承漿 Chengjiang
“Receiving the Fluids” · CV24
Conception Vessel · 24 of 24 · crossing-point
Where. On the chin, in the hollow at the centre of the crease below the lower lip.
For. Swollen gums, drooling, mouth sores.
Press. Gentle with a fingertip, about a minute.
在頤前唇之下按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Chengjiang Sits: the Mentolabial Groove
The dataset’s address is refreshingly plain: on the face, in the central depression of the mentolabial groove. Unpacked piece by piece — the mentolabial groove is the shallow, horizontal crease that separates the lower lip from the pad of the chin; the central depression is the small dip sitting at the exact midpoint of that crease, on the midline of the face. With lips gently closed, a fingertip drawn straight down from the centre of the lower lip crosses the lip’s edge onto a brief band of softer tissue and then settles into that crease. Tracing along the crease toward the middle, the finger feels a slight low spot: that is the recorded location. Unlike many channel points, this one asks for no cun measurements at all, no proportional arithmetic borrowed from another person’s build — it is found purely by landmarks you carry with you everywhere.
Seen against the wider map, the little hollow matters more than its size suggests. The Ren vessel runs up the midline of the front of the body, and the registry arranges its course as twenty-four points climbing from the base of the torso all the way to the face. Chengjiang carries the number twenty-four: it is both the closing entry of the count and the highest point on the entire vessel. The point before it, Lianquan (CV23), rests lower along the same midline, where the chin gives way to the front of the throat; below that, the line descends steadily into the trunk. The long upward journey of the Ren vessel, in other words, finishes precisely in this modest depression under the lower lip.
What lies beneath the fingertip sets the tone for practice here. The skin of the face is thin and richly supplied with sensation; under it lie the superficial muscles that move the lips and the chin, and beneath those, the firm bone of the chin itself. There are no deep cavities to respect at this site, but the delicacy cuts the other way: facial skin registers heavy-handedness immediately, and the area sits right beside the mouth, where cleanliness matters. Light, clean-fingered contact is not merely polite here — it is the whole craft. Force teaches nothing that patience does not teach better.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Preparation takes a minute. Wash your hands and trim anything sharp from the fingertips; sit somewhere well lit, with a mirror nearby if it helps. Let the jaw soften and the lips close naturally. Rest the pad of your index finger — the pad, never the nail — just below the very centre of your lower lip, then glide downward across the lip’s edge onto the short stretch of yielding tissue between lip and chin. Keep sinking gently until the pad meets a horizontal crease. Follow that crease slowly toward the middle until the fingertip settles into a faintly sunken spot: that hollow, level with the crease and dead centre, is Chengjiang. Slow beats fast throughout; a relaxed finger notices far more than a determined one.
Two quick confirmations help before any pressing begins. The first is a centring test: slide the pad half a thumb-width to the left, then to the right, off the spot. On either side the hollow disappears, replaced by the smooth walls of the groove and the even padding of the chin; returning to the middle brings the little dip back. That disappearance and return is proof you are truly on the midline. The second is a movement test: purse the lips gently, as if about to blow out a candle. The ring of muscle around the mouth tightens, and the tissue surrounding the hollow firms up faintly under the finger; release, and everything softens again. Feeling the spot answer that small effort confirms you are holding the key position of the lower-mouth region rather than ordinary cheek skin.
Three slips account for most lost searches. Sliding too low drops the finger off the crease onto the chin pad itself, which feels uniformly plump and offers no hollow to find. Stopping too high leaves the finger at the moist border of the lip, thinner and far more ticklish than the recorded site. And pressing too hard flattens everything — facial skin overloaded with weight goes numb and reports nothing useful. Whenever the trail goes cold, return to the centre of the lower lip, start again, and move one small step at a time.
Reading the Name: Receiving the Fluids
The name paints a small, domestic picture. Cheng 承 means to receive, to hold, to bear up — the verb used for taking something precious into one’s hands. Jiang 漿 is a thick, nourishing liquid — the character appears in everyday words for broths and milky drinks. Together, Chengjiang reads as the place that receives the fluids: the little hollow under the lower lip is exactly where saliva and moisture pool and linger, and the tradition simply named the point for what it does every waking hour. Among channels whose points borrow from gates, valleys, and courtyards, this name is strikingly literal — and therefore easy to remember: see the name, and both the location and the job come with it.
