SI-02 (Qian Gu) Front Valley

What does SI-02 Qian Gu do?

Qian Gu SI-02 is the Ying-Spring and Water point of the Small Intestine channel of Hand Tai Yang, and its recorded work is to clear wind-heat and reduce swelling, to benefit the eyes, ears and throat, and to open the channel and relieve pain. Sacred Lotus sources & references record that classification and those actions directly, and both halves of the classification explain them. Ying-Spring points are the second of the five-shu set, just in from the fingertip, and the Nan Jing assigns them the treatment of heat in the body — which is why a point on the little finger is used for fever, sore throat and red eyes. And because the Small Intestine is a yang Fire channel, its Water point is the element that controls Fire, which is the technical basis on which this point cools its own channel.

• Clears wind-heat and reduces swelling — the first recorded action, and the defining one. This is the basis for the point's use in fevers, in sore and swollen throat, in red painful eyes and in swelling of the face and neck. Ying-Spring points across all twelve channels carry a heat indication; SI-02 is the Small Intestine's.
• Benefits the eyes, ears and throat — the second recorded action, and the one that follows from the channel's course rather than from its element. The Small Intestine channel of Hand Tai Yang runs from the little finger up the arm, across the shoulder blade and neck, and ends at the ear, sending a branch to the outer corner of the eye. Tinnitus is carried in our own indication record for this point, and a distal point treating the ear is the channel relationship at work.
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain — the third recorded action, and the local one. Numbness of the fingers is in our own indication record, and the point is used for pain and stiffness along the ulnar side of the hand and arm.
• Cools its own channel through the controlling element — the five-element reading of the first action. Water controls Fire; the Water point of a Fire channel is where the tradition reaches when the channel's heat needs to be met by what restrains it, rather than fed by its mother or drained through its child. That is a different mechanism from SI-08's child-point drainage and from SI-05's Fire-on-Fire horary use, and it is what distinguishes SI-02 from both. The full derivation is set out under the notes.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing action record, reformatted here as a list; channel and the Ying-Spring & Water classification queried directly, alongside the complete Small Intestine five-shu set with element assignments); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 232); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 167); Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties), on the five-shu indications; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SI-02 Qian Gu used for?

Qian Gu SI-02 is used for febrile disease, for sore throat and red painful eyes, for tinnitus and ear complaints, for headache, and for numbness and pain of the fingers and hand. The indications below are those carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references together with those set out in the standard reference literature. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment. This is a low-hazard point, for the reasons set out under needling.

• Febrile disease and fever without sweating
• Sore, swollen and painful throat
• Redness, pain and swelling of the eyes
• Blurred vision and clouding of the eyes
• Tinnitus — ringing in the ears
• Deafness and reduced hearing
• Headache
• Stiffness and pain of the neck
• Swelling of the cheek and side of the face
• Nosebleed
• Numbness of the fingers
• Pain and stiffness along the little-finger side of the hand and arm
• Dark or scanty urine
• Insufficient lactation, recorded for this point in the classical literature alongside SI-01

Why a point on the little finger treats the head. The pattern is not peculiar to SI-02 — it is how the five-shu points work. The points at the far end of a channel are held in classical theory to act on the far end of its course, and the Small Intestine channel of Hand Tai Yang ends at the ear having passed the eye. That is why tinnitus, deafness, sore throat, red eyes and headache appear on a point at the base of the little finger, and why the same list appears in modified form at Shao Ze SI-01 at the fingernail and Hou Xi SI-03 just proximal to it, both held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record, reformatted here as a list; the SI-01 and SI-03 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 232); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 167); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SI-02 Qian Gu, and how is it used in practice?

Qian Gu lies on the outer edge of the little finger, just past the knuckle where the finger meets the hand, at the line where the darker skin of the back of the hand meets the paler skin of the palm. In our own words: make a loose fist, find the knuckle at the base of the little finger, and settle into the small hollow on the outer side just beyond it, toward the fingertip. Sacred Lotus sources & references give it both as the ulnar end of the crease in front of that knuckle when a loose fist is made, and as the depression just distal to the joint on the ulnar border of the finger. The "junction of the red and white skin" our first location record names is the colour boundary running along the side of the hand, and it is one of the most reliable landmarks in the whole repertoire because it needs no measuring at all.

Which points is SI-02 combined with?

