What Quze does
Quze 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 Heat and cools Blood
- Subdues Rebellious Stomach Qi
- Invigorates Blood and Qi in the chest
- Calms the Mind
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. Ask the patient to flex the elbow to about a right angle with the palm turned up, which makes the biceps tendon stand out as a cord across the crease. Run a finger along the crease from the thumb side, where Chize LU-5 sits, toward the little finger side and stop just past the tendon. The point is in the soft hollow beside the tendon there. The pulse of the brachial artery can be felt a little medial and deep to it, so note where the pulse is before marking the spot.
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: 90 degrees, perpendicular Depth: Standard depth one to one cun. Direction: Needle in the direction the location describes.
Moxibustion
Ten to fifteen minutes of moxa is recorded for this point, though it fits the heat clearing use less well than bloodletting does. It is chosen when the chest feels cold or the stagnation comes from cold, and the stick is kept moving over the hollow so the skin is warmed rather than burned.
Cupping
Cupping is recorded as questionable here. The hollow is small, the biceps tendon and the artery sit inside it, and a cup cannot be seated without pulling on both, so when cupping is wanted for the chest the upper back is used instead.
Gua sha
Gua sha is recorded as questionable at this point. The crease is thin, the artery lies immediately beneath it, and the area is not one where a board can be worked safely, so the technique is not used here.
Bleeding
This is one of the classic sites for bloodletting, and the reference marks it as particularly recommended. A three-edged needle lets a few drops from the small vein over the hollow, performed by a practitioner trained to do it, and the technique is reserved for acute heat with a red face, high fever or a blotchy rash.
Skin uses
Quze is the He-sea point of the Pericardium, recorded to clear Heat, cool the Blood, invigorate Blood and Qi in the chest and subdue rebellious Stomach Qi. The action of cooling the Blood is the clearest traditional basis for an indirect skin reading, because heat in the Blood is described as a deep redness that cooling addresses. The classical entry names wind rash once among other disorders, and no skin-specific classical indication is recorded in the library for it. The link 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 |
|---|---|
| Five phase | Water-Shui |
| Transporting type | Sea-He Point |
| Mother-child role | Child (Reducing) |
Combinations
Heat in the blood with a rash
PC-3 · LI-11 · BL-40
All three are classic sites for letting blood, and the combination is used when heat has reached the blood level in an acute fever with a blotchy or scarlet rash. Quze works on the pericardium and the chest, Quchi clears heat from the yangming and the skin, and Weizhong is the blood point behind the knee, so the treatment reaches the arm, the elbow and the leg at once.
Classical record
Treats heart pain, tendency to fright, body heat, vexation and thirst with dry mouth, counterflow Qi with vomiting blood, wind rash, and trembling of the elbow, arm, hand, and wrist.
Classical citation for this point.
Quze is the He-Sea point of the pericardium channel, the place where the channel qi enters deeply and unites with the organ.
Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), as recorded in the classical literature.
Heart pain, palpitations, heat diseases and tremor of the arm are the disorders this classic records for Quze.
Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing (Systematic Classic), as recorded in the classical literature.
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 brachial artery runs through this hollow and the median nerve lies behind it, so the needle is kept shallow, placed to the little finger side of the tendon, and the pulse is checked before insertion. Sharp electric pain running into the hand means the needle has met the nerve and is drawn back slightly. Bloodletting is done with a three-edged needle by a practitioner trained in it, with pressure applied afterwards, and it is not offered to anyone who is pregnant, on anticoagulants or living with a bleeding disorder.
Deficiency and constitution
In a depleted patient the point is worked gently and briefly. Where the patient is depleted the point is needled superficially with little or no manipulation, and bloodletting is not added. Because the effect is strongly clearing, it is used sparingly in anyone who is thin, pale, easily tired or recovering from a long illness, and treatment stops if the patient becomes light-headed.
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 Quze 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?
90° (Perpendicular). Standard depth 0.8 - 1.0 cun. De qi: Local sensation of soreness and distension at the elbow. The needle sensation (deqi) typically radiates distally toward the middle finger along the Pericardium channel pathway. Some patients may feel a spreading warmth or electrical sensation in the forearm.
Why is Quze bled rather than needled deeply?
The brachial artery and vein run through the hollow at the elbow crease and the median nerve lies behind them, so a deep perpendicular needle is risky and the reference advises shallow insertion only. The point also has a long tradition of bloodletting with a three-edged needle, which suits its main use in acute heat: a few drops released from the small vein over the crease. Both are practitioner procedures.
Which skin picture points to Quze?
A rash that appears with fever, especially a blotchy or scarlet macular rash with a dry mouth, thirst and restlessness at night. The tradition reads that as heat that has moved from the surface into the blood, and Quze is chosen to cool the blood rather than to treat the skin from outside. It is used with points such as Quchi and Weizhong, which clear heat and move blood.
Does the water classification change how Quze is used?
The reference classes Quze as the water phase point and the sea point of a fire channel, and records its mother child role as child with a reducing effect. That supports the clearing use described above: the point drains excess from the pericardium and the blood rather than supplementing the channel. It is a detail of classification rather than a separate method of treatment.