SJ-18 (Chi Mai) Spasm Vessel

What does SJ-18 Chi Mai do?

SJ-18 benefits the ears, and it calms fright and pacifies wind — the second action being what its infantile-convulsion indication rests on.

• Benefits the ears — shared across the whole run from SJ-17 to SJ-21
• Calms fright and pacifies wind — “fright” being the classical category covering startle, terror and convulsive states in children

Its name contains mai, vessel — and its needling record documents bleeding. That is not a coincidence. Our record offers two alternatives at this point: subcutaneous insertion, or pricking with a three-edged needle to cause bleeding. Querying every needling record, fourteen points in this library document a three-edged-needle bleeding technique — BL-02, BL-40, GB-44, HT-09, LU-05, LU-11, P-03, P-09, SJ-01, SJ-18, plus the extra points Ba Feng, Shi Xuan, Si Feng and Tai Yang. Fourteen out of four hundred and six, and most of them are fingertip, toe-tip or visible-vessel sites — somewhere a small vessel is reachable. Behind the ear the posterior auricular veins are often visible through thin skin, and the classical descriptions of this point refer to them. Name, location and recorded technique agree.

A caution on that, stated plainly. This record documents what the reference literature holds. It is not instruction, and bleeding techniques are performed only by qualified practitioners using single-use equipment under the ordinary standards for any procedure drawing blood. This page does not describe how it is done.

Its near-twin is the next point up. Our SJ-19 Lu Xi record carries almost the same indications — headache, tinnitus, deafness and infantile convulsion — differing only in that SJ-19 adds pain in the ear. Their actions differ by a clause: SJ-19 adds clears heat and says relieves tetany where this record says pacifies wind. This library discloses that closeness rather than writing two differently-flavoured pages, as it does for BL-31 and BL-34 on the sacrum and KI-23 and KI-24 on the chest.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location, translation and needling records; the SJ-17 to SJ-21 run and the SJ-19 record compared entry by entry, and every needling record queried for bleeding techniques, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SJ-18 Chi Mai used for?

SJ-18 is used for headache, tinnitus and deafness, and for infantile convulsions. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — four entries.

• Headache
• Tinnitus
• Deafness
• Infantile convulsion

An honest note, and the paediatric entry is the most important line on this page. A CONVULSION IN A CHILD IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY AND REQUIRES IMMEDIATE MEDICAL CARE. A first seizure, a seizure lasting more than a few minutes, a seizure in an infant, or a child who does not recover quickly afterwards needs emergency assessment without delay — causes include infection, metabolic disturbance and epilepsy, several of them urgent and treatable. This record documents a classical indication in a historical system. It makes no claim that acupuncture treats seizures in children, and nothing on this page should ever delay emergency care. Our BL-63 and BL-05 records carry the same framing for the same reason.

The other entries. Sudden hearing loss is a medical emergency — treatable, and time-critical within days; our SJ-16 and SJ-21 records set that out. New or one-sided tinnitus requires assessment. Sudden severe headache, or headache with fever and neck stiffness, requires urgent assessment.

Nearly the same list as its neighbour. Our SJ-19 Lu Xi record carries these same four indications plus pain in the ear. Two consecutive points a third of a curve apart, differing by one entry — a real feature of the source material, disclosed rather than disguised.

How it is combined. With SJ-17 Yi Feng below and SJ-19 Lu Xi above on the same curved line. With SJ-20 Jiao Sun at the ear apex, the line’s upper anchor. With SJ-21 Er Men, SI-19 Ting Gong and GB-02 Ting Hui in front of the ear. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record, compared entry by entry against SJ-19's; the BL-05, BL-63, GB-02, SI-19, SJ-16, SJ-17, SJ-19, SJ-20 and SJ-21 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SJ-18 Chi Mai located?

SJ-18 is behind the ear, in a small hollow on the mastoid bone — one third of the way along a curved line drawn from SJ-17 behind the earlobe up to SJ-20 at the ear apex.

• Posterior to the ear, in a small depression on the mastoid bone
• One third of the distance along a curved line from SJ-17 Yi Feng to SJ-20 Jiao Sun
• SJ-19 Lu Xi sits at two thirds along the same line

Two points located as fractions of a CURVE, which is rare and rather elegant. Almost every point in this library is placed by cun, by a bony feature, or by a step from a neighbour. SJ-18 and SJ-19 are placed as proportions of a curved line running behind the ear — one third and two thirds — and the construction works because both ends are firm: SJ-17 sits in the definite hollow behind the earlobe, and SJ-20 is found by folding the ear forward, a landmark the reader creates. Our SJ-20 record sets that out.