• With Hou Xi SI-03 — its immediate neighbour on the same channel, a knuckle's width proximal. SI-03 is the Shu-Stream and Wood point and the Confluent Point of the Governing Vessel, both queried here, which makes it by some distance the more used of the two. The pair are often described together because they lie either side of the same knuckle on the same colour line, and the difference between them is set out under the notes.
• With Shao Ze SI-01 — at the corner of the little fingernail, the Jing-Well and Metal point of the channel, whose recorded actions are to clear heat, benefit the sensory orifices, revive consciousness and promote lactation. Held here and queried. SI-01 and SI-02 are the two heat-clearing points at the end of this channel.
• With Er Jian LI-02 and Nei Ting ST-44 — the Ying-Spring and Water points of the Large Intestine and Stomach channels, both queried here. Reaching for two or three yang Ying-Spring points together is a standard structure where the pattern is heat in the yang channels of the face and head. A randomised trial of electroacupuncture for visceral fat in simple obesity of the "stomach and intestinal heat" pattern used exactly that logic, combining ST-37, ST-44, Qiangu SI-02, LI-02, ST-25 and other points (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2016;36(9):897–900, PMID 29231379). It is a multi-point protocol and nothing in it belongs to SI-02 alone, but the point's presence there is a clean illustration of what a yang Ying-Spring point is selected for.
• With Tian Zong SI-11 — the same channel's principal point on the shoulder blade, held here. Distal on the hand with local on the scapula is the standard structure for shoulder and scapular pain along this channel, though SI-03 is more often the distal choice than SI-02.
• With Ting Gong SI-19 and Yi Feng SJ-17 — the local points at the ear, where tinnitus or hearing loss is the target and the Small Intestine channel is being reached from both ends. SI-19 is held here as a Meeting Point of the Small Intestine, Sanjiao and Gallbladder channels.
• In facial-pigmentation treatment. A randomised trial of a needling method for malar melasma used bilateral Qiangu SI-02 alongside Er Jian LI-02 and Nei Ting ST-44 as its distal points, with local needling of the lesion, and reported reductions in a melasma severity index and in lesion scores (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2026;46(7):1061–1067, PMID 42443074). Again, a multi-point protocol with the same three yang Ying-Spring and Water points at its distal end.

Where does SI-02 sit among the five-shu points?

The five-shu points are the set of five on each channel between the fingertips or toes and the elbow or knee, described in the Ling Shu as the stages of a river: the qi wells up, glides, pours, flows and finally enters inward. Sacred Lotus sources & references hold the complete Small Intestine set, and it is worth seeing whole because the element assignments are what the mother-child rule works on. Every element below was queried from our own records, not recalled:

• Jing-Well — Shao Ze SI-01, at the corner of the little fingernail. Metal.
• Ying-Spring — Qian Gu SI-02, at the base of the little finger. Water — the element that controls Fire. This page.
• Shu-Stream — Hou Xi SI-03, just proximal to the knuckle. Wood — the mother of Fire, and therefore this channel's tonification point. It is also the Confluent Point of the Governing Vessel.
• Jing-River — Yang Gu SI-05, at the wrist. Fire — Fire on a Fire channel, the horary or self point.
• He-Sea — Xiao Hai SI-08, at the elbow. Earth — the child of Fire, and therefore this channel's sedation point.

The channel is completed by Wan Gu SI-04 as the Yuan-Source point, Yang Lao SI-06 as the Cleft point and Zhi Zheng SI-07 as the Connecting point, all held here and all queried. On yang channels the five-shu run Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, Earth from the extremity inward; on yin channels they run Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water — which is why Shao Fu HT-08 on the yin Fire channel of the Heart is Ying-Spring and Fire while Qian Gu on this yang Fire channel is Ying-Spring and Water. Both records are held here, and the pair is the clearest single illustration of what channel polarity does to the scheme.

Among the Ying-Spring and Water points of the yang channels — a group that also includes Er Jian LI-02, Nei Ting ST-44, Tong Gu BL-66, Ye Men SJ-02 and Xia Xi GB-43, all held here and all queried — Qian Gu is the one whose channel is Fire, and that is what makes its position unique in the set. On the Gall Bladder, a Wood channel, the Ying-Spring and Water point GB-43 is the mother and so is the tonification point. On the Small Intestine, a Fire channel, the same classification is neither mother nor child.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (both location records; existing action and indication records; the complete Small Intestine five-shu set with element assignments, and the SI-01, SI-03, SI-04, SI-05, SI-06, SI-07, SI-08, SI-11, SI-19, LI-02, ST-44, BL-66, SJ-02, GB-43 and HT-08 records, queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 232); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 167); Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), on the five-shu points; PMID 29231379; PMID 42443074 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SI-02 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 232): On the ulnar border of the little finger, in a depression just distal to the metacarpo-phalangeal joint.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 167): When a loose fist is made, the point is on the ulnar end of the crease in front of the metacarpophalangeal joint of the little finger, at the junction of the red and white skin.

