SI-13 (Qu Yuan) Crooked Wall

What does SI-13 Qu Yuan do?

SI-13 benefits the shoulder and scapula — a single recorded action, and one of the shortest action records in the library.

• Benefits the shoulder and scapula — the whole of the recorded action

One action, one indication, and the page will not invent more. SI-13 is a purely local point in our source material: it treats the scapular region and our record claims nothing beyond it. Where a record is this short this library states its limits plainly rather than filling the space — the same treatment given to BL-06 in the scalp run, BL-38 at the knee, BL-45 on the outer line, BL-61 at the heel and DU-07 on the spine. A short record is a fact about our data, not a gap to be papered over.

Where it sits among its neighbours. Our SI-14 record, one level up, is also entirely local — two indications, no organ action. Our SI-15 record, a level above that, is three-quarters respiratory. So this stretch of the channel runs from purely local at SI-13 through purely local at SI-14 to organ-focused at SI-15, and the change happens between the last two rather than gradually.

On the name. “Qu Yuan” means Crooked Wall. Qu is bent or crooked, the same character as in LI-11 Qu Chi and P-03 Qu Ze at the elbow creases and in BL-04 Qu Cha on the scalp; yuan here is a wall or enclosure. The reading usually offered is the curved wall of the scapula, against whose upper border the point sits — purely positional.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; the BL-04, BL-06, BL-38, BL-45, BL-61, DU-07, LI-11, P-03, SI-14 and SI-15 records queried and compared against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SI-13 Qu Yuan used for?

SI-13 is used for pain and stiffness of the scapular region. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — a single entry.

• Pain and stiffness of the scapular region

One indication is the whole record, and that is worth saying plainly. Very few points in this library hold a single indication. SI-13 is a local point for one region and our data claims nothing else for it — no organ action, no distal effect, no systemic indication. A page that implied otherwise would be adding content our source material does not support, which is the one thing this library will not do.

An honest note. Shoulder or scapular pain that is severe, persistent, follows an injury, or is accompanied by weakness or numbness in the arm requires medical assessment. Pain felt around the shoulder blade can also be referred from the chest or abdomen — pain between or under the shoulder blades with breathlessness, sweating, or pain spreading to the arm or jaw is a medical emergency. This record documents classical use for musculoskeletal pain and should not delay assessment of anything else.

How it is combined. With SI-11 Tian Zong in the centre of the scapula and SI-12 Bing Feng above it. With SI-14 and SI-15 medially at T1 and C7. With SI-10 Nao Shu, from which our record measures it. With GB-21 Jian Jing on the top of the shoulder, and SI-03 Hou Xi distally. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the GB-21, SI-03, SI-10, SI-11, SI-12, SI-14 and SI-15 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SI-13 Qu Yuan located?

SI-13 is in the tender hollow just above the inner end of the ridge of the shoulder blade — midway between SI-10 and the second thoracic spinous process.

• In the tender depression superior to the medial end of the scapular spine
• Midway between SI-10 Nao Shu and the T2 spinous process

Two locating methods, and one of them is tenderness. Our record fixes this point both by an anatomical hollow and by a midpoint between two references — and it specifies that the hollow is tender. Very few records in this library use the patient’s response as part of the location; our BL-61 record on the heel is the other. It is the classical ashi principle — the site found by reaction — applied to a named point that also has a fixed measurement.

The scapular spine is one of the best landmarks on the back. It is the ridge you can feel running across the shoulder blade, and its medial end is a distinct point that can be traced with a finger. Unlike the vertebral counting chains this library repeatedly warns about, SI-13 needs no count at all — and the midpoint reference to T2 gives an independent second fix.

A caution about the neighbours. The scapular region is crowded — SI-11 Tian Zong in the middle of the blade, SI-12 Bing Feng in the hollow above the spine of the scapula, SI-13 at its medial end, SI-14 and SI-15 further in toward the spine. As on the fifth metatarsal and at the Pericardium wrist, crowding means a neighbour is easily substituted, and here the points differ in what lies beneath them as well as in name.

On the name. “Qu Yuan” — Crooked Wall, the wall being the curved border of the scapula. Positional.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including the tenderness criterion; the BL-61, SI-10, SI-11, SI-12, SI-14 and SI-15 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 243): In the tender depression superior to the medial end of the scapular spine, midway between Naoshu SI-10 and the spinous process of T2.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 171): On the medial extremity of the suprascapular fossa, about midway between Naoshu (SI-10) and the spinous process of the second thoracic vertebra.

How is SI-13 Qu Yuan needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable — and the honest statement about this point is that NO study has measured its margin, even though the two points a level away have been measured directly. 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, 0.3–0.5 inch — shallow, and note that our records give the neighbouring SI-14 and SI-15 as oblique. The angle recorded here differs from theirs.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: trapezius overlies supraspinatus and levator scapulae; the scapula itself lies beneath much of the region, and the suprascapular nerve and vessels pass toward the notch laterally. Where the point sits above the medial end of the scapular spine, the underlying bone is the scapula rather than a rib.

What is NOT claimed, stated precisely. The paediatric chest-CT study this library uses for measured safe depths covers 23 named points, and on this channel it measured SI-14 and SI-15 only — SI-13 is not among them. Verified. Those two neighbours hold the two thickest margins in the entire table — SI-15 at 38.75 mm and SI-14 at 36.82 mm in boys — and neither figure is carried across to this point. Borrowing a comfortable-looking number from a neighbour is exactly the error this library refuses; our BL-47, BL-48 and BL-53 records make the same refusal in the other direction, where the neighbours’ figures were the thin ones.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a point on the upper back within the band where pneumothorax is the documented hazard, and the general considerations of that region apply. Where the point overlies the body of the scapula, bone lies between the needle and the thorax; the medial border of the scapula is where that protection ends. No study has measured the margin at SI-13, and this record says so rather than substituting a neighbour’s figure. No case report naming SI-13 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the SI-14 and SI-15 recorded angles compared); the point list of PMID 26922245 / PMC4769822 queried from our own data and confirmed NOT to include SI-13; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SI-13, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SI-13. Where the point appears it is one component of a shoulder or neck protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point. It is one of the less-used points on the channel.

The neighbour with the reputation is SI-11 Tian Zong, in the centre of the scapula, which appears widely in shoulder and myofascial protocols. Evidence about SI-11 is evidence about SI-11.

What this page can state with confidence, and it is mostly about limits. SI-13 holds one recorded action and one recorded indication — among the shortest records in the library — and this page reports that rather than expanding it. It is located partly by tenderness, which only one other record here does. Our record gives it a perpendicular insertion where both its measured neighbours are oblique. And no measured margin exists for it: the CT study covered SI-14 and SI-15 on this channel and not this point, and their figures — the two thickest in the whole table — are not borrowed.

A note on searching for it. “SI 13” and “Quyuan” searches return protocol trials and a large volume of unrelated material — Quyuan is very close to Qu Yuan, the name of a famous classical Chinese poet, which dominates search results entirely, and “SI” also abbreviates the International System of Units. This is one of the poorest search terms in the point system. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and translation records; the SI-11, SI-14 and SI-15 records compared, and the point list of PMID 26922245 confirmed not to include SI-13, against our own data).