SP-14 (Fu Jie) Abdominal Bind

What does SP-14 Fu Jie do?

SP-14 warms and benefits the lower jiao, and regulates qi while descending rebellion — a Spleen abdominal point with a warming character and a broad bowel action.

• Warms and benefits the lower jiao — the warming action, suiting cold-type abdominal pain and diarrhoea
• Regulates qi and descends rebellion — “rebellious” qi being qi moving the wrong way (upward when it should descend); descending it settles the abdomen

“Descends rebellion” is worth a word. In TCM the qi of the digestive tract should move downward — food and waste descending. When it rebels upward the result is distension, belching or disordered bowels; a point that descends rebellious qi restores that downward flow. Paired with the warming action, SP-14 addresses cold and stagnation of the lower abdomen together.

A point without the meeting classification its neighbours carry. Notably, SP-14 is not a meeting point — where SP-13 Fu She just below and SP-16 Fu Ai above are both recorded as Yin Linking (Yin Wei) vessel meeting points, SP-14 carries no such classification in our data. It is a plain channel point between two meeting points, and worth stating so the distinction is not blurred.

On the name. “Fu Jie” means Abdominal Bind or Abdomen Knot — fu the abdomen, jie a knot, bind or accumulation. The reading ties the name to knotted, bound qi or accumulation in the abdomen that the point unbinds — one of the Spleen’s fu (abdomen) names, with SP-13 and SP-16.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action and translation records; the SP-13 and SP-16 meeting-point classifications queried and contrasted with SP-14 against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SP-14 Fu Jie used for?

SP-14 is used for pain around the navel, abdominal distension, hernia, diarrhoea, and constipation. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Pain around the umbilical (navel) region
• Abdominal distension
• Hernia
• Diarrhoea
• Constipation

A broad bowel list, both directions. Periumbilical pain and distension are the qi-regulating action; that the list holds both diarrhoea and constipation reflects a point that regulates bowel function rather than pushing it one way — restoring normal descent, whichever way it has gone wrong. Hernia is the lower-abdominal qi entry.

An honest note. A persistent change in bowel habit — diarrhoea or constipation that is new, ongoing, or alternating, especially with pain, bleeding or weight loss — requires medical assessment, since bowel disease including cancer can present this way. A hernia requires assessment; one that becomes hard, painful or irreducible is a surgical emergency. Persistent diarrhoea causes dehydration. This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With SP-15 Da Heng just above (the Spleen’s major point for the bowels) and ST-25 Tian Shu on the Stomach line for diarrhoea and constipation, and with REN-06 Qi Hai for the warming action. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the SP-15, ST-25 and REN-06 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SP-14 Fu Jie located?

SP-14 is on the abdomen, a little over one cun below SP-15, four cun out to the side of the midline, at the outer edge of the straight abdominal muscle.

• 1.3 cun below SP-15 Da Heng, which sits level with the navel on the Spleen line
• 4 cun lateral to the anterior midline — the Spleen channel’s abdominal line
• At the lateral (outer) border of rectus abdominis, the straight muscle running down the front of the abdomen

Found from SP-15 and the muscle edge. SP-15 Da Heng sits 4 cun lateral to the navel on the Spleen line; SP-14 is just over a cun below it, on the same outer line, at the edge of the rectus muscle. The 4-cun line — the outermost of the three abdominal channel lines (Kidney 0.5, Stomach 2, Spleen 4) — and the palpable border of the rectus together fix it.

On the name. “Fu Jie” — Abdominal Bind, the knot of qi it unbinds, as noted above.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the SP-15 record and the three abdominal channel lines queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 199): On the lower abdomen, 1.3 cun inferior to Daheng SP-15, 4 cun lateral to the midline.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 161): 1.3 cun below Daheng (SP-15), 4 cun lateral to the anterior midline, on the lateral side of m. rectus abdominis.

How is SP-14 Fu Jie needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.5–1.0 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, 0.5–1.0 inch.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable — and moxa suits the point’s warming action.
• Regional anatomy: the point overlies the abdominal wall at the lateral border of rectus abdominis; deep to it lies the bowel, and in pregnancy the enlarging uterus; the inferior epigastric vessels run in the rectus sheath nearby.

Hazard, stated plainly. The consideration at an abdominal point is the bowel beneath, and the uterus in pregnancy; deep or careless needling of the abdomen in pregnancy is specifically to be avoided. Our record carries no arterial caution at SP-14, and it is not among the nine points that do. Not a point for self-treatment.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at SP-14 could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report naming SP-14 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; the nine arterial cautions queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SP-14, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SP-14. Where the point appears it is one component of an abdominal or bowel protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. SP-14 Fu Jie (“Abdominal Bind”) is a Spleen abdominal point that warms and benefits the lower jiao and regulates qi to descend rebellion — the reason its indication list holds both diarrhoea and constipation, a regulating rather than one-directional action. Unlike its neighbours SP-13 and SP-16, it is not a Yin Wei meeting point, a distinction confirmed against our own data. It sits on the outermost abdominal line, 4 cun from the midline, just below SP-15.

A note on searching for it. “SP 14”, “SP-14” and “Fujie” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and “Fujie” matches Chinese place and personal names. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication and location records; the SP-13 and SP-16 classifications queried and contrasted with SP-14, against our own data).