SJ-13 (Nao Hui) Upper Arm Convergence

What does SJ-13 Nao Hui do?

SJ-13 regulates qi and transforms phlegm, and it activates the channel and alleviates pain — and it is the only point on this channel’s arm run whose action names phlegm.

• Regulates qi and transforms phlegm — the action its goitre indication rests on
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain — the local action

Why phlegm, on an arm point. In classical theory a soft swelling in the neck is described as phlegm gathering, and the treatment principle is to transform it — so a point recorded for goitre carries a phlegm action by that logic. It is the tradition’s own reasoning, stated here as such and not as a claim about the thyroid.

It is a Meeting Point of the San Jiao channel and the Yang Linking Vessel (Yang Wei Mai) — and it is not alone on this stretch. Our SJ-15 Tian Liao record two points above carries the same vessel, as part of a fuller three-pathway classification. Two Yang Wei meeting points within a short distance, both confirmed by query. The vessel’s Confluent point is SJ-05 Wai Guan, distally on the same channel, and our BL-63 and GB-35 records carry it from the leg.

On the name. “Nao Hui” means Upper Arm Convergence. Nao is the upper arm, shared with SI-10 Nao Shu and LI-14 Bi Nao; hui is to meet or converge, the same character as in the Hui-Meeting influential points and in DU-20 Bai Hui. Note that the hui in this name does not make it a Hui-Meeting point — those eight are BL-11, BL-17, GB-34, GB-39, LU-09, REN-12, REN-17 and LIV-13, verified against our own records. The convergence the name describes is the meeting with the Yang Linking Vessel, which our category field does record.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action and translation records; every Yang Linking Vessel designation and all eight Hui-Meeting points queried, and the BL-63, GB-35, LI-14, SI-10, SJ-05 and SJ-15 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SJ-13 Nao Hui used for?

SJ-13 is used for goitre, and for pain in the shoulder and arm. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — two entries.

• Goitre
• Pain in the shoulder and arm

An honest note, and the first entry needs it stated plainly and without hedging. GOITRE MEANS AN ENLARGED THYROID GLAND, AND IT REQUIRES MEDICAL INVESTIGATION. Its causes range from iodine deficiency to autoimmune thyroid disease to nodules and cancer, and they are distinguished by blood tests and imaging, not by examination alone. Thyroid disease in either direction — over- or underactive — has serious consequences if untreated and is highly treatable when diagnosed. A new or growing lump in the neck, difficulty swallowing or breathing, a hoarse voice, or a lump that is hard or fixed requires prompt medical assessment.

This record documents a classical indication in a historical system, and makes no claim whatever that acupuncture treats goitre or any thyroid condition. The indication is here because our source material holds it; the warning is here because that is what a reference owes a reader meeting it. Endemic goitre from iodine deficiency was widespread in the regions and periods this literature comes from, which is the historical context for the entry.

The second entry is the everyday one. Shoulder and arm pain is the local and channel indication, and it is what SJ-13 shares with its neighbours SJ-11, SJ-12 and SJ-14 — all four record it.

An honest note on that too. Shoulder or arm pain with weakness, numbness or pins and needles requires medical assessment, and pain around the shoulder can be referred from the chest — with breathlessness, sweating, or pain spreading to the jaw it is a medical emergency.

How it is combined. With SJ-12 below and SJ-14 Jian Liao above at the shoulder joint. With SJ-05 Wai Guan distally — the Confluent point of the Yang Linking Vessel, which this point meets. With LI-15 Jian Yu and GB-21 Jian Jing for the shoulder. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the GB-21, LI-15, SJ-05, SJ-11, SJ-12 and SJ-14 records queried and compared from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SJ-13 Nao Hui located?

SJ-13 is on the back of the upper arm, where the line from SJ-10 at the elbow to SJ-14 at the shoulder meets the back edge of the deltoid muscle.

