SP-20 (Zhou Rong) All Round Flourishing

What does SP-20 Zhou Rong do?

SP-20 regulates and descends qi and unbinds the chest — the highest of the Spleen chest points, sharing its action word-for-word with SP-19 below it.

• Regulates and descends qi — restoring the downward flow of chest qi
• Unbinds the chest — relieving the tight, oppressed, bound feeling of a constrained chest

The action it shares with SP-19. SP-20 and SP-19 Xiong Xiang carry the identical recorded action — regulate and descend qi, unbind the chest. Together they are the two chest-opening points of the Spleen’s chest cluster, above the breast point SP-18 and the digestive point SP-17. SP-20 adds cough and hiccup among its indications, the descending-qi action reaching the lung and diaphragm.

The channel’s last chest point before the axilla. SP-20 is the highest of the four, in the 2nd intercostal space; from here the Spleen channel passes up to its final point, SP-21 Da Bao, in the side of the chest under the arm — the “great Luo of the Spleen”, the one Luo point that spreads over the whole chest. SP-20 is the step before that endpoint.

On the name. “Zhou Rong” means All-Round Flourishing or Encircling Glory — zhou all-around, encircling, rong to flourish, glory, or (in physiology) the nutritive ying qi. The reading usually offered ties the name to the nourishing qi circulating fully through the chest.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; the SP-19 and SP-21 records queried and SP-19/SP-20 confirmed to share an action, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SP-20 Zhou Rong used for?

SP-20 is used for fullness in the chest and side, cough, and hiccup. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Fullness of the chest and hypochondrium
• Cough
• Hiccup

Chest fullness, plus cough and hiccup. The chest-and-side fullness is the shared chest indication; cough and hiccup are the descending-qi action reaching the lung and the diaphragm — hiccup being rebellious qi of the diaphragm, cough rebellious qi of the lung, both settled by descending qi. It is a coherent upper-chest list.

An honest note. Chest pain or fullness requires medical assessment to exclude cardiac and other serious causes. A cough lasting more than three weeks, or with blood, breathlessness, or weight loss, requires assessment. Persistent or intractable hiccups — lasting more than 48 hours — warrant medical evaluation, as they occasionally signal an underlying disorder. This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With SP-19 Xiong Xiang below on the same line, and with REN-17 Shan Zhong and LU-01 Zhong Fu for the chest and cough, and P-06 Nei Guan for hiccup. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the LU-01, P-06, REN-17 and SP-19 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SP-20 Zhou Rong located?

SP-20 is high on the side of the chest, in the second rib space, six cun out from the midline.

• In the 2nd intercostal space (between the 2nd and 3rd ribs) — high on the chest
• 6 cun lateral to the anterior midline, out toward the side of the chest
• The highest of the four Spleen chest points; one space above SP-19, with SP-21 Da Bao beyond it in the mid-axillary line

Two spaces up from the nipple. The 4th space is nipple level (SP-18); counting up two rib spaces reaches the 2nd space, where SP-20 sits on the same 6-cun line. Above and lateral to it the channel turns to SP-21 in the side of the chest under the arm.

On the name. “Zhou Rong” — All-Round Flourishing, the nourishing qi circulating through the chest, as noted above.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the SP-18, SP-19 and SP-21 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 203): On the lateral side of the chest, in the second intercostal space, 6 cun lateral to the midline.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 163): In the 2nd intercostal space, 6 cun lateral to the anterior midline.

How is SP-20 Zhou Rong needled, and why only shallowly and obliquely?

Our own record states OBLIQUE insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch — deliberately shallow and angled — 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: oblique, 0.3–0.5 inch, skimming along the chest wall.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the point lies in the 2nd intercostal space; the intercostal nerve and vessels run under the rib above; immediately deep to the chest wall lie the pleura and the lung — and the apex of the lung reaches high on the chest.

Hazard, stated plainly. The serious risk at any chest point is pneumothorax — puncturing the lung. A perpendicular or deep needle here can reach the pleura; the recorded oblique, shallow technique exists to prevent it. Our record carries no arterial caution at SP-20, and it is not among the nine points that do — the governing hazard is the lung. A practitioner’s point, not one for self-treatment.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at SP-20 could be located, and none is borrowed; the oblique-and-shallow rule stands in its place. No case report naming SP-20 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged including the oblique angle; 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-20, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SP-20. Where the point appears it is one component of a 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-20 Zhou Rong (“All-Round Flourishing”) is the highest of the four Spleen chest points, in the 2nd intercostal space, 6 cun lateral. It regulates and descends qi and unbinds the chest — the action it shares word-for-word with SP-19 — and adds cough and hiccup to its indications, the descending action reaching lung and diaphragm. It is the channel’s step before its final point SP-21 Da Bao. Like all chest points it is needled obliquely and shallowly to avoid the lung beneath.

A safety note. A persistent cough, intractable hiccups, and chest pain are all matters for medical assessment; this page records classical use and says so.

A note on searching for it. “SP 20”, “SP-20” and “Zhourong” 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 (action, indication and location records; the four Spleen chest points and the SP-21 record queried, against our own data).