How is SI-02 Qian Gu needled, and is it a hazardous point?

Stated plainly: SI-02 is a low-hazard point. It lies on the outer edge of the little finger with the bone of the hand immediately beneath it. There is no body cavity, no organ, no lung and no great vessel in the needle path, and the depth our records carry — perpendicular 0.3 to 0.5 inch — is a short finger depth bounded by bone rather than a safety figure derived from a risk. Everything below is recorded as neutral reference data describing what the textbooks and the published literature state. It is not instruction, this page does not teach technique, and needling is carried out only by a qualified, licensed practitioner.

The angle and depth the texts record

• Sacred Lotus sources & references record perpendicular insertion of 0.3 to 0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. That is among the shortest depths in our whole library, and the reason is simply that there is very little tissue at the side of a finger.
• Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 232) and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 167) record a comparable shallow perpendicular or oblique range at the ulnar border of the little finger. Neither attaches a hazard caution of the kind both attach to the thoracic, abdominal, orbital and occipital points.
• Bleeding the point is documented at the Jing-Well and Ying-Spring points of the yang channels for acute heat and sore throat — a drop of blood released with a fine lance rather than a retained needle. It is recorded here because it is part of the reference record for points of this kind, not as technique.
• Moxibustion is recorded as applicable. So is laser stimulation, which has been reported at this point in the clinical literature (PMID 36051419).
• For comparison within our own holdings: queried directly, our records give 0.3 to 0.5 inch at this point against 0.5 to 1.0 inch at points of the elbow and the abdomen and 1 to 1.5 cun at the muscled points of the leg. Depth figures in this literature track the structure underneath, and here the structure is a finger bone at almost no depth.

What actually lies beneath

• Bone. The point sits at the side of the joint between the hand bone of the little finger and the first bone of the finger itself, on its outer edge. A needle here reaches bone almost immediately, and the tissue between skin and bone is skin, a thin layer of fat and the small structures that move the little finger.
• The nerves and vessels of the finger's edge. The digital nerves and the small digital arteries and veins run along the sides of every finger, just beneath the skin, and they are the structures of consequence at any finger point. A sudden electric or radiating sensation into the finger is a recognised warning of direct needle contact with a nerve rather than a sign of correct technique: a review tracing the history of the recognised needling sensations concluded that the electric shock is caused by the needle entering a nerve and should be treated as a warning of possible peripheral nerve injury (Guo Y et al., Neural Plast 2020;2020:8834573, PMID 33204248, PMC7655260). Fingers are also richly supplied with sensory endings, which is why points at this end of a channel are among the sharper ones to needle even though they are among the safest.
• The only anatomical study naming Qiangu is an animal study, and is labelled as one. A comparative-anatomy investigation dissected the five-shu points of the Small Intestine channel in thirty rabbits, locating the point regions on the forelimb from a rabbit atlas, confirming them with an electronic point detector, then perfusing and dissecting them layer by layer. For the set as a whole — "Shaoze" SI-01, "Qiangu" SI-02, "Houxi" SI-03, "Yanggu" SI-05 and "Xiaohai" SI-08 — it recorded the superficial layers as containing the basilic vein and its branches and the superficial branch of the ulnar nerve, and the deep layers as containing the ulnar artery and vein and their branches and the ulnar nerve (Lu Y et al., Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2013;38(6):473–7, PMID 24579362). This is a rabbit study, not a study of human anatomy, and it is recorded here only to be clear that it exists and what it is — no measurement from it is presented as a human figure, and the abstract reports the findings for the five points together rather than separating SI-02. It is the direct counterpart of the rabbit study of the Heart channel's five-shu points cited on our HT-03 record, by a different group.
• No imaging study measuring a safe needling depth at SI-02 could be located, and none is needed in the way it is over the trunk: the depth is bounded by bone at a few millimetres. Two systematic reviews of the safe-depth literature — 33 studies in the first, 47 in the second, by MRI, CT, ultrasound and cadaveric dissection — both concluded that measured depths for the same point vary greatly and that "safe depth" has never been standardised (J Altern Complement Med 2011;17(3):199–206, PMID 21417806; Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2013;2013:740508, PMID 23935678). Neither reports a figure for this point.

