下脘 Xiawan
“Lower Stomach Cavity” · CV10
Conception Vessel · 10 of 24 · crossing-point
Where. On the midline of the belly, two thumb-widths above the navel.
For. Bloating, indigestion, hiccups.
Press. Gentle with the fingertips, about a minute.
下脘，在建裏下一寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Xiawan Sits on the Midline
The dataset locates Xiawan on the upper abdomen, on the anterior midline, two cun above the centre of the umbilicus. Every piece of that sentence is worth unpacking before fingers go looking. The anterior midline is the body’s vertical centre line, running from the throat notch down the breastbone, across the soft belly, to the pubic bone; points posted on it belong to the Ren vessel, which classical texts describe running up the midline of the front of the body, uniting all the yin meridians. A cun, as ever, is the traditional proportional measure taken from the person being examined — about one thumb-width at the knuckle — rather than a fixed ruler length. Classical proportion divides the stretch from navel to the lower tip of the breastbone into eight such cun, which sets two-cun-up Xiawan in the lower quarter of that territory, far closer to the navel than to the ribs.
What lies beneath the fingertips deserves respect rather than fear. Here the abdominal wall presents skin, a variable layer of fat, and broad flat sheets of muscle whose fibers cross one another like plywood, all wrapped in membranous fascia; behind them, with no rib cage and no bone intervening, rest the digestive organs themselves. There is no groove between ribs to catch a finger and no sharp landmark to brace against — the midline feels like a soft valley between two gentle slopes of belly, sometimes marked by a faint, cord-like ridge where the two halves of the abdominal wall meet. Because nothing bony backs the area, good contact registers quickly: a mild, spreading dullness or warmth arrives long before any real depth, which makes this an easy point to practice lightly and a poor one to bully.
Company along the midline helps the search. One thumb-width below, nearer the navel, waits Shuifen (CV9), the Water Divide; one thumb-width above sits Jianli (CV11); farther up the same line stand Zhongwan (CV12) at four cun and Shangwan (CV13) at five. Those last three share their second character, wan 脘 — the stomach-cavity character — and descend in plain order: upper, middle, lower. Reading the sequence turns a lonely hunt into a census: find one station and the others are spaced thumb-width by thumb-width along the same soft line, milestones on a single road. Losing count mid-search simply means returning to the navel, finding its true centre, and measuring up again, slowly.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Lie down on your back with knees bent and a cushion under them, letting the belly soften — or sit well supported if lying is awkward. First find the navel and its true centre; the dataset measures everything from there. Lay the pad of your index finger just above the navel, squarely on the midline, and walk upward two thumb-widths, keeping the travel strictly vertical, toward the notch at the base of the breastbone. At the second milestone, settle the fingertip and press gently, searching not for a hole but for a faint answer — a dull, spreading awareness that says the tissue here has noticed the attention. Most people find the true spot answers more clearly than the skin a thumb-width away in any direction.
A few quiet checks confirm the placement. Breathe slowly and feel the fingertip ride the breath: on inhalation the belly swells and the finger lifts a little; on exhalation it settles back down. Slide half a thumb-width down toward the navel, then half a thumb-width up toward the ribs, and compare — the roundest, clearest sensation usually marks home. Trace the midline with a feather-light touch afterward to be sure you never drifted onto the slopes of either abdominal muscle; the true point keeps company with the body’s vertical centre line, not the hills beside it. If everything feels flat and silent, do not push harder — nudge a finger-width and ask again, because point-hunting rewards patience far more than force.
Three slips account for most misses. The first is measuring downward out of habit and landing on the stretch of midline below the navel, which is different territory altogether; every distance here runs up, toward the breastbone. The second is drifting sideways onto the muscular slopes flanking the midline, where landmarks go soft and the search loses shape; return to the central valley. The third is overshooting to Jianli or Zhongwan — a harmless confusion, since they are neighbors on the same road, though counting thumb-widths from the navel, one and then two, keeps the address honest. And because navels differ in shape and depth, anchor to the centre of the umbilicus itself rather than to its rim.
Reading the Name: Lower Stomach Cavity
The characters tell the story compactly. Xia 下 means lower or beneath — one of the simplest characters in the language, a short stroke set beneath a horizontal line. Wan 脘 names a hollow interior chamber, used above all for the cavity of the stomach; dictionaries gloss it as the stomach’s inner space, and by extension the fleshy region where that space resides. Joined, Xiawan reads as the Lower Stomach Cavity: the station where the midline enters the stomach’s territory at its lowest reach. The catalogue’s own records make the family visible — Zhongwan, the middle cavity, at four cun; Shangwan, the upper cavity, at five — so the trio climbs the midline like floors of one building, with Xiawan holding the ground floor nearest the navel.
