SI-10 (Nao Shu) Upper Arm Shu

What does SI-10 Nao Shu do?

SI-10 benefits the shoulder, and it activates the channel and alleviates pain — and it carries a four-pathway classification unmatched anywhere else in the library.

• Benefits the shoulder — the local action, the point sitting on the back of the shoulder
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain

Four pathways meet here — and two of them are a unique pairing. Our record gives SI-10 as a Meeting Point of the Small Intestine and Bladder channels with the Yang Linking Vessel (Yang Wei Mai) AND the Yang Motility Vessel (Yang Qiao Mai). Querying our own category records, only two points in the library meet both yang extraordinary vessels at once — the Yang Wei and the Yang Qiao together: SI-10 here and GB-20 Feng Chi at the occiput. A point meeting both is rare, and both sit high on the body — the shoulder and the base of the skull — where those vessels run on their way up.

Its name carries the “nao” trap. “Nao Shu” means Upper Arm Shu — and the nao here is the upper arm, the same character as in SJ-13 Nao Hui and LI-14 Bi Nao. It is not the nao meaning the brain, which our GB-19 Nao Kong and DU-17 Nao Hu records carry. Two different characters, identical in toneless pinyin. And as our DU-02 record documents, the -shu ending is not a Back-Shu designation either — those all sit on the inner Bladder line.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action and translation records; every Yang Linking and Yang Motility designation queried and both-vessel points counted (SI-10 and GB-20), and the DU-02, DU-17, GB-19, LI-14 and SJ-13 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SI-10 Nao Shu used for?

SI-10 is used for swelling of the shoulder, and for aching and weakness of the shoulder and arm. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — a purely local list.

• Swelling of the shoulder
• Aching and weakness of the shoulder and arm

Two entries, both the shoulder, and the page will not stretch them. For all its four-pathway classification, SI-10’s recorded indications are entirely local — it is a shoulder point in practice. That is a real feature of our data, and worth stating: a rich classification does not always bring a rich indication list, and this library reports the two fields as they stand rather than inferring extra indications from the meeting-point status. Our SJ-15 and SI-15 records, shoulder points with their own multi-channel classifications, are similar.

An honest note. Shoulder pain with weakness, numbness or pins and needles down the arm requires medical assessment — it can indicate nerve involvement at the neck. Shoulder swelling, especially if hot, or following an injury, needs assessment; a hot swollen joint with fever is an emergency. And pain felt at the shoulder can be referred from the chest — shoulder or chest pain with breathlessness or sweating is a medical emergency. This record documents classical use for musculoskeletal shoulder complaints.

How it is combined. With SI-09 Jian Zhen below and SI-11 Tian Zong on the scapula. With LI-15 Jian Yu and SJ-14 Jian Liao around the shoulder joint — the shoulder points used together across channels. With GB-21 Jian Jing on top of the shoulder. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the GB-21, LI-15, SI-09, SI-11, SI-15, SJ-14 and SJ-15 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SI-10 Nao Shu located?

SI-10 is on the back of the shoulder, in the hollow below the ridge of the shoulder blade, directly above the back of the armpit.

• In the depression inferior to the scapular spine — below the ridge you can feel across the shoulder blade
• Directly above SI-09 Jian Zhen, which sits 1 cun above the back of the axillary crease
• With the arm hanging, our record locates it by that resting position

The scapular spine is the landmark, and it is one of the best on the back. The ridge of the shoulder blade is subcutaneous and easily traced across the back of the shoulder, and SI-10 sits in the hollow just below its outer part. The arm is left hanging so the shoulder is in its neutral position, since raising it shifts the soft tissue — a posture-dependent location like our ST-02 (eyes forward) and SJ-20 (ear folded).

The posterior shoulder is a crowded region. SI-09, SI-10, SI-11 and SI-12 all sit on the back of the shoulder and the scapula within a short distance, and the shoulder is one of the regions this library repeatedly notes for crowding across channels.

On the name. “Nao Shu” — Upper Arm Shu, the nao being the upper arm (not the brain), as set out above.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the ST-02, SI-09, SI-11, SI-12 and SJ-20 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 240): On the posterior aspect of the shoulder, in the depression inferior to the scapular spine, directly superior to the posterior axillary crease when the arm hangs in the adducted position.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 170): When the arm is adducted, the point is directly above the posterior end of the axillary fold, in the depression inferior to the scapular spine.

How is SI-10 Nao Shu needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.5–1.0 inch, 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, 0.5–1.0 inch.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the deltoid and infraspinatus muscles lie over the back of the shoulder here; the suprascapular nerve and vessels supply the region; the head of the humerus and the scapula lie deep, and the shoulder joint capsule is beneath.

Hazard, stated proportionately. There is no body cavity here and no pleura — the point is over the humeral head and the scapula, on the back of the shoulder, not over the thorax. The pneumothorax considerations this library documents at GB-21 and the upper-back points do not extend to a point over the shoulder joint. It is thick muscle over bone, a low-hazard point. Our record carries no arterial caution — nine points in the library do, counted by query, and SI-10 is not among them.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at SI-10 could be located, and none is borrowed. The paediatric chest-CT study this library uses measured 23 points on the back and shoulder; SI-14 and SI-15 are its Small Intestine points, not SI-10, and those figures belong to them. No case report naming SI-10 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; the nine arterial cautions and the SI-14/SI-15 measured figures queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SI-10, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SI-10. Where the point appears it is one component of a shoulder protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Shoulder pain has an acupuncture literature, and SI-10 appears in it alongside SI-09, SI-11, LI-15, SJ-14 and local ashi points. Evidence about a multi-point protocol is not evidence about one point within it, and none is claimed here.

What this page can state with confidence. SI-10 is one of only two points in the library that meet both yang extraordinary vessels — the Yang Linking and the Yang Motility, the other being GB-20 — and SI-10 adds the Small Intestine and Bladder channels, a four-pathway classification, verified by query. Yet its recorded indications are entirely local to the shoulder, which the page states rather than inflating from the classification. And the nao in its name is the upper arm, not the brain — a toneless-pinyin trap it shares with SJ-13, distinct from GB-19 and DU-17.

A note on searching for it. “SI 10”, “SI-10” and “Naoshu” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and “SI” abbreviates the International System of Units, while nao transliterates more than one character. Search on the code. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (category, action, indication and location records; every Yang Linking and Yang Motility designation queried and the two both-vessel points (SI-10, GB-20) counted, against our own data).