What the literature documents here

• The ordinary events are minor. Brief sharp pain, a small bruise and occasional bleeding are what the reference literature records at finger points. A meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies found that about half of all recorded acupuncture adverse events across the whole repertoire were bleeding, pain or flare at the needle site, and estimated serious adverse events at approximately 1 per 10,000 patients and around 8 per million treatments (Bäumler P et al., BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268).
• Where the serious events actually occur. Systematic reviews of the Chinese case literature find them concentrated at points over the chest, the abdomen, the neck and the orbit, attributed chiefly to improper technique (He W et al., PMID 22967282; Zhang J et al., Bull World Health Organ 2010;88(12):915–921C, PMID 21124716, PMC2995190). SI-02 is at the opposite end of that range.
• Honest limit. We could not source any published case report of injury at SI-02, and none is asserted. Where a point is genuinely low-hazard the useful thing is to say so plainly rather than import a warning from elsewhere, and that is what is done here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record; both location records; the HT-03 record queried directly for its rabbit-study parallel); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 232); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 167); PMID 24579362 (rabbit comparative anatomy); PMID 33204248 (PMC7655260); PMID 36051419 (PMC9419942); PMID 21417806; PMID 23935678; PMID 34489268; PMID 22967282; PMID 21124716 (PMC2995190) — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation.

What does the name Qian Gu mean?

Qian Gu means "Front Valley" — qian, front or forward, and gu, a valley. Sacred Lotus sources & references translate it exactly that way. The name is a location description and a classification statement at once. The "valley" is the small hollow at the side of the little finger, and gu recurs across the Small Intestine channel's hand and wrist points precisely where the tradition finds such hollows: Qian Gu SI-02, "Front Valley", and Yang Gu SI-05, "Yang Valley", at the wrist, both held here. "Front" places it in front of — that is, distal to — the knuckle, distinguishing it from Hou Xi SI-03, "Back Ravine", which lies behind the same knuckle. Read as a pair the two names are a single instruction: front of the knuckle and back of it, one valley and one ravine.

The gu element also runs through the Ying-Spring points more widely, and the reason is the Ling Shu's river image behind the whole five-shu scheme. The qi of a channel is described as welling up at the fingertip like a spring, then gliding at the Ying-Spring point as a trickle running through a small valley, then pouring, flowing and finally entering the sea at the elbow. "Front Valley" names the second stage of that river directly.

Is SI-02 the Small Intestine channel's tonification or sedation point?

Neither — and working out why from first principles is the most useful thing on this page. The reasoning has two layers, and separating them is what makes it stick.

The first layer is the five-shu position. SI-02 is the Ying-Spring point: the second of the five, the "gliding" stage. The Nan Jing assigns each position a class of indication, and the Ying-Spring points are given heat in the body. That is a statement about indication, and it tells you nothing about tonification or sedation.

The second layer is the element. On yang channels the Ying-Spring point is a Water point; on yin channels it is a Fire point — which is why Shao Fu HT-08 on the yin Fire channel of the Heart is Ying-Spring and Fire while Qian Gu on this yang Fire channel is Ying-Spring and Water. Both are held here and both were queried. The Small Intestine is a yang channel of the Fire phase. Now apply the rules:

• In the generating cycle, Wood produces Fire and Fire produces Earth. So the mother of Fire is Wood and the child of Fire is Earth.
• Under the mother-child rule, a channel is supplemented through its mother point and drained through its child point. On the Small Intestine channel that gives: tonification (mother) point — SI-03 Hou Xi, the Shu-Stream and Wood point, which is also the Confluent Point of the Governing Vessel; sedation (child) point — SI-08 Xiao Hai, the He-Sea and Earth point at the elbow.
• The horary (self) point is the one whose element matches the channel's own: SI-05 Yang Gu, Fire on a Fire channel.
• Water is none of those. In the controlling cycle, Water controls Fire. So SI-02, the Water point of a Fire channel, is the channel's controlling-element point — the place where Fire is met by what restrains it, rather than fed by its mother or drained through its child.

