淵腋 Yuanye
“Deep Pool of the Axilla” · GB22
Foot Shaoyang · 22 of 44
Where. With the arm raised, on the side of the chest straight below the armpit, four finger-widths down, between ribs.
For. A full chest; pain along the ribs; swelling under the arm.
Press. Gentle fingertip pressure in the rib groove, about a minute.
淵腋，在腋下三寸宛宛中，舉臂取之按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Yuanye Sits on the Lateral Chest
The dataset locates Yuanye on the side of the chest, on the midaxillary line, three cun below the hollow of the armpit, level with the fourth intercostal space, and notes that it is found with the arm raised. Every word of that sentence earns its place. The midaxillary line is the vertical line dropping from the middle of the armpit down the side of the torso — the true equator between the front and the back of the body. Three cun below the armpit uses cun, the proportional measuring unit of Chinese point location, taken from the person being examined rather than from any ruler; the traditional shortcut gathers the four fingers of one hand side by side, which together span about three cun. Level with the fourth intercostal space sets the point in the fourth groove between ribs — though on the curving side wall those grooves are found by touch rather than counted from the collarbone, as the walkthrough below shows.
What lies beneath this stretch of chest wall deserves respect. The lateral chest carries only thin layers between skin and rib: a sheet of muscle, then the ribs with their soft intercostal spaces between them, then the smooth membrane lining the inside of the chest. The lung reaches far down this side wall, and farther still during a deep breath, when the lower edge of the lung descends toward the lower rib gaps. Geography of this kind explains why the licensed record attaches a serious caution to points of the upper lateral chest, and why everything on this page stays strictly at the surface. Nothing about self-palpation here needs force; the landmarks announce themselves to patient, light touch.
The neighbouring points frame Yuanye neatly. Above it, holding the summit of the shoulder, sits Jianjing (GB21); the recorded sequence of the channel thus walks down from the shoulder onto the chest wall exactly here. One cun in front of Yuanye, level with the nipple and in the same fourth intercostal space, lies its partner Zhejin (GB23) — the two form a horizontal pair across the side of the torso, one guarding the midline of the flank, one nearer the front. Locating them together confirms placement: if your finger rests halfway between front and back at a rib groove, you have found Yuanye; slide forward along the same groove and you meet Zhejin.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit upright on a firm chair with both feet down and shoulders released, so the muscles of the chest and side soften. Raise your left arm to shoulder height or a little above — lifting the arm draws the soft tissue out of the armpit and lays the midaxillary line open to view and touch. Find that line: start at the middle of the armpit and let your fingertips travel straight down the side of the torso, staying midway between the chest muscle at the front and the broad back muscle behind. Then, at the top of the armpit, lay the gathered four fingers of your right hand flat against the left side, fingertips pointing down; the far edge of your little finger lands roughly three cun below the armpit. Search that zone with slow, light strokes for the shallow groove between two ribs — the spot the record describes.
A few quiet checks help before any pressing begins. Touch feather-light and compare sides: many people notice a faint, dull awareness at the true point and little sensation a finger-width away. Let a slow breath move under your fingertips — the groove widens slightly as the ribs lift, then settles as the breath leaves. Confirm the position from the anatomy: the point should sit almost exactly halfway between the front and the back of the torso, neither wrapped around toward the chest nor hidden behind the back muscle. If what you feel instead is bare bone or a wide, flat stretch of muscle, slide half a finger-width at a time, up or down, until the groove reappears under your pad.
The classic mistake is measuring too low: sliding a full hand-width or more down the ribs lands you in the territory of the sixth or seventh groove, far below the recorded site. Another common slip is drifting forward around the torso toward Zhejin and the nipple line — remember that Yuanye keeps to the midaxillary line, the equator of the side. Some people also try to locate the point with the arm hanging slack, which lets the armpit tissue fold over the landmarks; if the search grows confusing, raise the arm again, find the middle of the armpit once more, and measure down a single time, slowly. Losing the thread simply means returning to the start of the sequence.
Reading the Name: Deep Pool of the Axilla
The characters tell the story in miniature. Yuan 淵 means a deep pool — deep, still water, the kind that gathers where a current slows; dictionaries give it the pronunciation yuān with a flat, high first tone, and the character even wears the water radical on its left, a small picture of standing water. Ye 腋 means the armpit, read yè with a short, falling fourth tone, and its character carries the flesh radical at the left, marking it as a part of the body. Together, Yuanye reads as the deep pool beside the axilla: the naming tradition pictures qi gathering at this hollow on the side of the chest the way water collects and settles in a deep, quiet basin.
