SJ-01 (Guan Chong) Passage Hub

What does SJ-01 Guan Chong do?

SJ-01 clears upper-jiao heat, benefits the ears and tongue, and activates the channel — and it is the Jing-Well and Metal point of the San Jiao channel.

• Clears upper-jiao heat — the Jing-Well heat-clearing action, the upper jiao being the chest, throat and head region
• Benefits the ears and tongue — the San Jiao channel serving the ear
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain

Its five-shu role: the controlling element, and therefore no named role. The San Jiao is a yang Fire channel, and SJ-01 is its Metal point — and Fire controls Metal, so SJ-01 is the controlling-element point, none of tonification, sedation or horary. From our own element data the roles fall elsewhere: SJ-03 Zhong Zhu Wood (tonification, Wood generates Fire), SJ-10 Tian Jing Earth (sedation, Fire’s child), SJ-06 Zhi Gou Fire (horary). SJ-01 and SJ-02 Ye Men (Water) are the two carrying no named role.

The Jing-Well character. The twelve Jing-Well points sit at the finger- and toe-tips and are grouped classically for clearing heat, reviving consciousness in collapse, and acute febrile states — and SJ-01’s heat and febrile indications are that shared character. Our SJ-06 record, the channel’s Fire point higher up the arm, is the other main San Jiao heat point.

On the name. “Guan Chong” is rendered Passage Hub — guan a gate or pass, chong a thoroughfare or surging. The reading usually offered marks it as the gate where the channel surges out from the fingertip.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, element, action and translation records; the San Jiao five-shu series queried and SJ-01 confirmed the Metal/controlling-element point, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SJ-01 Guan Chong used for?

SJ-01 is used for headache, red eyes, sore throat, stiffness of the tongue, febrile disease, and irritability. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Headache
• Redness of the eyes
• Sore throat
• Stiffness of the tongue
• Febrile diseases
• Irritability

Heat rising to the head, and a Jing-Well’s febrile use. The headache, red eyes, sore throat and tongue entries are upper-jiao heat reaching the head; febrile disease and irritability are the Jing-Well’s acute-heat character. It is a coherent heat-clearing list.

An honest note. A red, painful eye requires medical assessment — some causes threaten sight. Sore throat with difficulty swallowing or breathing is a medical emergency. Fever with confusion, or sudden stiffness or deviation of the tongue, requires urgent assessment — a new tongue or speech disturbance can be neurological. This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With SJ-02 Ye Men and SJ-03 Zhong Zhu along the hand for San Jiao heat and the ears; with LI-01 Shang Yang and other Jing-Well points for febrile disease, pricked to bleed. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the LI-01, SJ-02 and SJ-03 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SJ-01 Guan Chong located?

SJ-01 is at the outer corner of the ring-finger nail, about 0.1 cun from the nail.

• On the ring (fourth) finger, at the lateral (little-finger) side
• About 0.1 cun proximal to the corner of the nail, located by the standard two-line method — nail-edge line meeting nail-base line
• The ulnar (little-finger) side specifically — the San Jiao channel takes the outer corner of the ring finger; the Pericardium channel ends at the other side of the same finger’s neighbour

A textbook Jing-Well location. Eleven of the twelve Jing-Well points sit at a nail corner, fixed the same way — the two-line construction placing the point about 0.1 cun from the nail. Our LU-11 record notes KI-01, on the sole, as the one exception. Which corner matters: SJ-01 is the ulnar corner of the ring finger, and the record specifies it.

On the name. “Guan Chong” — Passage Hub, the gate at the fingertip, as noted above.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the LU-11 record queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 391): On the dorsal aspect of the ring finger, at the junction of lines drawn along the ulnar border of the nail and the base of the nail, approximately 0.1 cun from the corner of the nail.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 202): On the lateral side of the ring finger, about 0.1 cun from the corner of the nail.

How is SJ-01 Guan Chong needled?

Our own record gives two options: superficial insertion to about 0.1 inch, or pricking with a three-edged needle to cause bleeding. Moxibustion is 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: superficial, about 0.1 inch — the shallow depth every Jing-Well point carries, there being almost no tissue at a fingertip.
• Bleeding technique: our record explicitly offers pricking with a three-edged needle to draw a drop of blood, the classical method for the heat and febrile indications. SJ-01 is one of the fourteen points our data records with a three-edged-needle bleeding technique — a figure our SJ-18 record sets out.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the nail bed and the tip of the distal phalanx lie beneath thin skin; palmar and dorsal digital nerves and the small digital vessels run along the finger’s margins; bone is immediately deep.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: no cavity, no organ, no major vessel, bone a fraction of an inch beneath. Fingertips are densely innervated and are sharply felt — tolerability rather than danger. Where blood is drawn the ordinary considerations of any skin puncture apply.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at SJ-01 could be located, and none is needed at a tenth of an inch. No case report naming SJ-01 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged including the bleeding option; the SJ-18 record and the fourteen-point bleeding set queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SJ-01, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SJ-01. Where the point appears it is one component of a protocol — often several Jing-Well points pricked together for heat or collapse — and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. SJ-01 Guan Chong is the Jing-Well and Metal point of the San Jiao channel, and because the San Jiao is a yang Fire channel and Fire controls Metal, it is the controlling-element point — none of tonification (SJ-03), sedation (SJ-10) or horary (SJ-06), all checkable against our own element records. Its heat and febrile indications are the shared Jing-Well character, and its record carries the classical three-edged-needle bleeding option.

A note on searching for it. “SJ 1”, “TE 1”, “TW 1” and “Guanchong” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and this channel is coded SJ, TE (Triple Energizer) and TW (Triple Warmer) across the literature. Our library uses SJ-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (element, action and needling records; the San Jiao five-shu series and the fourteen-point bleeding set queried, against our own data).