Which means an error in either anchor moves both points. Locating SJ-20 carelessly displaces SJ-18 and SJ-19 together; locating it well fixes all three. That is worth knowing before treating any of them.

The line follows the ear, not the skull. The description specifies a curved line because it runs around the back of the ear’s attachment — a straight line between the same two points would cut across the ear itself. It is a small distinction that changes where the third lands.

On the name. “Chi Mai” is rendered in our data as Spasm Vessel. Chi carries the sense of convulsion or spasm — matching the infantile-convulsion indication — and mai is a vessel, matching both the visible veins behind the ear and the bleeding technique our needling record documents. It is one of the few names in the system that describes an indication and a structure at once.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including the one-third construction; the SJ-17, SJ-19 and SJ-20 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 408): Posterior to the ear, in a small depression on the mastoid bone, one third of the distance along a curved line drawn from Yifeng SJ-17 to Jiaosun SJ-20 following the line of the rim of the ear.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 207): In the centre of the mastoid process, at the junction of the middle and lower third of the curve formed by Yifeng (SJ-17) and Jiaosun (SJ-20) posterior to the helix.

How is SJ-18 Chi Mai needled?

Our own record gives two alternatives: SUBCUTANEOUS insertion to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, OR pricking with a three-edged needle to cause bleeding — 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: subcutaneous (transverse), 0.3–0.5 inch — the same insertion our record gives at SJ-20, while SJ-19 between them is recorded oblique and SJ-21 perpendicular. Four different angles across five consecutive points around the ear.
• Bleeding technique: our record documents pricking with a three-edged needle. Fourteen records in this library document one, counted by query — BL-02, BL-40, GB-44, HT-09, LU-05, LU-11, P-03, P-09, SJ-01, SJ-18 and four extra points. It is recorded here as documented practice, not as procedure, and this page does not describe how it is performed. Any technique drawing blood is carried out only by a qualified practitioner using single-use equipment under the ordinary standards for such procedures.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: thin skin and the auricular muscles overlie the mastoid process of the temporal bone; the posterior auricular artery and vein and the lesser occipital nerve run behind the ear, the veins often visible through the skin here; the mastoid air cells lie within the bone.

Why subcutaneous, and why that is the safety story. There is bone immediately beneath — the mastoid — so a transverse needle is what the anatomy permits. This is a low-hazard point in that specific sense: no cavity, no organ, no major vessel. The region is vascular and bleeds readily, which at this point is the technique rather than a complication.

And the boundary below. Our GB-20 Feng Chi and DU-16 Feng Fu records carry explicit cautions because those points sit in the soft hollow below the occipital bone, where nothing stops a needle. SJ-18 is on bone, not below it. Neither caution is imported.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at SJ-18 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the head. No case report naming SJ-18 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record including both recorded alternatives, retained unchanged; the SJ-19, SJ-20, SJ-21, P-09, GB-20 and DU-16 records queried from our own data and their cautions attributed to those points), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SJ-18, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SJ-18. Where the point appears it is one component of an ear or headache 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 infantile-convulsion warning is the operative content on this page. A convulsion in a child is a medical emergency. No claim is made that acupuncture treats seizures, and no literature on the subject is cited here, because an indication list documents historical use and is not evidence.

What this page can state with confidence. SJ-18 is located as one third of a curved line from SJ-17 to SJ-20 — one of only two points in this library placed as a fraction of a curve, with SJ-19 at two thirds. Both depend on SJ-20, which is found by folding the ear forward, so all three stand or fall together. Its record documents a bleeding technique, one of only fourteen in the library that do (counted by query), and its name — Spasm Vessel — matches both that technique and its convulsion indication. And its indication list is SJ-19’s minus one entry, which is disclosed rather than disguised.

A note on searching for it. “SJ 18”, “TE 18”, “TB 18” and “Chimai” 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.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location, translation and needling records; the curved-line construction and the SJ-19 comparison confirmed, and every needling record queried for bleeding techniques, against our own data).