ST-16 (Ying Chuang) Breast Window

What does ST-16 Ying Chuang do?

ST-16 alleviates cough and wheezing, and it benefits the breasts. It sits in the third intercostal space on the vertical line through the nipple.

• Alleviates cough and wheezing — the respiratory action
• Benefits the breasts — and here, unlike several records this project has flagged, the indication list bears it out

Where the fields agree, that is worth saying. This project has documented eight records whose action claims something the indications do not support — BL-11, BL-51, BL-55, KI-19, KI-20, KI-26, SJ-15, GB-17. ST-16 is the opposite: it records “benefits the breasts”, and mastitis is in its indication list. Both fields point the same way, so either can be relied on. Its neighbour ST-15 Wu Yi is the same — breast action, mastitis indication.

The Stomach mammillary line mirrors the Kidney chest line, one channel out. The Stomach chest points climb the 4-cun line through the nipple — ST-14 first space, ST-15 second, ST-16 third, ST-18 fifth — exactly as the Kidney points climb the 2-cun line, KI-22 to KI-26, one intercostal space at a time. Our KI-22 record sets out that Kidney ladder. Two parallel chest lines, and on both the breast indications cluster in the middle, where the points lie nearest the breast tissue.

A word-level caution. Chuang — window — is not huang, the deep membranous spaces. Three points carry chuang in the name: ST-16 Ying Chuang, SI-16 Tian Chuang and GB-16 Mu Chuang — and none is among the four huang points (BL-43, BL-51, BL-53, KI-16). A plain-text search for “huang” returns all three chuang points spuriously; our GB-16 record documents the same separation.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; every chuang and huang name queried and separated, the eight field-mismatch cases queried, and the KI-22 ladder and ST-14, ST-15, ST-18 records compared, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-16 Ying Chuang used for?

ST-16 is used for fullness and pain in the chest and flank, cough, asthma, and mastitis. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — four entries.

• Fullness and pain in the chest and hypochondrium
• Cough
• Asthma
• Mastitis

An honest note, and the breast and chest entries both need one.

• MASTITIS REQUIRES MEDICAL ASSESSMENT AND OFTEN NEEDS ANTIBIOTICS. Untreated it can form an abscess. And ANY NEW BREAST LUMP, SKIN CHANGE, NIPPLE CHANGE OR DISCHARGE REQUIRES PROMPT ASSESSMENT and must never be attributed to mastitis without examination — inflammatory breast cancer can resemble a breast infection. This record documents classical use and is not a substitute for having a breast symptom examined.
• These points sit over the chest, and chest fullness or tightness — especially with breathlessness, sweating, or pain spreading to the arm or jaw — is a medical emergency.
• ASTHMA CAN BE FATAL and requires prescribed management. A cough lasting more than three weeks, or with blood, weight loss or fever, requires assessment.

How it is combined. With ST-15 above and ST-18 Ru Gen below on the mammillary line. With REN-18 Yu Tang on the midline in the same third space, and KI-24 at 2 cun between them. With REN-17 Shan Zhong, the Hui-Meeting point of qi and the principal chest point, and SI-01 Shao Ze distally, the classical breast point. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the KI-24, REN-17, REN-18, SI-01, ST-15 and ST-18 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-16 Ying Chuang located?

ST-16 is on the chest, four cun out from the midline, in the third space between the ribs — on the vertical line through the nipple.

• In the third intercostal space, 4 cun lateral to the midline, on the mammillary line
• Level with REN-18 Yu Tang on the midline
• ST-15 Wu Yi lies one space above; ST-17 Ru Zhong — the nipple — one space below in the fourth

The nipple is the reference for this whole line, and its limits are the whole caution. The 4-cun mammillary line is defined by the nipple — ST-17, which our records mark as a landmark-only point, never treated. But that landmark holds only in the young male body: in women and in older men the nipple descends and moves outward, and it cannot be used to fix a space or a line. On those bodies the space is found by counting ribs directly. Our ST-17, KI-23 and KI-24 records all state this limit, and it matters more here than almost anywhere, because the whole line depends on it.

Three channels across one space. At the third intercostal space our records place REN-18 on the midline, KI-24 at 2 cun, and ST-16 at 4 cun — the Conception Vessel, the Kidney channel and the Stomach channel side by side, distinguished by lateral distance alone.

On the name. “Ying Chuang” means Breast Window. Chuang, a window, is shared with SI-16 Tian Chuang and GB-16 Mu Chuang — and is not the huang of the four points that carry that word.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the GB-16, KI-23, KI-24, REN-18, SI-16, ST-15 and ST-17 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 142): On the chest, in the third intercostal space, 4 cun lateral to the midline (Yutang REN-18), on the mamillary line.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 149): In the third intercostal space, 4 cun lateral to the anterior midline.

How is ST-16 Ying Chuang needled?

Our own record states OBLIQUE insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable — and this point sits over the chest, in the band where pneumothorax is the documented hazard. 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: oblique, 0.3–0.5 inch — the same insertion our records give at ST-13, ST-14 and ST-15 on this line, and matching the oblique shallow insertion the Kidney chest points carry. On the chest the obliquity is the safety feature and not a stylistic detail: a needle laid along the intercostal space stays in the chest wall, while a perpendicular one is aimed into the thorax.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: pectoralis major overlies the intercostal muscles; the intercostal nerve and vessels run along the lower border of the rib above; the pleura and lung lie deep to the intercostal muscles; the breast tissue lies superficially over the point, more extensively in women.

Hazard, stated proportionately. Pneumothorax is the documented hazard of the chest and rib region, and the recorded oblique angle and shallow depth are what address it. Our record carries no arterial caution — nine points in this library do, counted by query, and ST-16 is not among them. The breast tissue overlying the point is a reason the classical texts specify a shallow oblique angle rather than a perpendicular one, quite apart from the pleura beneath.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at ST-16 could be located, and none is borrowed. The paediatric chest-CT study this library uses measured 23 points on the back and shoulder; our BL-45, BL-46, SI-14 and SI-15 records hold figures from it, and every one belongs to a point on the back. No case report naming ST-16 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the ST-13 to ST-15 and Kidney chest insertions compared; every needling record queried and the nine arterial cautions counted; the point list of PMID 26922245 confirmed not to include ST-16), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on ST-16, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates ST-16. Where the point appears it is one component of a respiratory or breast protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. ST-16 sits in the third intercostal space on the 4-cun mammillary line — part of a Stomach chest ladder that mirrors the Kidney chest ladder one channel further out, both climbing one intercostal space at a time, both with breast indications clustered in the middle. Its action and indications agree — it benefits the breasts and records mastitis — unlike the eight mismatch cases this project has documented. And chuang, window, is not the huang of the four points that carry that word.

The breast warning is the operative content. Any new breast lump or nipple change needs prompt assessment, and inflammatory breast cancer can resemble mastitis. Nothing here is a substitute for examination.

A note on searching for it. “ST 16”, “S 16” and “Yingchuang” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material, and a plain-text search for huang will return this point spuriously. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and needling records; the Stomach and Kidney chest ladders compared, every chuang/huang name separated, and the field-mismatch cases queried, against our own data).