions, that position is horary — the sedation point is always the child element.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, element and action records; the full Small Intestine five-shu series queried from our own data and checked against the SI-02 and SI-08 records), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SI-05 Yang Gu used for?

SI-05 is used for swelling of the neck and under the jaw, for pain of the hand and wrist, and for febrile disease. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — it is short and does not stray beyond the channel.

• Swelling of the neck and the region under the jaw (submandibular)
• Pain of the hand and wrist
• Febrile disease

The list is the channel’s course plus its element. Wrist pain is local. Neck and jaw swelling is where the Small Intestine channel runs on its way to the ear. Febrile disease is the heat-clearing function that Jing-River points and Fire points both carry.

How it is combined. With SI-03 Hou Xi and SI-04 Wan Gu, its immediate neighbours at the hand and wrist — SI-03 is the Confluent point of the Du Mai, SI-04 the Yuan-Source point. With SI-19 Ting Gong at the ear and SI-11 Tian Zong on the shoulder blade for the channel’s far end. With SJ-04 Yang Chi and LI-05 Yang Xi, the corresponding wrist points on the other two arm yang channels — the three sit across the back of the wrist and are classically compared. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; SI-03, SI-04, SI-11, SI-19, SJ-04 and LI-05 classifications queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SI-05 Yang Gu located?

SI-05 is at the little-finger side of the wrist, in the hollow between the head of the ulna and the triquetral bone. It is a bony landmark rather than a measured position, which makes it one of the more reliably located wrist points.

• Ulnar border of the wrist, between the ulnar head and the triquetral bone
• SI-04 Wan Gu lies just distal on the same border — the Yuan-Source point
• SI-06 Yang Lao, the channel’s Xi-Cleft point, lies just proximal

Three yang wrist points, one across each channel. LI-05 Yang Xi sits at the thumb side, SJ-04 Yang Chi in the middle of the back of the wrist, and SI-05 at the little-finger side. All three names begin with yang, all three are on yang channels crossing the wrist, and they are distinguished by which side of the joint they occupy. Our library holds all three.

On the name. “Yang Gu” means Yang Valley — the valley being the depression between the two bones, and yang marking both the channel and the back (yang) surface of the wrist. Descriptive rather than functional.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; SI-04, SI-06, LI-05 and SJ-04 positions queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 236): At the ulnar border of the wrist, in the depression between the head of the ulna and the triquetral bone.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 168): At the ulnar end of the transverse crease on the dorsal aspect of the wrist, in the depression between the styloid process of the ulna and the triquetral bone.

How is SI-05 Yang Gu needled?

The standard texts record perpendicular insertion to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.3–0.5 inch — shallow, as the wrist has little soft tissue between skin and the carpal bones.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the dorsal branch of the ulnar nerve crosses the ulnar side of the wrist in this region, and the extensor carpi ulnaris tendon runs alongside; the ulnar head and triquetral bone form the floor of the depression.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: bone lies beneath, there is no body cavity, and the recorded depth is shallow. The ulnar nerve’s main trunk passes through Guyon’s canal on the palmar side of the wrist — the region our HT-07 record documents — not here; what crosses at SI-05 is its smaller dorsal branch. Distinguishing the two is the kind of precision this library applies rather than attaching a general “ulnar nerve” caution to every point on that side of the arm. No study measuring a safe depth at SI-05 could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report naming SI-05 as the site of an injury was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; HT-07's Guyon's canal anatomy queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

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

No trial isolates SI-05. Where the point appears it is one component of a protocol for wrist pain or for the channel’s regional complaints, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence is the classification, and it is the more useful thing anyway: SI-05 is the Jing-River and Fire point, and therefore the horary point of a yang Fire channel. That is checkable against our own element records, it agrees with the SI-02 and SI-08 records derived independently, and it tells a practitioner something a research section could not — where the point sits in a system that has governed its use for two thousand years.

The trap this point illustrates. Fire on a Fire channel is horary, not sedation. The sedation point is the child element — SI-08 Xiao Hai (Earth). Our HT-08 record flags the identical error on the Heart channel and our P-08 record on the Pericardium; three channels in this library carry the same warning because the mistake is common and the consequence is choosing the opposite point to the one intended.

A note on searching for it. “SI 5” and “Yanggu” searches return protocol trials and, as repeatedly found throughout this library, unrelated material matched on the code or on a place or surname. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually measured.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification records; the SI-02, SI-08, HT-08 and P-08 derivations queried from our own data).