SP-16 (Fu Ai) Abdominal Lament

What does SP-16 Fu Ai do?

SP-16 regulates the intestines — a single, focused recorded action, on the upper abdomen where the Spleen line meets the Yin Linking vessel.

• Regulates the intestines — the whole of the recorded action, aimed squarely at bowel function

A bowel point, plainly. SP-16’s one action — regulate the intestines — is matched exactly by its indications, all of which are digestive: pain, indigestion, constipation, dysentery. It sits higher on the abdomen than the SP-13/SP-14 group, level with the upper venter, treating the intestines from above.

An extraordinary-vessel meeting point. Our record classifies SP-16 as a Meeting Point of the Spleen channel with the Yin Linking (Yin Wei) vessel — where SP-13 pairs the Spleen and Liver with the Yin Wei, SP-16 meets the Yin Wei on the Spleen alone. The Yin Wei (“Yin Linking”) vessel networks the yin channels of the interior, and the classical association of its disorders with “heart pain” and interior fullness fits a point that regulates the digestive interior.

On the name — among the more evocative in the system. “Fu Ai” means Abdominal Lament or Abdomen’s Sorrow — fu the abdomen, ai grief, sorrow or lament. The reading usually offered ties the name to the crying, groaning sounds of a disordered abdomen (the rumbling and pain the point treats). It is one of the Spleen’s fu (abdomen) names, with SP-13 Fu She and SP-14 Fu Jie.

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

What is SP-16 Fu Ai used for?

SP-16 is used for abdominal pain, indigestion, constipation, and dysentery. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Abdominal pain
• Indigestion
• Constipation
• Dysentery (severe infective diarrhoea, classically with blood and mucus)

All four are digestive — a coherent bowel list. Pain, indigestion, constipation and dysentery are all conditions of the intestines the single action names. The range from constipation to dysentery reflects an intestine-regulating point applied across disordered bowel function.

An honest note. “Dysentery” — diarrhoea with blood and mucus — is a serious infection requiring medical treatment; it dehydrates quickly and can be life-threatening, especially in children and the frail. A persistent change in bowel habit, or blood in the stool, requires medical assessment, since bowel disease including cancer can present this way. Abdominal pain that is severe, sudden or persistent requires assessment. This record documents classical use only; it is not a suggestion to treat dysentery with acupuncture in place of proper care.

How it is combined. With SP-15 Da Heng below (the Spleen’s major bowel point) and ST-25 Tian Shu on the Stomach line, and with ST-37 Shang Ju Xu, the Lower He-Sea point of the Large Intestine, for dysentery. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the SP-15, ST-25 and ST-37 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SP-16 Fu Ai located?

SP-16 is on the upper abdomen, three cun above the navel and four cun out to the side of the midline.

• 3 cun above the centre of the umbilicus (navel)
• 4 cun lateral to the anterior midline — the Spleen channel’s abdominal line
• Level with REN-11 Jian Li on the midline, in the upper-abdomen (upper-venter) region

On the Spleen’s 4-cun line, higher than the SP-13/14 group. The Spleen abdominal line runs 4 cun lateral to the midline — the outermost of the three parallel lines (Kidney 0.5, Stomach 2, Spleen 4). SP-16 sits on it 3 cun above the navel, well up the abdomen, over the region of the intestines and near the stomach above. Finding the 4-cun line and measuring up from the navel places it.

On the name. “Fu Ai” — Abdominal Lament, for the sorrowful sounds of a troubled belly, as noted above.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the REN-11 record and the three abdominal channel lines queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 201): On the abdomen, in the depression at the lateral border of the rectus abdominis muscle, 3 cun superior to Daheng SP-15. <br /><br /> Note: in some patients with a narrow subcostal angle, this point may fall on the costal margin; the options then are to i. locate more medially, ii. needle transversely on the costal margin, iii. select a different point.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 161): 3 cun above the centre of the umbilicus, and 4 cun lateral to the anterior midline.

How is SP-16 Fu Ai 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.
• Regional anatomy: the point overlies the upper abdominal wall lateral to the rectus muscle; deep to it lie the colon and small intestine; on the right side the lower edge of the liver and, higher, the region of the gallbladder can lie beneath deep needling; the inferior epigastric vessels run in the rectus sheath.

Hazard, stated plainly. The consideration at an upper-abdominal point is the organs beneath — bowel, and on the right side the edge of the liver at depth; the moderate recorded depth reflects this. Our record carries no arterial caution at SP-16, 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-16 could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report naming SP-16 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-16, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SP-16. Where the point appears it is one component of a digestive 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-16 Fu Ai (“Abdominal Lament”) is an upper-abdominal Spleen point that regulates the intestines — its single action matched by an entirely digestive indication list. It is a Meeting Point of the Spleen channel with the Yin Linking (Yin Wei) vessel. It sits on the Spleen’s abdominal line, 4 cun lateral to the midline and 3 cun above the navel — higher than the SP-13/SP-14 lower group, and named, poetically, for the sounds of a disordered belly.

A safety note. Dysentery and blood in the stool are matters for medical care; this page records a classical indication and says so in the same breath.

A note on searching for it. “SP 16”, “SP-16” and “Fuai” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification, action, indication and location records; the Yin Wei meeting classification and the three abdominal channel lines queried, against our own data).