Chize and Quze
Star尺澤、曲澤 (Chǐzé, Qūzé)
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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He-Sea point of the Lung; clears heat from the Lung, descends its qi and relaxes the sinews of the elbow.
Elbow slightly bent, palm up: the point is on the cubital crease on the thumb side of the biceps tendon. Insert perpendicularly 0.5–1.0 cun through the deep fascia into brachioradialis. Aim for local aching and numbness with an electric sensation travelling into the forearm and palm.
-
He-Sea point of the Pericardium; clears heat from the Heart, calms and harmonises the Stomach.
Arm extended forward, palm up, elbow slightly flexed: the point is on the elbow crease on the little-finger side of the biceps tendon. Insert perpendicularly 0.5–1.0 cun, passing between the basilic and median cubital veins through the anterior cubital fascia to lie beside the median nerve and brachialis, just medial to the brachial artery. The desired response is local numbness and distension spreading to the middle finger.
Treatment Principle
Clear heat from the Lung, free the channels and relax the sinews, and nourish and support the Heart.
Indications
Method
Both points are needled in the elbow crease with the arm supinated, perpendicularly 0.5–1.0 cun, each on its own side of the biceps tendon. The book gives no retention time or moxibustion instructions for this pair.
⚠ Cautions
The brachial artery runs just medial to the biceps tendon, close to PC3: palpate it and needle beside it, not into it. An electric sensation at either point means a nerve (radial side at LU5, median at PC3) has been reached — do not continue lifting and thrusting.
About
The two He-Sea points that sit on either side of the biceps tendon in the elbow crease. The pair clears heat from the chest — Lung and Heart — and at the same time frees the elbow itself.
Rationale
LU5 and PC3 are the He-Sea points of the hand taiyin and hand jueyin channels, and both are Water points of their channels. Their shared location lets one prescription address upper-burner heat (cough, wheeze, blood in the sputum, a sore throat and a tight chest), heat affecting the Stomach and intestines (vomiting and diarrhoea), heat in the blood reaching the skin, and local spasm of the elbow.
Clinical Notes
Our corpus records that the visible veins at both points may be pricked to bleed, a common way of using this pair for acute vomiting and diarrhoea with heat; the book itself gives only filiform needling.
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 2.
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