巨闕 Juque
“Great Gateway” · CV14
Conception Vessel · 14 of 24 · front-mu of the heart
Where. On the midline of the upper belly, two thumb-widths below the lower tip of the breastbone.
For. Palpitations, bloating, vomiting.
Press. Gentle with the fingertips, about a minute.
在鳩尾下一寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Juque Sits on the Upper Belly
The dataset states the address plainly: on the upper abdomen, on the anterior midline, 6 cun above the centre of the umbilicus, one quarter of the way down from the sternocostal junction toward the umbilicus. Translated into ordinary language, the upper abdomen is the stretch of belly between navel and rib cage. The anterior midline is the vertical seam running down the exact centre of the front of the body, equidistant from left and right at every height. The umbilicus is the navel, its centre meaning the middle of the hollow rather than the rim. The sternocostal junction is where the lower end of the breastbone meets the arches of the ribs — the soft V you can feel at the base of the chest, near the small cartilage tag called the xiphoid. Two independent readings of one address result: measured upward from the navel, six proportional units; measured downward from the breastbone’s foot, one quarter of the journey.
A cun throughout this literature is a proportional unit taken from the body being measured, not from a ruler — a thumb-width on a broad-framed adult differs from one on a slight teenager, and the system prefers it so. The neighbouring points make the geometry easy to trust. Zhongwan (CV12) sits 4 cun above the navel and is recorded as midway between the umbilicus and the sternocostal junction, which quietly fixes the whole stretch at eight cun; one quarter of eight is two, so Juque waits about two thumb-widths below the breastbone’s lower end and six above the navel. The ladder continues neatly: one cun below the junction lies Jiuwei (CV15), five cun above the navel lies Shangwan (CV13), four cun lies Zhongwan again. Misidentification therefore shows itself quickly — land on a neighbour and the error announces itself by height.
What lies beneath the fingertips here asks for gentleness rather than force. The midline of the upper abdomen carries no bone directly beneath it — the rib arches fall away to either side, leaving layered soft tissue: skin over fat over thin muscle, and behind all of it the abdominal organs at their quiet work. Only a little higher does the breastbone’s firm shield begin. The wall rises and falls with every breath, most visibly lying back, so a searching hand can watch the spot travel instead of pinning it down. Like every point on this channel, Juque is a single midline address worked once — there is no left-and-right pair to balance, which makes an unhurried search the whole craft.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Recline on a bed or mat with the knees bent, letting the belly soften — a relaxed abdomen locates far better than a braced one. Trace the breastbone downward from the chest until it ends where the rib arches converge, at the soft notch at the base of the sternum. From that junction, walk straight down the midline about two thumb-widths and let your fingertips settle: that level, dead centre on the seam of the belly, is the address the dataset describes. Prefer working from below? Rest a fingertip on the centre of the navel, stack four fingers of the other hand together — tradition sizes a four-finger breadth at roughly three cun — and climb two such spans up the midline. Both routes arrive at the same place, and checking one against the other turns a guess into a measurement.
A few quiet confirmations steady the result before any pressing begins. First the vertical line: the spot should sit precisely centred, the same distance from the rib arch on either side, on the seam that runs from breastbone to navel. Then sensation: feather-light contact at the true location typically answers with a faint, dull awareness, while a thumb-width above or below stays comparatively quiet. Finally the breath — rest a still fingertip and watch the belly lift on the inhale and settle on the exhale, the point travelling gently with it. Mild tenderness under light touch is information about today’s body, not proof of a wrong address; sharp pain is simply a signal to ease off and return to the landmarks later.
The classic mistakes are shared by all midline searching. The first is drifting sideways off the seam, surprisingly easy through soft tissue, and caught instantly by checking that the fingertip stays centred. The second is confusing the ladder’s rungs: pressed hard against the junction you find Jiuwei, slid too low you meet Shangwan or Zhongwan, and a wandering hand collects neighbours rather than its target. The third is measuring from the wrong end with tired attention — starting at the junction but stopping halfway, or climbing from the navel one span too many. Whenever doubt appears, return to whichever landmark feels clearest, remeasure once, slowly, and let the two routes agree before going further.
Reading the Name: Great Gateway
Two characters, one piece of architecture. Ju 巨 means great or immense — the plain superlative of size. Que 闕 is older and more vivid: in classical usage it names the paired towers that flanked the gate of a palace or walled city, the watchtowers from which a visitor was observed, and by extension the gate itself and the royal precincts behind it. Together Juque reads naturally as the Great Gateway or Great Palace Gate. The channel maps are full of architecture — doors, courtyards, storehouses, ravines — and this name belongs firmly to the family: it pictures the body as a residence of rank, and this spot as the grand entrance something important passes through.
