ST-04 (Di Cang) Earth Granary

What does ST-04 Di Cang do?

ST-04 eliminates wind from the face, and it activates the channel and alleviates pain — and it is a meeting point of FOUR pathways, the fullest classification of any point on the face in this library.

• Eliminates wind from the face — our record names the face specifically, which few wind actions do
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain

Four pathways meet here: the Stomach and Large Intestine channels with the Yang Motility Vessel (Yang Qiao Mai) and the Conception Vessel. Both midline-adjacent facial vessels and both yang channels of the face converge at the corner of the mouth — which is a fair description of why this point is used for facial deviation, where the mouth is exactly what is pulled out of line.

“Eliminates wind from the face” is the classical account of facial paralysis. In the tradition, wind invading the channels of the face is what draws the mouth and eye to one side. That is the reasoning behind this point’s indications and behind the through-needling technique its record documents — stated here as the tradition’s own account, not as a claim about the facial nerve.

On the name. “Di Cang” means Earth Granary. Cang is a granary or store, shared with BL-50 Wei Cang (Stomach Granary) on the back and KI-25 Shen Cang (Spirit Storehouse) on the chest; di, earth, marks the lower part of the face in the classical division of the face into heaven, humanity and earth. The mouth is where food enters, and the name reads accordingly.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action and translation records; the BL-50, KI-25, ST-03, ST-05 and ST-06 records queried against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-04 Di Cang used for?

ST-04 is used for deviation of the mouth, dribbling of saliva, and twitching of the eyelids. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — three entries.

• Deviation of the mouth
• Salivation
• Twitching of the eyelids

All three describe facial muscles not doing what they should. A mouth pulled to one side, saliva escaping because the lips do not seal, an eyelid fluttering — the list is coherent, and its coherence is the point of this record.

An honest note, and the first entry is urgent. A NEW FACIAL DROOP OR DEVIATION OF THE MOUTH REQUIRES URGENT MEDICAL ASSESSMENT. It can be a sign of stroke — a medical emergency where treatment given quickly changes outcomes — and it can be Bell’s palsy, where early treatment improves recovery. Either way it needs same-day care. Facial droop with weakness elsewhere, difficulty speaking, or sudden visual loss is an emergency: call for help immediately. New difficulty controlling saliva has the same significance. This record documents classical indications and makes no claim that acupuncture treats stroke or its consequences. Our GB-12 record carries the same warning for the same indication.

How it is combined. With ST-06 Jia Che — the classical pairing, and our record for this point directs the needle towards it, as set out below. With ST-03 and ST-02 above on the same channel, and ST-07 Xia Guan at the jaw joint. With Qian Zheng, the extra point for facial deviation, and SJ-17 Yi Feng behind the earlobe. With LI-04 He Gu distally — the classical distal point for the face. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the GB-12, LI-04, Qian Zheng, SJ-17, ST-02, ST-03, ST-06 and ST-07 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-04 Di Cang located?

ST-04 is on the face, four tenths of a cun out from the corner of the mouth.

• 0.4 cun lateral to the corner of the mouth
• ST-03 Ju Liao lies above, below the pupil at the level of the nostril; ST-06 Jia Che back along the jaw
• REN-24 Cheng Jiang sits on the midline below the lower lip

0.4 cun is an unusual measurement, and it is retained rather than rounded. Almost every distance in this library is given in halves or whole cun — 0.5, 1, 1.5, 3. Four tenths appears at very few points. It is a small enough distance that the difference from half a cun hardly shows in practice, but our record states 0.4 and this page does not tidy it to 0.5. The same principle applies at BL-09 and BL-10, recorded at 1.3 cun, and at GB-11, whose fraction is hedged rather than rounded.

The corner of the mouth is a landmark that moves. It shifts with expression, and in facial paralysis — the very condition this point is recorded for — it is displaced on the affected side. Our record gives the measurement from the corner as it is; that a reader should take the resting position, and be aware the two sides may not match, follows from the anatomy rather than from our data, and is stated as such.

