What Qimen does
Qimen 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
- Invigorates Liver Qi
- Harmonises the Liver and Stomach
Location
Four cun measured from the landmark shown in the diagram and the location text, on the mammillary line, two ribs below the nipple, in the 6th intercostal space, 4 cun lateral to the midline.
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. Find the nipple, which usually sits in the fourth intercostal space, and count downwards from it. Two spaces lower, in the sixth intercostal space, on the same vertical line and four cun from the midline, is Qimen. Where the nipple is not a reliable landmark, the fourth space is found from the sternum instead and the same count is made from there. Some texts place the point instead at the lower edge of the rib cage, in line with the nipple or four cun from the midline in women.
Deqi
De qi at this point is felt as local distension, heaviness or aching, and may travel a short way along the channel.
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: 45 degrees, oblique Depth: Standard depth half a to one cun. Direction: Needle in the direction the location describes.
Moxibustion
The reference gives ten to twenty minutes of moxibustion at Qimen. Warmth is chosen where the pattern is cold, as in a rib-side that aches and feels cold to the hand, and where the liver is constrained by cold rather than by heat. When damp-heat is being cleared, as in the pairing with Yanglingquan GB-34, the needle is the usual choice.
Cupping
Cupping is recorded as questionable at Qimen. The point sits over the rib cage with the lung beneath, and suction on the chest wall is uncomfortable and of little use at this depth, so it does not belong to the standard approach described for the point.
Gua sha
Gua sha is also recorded as questionable here. The front of the chest is a place where the ribs lie close under the skin and the organs behind them are the lung on the left and the liver on the right, so this technique is better kept to the back and shoulders than applied over the point itself.
Skin uses
Qimen is recorded as a meeting point of the foot Taiyin and foot Jueyin channels and the Yin Linking vessel, with actions that invigorate Liver Qi and harmonise the Liver and Stomach. Its location on the chest and hypochondrium supports a local reading where skin changes appear in that region, while the recorded Liver Qi action is the traditional basis for reasoning about constrained Qi, a pattern often described as stress-linked. The classical passages concern the Liver overwhelming the Spleen or Lungs, not the skin. Because no skin-specific classical indication is recorded for the point, the connection above is an indirect rationale, 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 |
|---|---|
| Channel | Meridian |
Classical record
When there is Cold Damage with abdominal fullness and delirious speech, and the cun-kou pulse is floating and tight, this is the Liver overwhelming the Spleen, called 'vertical invasion' (zong) - needle Qimen.
Classical citation for this point.
It treats vexation and heat in the chest, running piglet qi moving up and down, green eyes with vomiting, cholera and diarrhoea, a hard and firm abdomen, great panting with inability to rest, and qi gathered below the ribs.
Tong Ren Shu Xue Zhen Jiu Tu Jing, the illustrated classic of the bronze figure, on the signs it assigns to the point.
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
Safety flags: the reference marks it as a dangerous point. Needle with care, adjust depth to the patient's build, and modify or avoid the point where a flag applies. The point lies over the pleural cavity. On the right the liver sits beneath it and on the left the stomach, and the reference warns that a deep perpendicular insertion risks a pneumothorax. Needle obliquely or transversely along the intercostal space, following the line of the rib rather than crossing it, and keep within 0.5 to 0.8 cun. Deep needling is not recommended here under any circumstances, and the angle is controlled throughout rather than set once at insertion.
Deficiency and constitution
In a depleted patient the point is worked gently and briefly. In a depleted patient the point is worked lightly and briefly, and reducing is not the aim: the intention is to help the liver move without draining what is already thin.
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 Qimen 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.
How is it needled?
45° (Oblique) / 10-15° (Transverse). Standard depth 0.5 - 0.8 cun. De qi: Local distension and soreness at the point. Sensation may radiate toward the posterior abdominal wall or spread along the intercostal space. Some patients experience a deep ache that extends toward the hypochondrium or epigastric region.
Where exactly is the point?
On the mammillary line, two ribs below the nipple, in the sixth intercostal space, four cun from the midline. Some texts place it instead at the lower edge of the rib cage on the same line, and the reference treats the two positions as separate points, using the intercostal one for channel problems and the lower one for problems of the organ.
Which direction should the needle take?
Obliquely, either laterally or medially, to a depth of about half to one cun, travelling along the intercostal space rather than across it. The medial direction is the one the reference prefers when breast symptoms are being treated, because the tip then moves towards the tissue in question. Whichever is chosen, the needle stays shallow for the reason given in the safety note.