SJ-15 (Tian Liao) Celestial Bone Hole

What does SJ-15 Tian Liao do?

SJ-15 dispels wind-damp, activates the channel and alleviates pain, and it unbinds the chest and regulates qi. It is a meeting point of three pathways.

• Dispels wind-damp, activates the channel and alleviates pain — the local shoulder and neck action
• Unbinds the chest and regulates qi — unexpected on a shoulder point, and the reason its position matters

Its classification is unusually full. Our record gives SJ-15 as a Meeting Point of the San Jiao and Gallbladder channels and the Yang Linking Vessel (Yang Wei Mai) — three pathways at one point. Its neighbour SJ-13 Nao Hui on the upper arm is also a Yang Wei meeting point, and our BL-63 record carries the same vessel from the foot.

A name trap, and its resolution is one point away. “Tian Liao” contains tian, heaven — and SJ-15 is not a Window of Heaven point. The very next point on the channel, SJ-16 Tian You, is. Two consecutive points, both carrying tian in the name, and only one of them classified. The ten Window of Heaven points in our records are BL-10, DU-16, LI-18, LU-03, P-01, REN-22, SI-16, SI-17, SJ-16 and ST-09 — seven carry tian, three do not, and several points carrying tian are not in the group. Our BL-07 Tong Tian record documents the same trap on the Bladder channel.

Thirteen liao names, two of them shared. Liao is a hole or hollow in bone, and thirteen points in this library carry it — including SJ-14 Jian Liao immediately below. Two of those names each belong to two different points: Ju Liao is GB-29 and ST-03, He Liao is LI-19 and SJ-22. Verified across every pinyin value in our data. Tian Liao is unique.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action and translation records; the ten Window of Heaven points and every liao name counted, every pinyin value audited for duplicates, and the BL-07, BL-63, SJ-13, SJ-14 and SJ-16 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SJ-15 Tian Liao used for?

SJ-15 is used for pain in the shoulder and elbow, and for stiffness of the neck. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — two entries.

• Pain in the shoulder and elbow
• Stiffness of the neck

Note that the chest action has no matching indication. Our record gives “unbinds the chest and regulates qi” as an action, and the indication list is entirely musculoskeletal — shoulder, elbow, neck. That is the seventh such field mismatch this library has documented, after BL-11, BL-51, BL-55, KI-19, KI-20 and KI-26. The pattern is consistent enough to state as a property of the material: the action fields reach further than the indication fields do, which is why both are reproduced in full on every page here.

The elbow entry is worth noticing. SJ-15 is on the shoulder blade, and elbow pain is a distal indication along the channel — the San Jiao channel running from the ring finger up the arm past the elbow to the shoulder and neck. Few points in this region record the elbow, and it is the one part of this short list that is not simply local.

An honest note. Neck stiffness with fever or severe headache requires urgent medical assessment. Shoulder or neck pain with weakness, numbness or pins and needles down the arm requires assessment — it can indicate nerve involvement at the neck. And pain felt around 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 pain.

How it is combined. With GB-21 Jian Jing and SI-13 Qu Yuan — the two points our record measures it between. With SJ-14 Jian Liao laterally on the shoulder joint. With BL-10 Tian Zhu and GB-20 Feng Chi for the neck, and SJ-05 Wai Guan distally on the same channel. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records, compared field against field; the BL-10, BL-11, BL-51, BL-55, GB-20, GB-21, KI-19, KI-20, KI-26, SI-13, SJ-05 and SJ-14 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SJ-15 Tian Liao located?

SJ-15 is in the hollow above the ridge of the shoulder blade, midway between GB-21 on the top of the shoulder and SI-13 at the inner end of that ridge.

• In the suprascapular fossa — the hollow above the spine of the scapula
• Midway between GB-21 Jian Jing and SI-13 Qu Yuan, which our own record names as the references
• SJ-14 Jian Liao lies laterally at the shoulder joint; SJ-16 Tian You above on the neck

A midpoint location, anchored at both ends by real landmarks. GB-21 sits at the highest point of the shoulder, midway between the spinous process of C7 and the acromion; SI-13 sits in a tender hollow at the medial end of the scapular spine. Both are palpable, so SJ-15 is fixed by feel from two directions rather than by a count. Our DU-18 record uses the same midpoint construction on the head, and our SI-13 record notes that it too is located partly by tenderness.

