Zhong Quan Central Spring

What does Zhong Quan do?

Zhong Quan harmonises qi circulation between the chest and the stomach, opens the chest, harmonises the stomach, and clears heat that forces blood upward — an extra point on the back of the wrist.

• Harmonises qi between the chest and stomach (upper and middle burner) — its core action, bridging the two
• Opens the chest and moves qi — to relieve chest oppression, distension and cough
• Harmonises the stomach and alleviates gastric pain
• Clears heat that forces blood upward — helping to stop spitting or coughing of blood

A chest-and-stomach point on the wrist. Zhong Quan sits on the back of the wrist between two channel points, and its actions bridge the chest (qi, cough) and the stomach (gastric pain) — the upper and middle burners. Its most striking recorded action is clearing heat that drives blood upward, behind its historical use for spitting or coughing blood (classically in advanced lung disease such as tuberculosis).

On the name. “Zhong Quan” — zhong central, quan a spring or well; a “central spring” on the wrist, sitting between the neighbouring “yang” points (Yang Xi and Yang Chi).

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (extra-point action, location and translation records queried against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is Zhong Quan used for?

Zhong Quan is used for a stuffy, oppressed chest with cough, gastric pain (including ulcer pain), and spitting or coughing of blood. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Stuffy, oppressed chest; chest distension; cough
• Gastric (stomach) pain, including pain from a stomach ulcer
• Spitting or coughing of blood (classically in advanced lung disease)

Chest, stomach, and blood. The stuffy chest and cough are the open-the-chest action; gastric pain is the harmonise-stomach action; spitting or coughing blood is the clear-heat-that-drives-blood-up action — the three spanning the chest-and-stomach bridge the point makes.

An honest and necessary note. Coughing up blood (haemoptysis) or vomiting blood always requires urgent medical assessment — the causes (including tuberculosis, cancer, and bleeding ulcers) are serious and need diagnosis and treatment; this is a historical indication, not a suggestion to treat bleeding with acupuncture. Chest pain requires assessment to exclude cardiac causes. A stomach ulcer needs medical treatment (and testing for H. pylori). This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With P-06 Nei Guan and REN-17 Shan Zhong for the chest, and REN-12 Zhong Wan for the stomach. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (extra-point indication and action records; the P-06, REN-12 and REN-17 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; the haemoptysis framing from standard clinical guidance.

Where is Zhong Quan located?

Zhong Quan is on the back of the wrist, at the wrist crease, in the hollow on the thumb side of the finger-extensor tendon — between LI-05 and SJ-04.

• On the dorsal (back) wrist crease
• In the depression on the radial (thumb) side of the tendon of the common finger extensor
• Between LI-05 Yang Xi and SJ-04 Yang Chi — the two “yang” wrist points that bracket it

Between the two yang wrist points. LI-05 Yang Xi sits in the anatomical snuffbox at the thumb side of the wrist, and SJ-04 Yang Chi in the hollow at the middle of the back of the wrist; Zhong Quan lies between them, in the depression beside the finger-extensor tendon. Those two channel points bracket it.

On the name. “Zhong Quan” — Central Spring, between the yang points, as noted above.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (extra-point location and translation records, retained unchanged; the LI-05 and SJ-04 records queried from our own data).

• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 250): On dorsal crease of the wrist, in the depression on the radial side of the tendon of common extensor muscle of fingers between Yang Xi (LI-05) and Yang Chi (TB-04)

How is Zhong Quan needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.3–0.5 cun, needled shallowly and with care — the point lies close to the dorsal carpal branch of the radial artery and the finger-extensor tendon. 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, 0.3–0.5 cun — shallow.
• A recorded caution: our record notes the point lies close to the dorsal carpal branch of the radial artery and the extensor digitorum tendon, so it is needled with care to avoid the vessel and the tendon.
• Moxibustion: applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the back of the wrist, over the carpal bones, beside the finger-extensor tendon; the dorsal carpal arterial network and the superficial radial nerve run in the region.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-to-moderate-hazard point: bone (the carpus) close beneath, but a small artery branch nearby — which our record explicitly flags, and which is why the needling is shallow and careful. It is not among the nine points carrying the formal “avoid the artery” caution, but our record’s own note about the dorsal carpal branch is honoured here.

What is not claimed. No safe-depth study could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (extra-point needling record, retained unchanged including the arterial-branch caution, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on Zhong Quan, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates Zhong Quan. Where it appears it is one component of a protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. Zhong Quan (EX-UE-3) is an extra point on the back of the wrist, between LI-05 and SJ-04, that harmonises qi between the chest and stomach — opening the chest (cough, oppression), easing gastric pain, and clearing heat that forces blood upward (its historical use for spitting or coughing blood). It is needled shallowly, with care for the dorsal carpal artery branch nearby.

A safety note that outranks any TCM claim. Coughing or vomiting blood is always urgent; this page records a historical indication and says so in the same breath.

A note on searching for it. Coded EX-UE-3; “Zhong Quan” also returns place and personal names. Any claim should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (extra-point action, indication and location records queried, against our own data).