Pinyin renders the name Chéngjiāng. The first syllable cheng rises on the second tone, lifting through its length; the second syllable jiang holds a flat, high first tone, steady as a level note. The hanzi pair 承漿 is compact enough to memorise at a glance. The dataset records the point’s category as a crossing-point, and the traditional theory behind that label is worth knowing: a crossing-point is treated as a junction where the qi of more than one pathway gathers and exchanges. The fit is visible in the geography. The Ren vessel’s front-midline journey ends here, while the Du vessel traces the midline of the back and travels on across the head; classical drawings bring the two great midline routes closest to one another around the face, and the region circling the mouth is depicted as busy ground where several routes converge. A junction recorded at a junction — the label agrees with the landscape.
Reading the name as a set of quiet instructions works well too. To receive is patient work: the hollow does not chase anything, it simply stays open and lets what arrives settle. Traditional teaching took the point’s watch over the mouth’s doorway — where food, drink, and speech all pass — and hung its historic portfolio on that watch. You do not need to memorise terminology to use this page; you only need to notice that the name describes the spot’s daily occupation, and that the recorded uses orbit that same occupation closely.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: deviation of the mouth, swollen painful gums, drooling, mouth and tongue sores, sudden loss of voice, and epilepsy. Read as tradition, the first group follows a simple classical habit: local complaints were met with local points, and the area around the mouth was served by points around the mouth. A deviating mouth corner — facial deviation, in older language — was approached by harmonizing the qi of the face at points along the midline; swollen painful gums and mouth and tongue sores belonged to the same neighborhood logic. Drooling received the most poetic reading: classical writers understood it as fluids escaping their proper bounds, the body failing to hold what should be gathered — and so they called upon the point whose name promises exactly that gathering.
The last two entries ask for a more sober voice. Sudden loss of voice appears throughout classical literature among discussions of the throat and mouth points, framed in the energy language of its era. Epilepsy, likewise, was described by old texts within their own theoretical frame; in modern medicine it is a condition belonging firmly to specialist care. The centuries matter here: recording a traditional association is not the same as offering a remedy. Any new facial droop or weakness, any trouble speaking or swallowing, and any suspected seizure belongs with urgent medical attention — never with a self-massage routine, however gentle.
It bears repeating plainly: these are the traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered here for cultural and historical understanding. They are not claims that pressing this point treats any condition. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and dependent on context, and evidence tied to any single point remains thin. Hold the tradition warmly, and hold the boundary lines tightly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the hollow located by the walkthrough above, settle in: clean hands, comfortable seat, jaw unclenched, breath slowed. Rest the index-finger pad on the spot and begin with contact alone for a few breaths, letting the skin grow used to being attended to. Then add small, slow circles, allowing the skin to travel over the deeper tissue rather than grinding against the chin bone. Pressure should read as a pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharpness. A common home rhythm is half a minute to two minutes per session, once or twice daily, matched where possible to slow exhales so each circle rides the breath out. Because the point sits on the midline there is no second side to balance — one careful session is the whole assignment.
Quality matters more than duration. Light, even, unhurried — those three words carry the entire technique. Jabbing or rubbing hard gains nothing except a protesting face. Keep fingernails short, use pads rather than knuckles, and reach for no tools; fingers alone are honest instruments. Many people turn the practice into a small daily pause: away from screens, eyes closed, aware of the faint rise and fall around the mouth as you breathe, adding the gentlest pressure on each long exhale. Anchoring the routine to an existing habit — after morning washing, before sleep — serves better than willpower, because what self-care traditions actually ask for is regularity, not intensity.