The crowding here is real. GB-21, SI-13, SJ-15 and BL-41 all sit within a short distance across the top of the shoulder and upper back, on four different channels — and what lies beneath them differs, which the needling section sets out. Mistaking one for a neighbour here is not only a channel error.

On the name. “Tian Liao” — Celestial Bone Hole. Liao is the hollow in bone, shared with SJ-14 Jian Liao below; tian, heaven, marks it as high on the body — and, as noted above, does not mark a Window of Heaven classification.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the BL-41, DU-18, GB-21, SI-13, SJ-14 and SJ-16 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 406): In the suprascapular fossa, in the depression midway between Jianjing GB-21 and Quyuan SI-13 (at the medial end of the suprascapular fossa).
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 206): Midway between Jianjing (GB-21) and Quyuan (SI-13), on the superior angle of the scapula.

How is SJ-15 Tian Liao needled, and what is the pneumothorax risk?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable — and this point sits over the top of the thorax, in the band where pneumothorax is the documented hazard. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature and the published measurements document. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.3–0.5 inch — shallow, and less than half the 0.7–1.0 inch our record gives at SJ-14 on the shoulder joint. The difference is not arbitrary: SJ-14 is over the arm bone, and this point is over the chest.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable. It carries no pneumothorax hazard.
• Regional anatomy: trapezius overlies supraspinatus in the suprascapular fossa; the suprascapular nerve and vessels pass toward the notch; the first and second ribs and the apex of the lung lie deep and medially, with the pleural dome rising into the root of the neck.

The measured evidence in this region belongs to the point beside it, and is attributed there. Our GB-21 Jian Jing record cites ultrasonography in 101 adults measuring the depth from skin to the pleural line at 17.4 mm in men and 14.6 mm in women on average, increasing with weight, height and body mass index (Lin S-K et al., J Acupunct Meridian Stud 2018;11(6):355–360, PMID 29936338). GB-21 is one of the two points our record measures SJ-15 between — so it is very close — but that figure was measured at GB-21 and is not a figure for SJ-15. The paediatric CT study covering 23 points includes GB-21 and does not include SJ-15. Verified, and nothing is carried across.

Hazard, stated proportionately. No measured margin exists for this point, and this record does not substitute a neighbour’s. What can be said is that the region’s margin is thin and variable — our BL-11 record cites adult cadaveric mapping finding the pleural dome extended beyond the medial third of the clavicle in almost 60 per cent of 46 bodies — and that the recorded depth here is three to five tenths of an inch for that reason.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and SJ-14's depth compared); PMID 29936338 via our GB-21 record, attributed to GB-21; PMID 16739850 via our BL-11 record for the pleural-dome variation; the point list of PMID 26922245 confirmed not to include SJ-15; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SJ-15, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SJ-15. 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.

What this page can state with confidence. SJ-15 is a meeting point of three pathways — the San Jiao and Gallbladder channels and the Yang Linking Vessel. It sits in the suprascapular fossa, fixed by feel between two palpable landmarks rather than by a count. Its recorded depth of 0.3–0.5 inch is less than half its neighbour SJ-14’s, and the reason is anatomical: SJ-14 is over the arm bone, SJ-15 is over the chest. And its action names the chest while its indications are entirely musculoskeletal — the seventh field mismatch documented in this project.

The name trap is resolved one point away. “Tian” Liao is not a Window of Heaven point; SJ-16 Tian You, the next point up, is. Two consecutive points, both carrying tian, one classified and one not — which is as clean a demonstration as this library has that a name cannot be read as a classification.

A note on searching for it. “SJ 15”, “TE 15”, “TB 15” and “Tianliao” 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-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used, and against which point a measured depth was actually taken at.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (category, action, indication and location records; the Window of Heaven set counted, the GB-21 and SJ-14 records compared, and the field-mismatch cases queried, against our own data).