ST-11 (Qi She) Qi Abode

What does ST-11 Qi She do?

Qi She ST-11 is a local point at the base of the neck whose recorded action is narrow and specific: it benefits the throat and neck and directs rebellious qi downward. It sits on the Stomach Channel of Foot Yang Ming at the root of the neck, just above the inner end of the collarbone, and its clinical range follows the anatomy directly beneath it — the throat, the windpipe, the gullet and the thyroid region.

• Benefits the throat — the primary recorded action, for sore, swollen and obstructed throat and for difficulty swallowing. The Stomach channel ascends through the throat on its way to the face, and ST-11 is one of the points on that stretch.
• Descends rebellious qi — qi that is rising when it should be falling. This is the recorded basis for its use in hiccup, belching, and in wheezing and breathlessness where the breath will not settle downward.
• Dissipates swelling and nodules of the neck — the recorded action behind its classical use for goitre and for scrofula, the chains of hard nodules described in the classics.
• Relaxes the sinews of the neck — the local action, for rigidity and painful restriction at the base of the neck along the sternocleidomastoid.
• Supports the "abode of qi" — the name itself records the classical view that this is where the qi of the chest gathers before rising into the head, and the point is described as settling and stabilising that gathering.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing action record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 139); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 148); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-11 Qi She used for?

Qi She ST-11 is used for the throat and the front of the neck. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are sore throat, pain and rigidity of the neck, asthma, hiccup and goitre; the standard reference literature sets them out as follows. These describe traditional use, not proven treatment, and this point carries the significant safety cautions set out under needling.

• Sore, swollen and painful throat
• Difficulty swallowing; a sense of obstruction in the throat
• Pain and rigidity of the neck; inability to turn the head
• Goitre and swelling of the front of the neck
• Scrofula — chains of hard nodules in the neck
• Asthma, wheezing and shortness of breath
• Cough
• Hiccup and belching
• Fullness of the chest
• Loss of voice and hoarseness

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 139); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 148).

Where is ST-11 Qi She, and how is it used in practice?

Qi She sits at the root of the neck, on the upper border of the inner end of the collarbone, in the small hollow between the two heads of the sternocleidomastoid — the sternal head that attaches to the breastbone and the clavicular head that attaches to the collarbone. It lies directly below Ren Ying ST-09 on the same channel. The gap between the two heads of that muscle is easy to feel when the head is turned, which is what makes the point locatable — and it is also what makes it dangerous, because the same gap sits over the great vessels of the neck and the dome of the lung.

Which points is ST-11 combined with?

• For throat disorders — with Tian Tu REN-22 in the suprasternal notch, and the distal points Shao Shang LU-11 and He Gu LI-04, the standard pairing for a sore, blocked throat.
• For goitre and neck swelling — with Tian Tu REN-22, Tian Ding LI-17 and Tian Rong SI-17 on the side of the neck, and with Tian Jing SJ-10 as the distal point classically associated with dissolving nodules.
• For wheezing and breathlessness — with Tian Tu REN-22 and Shan Zhong REN-17 on the front of the chest, and with Ding Chuan, the extra point held here at the base of the neck behind, which is the modern point directed specifically at wheezing.
• For neck rigidity — with Feng Chi GB-20 and Jian Jing GB-21 behind it, and with the extra point Luo Zhen on the hand for an acutely stiff neck.
• Along its own channel — ST-11 is the fourth point of the Stomach channel below the jaw, following Ren Ying ST-09 and Shui Tu ST-10 down the neck, and the three are treated as a functional group for the throat.

Where does ST-11 sit among its peers?