On the name. “Di Cang” — Earth Granary, the mouth being where food enters and di marking the lower third of the face.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including the 0.4 cun measure; the BL-09, BL-10, GB-11, REN-24, ST-03 and ST-06 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 132): 0.4 cun lateral to the corner of the mouth.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 146): Lateral to the corner of the mouth, directly below the pupil.

How is ST-04 Di Cang needled, and why is the recorded depth so large?

Our own record states SUBCUTANEOUS insertion of 1.0–1.5 INCHES, with the tip of the needle DIRECTED TOWARDS ST-06 Jia Che, and moxibustion applicable. That is the deepest recorded insertion of any facial point in this library — and it is deep because the needle travels ALONG the face, not into it. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle, direction and depth as recorded: subcutaneous (transverse), 1.0–1.5 inches, directed towards ST-06.
• Why the number is not what it looks like. Compare the other facial points in this library: ST-02 is recorded at 0.2–0.3 inch and carries an explicit “not advisable to puncture deeply”; ST-03 and ST-05 at 0.3–0.5 inch. ST-04 records three to five times those figures — because a transverse needle laid under the skin covers distance across the cheek while never leaving the superficial layer. Depth into the tissue and length of needle inserted are not the same measurement, and this is the clearest case in the library where reading one as the other would badly mislead.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: orbicularis oris surrounds the mouth with the buccinator deep and lateral; the facial artery and vein cross the mandible and run up beside the mouth; buccal branches of the facial nerve supply the muscles the point is used for; the parotid duct opens into the cheek opposite the upper molars.

Directed needling is recorded at 24 points in this library, counted by query — and ST-04 and ST-06 are the classical pair, each record pointing at the other. Our ST-06 record documents the same technique from its end. Where our source material specifies a direction as well as an angle and a depth, all three are reproduced, because a directed needle and an undirected one at the same depth do not go to the same place.

Hazard, stated proportionately. There is no body cavity here and no organ. The relevant structures are the facial artery, which our ST-05 record names in an explicit caution of its own a short distance away, and the facial nerve. Our ST-04 record carries no arterial caution — nine points in this library do, counted by query, ST-05 among them — and this page does not import one. The face is vascular and bruises readily, which is a cosmetic consideration rather than a danger and is worth knowing before treatment.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at ST-04 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the face. No case report naming ST-04 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record including the recorded direction, retained unchanged; every needling record queried for directed-needling instructions and for arterial cautions and both counted; the ST-02, ST-03, ST-05 and ST-06 records compared), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on ST-04, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates ST-04. Where the point appears it is one component of a facial-paralysis protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Facial paralysis has one of the larger acupuncture trial literatures, and ST-04 appears throughout it. Our ST-06 record cites a data-mining analysis of 1,695 studies in which ST-04 and GB-14 emerged as a top point pair at every stage — but that is prescribing-frequency evidence: it describes what practitioners choose, not what any point does. It is cited here for what it is and nothing more, and the urgent-assessment warning above is the operative content: a new facial droop needs same-day care because stroke and Bell’s palsy both respond to speed.

What this page can state with confidence. ST-04 is a meeting point of four pathways — the fullest classification of any facial point here. Its recorded insertion is 1.0–1.5 inches, the deepest of any facial point in this library, and that number means length along the face, not depth into it: the needle is transverse and directed towards ST-06. Reading it as depth would be the single most misleading error available on this page. And its 0.4 cun measurement is retained rather than rounded to a half.

A note on searching for it. “ST 4”, “S 4” and “Dicang” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — “Dicang” matches place names and personal names. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used, and against whether a quoted depth is a depth or a length.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (category, action, indication, location and needling records; the directed-needling and arterial-caution sets counted by query, the facial-point depths compared, and the ST-06 data-mining finding attributed to that record).