SP-05 (Shang Qiu) Shang Hill

What does SP-05 Shang Qiu do?

SP-05 is the Jing-River and Metal point of the Spleen channel — and because the Spleen is a yin EARTH channel, Metal is Earth’s child, which makes SP-05 the channel’s SEDATION point. When the classical texts call for draining excess or damp from the Spleen channel, the five-shu system nominates this point.

• Fortifies the Spleen and resolves dampness — the organ action, and the core of what this point is for
• Benefits the sinews and bones — the local action at the ankle
• Calms the spirit

The Spleen five-shu roles, derived from this site’s own element records: SP-01 Yin Bai is Wood, SP-02 Da Du is Fire, SP-03 Tai Bai is Earth, SP-05 is Metal, SP-09 Yin Ling Quan is Water. The Spleen is yin Earth, so:

• Sedation (child) point — SP-05 Shang Qiu (Metal, the child of Earth) — this point
• Tonification (mother) point — SP-02 Da Du (Fire, the mother of Earth)
• Horary point — SP-03 Tai Bai (Earth on an Earth channel), which is also the Yuan-Source point
• Controlling-element point — SP-01 Yin Bai (Wood, which controls Earth) — none of the three

That agrees exactly with the SP-01 and SP-03 records already written here, each derived independently. Note that SP-03 holds both the Shu-Stream and the Yuan-Source classifications, because on yin channels the two coincide — unlike yang channels, where they are separate points.

Why “resolves dampness” matters on this channel. The Spleen governs the transformation of fluids in classical theory, so damp accumulation is a Spleen problem by definition. A sedation point on that channel is the classical choice when the pattern is excess damp rather than Spleen weakness — which is the distinction between reaching for SP-05 and reaching for SP-02.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, element and action records; the full Spleen five-shu series queried from our own data and checked against the SP-01 and SP-03 records), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SP-05 Shang Qiu used for?

SP-05 is used for digestive complaints, for pain and stiffness of the tongue, for foot and ankle pain, and for haemorrhoids. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Abdominal distension
• Constipation
• Diarrhoea
• Rumbling in the abdomen (borborygmus)
• Pain and rigidity of the tongue
• Pain in the foot and ankle
• Haemorrhoids

Constipation and diarrhoea on one list is not a contradiction. It is characteristic of points that regulate a function rather than push it one way — the classical claim is that the point restores normal transformation, whichever direction the disturbance runs. Our ST-25 Tian Shu record makes the same observation about the Front-Mu point of the Large Intestine.

The tongue indication comes from the channel. The Spleen channel is described as reaching the root of the tongue and spreading over its underside, which is why a point at the ankle carries a tongue indication. Foot and ankle pain is simply local.

How it is combined. With SP-06 San Yin Jiao, the crossing point of the three leg yin channels, and SP-09 Yin Ling Quan, the He-Sea point and the principal damp-draining point — the two most-used points on this channel. With ST-36 Zu San Li as the standard Stomach-channel partner. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; SP-06, SP-09, ST-25 and ST-36 classifications queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SP-05 Shang Qiu located?

SP-05 is on the inner side of the ankle, in the hollow where a line down the front edge of the inner ankle bone meets a line along its lower edge. It is defined by two bony borders rather than by measurement, which makes it reliably locatable.

• Anterior and inferior to the medial malleolus, at the junction of those two borders
• KI-03 Tai Xi lies behind the same ankle bone — the Kidney channel’s Yuan-Source point
• SP-06 San Yin Jiao lies three cun above the ankle bone on the same channel

Front and back of one bone. SP-05 sits in front of the medial malleolus and KI-03 behind it — two points a couple of centimetres apart on different channels with different classifications. This library has documented the same arrangement repeatedly: SP-01 and LIV-01 on opposite corners of the big toenail, HT-09 and SI-01 on opposite corners of the little fingernail, SI-08 and HT-03 on opposite sides of the medial epicondyle. Knowing which side of the bone a point sits on is often the whole distinction.

On the name. “Shang Qiu” means Shang Hill. Shang is the note of the five-tone scale associated with Metal in five-phase theory — so the name encodes the point’s element — and qiu (hill or mound) describes the prominence of the ankle bone it sits against. A name that carries both the classification and the landmark.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; KI-03 and SP-06 positions queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 188): On the medial side of the ankle, in the depression which lies at the junction of straight lines drawn along the anterior and inferior borders of the medial malleolus.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 158): In the depression distal and inferior to the medial malleolus, midway between the tuberosity of the navicular bone and the tip of the medial malleolus.

How is SP-05 Shang Qiu needled?

The standard texts record perpendicular insertion to roughly 0.2–0.3 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, 0.2–0.3 inch — shallow, as there is little soft tissue over the ankle’s bony landmarks.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the medial malleolus and the talus form the floor of the depression; the tibialis anterior tendon lies just anterior, the great saphenous vein crosses in front of the ankle bone, and the saphenous nerve accompanies it.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: bone lies beneath, there is no body cavity, and the recorded depth is shallow. The structures nearby — a superficial vein and a cutaneous nerve — are the ordinary considerations of needling any ankle, not a specific danger. 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 SP-05 could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report naming SP-05 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 SP-05, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SP-05. Where the point appears it is one component of a protocol, most often digestive, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Where this channel’s research attention has gone. Overwhelmingly to SP-06 San Yin Jiao, which our records show outperforming HT-07 in a point-isolating insomnia trial and which carries the classical pregnancy contraindication alongside LI-04. SP-09 also carries more attention as the principal damp-draining point — and our record for it states plainly that no point-specific human trial isolates it either. Evidence about SP-06 is not evidence about SP-05.

What this page can state with confidence. The classification — Jing-River and Metal point, and therefore the sedation point of a yin Earth channel — is checkable against our own element records and agrees with the SP-01 and SP-03 records derived independently earlier. Seventeen 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. “SP 5” and “Shangqiu” searches are unusually polluted: Shangqiu is a large city in Henan province, so the name returns geography, agriculture and epidemiology papers in quantity. This library has discarded comparable matches throughout — place names, surnames, institutions, a lizard genomics paper, an exercise hammock. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification and indication records; SP-06's and SP-09's research findings queried from our own data).