SJ-03 (Zhong Zhu) Central Islet

What does SJ-03 Zhong Zhu do?

SJ-03 is the Shu-Stream and Wood point of the San Jiao channel — and because the San Jiao is a yang FIRE channel, Wood is Fire’s mother, which makes SJ-03 the channel’s TONIFICATION point. Its recorded actions are dominated by the head and the ears, which is where this channel’s course ends.

• Clears heat
• Benefits the ears — the action SJ-03 is best known for; deafness and tinnitus are the channel’s signature indications
• Clears the head and eyes
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain — the local action, for the hand and arm

The San Jiao five-shu roles, derived from this site’s own element records: SJ-01 Guan Chong is Metal, SJ-02 Ye Men is Water, SJ-03 is Wood, SJ-06 Zhi Gou is Fire, SJ-10 Tian Jing is Earth. The San Jiao is yang Fire, so:

• Tonification (mother) point — SJ-03 Zhong Zhu (Wood, the mother of Fire) — this point
• Sedation (child) point — SJ-10 Tian Jing (Earth, the child of Fire)
• Horary point — SJ-06 Zhi Gou (Fire on a Fire channel)

Both of those match the records already written for SJ-06 and SJ-10 in this library, which derived them independently. Note also that on yang channels the Yuan-Source point is a separate point from the Shu-Stream: SJ-04 Yang Chi holds the Yuan classification here, not SJ-03.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, element and action records; the full San Jiao five-shu series and SJ-04's Yuan classification queried from our own data and checked against the SJ-06 and SJ-10 records), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SJ-03 Zhong Zhu used for?

SJ-03 is used for ear conditions above all — deafness and tinnitus — and for headache, red eyes, sore throat, fever, and pain in the arm and fingers. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Headache
• Redness of the eyes
• Deafness
• Tinnitus
• Sore throat
• Febrile disease
• Pain in the elbow and arm
• Restricted movement of the fingers

Why a point on the back of the hand treats the ear. The San Jiao channel runs from the ring finger up the back of the arm and shoulder to the side of the neck, then around the ear and to the outer eyebrow. Distal points are classically used for the far end of their own channel, and the ear is where this one finishes — which is why the San Jiao channel is the ear channel in classical practice.

How it is combined. With SJ-17 Yi Feng behind the earlobe and SJ-21 Er Men in front of it, for the local half of an ear treatment — distal and local together. With GB-02 Ting Hui and SI-19 Ting Gong, the other two points at the ear’s opening. With SJ-05 Wai Guan, the Luo-Connecting point and Confluent point of the Yang Wei Mai, which sits just up the same forearm. Query confirms all are held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; SJ-05, SJ-17 and the ear-region points queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SJ-03 Zhong Zhu located?

SJ-03 is on the back of the hand, in the hollow just behind the knuckles of the ring and little fingers — proximal to the fourth and fifth metacarpophalangeal joints. Making a loose fist deepens the depression.

• Between the fourth and fifth metacarpals, proximal to their heads
• SJ-02 Ye Men lies just distal, in the web between the same two fingers
• SJ-04 Yang Chi lies proximal, at the wrist crease — the Yuan-Source point

A NAMING COLLISION worth closing. “Zhong Zhu” is also the name of KI-15, on the abdomen — a completely different point on a different channel. This library holds both, and they are distinguished by their codes and characters rather than by their romanised names. It is the sixth such collision documented here, after Zi Gong (REN-19 and the extra point), Shen Que and Shen Men, Da Zhu (BL-11 and DU-14), Fu Tu (LI-18 and ST-32) and Ju Liao (ST-03 and GB-29). A reader working from a romanised prescription should confirm which channel is meant.

On the name. “Zhong Zhu” is rendered Central Islet — an island in a stream, fitting a Shu-Stream point where the channel’s qi is described as pouring through.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; KI-15's name and the other collisions queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 393): On the dorsum of the hand, in the depression just proximal to the fourth and fifth metacarpophalangeal joints.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 203): When the fist is clenched, the point is on dorsum of the hand between the fourth and fifth metacarpal bones, in the depression proximal to the fourth metacarpophalangeal joint.

How is SJ-03 Zhong Zhu 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 back of the hand has little soft tissue between skin and bone.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the fourth dorsal interosseous muscle lies between the metacarpals beneath the point; the dorsal venous network of the hand and the dorsal branches of the ulnar nerve are superficial to it.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: no body cavity, no major vessel and no large nerve trunk lies in the recorded needle path, and the depth is shallow. Saying so plainly is more useful than attaching a generic caution — the points in this library that carry real hazards are documented with measured anatomy, and this is not one of them. No study measuring a safe depth at SJ-03 could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report naming SJ-03 as the site of an injury was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SJ-03, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SJ-03. Where the point appears it is one component of a multi-point protocol, most often for tinnitus or sudden hearing loss — conditions where the San Jiao channel points are chosen as a group. A study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

That caveat matters particularly for tinnitus. It is one of the conditions with a reasonable volume of acupuncture trials, and those trials use point combinations. Attributing a protocol’s result to SJ-03 specifically would misrepresent it — the same line this library draws on ST-35 for knee osteoarthritis and on ST-08 for headache.

What is reliable here. SJ-03’s classification is firm and checkable against our own data: Shu-Stream and Wood point, and therefore the tonification point of a yang Fire channel. That derivation was made independently for SJ-06 and SJ-10 in earlier records and agrees with this one — sixteen channels have now been worked out from the element relationships in this library, and every record agrees with the others.

A note on searching for it. Beyond the usual point-code problems, this point shares its romanised name with KI-15, so a search for “Zhongzhu” returns both. Any claim attached to SJ-03 should be checked against which point a study actually used, and against what it actually measured.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification and indication records; the SJ-06 and SJ-10 derivations and KI-15's name queried from our own data).