Jianyu and Jianliao
Star肩髃、肩髎 (Jiānyú, Jiānliáo)
Modern Chinese point-pair (对穴) teaching, as compiled by Guo Changqing and colleagues at the School of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.
Points
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The anterior hollow of the abducted shoulder; expels wind-damp from the front of the joint.
Patient seated with the arm raised sideways to shoulder height, which opens two hollows at the shoulder; LI15 is the front one, below and in front of the acromion, between it and the greater tubercle of the humerus. Insert perpendicularly 1.0–1.5 cun and seek a local aching, distended feeling. Beneath the skin and subcutaneous layer, a deep insertion aimed toward HT1 in the axilla approaches the brachial plexus.
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The posterior hollow of the abducted shoulder; frees the back of the joint and the Triple Energiser channel.
With the arm abducted, TE14 is the rear of the two shoulder hollows, below and behind the acromion and behind LI15. With the arm hanging at the side it can also be found in the gap between the acromion and the greater tubercle of the humerus, below the back edge of the acromion. Insert perpendicularly 1.0–1.5 cun for a local aching, distended feeling; the needle traverses deltoid and continues into teres minor and teres major.
Treatment Principle
Expel wind and damp, relieve pain and restore free movement of the shoulder joint.
Indications
Method
Both points are needled with the arm abducted to shoulder height, perpendicularly 1.0–1.5 cun, until a local aching distension is felt. The book gives no retention time or moxibustion instructions for this pair.
⚠ Cautions
A deep LI15 insertion angled toward the axilla nears the brachial plexus; do not keep manipulating once an electrical sensation is produced.
About
A two-needle frame for the shoulder: the front and back hollows that open in the joint when the arm is lifted sideways. It is used for painful, stiff or spastic shoulders and arms, including the upper limb in hemiplegia.
Rationale
LI15 sits on the Large Intestine channel and TE14 on the Triple Energiser channel, two hand yang channels that cross the shoulder side by side. Needled together they bracket the glenohumeral joint from front and back, so the whole joint capsule is treated rather than one aspect of it. LI15 is also the meeting point of the Large Intestine channel with the Yang Qiao Mai.
Sources
- Guo Changqing (ed.). Acupuncture of Acupoint Combinations: Quick Lookups. Daylesford: Heart Space Publications, 2020 (English edition; © China Science and Technology Press). ISBN 978-0-6489215-5-4. Chapter 4, combination 1.
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