The catalogue adds one further credential: it tags Xiawan as a crossing-point. Classical channel descriptions treat such spots as meeting places where more than one pathway converges, and crossroads carried weight in traditional reasoning, because whatever gathered at a junction was thought to arrive from several directions at once. Position deepens the claim: the Ren vessel itself is described as uniting all the yin meridians along this very midline, so a crossing posted on the Ren stands on a road that already hosts many travelers. In the traditional frame, then, this low stretch of midline reads as a busy junction of digestion — a place where the business of the belly was understood to pool, to stall, and to move again.
Pinyin renders the name Xiàwǎn. The first syllable carries the fourth tone — a short, falling note, written with a grave accent over the a; the second carries the third tone — the dipping tone that sinks, turns, and rises again, marked by a small v-shaped hook over the a. Said slowly, the name lands with a down-then-lilt rhythm, like stepping down into a courtyard. Like so many points named for architecture — gates, valleys, courtyards, storehouses, cavities — the metaphor does quiet work: it files this spot among the rooms of the trunk rather than the corridors of the limbs, and the filing turns out to be information.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: abdominal pain, abdominal distension, indigestion, hiccups, diarrhoea, and abdominal masses. Framed as tradition rather than promise, the list sketches one coherent neighborhood. Distension is the old records’ term for a belly that feels blown up, tight, or oppressive — fullness understood as qi failing to circulate freely through the middle burner, the traditional name for the digestive middle floor of the trunk. Indigestion gathers the everyday complaints of eating: food sitting heavily, discomfort after meals, the sense that the stomach’s work of receiving and ripening has slowed. Hiccups earn their own entry because the tradition held a whole theory for them — qi that ought to descend instead rebelling upward — and points along the stomach’s midline were natural addresses in those discussions.
Diarrhoea belongs to the same household: loose, urgent bowels were read as the intestines failing to secure and transform, and midline points above the navel stood in classical discussions alongside points nearer it. The last item asks for the most care in translation. Abdominal masses is a historical category — the old books describe practitioners feeling fixed or mobile gatherings in the belly and explaining them as congealed qi and blood, stagnant accumulations that tradition sought to move. These are observations and theories from a premodern medicine, recorded for completeness and cultural understanding. They are not statements about any modern diagnosis, and the honest modern footnote writes itself: anyone who can feel a lump in the abdomen should be seen promptly by a physician — before, and quite apart from, anything a wellness page might say.
It bears repeating plainly: these are the traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered for cultural and historical understanding — not claims that pressing this point treats disease. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. Nothing here replaces assessment by a qualified clinician. Hold the tradition lightly and hold the safety rules firmly; that pairing is the whole craft of reading an old point honestly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point found by the walkthrough above, set up comfortably: lying on your back, knees supported, hands warmed first — cold hands make bellies guard. Rest the pads of two fingers, never the tips, on the spot. Begin with contact alone for a few easy breaths, then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue beneath rather than grinding into it. Aim for pleasant dullness or gentle warmth; sharpness is always a signal to lighten or stop. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes, once or twice daily, kept clear of the hour right after a large meal, and matched where possible to slow exhales so each circle rides the breath out.
Quality matters more than duration. Light, patient, regularly repeated touch is the entire register this page practises; hard jabbing teaches the body nothing and can leave the belly sore for hours afterward. Choose a quiet corner over a screen, since the practice doubles as a pause: inhale through the nose, feel the abdomen rise under still fingers, press gently on the long exhale. People who keep such routines usually anchor them to an existing habit — after washing up, before bed — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for.
Treat those few minutes as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks you may notice the belly feels less guarded, that mealtimes feel calmer, or simply that you spent ninety unhurried seconds tending yourself. All of that sits inside the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not sit inside it is escalation — pressing deeper, longer, or harder to force a particular result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness or stop for the day; the practice will still be waiting tomorrow.
Cautions and Safe Practice
The licensed record for Xiawan is notable for what it omits: the dataset lists no specific caution for this point, unlike some of its neighbors. An absent warning is not an invitation to force. The abdomen carries no bony armor, and professional practice follows its own strict rules along this midline; home self-care stays safe by a simpler strategy — never leaving the surface. Gentle fingertip pressure engages skin and the outermost layer of the abdominal wall, a very different enterprise from anything directed inward, and the distance between those two enterprises is the entire basis of this page’s confidence.