The architecture earns its post. Classical teaching assigns each of the organs a gathering window on the front of the trunk — a place where that organ’s activity pools closest to the surface — and the twelve regular channels’ organs each hold one such office. Juque holds it for the heart, the residence tradition honours above all others, which suits a grand gate perfectly: the imagery lets the heart keep its palace, with this point standing as its outward-facing door on the midline. Geography agrees with the metaphor, for the Ren vessel — whose registry entry describes it running up the midline of the front of the body, uniting all yin meridians — threads exactly this territory, carrying the point traffic of the body’s front seam past the heart’s own gate.
Pinyin writes the name Jùquè, and both syllables ride the fourth tone — the clean, decisive falling contour, like something set down firmly. The catalogue’s marked spelling shows it in diacritics: a grave accent over the u of ju and another over the e of que. Both readings were checked character by character against dictionaries and match the catalogue exactly. One wrinkle deserves a sentence: que is a polyphone, able to read quē in other contexts where it stands for a gap or deficiency, but the point name — like gongque 宮闕, the palace gate — takes què, the falling fourth tone. The hanzi pair 巨闕 is compact enough to memorise at a glance, and like the gates and storehouses elsewhere on the maps it compresses a chapter of theory into two small characters.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications open with the chest: chest pain, cardiac pain, and palpitations. In the traditional frame this follows the map directly — as the heart’s gathering window, the point stood in classical discussions wherever the chest felt painful, tight, or unsettled, and the old records treat heart-related complaints as this point’s principal portfolio. One boundary must be drawn before anything else: genuine chest pain, pressure, or disturbed heartbeat belongs to urgent medical assessment in every century, ours included. Nothing on this page — and nothing in the tradition’s own case literature — suggests otherwise. The old entries describe what skilled practitioners reached for alongside the medicine of their day; they were never an alternative to it.
The middle of the list turns toward digestion and breath: vomiting, abdominal distension, and cough. Here the traditional reasoning is territorial. Juque sits on the upper abdomen, close beside the stomach’s own gathering point at Zhongwan, and classical practice grouped the upper belly into a corridor where food descends and qi moves downward; when that descent stalled — food returning upward, the belly swelling with stuck movement, or cough arising from disharmony in the chest and diaphragm region — addresses along this corridor entered the discussion. These entries read most honestly as descriptions of how classical medicine reasoned about the body’s plumbing: a recorded logic of place and flow, offered for understanding rather than as outcomes promised to anyone pressing a point.
The last pair, epilepsy and hysteria, marks the tradition’s oldest vocabulary for seizure-like episodes and overwhelming disturbances of emotion and behaviour. Classical texts gathered such presentations under their own categories and handed them to experienced hands; they were never casual complaints, and the tradition itself treated them as matters for skilled judgement. Today they belong unambiguously with medical professionals. It bears repeating plainly: all of these are traditional uses preserved in a licensed dataset and older literature, offered here for cultural and historical understanding. 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.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point located by the walkthrough above, settle in: lie back or sit supported, hands warm — cold fingers press harder than they intend. Because Juque stands alone on the midline, one careful session is complete in itself; there is no mirror side to match. Rest the pads of two or three fingertips lightly on the spot and begin with contact alone for a few slow breaths. Then add small, unhurried circles, letting the skin glide over the tissues beneath rather than pushing inward toward the organs. Pressure should register as gentle warmth or mild pleasant dullness, never soreness. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes, once or twice daily, timed so the firmer moments of each circle ride the exhale.
The practice pairs naturally with slow breathing, and many people find the pairing is the point. One hand resting below the breastbone, eyes closed, attention following the breath down to where the fingers wait: inhale as the belly rises, soften as it falls. Two minutes of pressure become a genuine pause, and the pause is worth having on its own terms. Consistency — morning after washing, evening before sleep — matters far more than intensity, and anchoring the habit to something that already happens daily helps it survive busy weeks. As with every practice on this site, quality outweighs duration: light, patient, regularly repeated contact fits the register of self-care, while digging into a soft abdomen teaches nothing and invites trouble.
Keep expectations the size of the practice. Perhaps the upper belly feels warmer and looser afterward; perhaps breathing deepens and the shoulders drop; perhaps nothing announces itself beyond a few calm minutes spent looking after your own body. Every one of those outcomes fits the honest scope of acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a sensation or a result out of a spot whose name promises a gate. A gate is not a lever. When curiosity pulls toward more force, return to gentleness or stop for the day; the point will still be there tomorrow, sitting quietly on its midline, asking no more of you than attention.
Cautions and Safe Practice
An honest observation comes first: the licensed record attaches no special caution line to this particular entry — unlike some neighbours on the channel, no dataset warning travels with it. Absence of a warning is not absence of boundaries. The universal rules that govern every page of this site apply here in full, and the geography applies too: the upper abdominal midline is soft tissue over quiet-working organs, with no bone directly beneath for protection. Professional techniques at this site are calibrated by training this page neither describes nor imitates; home practice keeps to the surface altogether, and that separation is not a compromise but the entire design.
