ST-15 (Wu Yi) Roof

What does ST-15 Wu Yi do?

ST-15 descends rebellious qi and unbinds the chest, benefits the breasts, and alleviates pain and itching of the SKIN — the only point on this chest run whose action names the skin.

• Descends rebellious qi and unbinds the chest — shared with ST-13 and ST-14 above it
• Benefits the breasts — and its indication list bears it out
• Alleviates pain and itching of the skin — unique on this run, and uncommon in the library

The skin action is what sets it apart. Comparing our records across the Stomach chest run, ST-13, ST-14 and ST-16 record chest and respiratory actions and, from ST-15 on, breast actions — but only ST-15 names the skin, its pain and its itching. Dermatological actions are uncommon in our data, and where one appears this library points to it. The classical account ties skin itching to wind and heat at the surface, which fits the wind-clearing emphasis of the region.

Where the fields agree, and this project has learned to say so. Eight records in this library have an action the indications do not support — BL-11, BL-51, BL-55, KI-19, KI-20, KI-26, SJ-15, GB-17. ST-15 is not among them: it benefits the breasts and records mastitis; both fields point the same way. Its neighbour ST-16 Ying Chuang is the same.

On the name. “Wu Yi” means Roof — wu a room or house, yi a canopy or screen, together read as a roof or covering. The classical division of the chest into a house or building recurs in the point names of this region: our ST-14 Ku Fang is Storeroom, and ST-13 Qi Hu is Qi Door. Three consecutive points named for parts of a dwelling.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; the action records of ST-13, ST-14, ST-16 and ST-18 compared, the eight field-mismatch cases queried, and the ST-13 and ST-14 names checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-15 Wu Yi used for?

ST-15 is used for fullness and pain in the chest and rib region, cough, asthma, and mastitis. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — four entries.

• Fullness and pain in the chest and costal region
• Cough
• Asthma
• Mastitis

Note that the skin action has no matching indication. Our record gives “alleviates pain and itching of the skin” as an action, and the indication list carries no skin complaint. On the strict reading this would be a ninth field-mismatch case — but the direction is the usual one, the action reaching further than the indications, and it is disclosed here on the same principle: both fields are reproduced so a reader sees the gap rather than inheriting whichever a summary used.

An honest note, and the breast and chest entries need one.

• MASTITIS REQUIRES MEDICAL ASSESSMENT AND OFTEN NEEDS ANTIBIOTICS, and ANY NEW BREAST LUMP, SKIN CHANGE, NIPPLE CHANGE OR DISCHARGE REQUIRES PROMPT ASSESSMENT and must never be attributed to mastitis without examination — inflammatory breast cancer can resemble it. This record is not a substitute for having a breast symptom examined.
• Chest fullness or tightness with breathlessness, sweating, or pain spreading to the arm or jaw is a medical emergency. Asthma can be fatal and requires prescribed management. A cough lasting more than three weeks, or with blood, weight loss or fever, requires assessment.

How it is combined. With ST-14 above and ST-16 below on the mammillary line. With REN-19 Zi Gong on the midline in the same second space, and KI-25 at 2 cun between them. With REN-17 Shan Zhong for the chest and breasts, and SI-01 Shao Ze distally. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records, compared field against field; the KI-25, REN-17, REN-19, SI-01, ST-14 and ST-16 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-15 Wu Yi located?

ST-15 is on the chest, four cun out from the midline, in the second space between the ribs — on the vertical line through the nipple.

• In the second intercostal space, 4 cun lateral to the midline, on the mammillary line
• Level with REN-19 Zi Gong on the midline
• ST-14 Ku Fang lies one space above in the first; ST-16 Ying Chuang one space below in the third

The nipple defines this line, and its limits are the whole practical caution. The 4-cun mammillary line is set by the nipple — ST-17, a landmark-only point never treated — but that landmark holds only in the young male body. In women and older men the nipple descends and moves outward, and the line and the intercostal spaces must be found by counting ribs directly. Our ST-17 record sets this out at length, because the entire line depends on it.

Finding the second space. The angle of Louis — the ridge where the manubrium meets the body of the sternum, palpable in the midline — marks the second rib, and the second intercostal space lies just below it. Counting from that ridge is the reliable method on any body, and it is the one to use where the nipple landmark does not hold.

On the name. “Wu Yi” — Roof, part of the house-of-the-chest imagery this region’s names share.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the REN-19, ST-14, ST-16 and ST-17 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 141): On the chest, in the second intercostal space, 4 cun lateral to the midline (Zigong REN-19), on the mamillary line.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 149): In the second intercostal space, 4 cun lateral to the anterior midline.

How is ST-15 Wu Yi needled?

Our own record states OBLIQUE insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable — and this point sits over the chest, in the band where pneumothorax is the documented hazard. 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 — the same insertion recorded at every point on this chest run, and matching the Kidney chest points. On the chest the obliquity is the safety feature: a needle laid along the intercostal space stays in the chest wall, while a perpendicular one is aimed into the thorax.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: pectoralis major and pectoralis minor overlie the intercostal muscles; the intercostal nerve and vessels run along the lower border of the rib above; the pleura and lung lie deep; breast tissue overlies the point superficially, more extensively in women.

Hazard, stated proportionately. Pneumothorax is the documented hazard of the chest and rib region, addressed by the recorded oblique angle and shallow depth. Our record carries no arterial caution — nine points in this library do, counted by query, and ST-15 is not among them.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at ST-15 could be located, and none is borrowed. The paediatric chest-CT study this library uses measured 23 points on the back and shoulder, none of them on the front of the chest. No case report naming ST-15 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the chest-run insertions compared; every needling record queried and the nine arterial cautions counted; the point list of PMID 26922245 confirmed not to include ST-15), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on ST-15, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates ST-15. Where the point appears it is one component of a respiratory or breast protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. ST-15 sits in the second intercostal space on the 4-cun mammillary line, part of the Stomach chest ladder that mirrors the Kidney chest ladder one channel out. It is the only point on this run whose action names the skin — its pain and its itching — a rare dermatological action, though one without a matching indication. Its breast action is matched, by mastitis. And its location, like the whole line, rests on the nipple, which is a reliable landmark only in the young male body.

The breast warning is the operative content. Any new breast lump or nipple change needs prompt assessment, and inflammatory breast cancer can resemble mastitis.

A note on searching for it. “ST 15”, “S 15” and “Wuyi” searches return protocol trials and a large volume of unrelated material — “Wuyi” is a common place name and personal name, and matches a famous mountain and tea region. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and needling records; the Stomach chest run compared, the field-mismatch cases queried, and the ST-17 landmark limit noted, against our own data).