The practical rules follow plainly. Skip the point entirely when the belly is acutely unwell — active vomiting, cramping, or any sudden severe abdominal pain calls for medical assessment, not massage. Set the practice aside during feverish illness and over broken, irritated, or injured skin. Pregnant readers should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice, and classical custom counselled special care around abdominal points in pregnancy besides — a prudence worth keeping. Anyone recovering from abdominal surgery, or living with a diagnosed digestive condition, should wait for a practitioner’s clearance. Stop at once on sharp, electric, or radiating sensation, and do not retry that day.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Seek prompt medical care — not a pressure routine — for persistent or worsening abdominal pain, blood in the stool or vomit, unexplained weight loss, difficulty swallowing, or bowel habits that change and stay changed. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, whether physician or East Asian medical clinician as suits the complaint. The kindest gift the Lower Stomach Cavity offers most people is a better acquaintance with their own middle, tended gently, and the habit of listening to it early.
Xiawan, the Lower Stomach Cavity, rests low on the upper abdomen, on the anterior midline, two cun above the centre of the navel. Classical practice reached for it when digestion felt stalled — belly fullness, discomfort around eating, hiccups, loose stools. This guide walks you there by touch, reads the story inside its name, and shows how gentle self-acupressure can fit into ordinary days.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Xiawan without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the navel as the whole map. Lie back, find the true centre of your navel, then walk two thumb-widths straight up the midline, toward the breastbone. The spot that answers with a mild, spreading dullness — clearly on the central line, not on the slopes beside it — is the location the dataset describes. Cun measurements simply encode that same landmark walk in proportional language.
- Is pressing a point on the abdomen myself actually safe?
- For healthy adults, gentle fingertip pressure held on the surface is generally reasonable self-care: it engages skin and the outermost abdominal wall, far short of the organs beneath. The dataset records no specific caution for Xiawan, and home acupressure never approaches the techniques professionals reserve for themselves. Respect the stop signals — sharp pain, radiating sensation, or anything that worsens — and skip the point entirely whenever the belly is acutely unwell.
- What did classical practice use Xiawan for?
- The traditional record lists abdominal pain, abdominal distension, indigestion, hiccups, diarrhoea, and abdominal masses. Classical texts describe the point as the low station of the stomach-cavity line on the Ren vessel and tag it a crossing-point where pathways meet, which is why belly-centred complaints dominate its portfolio. Those are traditional frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does the catalogue call Xiawan a crossing-point?
- Classical channel descriptions treat certain locations as meeting places where more than one pathway converges, and the tradition reasoned that whatever pooled at such junctions arrived from several directions at once. Xiawan holds that status while sitting on the Ren vessel itself, the midline route described as uniting all the yin meridians — a crossroads on a road that was already a thoroughfare. The label helps explain the breadth of its historic portfolio; it promises nothing about results.
- Can acupressure at Xiawan replace seeing a doctor about ongoing digestive trouble?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not a diagnostic tool, and persistent digestive symptoms — lasting pain, changing bowel habits, blood, weight loss, trouble swallowing — need professional assessment promptly. Think of the two as different floors of the same building: daily self-care lives downstairs, and clinical medicine keeps the consulting room upstairs for when symptoms persist or escalate. Neither substitutes for the other.
Sources
- 01WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region (2008), World Health Organization — nomenclature conventions.
- 02A Manual of Acupuncture, Peter Deadman, Mazin Al-Khafaji and Kevin Baker — point-name tradition, stomach-cavity lore, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for CV10 Xiawan — location, point class, actions, and indication record.
Last reviewed
牌記This leaf, for machines
Old books ended with a colophon saying who printed them. Every leaf here carries the same facts as structured data for agents and search, with no layout in the way.
- GET /en/points/cv10/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/cv10/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/cv10/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "CV10",
"name": {
"en": "Xiawan",
"gloss": "Lower Stomach Cavity",
"zh-Hant": "下脘",
"zh-Hans": "下脘"
},
"channel": {
"id": "CV",
"order": 10,
"of": 24
},
"location": {
"text": "On the midline of the belly, two thumb-widths above the navel."
},
"for": [
"bloating",
"indigestion",
"hiccups"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle with the fingertips, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/cv10",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}