What Yuji does
Yuji 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 Lung Qi and stops coughing
- Benefits the throat
- 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. With the thumb relaxed, the first metacarpal can be traced along the fleshy part of the thenar eminence from the wrist toward the web. The point is at the midpoint of that bone, on the border between the paler palm and the redder dorsal skin, a colour change that is easier to see than to measure. Pressing down toward the bone usually produces a sharp, local tenderness, and sliding a fingernail along the colour boundary will often find a small dip. If the thumb is held rigid the muscle belly shifts and the midpoint moves with it, so ask the patient to let the hand rest open.
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 half a to one cun. Direction: Needle in the direction the location describes.
Moxibustion
Questionable, and treated with caution by most sources. The classical records three to five minutes where moxa is used at all, and several classical authors either avoid it or list the point as unsuitable, since the fire phase of a metal channel is already the source of its heat clearing action. Where it is used, the session is short and the throat is watched for dryness.
Cupping
Contraindicated at the point. The thenar eminence is small, muscular and densely supplied with nerve endings, and suction there adds nothing that needling does not; when cupping is wanted for an upper jiao pattern it is placed on the upper back.
Gua sha
Questionable. Scraping across a sensitive thenar eminence is uncomfortable and is not part of standard practice. Where gua sha is chosen for surface heat it is worked along the arm or on the upper back instead.
Skin uses
Yuji is the Ying-spring point of the Lung channel on the thenar eminence, recorded to clear Lung Heat, descend Lung Qi, benefit the throat and calm the Mind. The classical record notes that the Lung channel reaches this place and that the qi here is still close to the surface, which gives an indirect traditional basis for reading a surface picture through the Lung. Its recorded indications are respiratory and emotional rather than skin. No skin-specific classical indication is recorded for the point, and the link 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 |
|---|---|
| Five phase | Fire-Huo |
| Transporting type | Spring-Ying Point |
| Mother-child role | Child (Reducing) |
Classical record
The old text records that the Lung channel slips down into the thenar eminence: 溜于鱼际, the flow glides to Yuji. The phrase is the first naming of the point and it fixes its character, a place where the channel qi is still close to the surface.
Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), chapter two, Ben Shu
The location given is on the inner side, behind the joint where the thumb meets the hand, among the dispersed vessels: 在手大指本节后内侧散脉中. That description is the ancestor of the modern instruction to find the point at the boundary between the red and white skin.
Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture)
The Golden Mirror begins its entry with moxibustion for toothache: 鱼际主灸牙齿痛. It then adds needling for wind cold when no sweat will come, and for malarial chill, which shows how far the reach of the point extended beyond the throat.
Yi Zong Jin Jian (Golden Mirror of Medicine)
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
No special hazard is recorded for this point; use standard care for the region and adjust depth to the patient. The thenar eminence is an exception to that general note. It is one of the most richly innervated areas of the hand, so the point is sharper than most, and a quick confident insertion is kinder than a slow one. Depth is kept within the range given rather than aimed at the palm, and the needle is not driven toward the wrist. Patients taking anticoagulants bruise easily here, and a small haematoma can make the hand stiff for a day or two. Moxibustion is disputed, since the fire phase of a metal channel does not welcome more heat.
Deficiency and constitution
In a depleted patient the point is worked gently and briefly. Clearing heat costs an empty body something, so the technique is mild and the session short. The reference allows the point in a depleted patient with a dry throat only when Zhaohai KI-6 is added to moisten what is hollow, and even then the reducing element is kept to a minimum. The patient is asked about dizziness on standing, and a thin, tired person is not needled here daily.
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 Yuji do in skin practice?
It is used where the skin picture includes fear anger sadness coughing dry throat sore throat restlnessness manic behaviour feeling of heat shortness of breath, always as part of a combination chosen for the pattern.
Why is a point on the thumb used for the throat?
The Lung channel runs from the chest out to the thumb, and the throat is the gateway of the Lung, so points on the channel are used for throat problems. Yuji sits at the fleshy base of the thumb and is the spring point of that channel, which the tradition treats as the point for heat in the organ it belongs to.
Can Yuji be used when the throat is only dry?
Carefully. A dry throat from yin deficiency is not the same as an inflamed one, and the reference allows Yuji in that case only with Zhaohai KI-6, which moistens what is empty. Used alone and reduced, the point can leave a depleted patient drier and more tired.
Why is moxibustion not recommended here?
Yuji is a fire point on a metal channel, and its whole purpose is to clear heat. Adding moxa supplies the very thing the point is chosen to remove, and the classical records it as questionable, with only a short session where it is used at all. Most of the conditions listed for Yuji would be made worse by warmth.
Is it a painful point?
More than most hand points. The thenar eminence is densely innervated, so insertion is felt sharply, though the sensation settles into a deep ache or distension. A quick insertion and a still hand afterwards keep it tolerable, and the point is often worked with a smaller gauge needle than the rest of a treatment.
How does it differ from Chize LU-5?
Both clear Lung heat, but Chize is used where the pattern is chronic and phlegm is obstructing the chest, while Yuji is for acute heat in a patient who is still strong. Practitioners often choose Yuji early in an illness and Chize later, when the chest has become congested.