KI-13 (Qi Xue) Qi Hole

What does KI-13 Qi Xue do?

KI-13 is a meeting point of the Kidney channel with the Chong Mai (Penetrating Vessel), and that classification is what makes it a gynaecological point rather than simply a local abdominal one. The Chong Mai is classically called the Sea of Blood, and the Kidney channel’s lower-abdominal points are where the two systems meet.

• Regulates the Penetrating and Conception vessels — the action our own record leads with, and the source of the menstrual indications
• Regulates the lower burner — the local action, covering urination, the intestines and abdominal pain

The Chong Mai group in this library. KI-13 is one of several points where the Kidney channel meets the Penetrating Vessel along the lower abdomen, and it should be read alongside them rather than alone: KI-12 Da He just below it and KI-14 Si Man just above it are both Chong Mai meeting points on the same short stretch of abdomen, and SP-04 Gong Sun is the vessel’s Confluent point — the point that opens it, paired with P-06 Nei Guan. ST-30 Qi Chong is where the Chong Mai is classically said to emerge. All are held here.

On the name. “Qi Xue” is rendered Qi Hole or Qi Cave. It carries no separate classification in our record beyond the Chong Mai meeting — there is no five-shu, Yuan or Xi-Cleft role attached to it, and none is invented here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category and action records; the Chong Mai meeting points and SP-04's Confluent classification queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is KI-13 Qi Xue used for?

KI-13 is used for menstrual disorders, for difficult urination, and for pain and looseness of the bowels in the lower abdomen. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Irregular menstruation
• Painful periods (dysmenorrhoea)
• Difficult or painful urination
• Abdominal pain
• Diarrhoea

The pattern behind the list. Every indication sits in the lower burner, and the split between the gynaecological and the urinary/intestinal items maps onto the two actions recorded above — the Chong Mai connection giving the first, the local lower-burner action giving the second. That is a coherent record rather than a list of everything the region might present with.

How it is combined. For menstrual patterns it is used with the Ren Mai points at the same level — REN-04 Guan Yuan lies 0.5 cun medial to it on the midline — and with SP-06 San Yin Jiao, the crossing point of the three leg yin channels. For the Chong Mai proper, SP-04 Gong Sun opens the vessel. All are held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; REN-04's position and SP-04's classification queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is KI-13 Qi Xue located?

KI-13 sits on the lower abdomen, three cun below the navel and half a cun out from the midline — immediately beside REN-04 Guan Yuan. It is two cun above the upper border of the pubic bone.

• 3 cun below the umbilicus, 0.5 cun lateral to the midline
• Level with REN-04 Guan Yuan, which we hold — the Front-Mu point of the Small Intestine and a meeting point of the three leg yin channels with the Ren Mai
• The Kidney channel runs half a cun from the midline on the lower abdomen, so KI-11 to KI-15 all sit in this narrow band

Locating it depends on locating REN-04 first, and the two are close enough that the distinction matters when reading a prescription: a treatment naming REN-04 and one naming KI-13 are describing points a finger’s breadth apart but on different channels, with different classifications.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location record, retained unchanged; REN-04 queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 353): On the lower abdomen, 3 cun below the umbilicus, 2 cun superior to the superior border of the symphysis pubis, 0.5 cun lateral to the midline (Guanyuan REN-4).
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 195): 3 cun below the umbilicus, 0.5 cun lateral to Guanyuan (REN-4).

How is KI-13 Qi Xue needled?

The standard texts record perpendicular insertion to roughly 0.5–1.0 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.5–1.0 inch.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the point lies over the rectus abdominis. Beneath the abdominal wall lie the small intestine and, when full, the bladder — which rises above the pubic symphysis as it fills. The texts covering the lower abdominal points record that the patient should empty the bladder beforehand.

Pregnancy. This library records a classical caution covering the abdominal points from Qu Gu REN-02 up to Shang Wan REN-13 in pregnant women. KI-13 sits within that band, low in the abdomen and close to the midline, and the same caution is recorded here as on REN-03, REN-04, REN-06, KI-12 and Zi Gong Xue. Modern reviews of the “forbidden points” question have examined whether such cautions are supported by evidence and reached mixed conclusions; this record states the classical position and does not resolve that debate.

Hazard, stated proportionately. No study measuring a safe depth at KI-13 could be located. The abdominal depth work in this library measures REN-12 and, separately, KI-12 — and neither is presented here as describing KI-13. No case report naming KI-13 as the site of an injury was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; the REN-02–REN-13 pregnancy caution reproduced from our own standing record), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What should a reader know about KI-13, and is there research on it?

There is no trial isolating KI-13, and its standing rests on the classical record. Where the point appears in modern literature it is one component of a multi-point gynaecological or urological protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

A naming caution. Our own record renders KI-13’s translation as Qi Hole. Readers will also encounter the Kidney channel’s neighbouring lower-abdominal points under similar-sounding transliterations, and the Chong Mai meeting points in particular are easy to confuse with one another because they sit within a few centimetres and share indications. The distinguishing facts are the measured position and the classification, not the name.

Why the Chong Mai connection is the useful fact. A reader looking for what separates KI-13 from the Ren Mai point beside it will not find it in the indication list, which overlaps heavily with REN-04’s. The difference is structural: REN-04 is a Front-Mu point and a meeting of the three leg yin channels with the Ren Mai; KI-13 is a meeting of the Kidney channel with the Penetrating Vessel. Those are different systems reaching the same territory, and that is the kind of relationship this reference exists to make visible.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification, indication and translation records; REN-04's classification queried from our own data for the comparison).