ST-23 (Tai Yi) Supreme Unity

What does ST-23 Tai Yi do?

ST-23 transforms phlegm and calms the spirit, and it harmonises the middle jiao — the phlegm-and-spirit pairing being what its mania and irritability indications rest on.

• Transforms phlegm and calms the spirit — shared word for word with ST-24 immediately below it
• Harmonises the middle jiao — the digestive action

ST-23 and ST-24 are the phlegm-and-spirit pair of the Stomach abdominal run. Both carry the same first action in the same words, and both record mania. The classical reasoning is phlegm misting the orifices of the heart — the account given for clouded, agitated or disordered mental states — so a point that transforms phlegm steadies the spirit by the same logic. Only five Stomach points record mania at all (ST-23, ST-24, ST-36, ST-40, ST-45), and these two sit together and share both action and indication, which makes them a genuine pair.

A grand name on a modest point, worth noting for what it is. “Tai Yi” — Supreme Unity — is one of the most weighted terms in Chinese thought: in Daoist cosmology Taiyi is the supreme unity, the primordial oneness before the split into yin and yang, and it names the pole star as the pivot of the heavens. Yet it sits here on an ordinary point of the abdominal run, two cun above the navel. The name’s weight is not a measure of the point’s clinical standing, and a reader meeting so cosmological a term should not read grandeur into a record that is, by its own content, a digestive-and-spirit point like its neighbour. Our data holds the name as given and does not inflate it.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; the ST-24 action record compared word for word and every Stomach mania indication queried, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-23 Tai Yi used for?

ST-23 is used for gastric pain, irritability, mania, and indigestion. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — four entries.

• Gastric pain
• Irritability
• Mania
• Indigestion

Two of the four are mental-emotional, which is unusual for an abdominal point. Comparing this run, most of the Stomach abdominal points record digestive complaints only; ST-23 and ST-24 carry the mental entries, and ST-23 has the fuller list — adding irritability to the mania its neighbour also holds. Both belong to the phlegm-and-spirit action, and both are the exception rather than the rule on this stretch.

An honest note, and the mental entries need it stated plainly. MANIA AND SEVERE MENTAL DISTURBANCE REQUIRE MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT. The term reflects a classical category rather than a modern diagnosis, and an acute manic or psychotic state needs proper psychiatric assessment — some presentations are emergencies, and some have medical causes that must be found. Persistent low mood or agitation that interferes with daily life deserves proper support. This record documents classical indications and makes no claim that acupuncture treats mania or any psychiatric illness. Gastric pain that is severe or persistent, or comes with weight loss, vomiting or black stools, requires assessment, and pain in this region can originate in the heart.

How it is combined. With ST-24 Hua Rou Men below — the two used together for the mental symptoms. With ST-21 Liang Men and ST-25 Tian Shu on the same line. With REN-10 Xia Wan and REN-12 Zhong Wan on the midline — REN-12 being the Front-Mu point of the Stomach. With ST-40 Feng Long, the channel’s phlegm point, distally. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records, compared against ST-24; the REN-10, REN-12, ST-21, ST-24, ST-25 and ST-40 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-23 Tai Yi located?

ST-23 is on the abdomen, two cun out from the midline and two cun above the navel, level with REN-10 Xia Wan.

• 2 cun lateral to the midline, 2 cun above the umbilicus
• Level with REN-10 Xia Wan on the midline
• ST-22 Guan Men lies one cun above; ST-24 Hua Rou Men one cun below

The Stomach abdominal line pairs one-to-one with the Conception Vessel. Each 2-cun point sits level with a named Ren point — ST-19/REN-14, ST-20/REN-13, ST-22/REN-11, ST-23/REN-10, ST-24/REN-09 — and the same pairing runs on the Kidney channel’s 0.5-cun line, which our KI-19 record sets out. Three parallel lines up the abdomen, at 0.5, 2 and 4 cun (the last being the mammillary line on the chest), each stepping a cun at a time and each keyed to the Conception Vessel.

Everything here is measured from the navel, the most reliable landmark on the body. No counting chain, no proportional estimate.

On the name. “Tai Yi” — Supreme Unity. As set out above, a cosmological term of great weight sitting on an ordinary point; our record holds it as given.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the KI-19, REN-10, ST-19, ST-20, ST-22 and ST-24 records queried and the abdominal lines paired against the Conception Vessel, against our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 146): On the abdomen, 2 cun lateral to the midline and 2 cun superior to the umbilicus, level with Xiawan REN-10.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 150): 2 cun above the umbilicus, 2 cun lateral to Xiawan (REN-10).

How is ST-23 Tai Yi needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.7–1.0 inch, 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: perpendicular, 0.7–1.0 inch — the same range as ST-24 below.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: rectus abdominis and its sheath overlie the peritoneal cavity; the transverse colon and small intestine lie deep; there is no bone anywhere beneath the abdominal wall to stop a needle.

Hazard, stated proportionately. The abdominal wall is thin, no bone lies beneath it, and the peritoneal cavity is directly under — which is why every abdominal record here carries a bounded depth. ST-23 sits below the level of the liver and stomach that the upper-abdominal points overlie, and no organ-injury caution attaches here; only four points in the library carry one, counted by query. Abdominal points behave differently with a full bladder, in pregnancy, and after abdominal surgery.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at ST-23 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the abdomen. No case report naming ST-23 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the ST-24 depth compared; the four organ-injury cautions queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on ST-23, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates ST-23. Where the point appears it is one component of a digestive 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-23 sits two cun above the navel on the Stomach’s 2-cun abdominal line, level with REN-10, in a run that pairs one-to-one with the Conception Vessel. With ST-24 it forms the phlegm-and-spirit pair of this stretch — both carry the same first action word for word, and both record mania, one of only five Stomach points that do. ST-23 has the fuller mental list, adding irritability. And its name is one of the most cosmologically weighted in the system — Supreme Unity — sitting on an otherwise ordinary abdominal point; the weight of the name is not a measure of the point’s standing.

The mania warning is the operative content. An acute manic or psychotic state needs psychiatric assessment, and no claim is made that acupuncture treats it.

A note on searching for it. “ST 23”, “S 23” and “Taiyi” searches return a very large volume of unrelated material — “Taiyi” is a major Daoist and cosmological term, a mountain, a reign-era name and much else, which makes it one of the poorest search terms in the whole point system. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and translation records; the ST-24 pairing confirmed word for word, the abdominal lines paired against the Conception Vessel, and every Stomach mania indication queried, against our own data).