The distinction students most often get wrong is assuming that any heat-clearing point must be the sedation point. It depends entirely on the channel's own element. On the Gall Bladder, a Wood channel, the Ying-Spring and Water point GB-43 Xia Xi is the mother and so is the tonification point. On the Bladder, a Water channel, the Ying-Spring and Water point BL-66 Tong Gu is the horary point. On the Small Intestine, a Fire channel, the same classification is none of the three. Our HT-03, HT-07, HT-08, LU-05, LIV-02, SP-03, GB-43, P-08 and SJ-10 records each set out the same rule from their own side, and every one of them arrives at it the same way: five-shu position gives the classical indication, the element's relationship to the channel gives the tonification-sedation role, and the two coincide only by arithmetic.

How is SI-02 different from Hou Xi SI-03?

They are two points on opposite sides of the same knuckle, and one of them is far more used than the other. Both are held in Sacred Lotus sources & references and both were queried.

• Qian Gu SI-02 — "Front Valley". Distal to the knuckle at the base of the little finger. Ying-Spring and Water point. Carries no other classification. Used for heat, sore throat, red eyes, tinnitus and finger numbness.
• Hou Xi SI-03 — "Back Ravine". Proximal to the same knuckle, at the end of the transverse crease when a loose fist is made. Shu-Stream and Wood point, the channel's tonification point, and the Confluent Point of the Governing Vessel. That last classification is what makes it one of the most used points in the whole repertoire: it is the distal point through which the Du Mai is opened, and the standard distal choice for stiff neck, spinal pain and occipital headache.

The practical consequence is worth stating without euphemism: where a practitioner wants a distal point on this channel, they reach for SI-03 far more often than for SI-02. SI-02 is chosen when the pattern is specifically one of heat in this channel, and the point's real distinctiveness is theoretical — it is the Small Intestine's controlling-element point, and nothing else on the channel occupies that position.

Is there research on SI-02 Qian Gu?

The honest answer is that SI-02 has essentially no clinical research of its own. It appears in a handful of multi-point protocols and in one anatomical study of rabbits. Nothing isolates it, and nothing tests it.

• Where it appears in protocols. A randomised trial of a needling method for malar melasma used bilateral Qiangu SI-02, Er Jian LI-02 and Nei Ting ST-44 as its distal points with local needling of the lesion (PMID 42443074); a randomised trial of electroacupuncture for visceral fat in simple obesity of the stomach-and-intestinal-heat pattern used Qiangu SI-02 among six or more points (PMID 29231379). Both are multi-point protocols, and nothing in either is attributable to this point.
• A single case report naming the point. A 64-year-old man with a trigger digit of the right little finger and controlled type 2 diabetes received laser acupuncture at the SI-2 Qiangu point, the extra point Ba Xie and a local point on the nodule, with manual needling at LI-04 bilaterally; after seven sessions his pain score fell from 5 to 0, the finger flexed fully and the nodule was smaller (Djaali W et al., Med Acupunct 2022;34(4):256–260, PMID 36051419, PMC9419942). It is a single uncontrolled case with three treatment sites and a fourth point, and it proves nothing; it is recorded because it is one of very few indexed publications that names SI-02 explicitly, and because the choice is a coherent one — SI-02 sits at the base of the little finger, which is the finger that was affected.
• The rabbit anatomical study described under needling (PMID 24579362) is the only anatomical work we could find that names Qiangu. It is a rabbit study and is labelled as one; it establishes nothing about human anatomy or about clinical effect.
• What is not here. There is no randomised trial of SI-02, no sham-controlled study of it, and no clinical study in which it is the point under test. Its recorded indications — fever, sore throat, red eyes, tinnitus — have no trial behind them at this point. Rather than cite whole-protocol studies as though they concerned SI-02, the accurate statement is that this point's evidence base is the classical record and the reference literature.
• What was discarded. A bare search on the syllables "Qiangu" returns a materials-science paper on removing chromium from wastewater with modified graphene-oxide microspheres, which has nothing to do with acupuncture at all. An emergency case report using scalp acupuncture also names a "Qiangu" among its points but gives no point code anywhere, so the coding cannot be confirmed and it is not relied on here. Both were read and set aside rather than counted, and they are mentioned because the same false hits will meet anyone searching this point by name.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, translation, channel and the Ying-Spring & Water classification queried directly; the complete Small Intestine five-shu set with element assignments and the SI-01, SI-03, SI-04, SI-05, SI-06, SI-07, SI-08, HT-08, LI-02, ST-44, BL-66, SJ-02 and GB-43 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 232); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 167); Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), on the five-shu points; Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties), on the five-shu indications and the mother-child rule; PMID 42443074; PMID 29231379; PMID 36051419 (PMC9419942); PMID 24579362 (rabbit study) — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.