ST-21 (Liang Men) Bean Gate

What does ST-21 Liang Men do?

Liang Men ST-21 is the Stomach channel's own point over the stomach itself — the upper-abdominal point used for epigastric pain, vomiting, loss of appetite and food that will not move. It lies four cun above the navel and two cun out from the midline, level with Zhong Wan REN-12, the Front-Mu point of the Stomach and the Hui-Meeting point of the fu organs. Its position on the Stomach channel of Foot Yang Ming directly over the organ is the whole of its logic: it is a local point acting on what lies beneath it. Sacred Lotus sources & references record three actions.

• Regulates qi and alleviates pain — the defining action, and the reason ST-21 is reached for in gripping or distending epigastric pain. Where the pain is one of stagnation rather than of deficiency, this is the local point of choice.
• Harmonises the middle jiao and transforms stagnation — the middle jiao is the tradition's name for the digestive centre, the Spleen and Stomach taken together. "Transforming stagnation" refers specifically to food that has stopped moving: fullness after eating, a sense of a lump in the epigastrium, sour belching, loss of appetite.
• Raises the qi and stops diarrhoea — the third recorded action, and the one that looks least obvious. The tradition reads chronic loose stool and undigested food in the stool as qi failing to hold and lift, and records ST-21 among the abdominal points used to restore that lifting function.

ST-21 carries no five-shu, yuan, luo, xi-cleft, back-shu, front-mu or element classification in our records or in the standard references. It is an ordinary channel point whose value is positional, and it is best understood as the lateral wing of the group around Zhong Wan REN-12 rather than as a specialist point in its own right.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel and existing action record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 145); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 150); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-21 Liang Men used for?

Liang Men ST-21 is used above all for epigastric pain and for the digestive complaints that follow food failing to move — poor appetite, fullness after eating, nausea and vomiting. The indications below are those carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references together with those set out in the standard reference literature. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment, and this point carries the safety facts set out under needling.

• Gastric and epigastric pain
• Vomiting and nausea
• Anorexia and loss of appetite
• Abdominal distension and fullness
• Diarrhoea, including undigested food in the stool
• Borborygmus — audible rumbling of the intestines
• Indigestion and food retention
• Sour belching and acid regurgitation
• A sense of a hard lump or accumulation beneath the ribs
• Pain in the upper abdomen worsened by pressure
• Constipation attributed to stagnation in the middle jiao

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 145); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 150).

Where is ST-21 Liang Men, and how is it used in practice?

Liang Men lies on the upper abdomen four cun above the navel and two cun out from the midline — level with Zhong Wan REN-12, roughly midway between the navel and the lower tip of the breastbone, on the belly of the rectus abdominis on either side. Sacred Lotus sources & references define its position by reference to REN-12 rather than independently, and that is the right way to hold it in mind: ST-21 and REN-12 are one horizontal line across the upper abdomen, the Conception Vessel point in the middle with a Stomach channel point two cun to each side.

Which points is ST-21 combined with?

• With Zhong Wan REN-12 — the standing partner, at the same level on the midline. REN-12 is the Front-Mu point of the Stomach and the Hui-Meeting point of the fu organs; treating the two together covers the epigastrium across its full width and is the commonest way ST-21 appears in practice.
• With Zu San Li ST-36 — the He-Sea point of the same channel on the leg. Local point on the abdomen plus distal point on the limb is the standard structure of a Stomach channel treatment, and this is the specific pairing the experimental literature has tested (see research, below).
• With Wei Shu BL-21 — the Back-Shu point of the Stomach on the back. Front and back of the same organ; with REN-12 this forms the classical Shu-Mu combination that ST-21 flanks.
• With Tian Shu ST-25 — the Front-Mu point of the Large Intestine, two cun lateral to the navel and directly below ST-21 on the same channel line. The two are used together where the disturbance runs the length of the digestive tract rather than sitting in the epigastrium alone.
• With Nei Guan P-06 — the Confluent point of the Yin Linking vessel, added for nausea, vomiting and chest oppression.
• With Qi Men LIV-14 and Tai Chong LIV-03 — where constrained Liver qi is held to have invaded the Stomach, giving belching, acid and pain that moves with mood.
• Method — Sacred Lotus sources & references record moxibustion as applicable at this point, and moxa at ST-21 is common where the presentation is one of cold in the middle jiao.

Where does ST-21 sit among the Stomach channel's abdominal points?

