Not in pregnancy.
石門 Shimen
“Stone Gate” · CV5
Conception Vessel · 5 of 24 · front-mu of the san jiao
Where. On the midline of the lower belly, two thumb-widths below the navel.
For. Belly pain, loose stools, difficult urination.
Press. Gentle with the fingertips, about a minute.
Caution. Not in pregnancy.
在臍下二寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Shimen Sits on the Lower Abdomen
The dataset places Shimen on the lower abdomen, on the anterior midline, two cun below the centre of the umbilicus. Unpacked for the hand: find the exact centre of your navel, then travel straight down the body’s vertical middle by two proportional units — about two thumb-widths, taking the width of the thumb at its knuckle as one cun, the proportional convention this site uses wherever a location is given in cun. Because cun are measured from the person rather than from a ruler, two cun lands slightly lower on a long torso than on a compact one; the landmark relationship, however, never shifts. The point always hangs directly beneath the navel’s centre, always on the seam, always on the front of the trunk rather than tucked toward either side.
Everything under the fingertips here is soft. Unlike the chest, no rib cage shields the territory: below the skin lie layer upon layer of the abdominal wall — tendinous line, flat muscle, fascia — and beneath those, the organs of the lower abdomen and pelvis going quietly about their work. That softness shapes the point’s whole character. It makes location pleasantly easy, because the midline seam can be felt rather than calculated, and it is also precisely why the classical literature treats deep techniques at this site with unusual reserve — a reserve the licensed dataset preserves intact in its caution records, and which this page carries forward.
A ladder of neighbors confirms the address. Halfway down from the navel toward this point, at one and a half cun, lies Qihai (CV6); continuing to three cun below the navel brings you to Guanyuan (CV4). All three share the midline, stacked like rungs on a ladder: the navel itself, the halfway mark, the Stone Gate, then Guanyuan lowest of the three. Walking that ladder with a fingertip converts an abstract measurement into a felt sequence, and any lingering doubt about the final placement dissolves against the fixed reference above it.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Recline on your back with the knees bent and feet flat on the floor, which lets the belly wall soften and the breath settle. Find the centre of the navel first, tracing its rim with a fingertip until the midpoint feels certain. Then place the pads of your index and middle fingers together just below it, aligned with the body’s vertical seam, and walk them straight down about two thumb-widths. Under the pads you are feeling for the shallow line where the left and right halves of the abdominal wall meet — a faint groove or firmness change that runs vertically. When your fingertips rest on that line, roughly two thumb-widths below the navel’s midpoint, you have arrived at the neighborhood the dataset describes.
Two confirmations help before any real contact begins. First, the halfway check: about one and a half thumb-widths down, many people notice a gentle dip or change of texture in the region of Qihai; if you found it, slide half a thumb-width further and settle there. Second, the side-to-side check: touch feather-lightly and compare the spot with points a finger-width to the left and right — the midline placement should feel subtly distinct, and certainly centred. Let a slow breath move under your fingertips throughout; the belly rises and falls, and a settled hand rides that motion rather than fighting it. Nothing at this stage requires pressure beyond the weight of the fingers themselves.
The classic mistakes are few and easy to avoid. Drifting off the seam sideways is the most common — return to the vertical line and start the descent again. Measuring upward from the pubic bone instead of downward from the navel reverses the dataset’s geometry, whose distance runs from the umbilicus. Searching immediately after a full meal works against you twice over, because the belly is distended and the mind is elsewhere. And if everything feels ambiguous, the remedy is always the same: re-anchor at the navel, exhale, and walk down once more, slowly. Certainty at this point comes from repetition of a calm search, never from pressing harder.
Reading the Name: Stone Gate
The two characters draw a vivid little picture. Shi 石 means stone — the solid, enduring mineral itself. Men 門 means gate or door, drawn originally as the double-leaf entrance of a dwelling. Together, Shimen reads as the stone gate. Pinyin renders the name Shímén, and both syllables speak in the same voice: according to the standard readings of the two characters — shi as in stone, men as in door — each carries the second tone, the rising tone marked by the accent in the dataset’s spelling. Gates rank among the most popular images in point naming across every channel, marking thresholds where something changes: terrain, depth, function.