ST-11 carries no special-point classification in Sacred Lotus sources & references — it is not a five-shu, yuan, luo, xi-cleft, back-shu, front-mu or confluent point, and it has not been given an action that a plain channel point does not have. It belongs instead to the group of neck window points that ring the throat: Ren Ying ST-09, Shui Tu ST-10, Qi She ST-11, Tian Ding LI-17, Tian Chuang SI-16, Tian Rong SI-17, Tian You SJ-16 and Tian Zhu BL-10. What unites them is position rather than category. It should be said plainly that ST-11 is a comparatively little-used point in modern practice, and the reason is its anatomy: safer points a short distance away cover most of the same ground.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 139); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 148); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-11 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 139): At the root of the neck, superior to the medial end of the clavicle, directly below Renying ST-9 in the depression between the sternal and clavicular heads of the sternocleidomastoid muscle.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 148): At the superior border of the sternal extremity of the clavicle, between the sternal head and clavicular head of m. sternocleidomastoideus.

How is ST-11 Qi She needled, and what is the risk?

Stated plainly: ST-11 is one of the most anatomically hazardous points on the body. It sits at the root of the neck directly over the apex of the lung, and immediately deep to it lie the common carotid artery, the internal jugular vein and the vagus nerve. Deep needling here is documented in the anatomical literature as reaching all three. Everything below is recorded as neutral reference data describing what the textbooks and published dissection studies state. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique. Needling is carried out only by a qualified, licensed practitioner.

The angle and depth the texts record

• Sacred Lotus sources & references record perpendicular insertion of 0.3 to 0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. That is a deliberately shallow figure.
• Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 148) and Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 139) both record shallow insertion at this point and both attach an explicit caution against deep insertion, naming the vessels beneath and the lung below.
• The reference literature is consistent that the needle is kept superficial and that lateral or downward angling — that is, angling toward the lung apex or toward the vessels — is what the caution is directed against.

What the dissection evidence actually shows

The hazard at this point has been mapped directly, and the findings are stark.

• Cadaveric study of the needling path at Qi She. A clinical anatomy study dissected 92 sides in 46 adult bodies, marking the needle path at Tian Tu REN-22 and Qi She ST-11 with steel needles and dissecting layer by layer. At Qi She, the internal jugular vein was pierced on 68 of the 92 sides (73.9 per cent), the left common carotid artery on 24 sides (26.1 per cent), and the vagus nerve was contacted on 50 sides (54.3 per cent). The authors concluded that needling at these two points can injure not only the upper pleural cavity but also the great vessels of the mediastinum and cervical root and the vagus nerve (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2007;27(2):120–2, PMID 17370496). These figures describe what a needle advanced along the point's path encounters in dissection, not the outcome of ordinary shallow clinical needling — but they are the clearest available statement of what lies beneath this point and why the recorded depth is shallow.
• Cadaveric mapping of the pleural dome. A companion dissection study of 46 adult bodies mapped the dome of the pleura against the commonly used points around it, naming Qi She ST-11 explicitly alongside Tian Tu REN-22, Jian Jing GB-21, Ding Chuan EX-B1 and Da Zhu BL-11. The pleural dome's projection varied widely between individuals, extending beyond the medial third of the clavicle in almost 60 per cent of bodies. The authors' conclusion was that when a point is located and angled as the standard describes the pleura is not reached — but that exceeding the recorded depth breaches the pleural membrane (Chen Y et al., Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2006;26(5):346–8, PMID 16739850).
• Individual variation is the recurring theme. Both studies found that the position of the pleural dome and the great vessels differs substantially from person to person, which is why a single textbook depth is a conservative floor rather than a target.

The wider adverse-event picture

Pneumothorax is the second most frequently reported serious adverse event in acupuncture. A systematic review of the Chinese case-report literature from 1956 to 2010 identified 1,038 adverse-event cases across 167 articles, of which 307 were pneumothorax, with 35 deaths recorded across the whole series; the authors attributed the events chiefly to improper technique and judged most of them avoidable (He W et al., J Altern Complement Med 2012;18(10):892–901, PMID 22967282). A separate systematic review of 115 Chinese-language articles reporting 479 adverse events including 14 deaths reached the same conclusion about traumatic complications (Zhang J et al., Bull World Health Organ 2010;88(12):915–921C, PMID 21124716, PMC2995190). Against that, a meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies estimated serious adverse events at approximately 1 per 10,000 patients and around 8 per million treatments, placing acupuncture among the safer treatments in medicine (Bäumler P et al., BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268). Both things are true at once: the overall rate is low, and the events that do occur cluster at a small number of points of which ST-11 is one.