The Stomach channel descends the abdomen as a vertical line two cun lateral to the midline, and Sacred Lotus sources & references hold the whole run: Bu Rong ST-19 at six cun above the navel, Cheng Man ST-20 at five, Liang Men ST-21 at four, Guan Men ST-22 at three, and onward through Tai Yi ST-23 and Hua Rou Men ST-24 to Tian Shu ST-25 level with the navel. Each is level with a Conception Vessel point on the midline — ST-21 with REN-12 Zhong Wan, ST-22 with REN-11 Jian Li, and so on — and the pairing of a midline point with its lateral partners is how the abdomen is treated as a grid rather than as a row. ST-21 is the most used of the Stomach channel's upper-abdominal points precisely because its partner, REN-12, is the most important point on the upper abdomen.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location, channel, and the Stomach-channel and Conception Vessel abdominal point records queried in full); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 145); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 150); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-21 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 145): On the abdomen, 2 cun lateral to the midline and 4 cun superior to the umbilicus, level with Zhongwan REN-12.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 150): 4 cun above the umbilicus, 2 cun lateral to Zhongwan (REN-12).

How is ST-21 Liang Men needled, and what does the right side have to do with the liver?

Two facts have to be stated before anything else. First: ST-21 is an abdominal point, and the abdominal wall is all that lies between the needle and the viscera — the recorded depth is bounded for that reason. Second, and specific to this point: on the right side ST-21 overlies the liver, whose lower edge in an adult reaches down under the ribs and, in many people, below the costal margin altogether. The reference literature records deep needling on the right at points in this region as a specific consideration, and records it as greater where the liver is enlarged. Everything below is neutral reference data describing what the textbooks and the published anatomical 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 0.8 to 1.0 inch at ST-21, with moxibustion applicable.
• Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 145) and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 150) record a comparable bounded perpendicular range, and the reference literature attaches to the abdominal points as a group the standard cautions of depth, of thin patients, of children, and of an organ that is enlarged or a hollow organ that is distended.
• Moxibustion is recorded as applicable, and is one of the ways this point is treated where needling depth is a concern.
• For comparison within our own records: 0.8–1.0 inch at ST-21 is a fraction over the 0.7–1.2 cun held here for Tian Shu ST-25 lower on the same channel line, and roughly double the 0.3–0.5 inch recorded for Ru Gen ST-18 over the chest wall. Depth figures track the structure underneath.

The measured anatomy — and which point was actually measured

This distinction matters here more than almost anywhere, because the one good ultrasound study of needle depth in this exact region did not measure ST-21.

• What was measured: REN-12, on the midline. An observational ultrasound study recruited 85 healthy volunteers and obtained usable images in 83, measuring the "allowable needle insertion range" at Zhongwan CV-12 — the midline point two cun above ST-21's level and the point ST-21 flanks. The mean allowable range was 25.3 ± 10.2 mm, it was generally greater in women than in men, and — the finding that matters for ST-21 — the liver was visible in the ultrasound image in 62.7 per cent of subjects. Subjects in whom no liver was seen had a thicker allowable range and a higher body-mass index. The authors concluded that individual differences are not negligible and that anatomical variation should be assessed rather than assumed (Chu H et al., Healthcare (Basel) 2022;10(9):1707, PMID 36141319, PMC9498562). These are CV-12 figures, not ST-21 figures, and nothing here is attributed to ST-21 that was not measured. They are cited because they establish, by direct imaging in living people, that the liver is present under the upper abdominal wall in this region in the majority of adults — which is the anatomical premise behind the right-sided caution at ST-21.
• No single agreed safe depth exists for any point. Two systematic reviews of the safe-depth literature — 33 studies in the first, 47 in the second — concluded that depths measured for the same point differ greatly between subject groups and measuring methods, and that "safe depth" has never been standardised (J Altern Complement Med 2011;17(3):199–206, PMID 21417806; Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2013;2013:740508, PMID 23935678).

What is actually documented, and how often

Liver injury. Direct injury to the liver from an acupuncture needle is documented, though rare. A radiology case report describes acute haemoperitoneum — bleeding into the abdominal cavity — from direct liver injury caused by acupuncture, and states that it was the first such case reported (Seah EZ, J Radiol Case Rep 2023;17(8):15–20, PMID 37654899, PMC10435255). A forensic case report describes death from multiple organ injuries attributed to improper acupuncture practice (Forensic Sci Med Pathol 2026;22(2):463–468, PMID 41582237).

Injury to hollow organs. A 2026 emergency-medicine case report describes four perforations of the small intestine caused by abdominal acupuncture in a 71-year-old man who had a giant abdominal wall hernia and intestinal obstruction, requiring emergency laparotomy. The authors' conclusion is specific and worth carrying: in that particular combination of circumstances the normal anatomical safeguards of the abdominal wall are lost, and abdominal needling should be approached with extreme caution or regarded as contraindicated (Int J Emerg Med 2026;19(1):120, PMID 41840473, PMC13104277).

How common. Two systematic reviews of the Chinese case-report literature give the shape of the whole picture: 1,038 adverse-event cases across 167 articles from 1956 to 2010, with traumatic organ injury among the serious events and improper technique the chief attribution (J Altern Complement Med 2012;18(10):892–901, PMID 22967282); and 479 cases in 115 articles from 1980 to 2009 with 14 deaths, again attributed mainly to improper technique (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 about 8 per million treatments, concluding that acupuncture is among the safer treatments in medicine (BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268). The absolute risk is small; it concentrates at points with a viscus beneath them, and ST-21 on the right is one of those points.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 145); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 150); PMID 36141319 (PMC9498562); PMID 21417806; PMID 23935678; PMID 37654899 (PMC10435255); PMID 41582237; PMID 41840473 (PMC13104277); PMID 22967282; PMID 21124716 (PMC2995190); PMID 34489268 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation.

