ST-42 (Chong Yang) Surging Yang

What does ST-42 Chong Yang do?

ST-42 is the Yuan-Source point of the Stomach channel — and it sits directly on the pulse of the dorsalis pedis artery, which is what its name refers to. “Chong Yang” means Surging Yang: the surging is the arterial pulsation you can feel under the finger.

• Clears heat from the Stomach channel — applied to the upper teeth and face, where the channel runs
• Harmonises the Stomach fu — the organ action of a Source point
• Calms the spirit
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain — the local action for the foot

Yang-channel Yuan points carry no five-shu element, and our data confirms it. Testing that rule across all twelve Yuan-Source points in this library gives twelve of twelve: the six on yin channels (LU-09, HT-07, P-07, SP-03, KI-03, LIV-03) each also carry a Shu-Stream classification, while the six on yang channels — ST-42, LI-04, SI-04, SJ-04, BL-64 and GB-40 — carry Yuan alone. On yang channels the Shu-Stream is a separate point; here it is ST-43 Xian Gu.

Why a Source point matters clinically. The Yuan-Source point is where the original qi of a channel is said to gather, and it is the classical first choice for the organ’s own state rather than for a symptom along the channel. Classical diagnosis also used the pulsation here as a sign of Stomach qi — a genuinely practical reason for the point to be where it is.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category and action records; all twelve Yuan-Source points and ST-43's classification queried and tested against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-42 Chong Yang used for?

ST-42 is used for upper toothache, for redness and swelling of the top of the foot, for facial paralysis, and for weakness or wasting of the foot. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Pain of the upper teeth
• Redness and swelling of the top of the foot
• Facial paralysis
• Muscular wasting and impaired movement of the foot

The list is the two ends of one channel. The Stomach channel begins below the eye and runs down the face, through the upper jaw and teeth, all the way to the second toe — so a point on the foot carries indications for the upper teeth and the face. Distal points treating the far end of their own channel is the standard classical logic, and it is unusually visible here.

Upper teeth specifically. That is not a loose detail. The Stomach channel is associated with the upper jaw and the Large Intestine channel with the lower — which is why our LI-02, LI-03 and LI-04 records carry toothache indications and this one specifies upper. A reader choosing between channels for dental pain uses exactly that distinction.

How it is combined. With ST-44 Nei Ting, the Ying-Spring point and the classical Stomach-heat point, and ST-43 Xian Gu, the Shu-Stream point, on the same foot. With ST-36 Zu San Li, the Lower He-Sea point, for the organ. With ST-06 and ST-07 locally for the face. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; ST-06, ST-07, ST-36, ST-43, ST-44 and the LI toothache records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-42 Chong Yang located?

ST-42 is on the top of the foot, in the hollow where the second and third metatarsals meet the cuneiform bones — at the highest point of the instep, where the pulse can be felt.

• At the junction of the second and third metatarsals with the cuneiforms
• The dorsalis pedis pulse is palpable here — the most reliable confirmation of the location
• ST-43 Xian Gu lies distal to it between the metatarsals; ST-41 Jie Xi proximal at the ankle crease

An arterial pulse as a landmark is rare and useful. Most points are found by proportional measurement or a bony feature; this one can be confirmed by feeling a pulse. That is the same relationship the Lung channel has with the radial artery at LU-09, the classical pulse-taking position — and in both cases the artery is both the landmark and the caution.

On the name. “Chong Yang” — Surging Yang. The pulsation is the surging; yang marks the channel and the dorsal (yang) surface of the foot. It is one of the more literal point names in the system: it describes what your finger feels.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; ST-41, ST-43 and LU-09 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 169): On the dorsum of the foot, in the depression formed by the junction of the second and third metatarsal bones and the cuneiform bones (second and third), 1.5 cun distal to Jiexi ST-41, on the line drawn between Jiexi ST-41 and Xiangu ST-43, at the point where the pulsation of the dorsalis pedis artery may be palpated.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 156): On the dome of the instep of the foot, between the tendons of long extensor muscle of the great toe and long extensor muscle of toes, where the pulsation of the dorsal artery of foot is palpable.

How is ST-42 Chong Yang needled?

Our own needling record OPENS with the caution — “avoid puncturing the artery” — before giving the depth, and that ordering is retained here because it reflects what matters at this point. Perpendicular insertion to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch is recorded, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Our record states first: avoid puncturing the artery. The dorsalis pedis artery runs directly across this point — it is the pulse used to locate it.
• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.3–0.5 inch.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the dorsalis pedis artery and its venae comitantes cross the point; the deep fibular nerve accompanies them; the extensor hallucis longus and extensor digitorum longus tendons lie either side, and the tarsal bones form the floor.

A point where the landmark and the hazard are the same structure. That is unusual and worth naming. Querying every needling record in this library, EIGHT points carry an explicit arterial caution: ST-42 with the dorsalis pedis; LU-08 Jing Qu and LU-09 Tai Yuan with the radial artery, LU-09 being the classical pulse-taking position itself; ST-05 Da Ying with the facial artery; ST-09 Ren Ying with the common carotid; SP-12 Chong Men with the femoral; HT-01 Ji Quan with the axillary; and SJ-22 He Liao with the superficial temporal, whose recorded depth of 0.1–0.3 inch is the shallowest of the nine. In each, the vessel is part of what defines the point — and in ST-05, ST-42, LU-09 and SJ-22 the pulse is also how the location is confirmed, so the landmark and the hazard are literally the same structure.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at ST-42 could be located, and none is borrowed. Our LU-09 record notes that no case report naming that point in a vascular injury was located and gives a 31-case vascular-injury review for proportion; the same applies here — no case report naming ST-42 was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record including the arterial caution, retained verbatim and in its recorded order; every needling record queried and the nine explicit arterial cautions counted), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on ST-42, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates ST-42. Where the point appears it is one component of a protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Where this channel’s attention has gone. Overwhelmingly to ST-36 Zu San Li, one of the most-researched points in the world — and our record for it is deliberately deflationary: post-operative ileus is the only substantial evidence base, the nausea and vomiting evidence is graded low to very low certainty, the imaging work is healthy-volunteer mechanism, and the immunity and longevity claims are explicitly rejected. If the channel’s flagship point warrants that much caution, a Source point on the foot should not be presented as having more.

What this page can state with confidence. Three checkable things. ST-42 is the Yuan-Source point of the Stomach channel, and carries no five-shu element — consistent with a rule that holds twelve out of twelve across our own data. Its pulse landmark is real and is also its hazard. And its upper-teeth indication reflects a genuine channel distinction: Stomach for the upper jaw, Large Intestine for the lower.

A note on searching for it. “ST 42” and “Chongyang” searches return protocol trials and a large volume of unrelated material — Chongyang is a Chinese festival and a county name, and also a common surname element. This library has discarded comparable matches throughout, including a city, a herb, a pension term and a lizard genomics paper. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification, location and indication records; ST-36's research findings and the twelve-point Yuan rule queried from our own data).