Delayed presentation. The reference literature notes that a pneumothorax following needling at the root of the neck may declare itself hours later with sudden chest pain, breathlessness or a persistent dry cough, and is a medical emergency requiring immediate assessment.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 139); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 148); PMID 17370496; PMID 16739850; PMID 22967282; PMID 21124716; PMID 34489268 — each record checked as active and not retracted.

What does the name Qi She mean?

Qi She means "Qi Abode" or "Qi Residence" — qi, the breath and vital energy, and she, a dwelling, lodging or hut. The name records the classical understanding that this is where the qi of the chest lodges at the base of the neck before ascending into the head, and where breath gathers on its way in and out. The point's two principal recorded functions — settling rebellious qi and easing the throat and breath — both follow from that image. It is one of a run of Stomach-channel names on the neck that describe the passage of things upward and downward through it: Ren Ying ST-09, "Man's Welcome"; Shui Tu ST-10, "Water Prominence"; Qi She ST-11, "Qi Abode".

Why does ST-11 have no special-point category?

Most of the points that dominate clinical practice carry a classification — five-shu, yuan-source, luo-connecting, xi-cleft, back-shu, front-mu, confluent, or meeting point. Sacred Lotus sources & references record none for ST-11, and none has been invented for it here. It is a plain channel point, valued for where it sits rather than for a theoretical role, and its documented actions are correspondingly local and concrete. That absence of category is itself informative: it tells you the point was recorded for what it reaches, not for a place in a system.

Is there research on ST-11 Qi She?

The honest answer is that there is almost no clinical research on this point, and what does exist is anatomical rather than therapeutic. That should be stated plainly rather than filled in with studies about other things.

• Anatomical safety research — the substantial literature. The two cadaveric studies described under needling are genuinely point-specific: the dissection of the needle path at Tian Tu REN-22 and Qi She ST-11 in 92 sides (PMID 17370496) and the pleural-dome mapping that names Qi She among the points at risk (PMID 16739850). For this point, the safety literature is the research literature.
• One controlled clinical study using the point. A controlled trial in 60 women undergoing modified radical mastectomy for breast cancer applied transcutaneous electroacupuncture during general anaesthesia, switching in the last 30 minutes of surgery to bilateral Shui Tu ST-10 and Qi She ST-11, and reported smaller rises in heart rate, mean arterial pressure, plasma catecholamines and cortisol after extubation than in controls (Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi 2009;29(11):990–2, PMID 20329608). ST-11 was one component of a sequence that also used He Gu LI-04, Nei Guan PC-06, Chi Ze LU-05 and Lie Que LU-07, so this measures a protocol, not this point.

No randomised trial isolates ST-11, and none of the throat, goitre or asthma indications recorded for it has been tested at this point specifically. Where readers encounter claims about "Qishe" in search results, it is worth noting that Qishe Pill — a compound Chinese herbal medicine studied for cervical radiculopathy — is an entirely unrelated herbal formula that shares the transliteration, not this acupuncture point.

How does ST-11 compare with the points around it?

Ren Ying ST-09 lies directly above it on the same channel beside the laryngeal prominence, is a Window of Heaven point and a Sea of Qi point, and carries its own strong caution because the carotid pulse is palpable at it — it is the far better-known of the two. Shui Tu ST-10 sits between them. Tian Tu REN-22 lies medial to ST-11 in the suprasternal notch and shares both its throat indications and its hazard profile; the two were studied together in the dissection work cited above. Que Pen ST-12 lies immediately below ST-11 in the supraclavicular fossa and is the point in this region most explicitly flagged in the texts as prohibited from deep needling. Ding Chuan, the extra point held here at the base of the neck behind, and Da Zhu BL-11 beside the first thoracic vertebra, occupy the same band above the lung apex from the back and carry the same pneumothorax caution.

Source: Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 139); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 148); Sacred Lotus sources & references; PMID 17370496; PMID 16739850; PMID 20329608 — each checked as active and not retracted; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.