• On the line drawn between SJ-10 Tian Jing and SJ-14 Jian Liao
• At the posterior border of the deltoid muscle — where the line crosses it
• SJ-12 Xiao Luo lies below on the same line; SJ-14 above at the shoulder joint

Located by an intersection rather than a measurement, which is unusual and useful. Most points on a limb are given as so many cun from a landmark; SJ-13 is given as the crossing of a line and a muscle border. Both are findable — the deltoid’s posterior edge stands out when the arm is held out to the side against resistance — and an intersection is self-correcting in a way a single measurement is not.

The same line carries a measurement check one point below. Our SJ-12 record places that point 4 cun above SJ-10 and 6 cun below SJ-14 — summing to the standard 10-cun upper arm, so the line SJ-13 sits on is itself verified. Our SJ-12 record sets that out in full.

On the name. “Nao Hui” — Upper Arm Convergence. As noted above, the hui describes the meeting with the Yang Linking Vessel and does not make this a Hui-Meeting influential point.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the SJ-10, SJ-12 and SJ-14 records queried and the upper-arm distances checked against our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 404): On the upper arm, where the line drawn between Tianjing SJ-10 and Jianliao SJ-14 meets the posterior border of the deltoid muscle, approximately two thirds of the distance between these two points.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 206): On the line joining Jianliao (SJ-14) and the olecranon, on the posterior border of m. deltoideus.

How is SJ-13 Nao Hui needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.5–0.8 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, 0.5–0.8 inch — the deepest of the three upper-arm points, against 0.5–0.7 inch at SJ-12 and 0.3–0.5 inch at SJ-11 near the elbow. The recorded depths increase steadily up the arm as the muscle thickens, and this point sits at the deltoid’s edge where two muscle masses meet.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the posterior border of deltoid meets the lateral head of triceps brachii here; the radial nerve and deep brachial artery run in the spiral groove of the humerus below and behind, and the axillary nerve winds round the surgical neck of the humerus above, beneath the deltoid; the humerus lies deep.

Hazard, stated proportionately. There is no body cavity here, no pleura and no great vessel — the hazards this library documents on the chest and upper back do not extend to the upper arm. What is present is muscle over bone, with two named nerves in the region, and the recorded depth keeps a needle in muscle. Our record carries no explicit caution and this page does not invent one; only four points in the library carry an organ-injury caution at all — KI-21, KI-22, LU-01 and LU-02, counted by query, none on a limb.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at SJ-13 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the arm. No case report naming SJ-13 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the SJ-11 and SJ-12 depths compared; every needling record queried and the four organ-injury cautions counted; the point lists of PMID 26922245 and PMID 36075596 confirmed not to include SJ-13), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

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

No trial isolates SJ-13. Where the point appears it is one component of a shoulder or arm protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

The goitre warning is the operative content on this page. An enlarged thyroid requires medical investigation — blood tests and imaging — because its causes range from iodine deficiency to autoimmune disease to cancer, and they cannot be told apart by examination. Thyroid disease is highly treatable when diagnosed and consequential when it is not. Nothing in this record claims that acupuncture treats goitre, and no such literature is cited, because an indication list documents historical use and is not evidence.

What this page can state with confidence. SJ-13 is a Meeting Point with the Yang Linking Vessel, one of two on this short stretch with SJ-15. It is located by an intersection — the SJ-10-to-SJ-14 line crossing the posterior border of deltoid — rather than by a measurement, which is unusual and self-correcting. Its recorded depth is the deepest of the three upper-arm points, tracking the muscle. And the hui in its name does not make it a Hui-Meeting point; those eight are BL-11, BL-17, GB-34, GB-39, LU-09, REN-12, REN-17 and LIV-13, verified.

A note on searching for it. “SJ 13”, “TE 13”, “TB 13” and “Naohui” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and this channel is coded three ways across the literature: SJ, TE and TB. Our library uses SJ-. Note too that nao transliterates more than one character across the point system. 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; the Yang Linking Vessel designations and the eight Hui-Meeting points counted, and the SJ-11, SJ-12, SJ-14 and SJ-15 records compared, against our own data).