What does the name Liang Men mean?

Sacred Lotus sources & references carry the translation "Bean Gate" — men, a gate or door. Men is not in doubt: it is the same character that ends Qi Men LIV-14, Zhang Men LIV-13, Guan Men ST-22 and Jing Men GB-25, and it marks a point read as a doorway through which something passes.

Discrepancy on the first character. The standard reference literature translates this point's name as "Beam Gate", taking liang in the sense of a beam or ridgepole and connecting it to fu liang, the "hidden beam" — a classical abdominal accumulation described as a hard mass lying below the heart, for which this point is recorded. A separate traditional reading takes a homophone meaning fine grain or rich food, giving the sense of the gateway through which food passes. Our own record reads "Bean Gate". We have kept our headword rather than silently rewriting it, and we flag the conflict here so a reader meeting "Beam Gate" elsewhere knows it is the same point. Which reading is correct is not something this page can settle, and we do not guess.

What is ST-21's place in the classical literature?

ST-21's classical standing rests on the fu liang tradition described above: the accumulation below the heart that will not shift, for which the point is named in the older texts alongside its everyday indications for epigastric pain, vomiting and appetite. That is a modest but genuine classical foothold, and it is the reason the point's recorded action includes "transforms stagnation" rather than only "regulates qi". It is not a point with the deep textual history of Zu San Li ST-36 or Zhong Wan REN-12, and the site does not inflate it.

Is there research on ST-21 Liang Men?

ST-21 has no clinical trial isolating it, and none is claimed here. What it does have is unusual and worth setting out: a line of experimental work in which ST-21 is one of two points defining a "Stomach channel" arm tested against both a non-point control and a different channel — which is a much better test of the point than a multi-point protocol.

• Against control points, in stress-induced gastric ulcer. Forty rats were divided into four groups — negative control, ulcer control, a Stomach channel group treated with moxa heat at Liangmen ST-21 and Zusanli ST-36, and a control-point group treated at the corresponding non-channel locations — with gastric ulcer induced by restraint and water immersion and treatment given for twelve consecutive days. Both treated groups showed a lower ulcer index and improved gastric mucosa, with reduced tumour necrosis factor-alpha, Apaf-1 and caspase-3 and increased PAK1, ERK2, phosphorylated ERK2, PI3K and Akt in the gastric mucosa; the Stomach channel group did significantly better than the control-point group (J Tradit Chin Med 2016;36(3):340–6, PMID 27468549). The design is the point: it does not merely show that heat helps, it shows a difference between the channel points and matched non-channel locations.
• Against a different channel. A companion study from the same line of work divided forty rats into a normal group, an untreated gastric-ulcer model group, a Stomach channel group given electroacupuncture at Liangmen ST-21 and Zusanli ST-36, and a Gall Bladder channel group given electroacupuncture at Riyue GB-24 and Yanglingquan GB-34, then compared markers of oxidative damage in serum and gastric mucosal cells (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2016;36(6):617–621, PMID 29231458). Using a second, plausible-but-different channel as the comparator is a stronger control than a sham point, and it addresses the specific traditional claim that the Stomach channel reaches the stomach.

Both are small animal studies from one research group, and neither should be read as evidence of clinical effect in people. They are recorded because they are genuinely about this point rather than about a protocol containing it. Beyond them, ST-21 appears widely in the trial literature on gastroparesis, functional dyspepsia and post-operative recovery — but always as one point among many, and those results belong to the protocols, not to ST-21.

How does ST-21 compare with the points around it?

Zhong Wan REN-12 is the point ST-21 exists in relation to: same level, on the midline, the Front-Mu point of the Stomach and the Hui-Meeting point of the fu organs, and by a distance the more important of the two. Where REN-12 is chosen for the Stomach as an organ, ST-21 is chosen for the epigastrium on one side and for pain that is lateral rather than central. Guan Men ST-22 lies one cun below on the same line, level with REN-11 Jian Li, and is weighted toward the intestines and oedema. Cheng Man ST-20 and Bu Rong ST-19 lie one and two cun above, closer to the costal margin, and their indications shade toward the chest and the hypochondrium. Tian Shu ST-25, four cun lower at the level of the navel, is the Front-Mu point of the Large Intestine and the far more heavily used point of the two. And Qi Men LIV-14, on the chest wall in the sixth intercostal space, is the other point in this region that overlies the liver on the right — the two share the same anatomical consideration from above and below the costal margin.

Source: Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 145); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 150); Sacred Lotus sources & references (name record, absence of point categories, and neighbouring point records queried in full); PMID 27468549; PMID 29231458 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.