Setting a gate of stone into the softest wall of the trunk gives the image extra weight. Gates on a channel announce transitions, and this one has long been read as marking the passage into the body’s deep lower storehouse. But the name is remembered in the tradition for another reason too, one the dataset preserves soberly: attached to this particular gate stands an unusually solemn warning from the classical record. Where most point names invite exploration, the old texts ask readers to approach Shimen with restraint — and the story of that restraint is told properly in the safety section below. The name, as ever, is a set of instructions.
The dataset assigns Shimen a second identity: it is the front-mu point of the san jiao. Classical teaching grants each organ a gathering window on the front of the trunk, called a mu point, where that organ’s activity pools nearest the surface — and the san jiao, the triple burner or triple energizer, holds this office here at the Stone Gate. Note the quiet elegance: the san jiao has its own pathway running along the arm, yet its front window opens not there but on the conception vessel, the midline sea-route of the yin vessels. Gathering places, in this tradition, sit where the work happens, not merely where the family lives.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications number nine: difficult urination, hernia, amenorrhea, vaginal discharge, uterine bleeding, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, edema, and nocturnal emission. Read as a group, they fall into natural clusters. One cluster concerns water movement — difficult urination, puffiness and fluid accumulation classed as edema, and loose stools filed under diarrhoea. A second cluster concerns the gynecological sphere — amenorrhea meaning the absence or suppression of the menses, vaginal discharge, and uterine bleeding as the old records understood it. A third gathers general lower-trunk complaints: abdominal pain, the dragging and bulging discomforts the old category of hernia described, and nocturnal emission on the reproductive side.
The water cluster makes immediate sense within the theory of the point’s office. Classical teaching describes the san jiao as the system’s steward of waterways, coordinating the passage of fluids through the upper, middle, and lower regions of the trunk; a san jiao mu point therefore stood to reason whenever water seemed stuck, scarce, or wandering. The gynecological entries reflect geography as much as doctrine: the point sits directly over the lower abdomen, the region classical descriptions associate with the womb, so women’s cycle complaints gathered here in the old literature alongside its water duties. These are traditional explanations of why the lists look as they do — coherent inside the classical frame, offered for understanding.
It bears repeating plainly: these nine entries are the traditional uses recorded in the licensed dataset, presented for cultural and historical understanding. They are not claims that pressing this point resolves any of them, and several — absent menstruation, abnormal bleeding, difficult urination — are precisely the kinds of symptoms that deserve proper professional assessment before any self-care experiment begins. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and dependent on context, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. Hold the tradition lightly, and hold the safety rules firmly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point located by the walkthrough above, prepare the way a home practice likes best: warm hands, an unhurried clock, and a body already settled. Recline or recline-and-support with pillows until the belly is soft. Rest the pads of two fingers on the spot and begin with contact alone for a few slow breaths — no pressure at all, just presence. Then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue beneath. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharpness. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes at a sitting, once or twice daily, timed to slow exhales so each circle rides the breath out.
Quality matters far more than duration or force. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact fits the wellness register this page practises; hard jabbing accomplishes nothing except soreness, and on the lower abdomen it teaches exactly the wrong lesson. Anchor the practice to an existing habit — after morning washing, before the evening wind-down — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for. Choose a quiet corner over a screen, and let the minutes double as a pause: the day slows, the breath lengthens, attention rests low and warm. Across weeks, notice honestly what changes — perhaps less guarding in the belly, perhaps calmer digestion-days, perhaps nothing measurable except the pleasure of having attended to yourself.
Equally important is knowing when the practice stays on the shelf. Out of respect for the classical record, this page asks anyone who is pregnant or who could be pregnant to leave this particular point to professional hands and choose others entirely. Set the practice aside during any active flare of the very symptoms the tradition lists — troubled urination, unusual bleeding, acute abdominal pain — and over broken or irritated skin, and after abdominal surgery until a clinician clears ordinary activity. When curiosity pulls toward more force, more time, or deeper intent, treat that pull as the signal it is: return to gentleness, or simply stop for today. The point will be there tomorrow.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This point earns its respect honestly, and the licensed record states why. The dataset cautions that Shimen was classically recorded as not to be needled in women, and that modern practice requires careful evaluation and avoidance of deep insertion. Behind the wording sits plain anatomy: a soft abdominal wall with organs close beneath, and no bony armor anywhere in sight. Techniques that reach inward are matters for trained professionals working with full knowledge of the person in front of them — which is exactly what careful evaluation means. Home self-care answers the same geography with a much simpler strategy: it never leaves the surface at all.