For self-care the rules are short. Use finger pads or a relaxed palm only — never elbows, knuckles, or devices — and keep pressure light and purely superficial, letting the skin move over the tissue rather than driving inward. Skip the point over broken, irritated, or scarred skin, during feverish or acute illness, and whenever the abdomen is acutely painful or distended. Stop at once on sharp, electric, or radiating sensation, and do not retry that day. Pregnant readers should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any abdominal point work at all; the same courtesy extends to anyone recovering from abdominal surgery or living with digestive or cardiac conditions. Gentle, symmetrical breathing while you press beats straining through it, always.
And the wider rule stands over everything, as on every page of this site: this material is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Some symptoms belong with prompt emergency assessment rather than any pressure routine — chest pain or pressure, pain spreading to the arm or jaw, breathlessness, fainting, palpitations accompanied by dizziness, persistent vomiting, or any seizure-like episode. Persistent or worsening symptoms otherwise belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. The great gateway imagery is elegant, but the safest gift Juque offers most people is smaller and real: a few quiet minutes of respectful attention paid to the centre of the body, taken lightly and left wanting nothing.
Juque, the Great Gateway, rests on the front midline of the upper belly, a short step below the lower end of the breastbone. Classical practice named it for the towering gate of a palace and gave it the heart’s seat on the body’s surface. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it gently, within the bounds this central territory deserves.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Juque without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the breastbone as your whole map. Trace the breastbone downward until it ends where the rib arches converge, then walk straight down the midline about two thumb-widths and settle there, dead centre on the seam of the belly. To double-check from below, rest a fingertip on the navel’s centre and climb two stacked four-finger breadths up the midline — tradition sizes each breadth at roughly three cun. When both routes agree, you have found the spot the dataset describes.
- Is pressing Juque myself actually safe?
- For healthy adults, gentle fingertip pressure held at the surface is generally reasonable self-care here: the licensed record attaches no special caution to the entry, and surface contact engages only the outer layers of the abdominal wall. The standing rules still carry the weight — pads only, light pressure, nothing over broken skin or during acute illness, and an immediate stop on sharp or radiating sensation. Anyone pregnant, recently operated on, or living with digestive or cardiac conditions should consult a practitioner first.
- What did classical practice use Juque for?
- The recorded list runs: chest pain, cardiac pain, palpitations, vomiting, abdominal distension, epilepsy, hysteria, and cough. Classical texts describe the point as the heart’s front gathering window, which is why chest-centred complaints dominate its historic portfolio, with digestive and breath entries following the point’s upper-abdominal territory. These are traditional frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims, and several listed conditions call for professional medical care today regardless of the old records.
- Why does the heart’s gathering point sit on the belly rather than the chest?
- Classical teaching arranged the front-of-trunk gathering windows in its own geography, running down the midline from collarbone to pelvis, and it assigned the heart’s window to Juque — just below the breastbone’s lower end rather than over the heart itself. The placement reflects how the tradition mapped organ influence onto surface corridors rather than onto anatomy as modern medicine draws it. Read it as the tradition’s own coordinate system, documented for understanding; the registry renders the classification, and this page simply explains how the classical picture hangs together.
- Should I press Juque if I feel chest discomfort during practice?
- No. Any chest discomfort during practice ends the session immediately, and chest pain with features such as pressure or squeezing, spread to the arm or jaw, breathlessness, sweating, or faintness calls for emergency assessment right away — not a pressure routine. If discomfort is fleeting, clearly muscular, and fully settled, ordinary sensible caution applies and persistent or recurrent symptoms go to a clinician promptly. Acupressure accompanies good medical care; it never substitutes for it, least of all at the heart’s own gate.
Sources
- 01aijiu-mpvue (MIT License), complateXwInfo.json — Chinese-language location, indications, and point class for this entry.
- 02English wording authored in-house (2026) from the Chinese-language record, following WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region (2008) nomenclature conventions.
- 03Point-name reading, front-mu theory, and midline-channel context cross-checked against A Manual of Acupuncture (Deadman, Al-Khafaji, Baker).
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/cv14/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/cv14/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/cv14/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "CV14",
"name": {
"en": "Juque",
"gloss": "Great Gateway",
"zh-Hant": "巨闕",
"zh-Hans": "巨阙"
},
"channel": {
"id": "CV",
"order": 14,
"of": 24
},
"location": {
"text": "On the midline of the upper belly, two thumb-widths below the lower tip of the breastbone."
},
"for": [
"palpitations",
"bloating",
"vomiting"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle with the fingertips, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/cv14",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}