What Chize does
Chize is treated here as a practical point rather than a curiosity: where it sits, how it is needled, what the tradition says it does, and the skin conditions in this database that name it.
Actions
- Clears Lung Heat
- Descends the Lung Qi
- Regulates water passages and benefits the Bladder
- Relaxes the sinews and eases pain
Location
The written location is summarised from the classical record; use the landmark named there together with the diagram.
How to find it
Find the bony landmark first, then feel for the hollow or tender spot the location describes. The point is usually sensitive when pressed. Bend the elbow a little so the biceps tendon stands out clearly against the crease. The point is on the thumb side of that tendon, in the soft hollow just beside it on the cubital crease. The tendon can be felt rolling under the finger, and pressing into the hollow is usually sore.
Deqi
De qi at this point is felt as local distension, heaviness or aching, and may travel a short way along the channel. Local distension and soreness at the point, often running as an electric or numb feeling toward the forearm and sometimes to the thumb and index finger. Some patients feel a mild tingling across the elbow, and now and then it travels up toward the chest.
A cun is a proportional body measurement, not a fixed length: one cun is about the width of the thumb at the knuckle, 1.5 cun about two finger widths, and 3 cun about the width of four fingers. On an average adult one cun is roughly one inch, but it scales with the person, which is why the texts measure in cun rather than centimetres.
Technique
Needling
Angle: 90 degrees, perpendicular Depth: Standard depth half a to one cun. Direction: Needle in the direction the location describes.
Moxibustion
Recorded as questionable. Where it is used the reference gives five to ten minutes, and moxa suits only cases with cold features since the point otherwise drains heat.
Gua sha
Listed as questionable, so gua sha is not part of routine care over the cubital crease.
Bleeding
Rated particularly recommended at this point, which fits the hot and excess patterns it serves. The cubital vein lies close, so it is a practitioner technique and not something to attempt at home.
Skin uses
Chize is the He-sea point of the Lung channel, recorded to clear Lung Heat, descend Lung Qi and regulate the water passages. The Lung channel is traditionally associated with the body surface, so the recorded action of clearing and descending is the basis for an indirect skin reading where redness, heat or dryness is understood as a Lung pattern. The point also sits in the elbow crease, which gives it a local field over that area. No skin-specific classical indication is recorded for the point, and the reasoning above is therefore indirect, not trial evidence.
No skin-specific classical indication is recorded for this point. The rationale above is an indirect, traditional reading of the point, not a promise of benefit.
Point classifications
| Classification | Value |
|---|---|
| Five phase | Water-Shui |
| Transporting type | Sea-He Point |
| Mother-child role | Child (Reducing) |
Classical record
The He [point] is at the elbow, in the moving vessel
Classical citation for this point.
In the elbow crease, above the transverse crease at the moving vessel.
Classical citation for this point.
In the elbow crease, in the moving vessel, at the elbow transverse crease in the depression between sinew and bone. Needled three fen deep, retained for three breaths, with five cones of moxa.
Zhen Jiu Da Cheng (针灸大成, Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion).
Chize treats vomiting and diarrhoea with discharge above and below, and pain below the ribs.
Zi Sheng Jing (资生经, Classic of Nourishing Life).
Safety
Who should treat this point
Acupuncture and moxibustion are practitioner procedures. This page is educational and is not a guide to self-treatment.
Caution
The classical records a real hazard at this point. The cubital vein runs close by, so the point is located and needled with the elbow slightly bent, and depth stays under one cun. Deep puncture may pierce the vessels beneath, cause bleeding and, in the traditional account, trap the pathogen, which leaves the elbow stiff to bend and straighten. Scarring moxa is avoided near the joint. In a stroke patient with a spastic elbow, deep needling may worsen contracture. The reference does record a hazard here.
Deficiency and constitution
In a depleted patient the point is worked gently and briefly. The reference is blunt about this point: it is not used for empty patterns at all, because its whole work is draining excess heat. Where a case is mixed, the deficiency is carried by other points and only light technique is used here.
Before treatment
Educational reference only. Skin that is spreading, painful, blistering or accompanied by fever needs medical assessment.
Modern evidence and safety
General references for acupuncture safety and skin evidence. They are not specific to this point, and they are not a claim that needling it treats any condition.
- Acupuncture-related adverse events: systematic review and meta-analyses of prospective clinical studies. BMJ Open, 2021. PMID: 34489268.
- Acupuncture for atopic dermatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open, 2024. PMID: 39638592.
- Manual acupuncture for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Surgery, 2025. PMID: 40696933.
- Acupuncture in Dermatology: An Update to a Systematic Review. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2021. PMID: 32955916.
Evidence note
No controlled trial of this treatment in skin conditions was identified for this entry. What is described here rests on the classical and later materia medica record and on traditional clinical use, not on controlled trial evidence, and it is not a prediction of benefit. Where skin-specific research does exist it is linked above.
Common questions
What does Chize do in skin practice?
It is used where the skin picture includes the conditions it is used with, always as part of a combination chosen for the pattern.
Why is Chize avoided in deficiency?
Because its whole action is to drain. The reference states plainly that the point is not used for empty patterns at all, and describes it as mainly a way of clearing excess interior heat from the Lungs. In a mixed case the deficient side is carried by other points and the technique here stays light.