For fingertip practice, the rules follow directly. Use finger pads, never tips, knuckles, elbows, or tools, and keep the intention in skin and the outermost layer of muscle. Never press through pain, while holding the breath, or against guarding; sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and not again today. Skip the point completely during pregnancy or possible pregnancy, during any episode of troubled urination, unusual vaginal bleeding, or acute abdominal pain of unknown cause, and over broken skin or unhealed scars. Anyone managing a chronic condition of the urinary, digestive, or reproductive systems should talk with a qualified practitioner before adding this point to a routine — consultation first is the tradition’s own advice, inherited intact.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Seek prompt medical attention — not a pressure routine — if you cannot pass urine, if abdominal pain is severe, worsening, or accompanied by fever, if vaginal bleeding is heavy or unexpected, or if any symptom frightens you. Persistent complaints belong with a licensed practitioner, whether in conventional medicine or East Asian medicine as the complaint suggests. The Stone Gate imagery is handsome, but the safest gift this point offers most people is a calmer acquaintance with their own lower abdomen — approached gently, honoured seriously, and never forced.
Shimen, the Stone Gate, stands on the lower belly’s midline two cun below the navel. Classical teaching gives it a distinguished office: gathering window of the san jiao, the tradition’s steward of waterways. Its record carries one of the most solemn cautions in the literature, so this guide treats it accordingly — find it gently, press lightly, know when to stop.
Cautions from the classical sources
- Classical texts bar needling this point in women; current practice calls for careful assessment and no deep insertion.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Shimen without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the navel as the entire map. Find the centre of the navel, then walk your fingertip pads straight down the vertical midline seam about two thumb-widths, using the thumb’s knuckle-width as your unit. En route, the halfway mark near Qihai offers a checkpoint; half a unit further lies the Stone Gate. Cun measurements simply encode this same landmark sequence in proportional language, so the ruler-free route loses nothing.
- Why is Shimen treated more cautiously than most points?
- Because the classical record attaches a distinctive warning to it: the dataset notes Shimen was classically recorded as not to be needled in women, and modern practice adds requirements for careful evaluation and avoidance of deep insertion. The soft lower abdominal wall, with organs close beneath, is the anatomical background. Home acupressure responds conservatively — purely superficial contact, and a complete pause on the point for anyone pregnant or possibly pregnant.
- What did classical practice use Shimen for?
- The traditional record lists difficult urination, hernia, amenorrhea, vaginal discharge, uterine bleeding, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, edema, and nocturnal emission. Classical theory explains the water-related entries through the san jiao’s stewardship of the waterways, and the cycle-related entries through the point’s position over the lower abdomen. These are traditional frameworks documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment promises.
- What is the san jiao, and why does it matter here?
- The san jiao — triple burner or triple energizer — is the classical system’s most unusual organ concept: no single shape corresponds to it, and the tradition portrays it instead as an administration overseeing the passage of water and qi through the trunk’s upper, middle, and lower regions. Shimen serves as its front-mu point, the gathering window where that ministry’s activity pools nearest the front surface. Its watery portfolio of traditional indications flows straight from that assignment.
- Can pressing Shimen replace seeing a doctor about urinary or menstrual problems?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice with no diagnostic power, while urinary difficulty and menstrual changes are symptom families that genuinely require assessment — sometimes urgently. Think of daily self-care and clinical medicine as neighboring houses: friendly, distinct, neither furnished to do the other’s work. Red flags such as inability to urinate, heavy or unexpected bleeding, or severe abdominal pain go straight to professional care.
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, mu-point theory, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for CV5 Shimen — location, point class, actions, and 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/cv5/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/cv5/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/cv5/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "CV5",
"name": {
"en": "Shimen",
"gloss": "Stone Gate",
"zh-Hant": "石門",
"zh-Hans": "石门"
},
"channel": {
"id": "CV",
"order": 5,
"of": 24
},
"location": {
"text": "On the midline of the lower belly, two thumb-widths below the navel."
},
"for": [
"belly pain",
"loose stools",
"difficult urination"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle with the fingertips, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [
"Not in pregnancy."
],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/cv5",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}