Treat the exercise as a ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across a few weeks you may notice the jaw carrying less tension, or simply enjoy the fact that ninety seconds of the day belong wholly to you. Every such outcome fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness, or set the practice down for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
One fact deserves stating first: the licensed record carries no technique caution under this point’s name — the catalogue records none. That absence is not an invitation to force. Facial skin is thin and exquisitely sensitive, the site sits beside the mouth and nose, and home practice should hold three bottom lines without exception: stay strictly on the surface and never reach inside the mouth; skip the point entirely over cold sores, cracked lips, or any broken or irritated skin around the mouth; and keep hands and face clean before and after. Sharp, electric, or unusual sensation means stop at once and do not retry that day.
Several readers should check with a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice: anyone recently treated with facial surgery or dental work, anyone with an unresolved skin condition or infection near the mouth, anyone with reduced sensation in the face, and pregnancy — where no caution is recorded for this particular point, prudence about new practices remains good sense regardless. And note clearly whom this page addresses: healthy adults practising on themselves. A child who drools persistently belongs with a pediatrician or pediatric dentist, not under a parent’s pressing fingers; nothing here is guidance for treating infants or young children.
Over everything stands the wider rule: seek medical care directly — not a pressure routine — for any sudden facial droop or weakness, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, or suspected seizure, all of which are emergencies; for mouth ulcers persisting beyond a few weeks, see a clinician promptly for assessment; for gum swelling accompanied by fever, contact medical or dental care without delay. Persistent symptoms belong with licensed practitioners, medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. This page is educational, and acupressure is self-care — comfort, companionship, and attention, never diagnosis or therapy.
Chengjiang, Receiving the Fluids, closes the Ren vessel’s long climb at a small hollow halfway between the lower lip and the chin. Classical practice turned here when mouth and gums complained, when speech faltered, or when fluids ran past the lips. This guide walks through finding the hollow by touch, pressing it gently, and keeping a face-side practice safely on the surface.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Chengjiang if I know nothing about cun or channel maps?
- You need neither. Look in a mirror, place a fingertip on the centre of your lower lip, and slide straight down until you feel the shallow horizontal crease between lip and chin. Follow the crease to its exact middle and rest there — the faint dip you feel is the location the dataset describes. Every measurement the classical texts encoded is already built into the landmarks of your own face.
- Is it really safe to press a point so close to my mouth?
- Gentle fingertip contact on intact skin is reasonable self-care for healthy adults, and the licensed record lists no technique caution for this site. The practical risks here are minor ones — soreness from excess force and irritation from unclean hands — and both yield to the obvious remedies: light pressure, clean fingers, and skipping the point over cold sores, cracks, or broken skin. Stop on any sharp or electric sensation.
- What did classical practice use Chengjiang for?
- The traditional record lists deviation of the mouth, swollen painful gums, drooling, mouth and tongue sores, sudden loss of voice, and epilepsy. Classical teaching framed several of these around the point’s name: a spot that receives the fluids was consulted when fluids spilled past the lips. These are historical frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does the Ren vessel end up here, of all places?
- The vessel’s recorded course climbs the midline of the front of the body from below, and its twenty-fourth and final point is the highest ground the route reaches — the centre of the face just under the lower lip. The dataset also tags Chengjiang as a crossing-point, and classical drawings show the great midline pathways drawing nearest one another around the face. An ending that doubles as a meeting place suits the tradition’s taste for meaningful geography.
- My young child drools constantly. Should I press this point?
- No. This guide addresses healthy adults practising on themselves, and a child’s persistent drooling calls for a pediatrician or pediatric dentist, who can check for the ordinary developmental and dental causes. Children’s faces are smaller and their tissues more delicate; home acupressure techniques written for adults do not transfer to them. Ask a professional first — that is the caring move, not the cautious afterthought.
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, crossing-point theory, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for CV24 Chengjiang — location, point class, actions, and the empty caution 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/cv24/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/cv24/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/cv24/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "CV24",
"name": {
"en": "Chengjiang",
"gloss": "Receiving the Fluids",
"zh-Hant": "承漿",
"zh-Hans": "承浆"
},
"channel": {
"id": "CV",
"order": 24,
"of": 24
},
"location": {
"text": "On the chin, in the hollow at the centre of the crease below the lower lip."
},
"for": [
"swollen gums",
"drooling",
"mouth sores"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle with a fingertip, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/cv24",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}