Water imagery runs through the way Chinese medicine names its points: pools, ravines, marshes, streams and seas recur all along the channels. For this particular channel the image does extra work. Five-phase thinking assigns the gallbladder system to wood, and in the classical cycle of nourishment water generates wood — wood thrives on water. A deep pool set into the course of a wood-element channel therefore reads, in the traditional frame, as a reserve of depth and moisture feeding the channel’s own nature. Classical texts describe the point as a place where the flow pools before moving on; no quotation is needed to feel why generations of practitioners kept the image alive.
Pinyin renders the name Yuānyè, and the hanzi pair 淵腋 is short enough to memorise at a glance. Like many points named for landscape — gates, valleys, courtyards, storehouses, wells — the metaphor does real work rather than decorating. It tells you where the point lives: beside the armpit, on the flank, in the territory the old books called the xie 脅, the rib-side country stretching from armpit to waist. It also hints at how the tradition understood the spot: not a crossroads where things rush past, but a basin where the channel’s activity lingers and gathers depth. The name is itself a small set of instructions.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: fullness of the chest, hypochondriac pain, axillary swelling, painful obstruction of the upper limb, and chills and fever. Framed as tradition rather than promise, each maps onto the point’s neighbourhood. Fullness of the chest is a distinct traditional concept — a subjective weight, oppression, or stuck quality across the chest, understood as qi failing to move freely there. Hypochondriac pain refers not to modern hypochondria but to discomfort in the xie, the flank: the broad muscular country running down the side of the trunk from armpit to lowest ribs. Axillary swelling explains itself — among the channel’s descent, this point stands nearest the armpit, and classical practice habitually approached swelling near a structure at points beside it.
The last two indications look further afield until the channel map is consulted. Painful obstruction — the old concept of bi — describes ache, heaviness and stiffness arising wherever the movement of qi and blood falters, often settling in the limbs and joints; the record brings such complaints of the upper limb to this point, which overlooks the corridor where shoulder meets chest. Chills and fever belong to the traditional language of exterior conditions — the alternating cold-and-warmth pattern old practice tied to the body’s surface and its channels. Why a lateral chest point entered those discussions the classical literature answers in its own idiom of channel courses and surface defenses; the record preserves the association, and this page preserves the record.
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 disease, and nothing in this guide replaces assessment by a qualified clinician. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and depend heavily 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, settle into position: seated, spine tall but unforced, shoulders heavy — or lying on your back with the arm of the side being treated resting lightly across your chest. Curl your index and middle fingers together and rest the pads — not the tips — on the spot. Begin with contact alone for a few breaths, then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue beneath rather than grinding against the ribs. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharpness. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, matched where possible to slow exhales so each circle rides the breath out. Swap hands and repeat on the other side, keeping the two sessions symmetrical.
Quality matters more than duration. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact fits the wellness register this page practises; hard jabbing causes harm and teaches the body nothing. If your hands are cold, warm them first, because chilled muscle guards. Choose a quiet corner over a screen, since the practice doubles as a breathing pause: inhale through the nose, feel the side of the chest expand under still fingers, press gently on the long exhale. People who keep a routine often anchor it to an existing habit — morning washing, an afternoon stretch — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for.
Treat the exercise as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Notice what changes across weeks: perhaps the area feels less guarded, perhaps breathing feels freer while you press, perhaps nothing shifts except that you spend a minute or two attending to your own flank. Every one of those outcomes fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a result, least of all over a wall of ribs that guards the lung. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness or simply stop for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This point earns more respect than most, and the reason is written in the licensed record. The dataset warns against deep needling at Yuanye: the lung lies beneath, and over-deep insertion may cause pneumothorax — a collapsed lung, which is a medical emergency. The caution follows from plain geography. The side wall of the chest is thinly built, the ribs curve away beneath the fingertip, and only muscle and thin membrane separate the skin from the pleural space; with every deep breath the lung descends along this very wall. Professional training manages that risk with exact technique; home self-care manages it differently and far more simply — by never leaving the surface at all.
For fingertip acupressure the practical rules follow from that picture. Keep pressure light and strictly superficial — the intention stays in skin and superficial muscle, never driving inward between the ribs. Use finger pads, never elbows, knuckles, or tools, and never press while holding the breath or through pain. Skip the point entirely during feverish illness, during any acute breathing difficulty, and over broken or irritated skin; be cautious after recent chest injury or surgery until a clinician clears ordinary activity. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and do not try again that day. Pregnant readers, and anyone living with lung or heart conditions, should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice.
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 breathlessness at rest or on mild exertion, chest pain or pressure, coughing blood, a new lump or persistent swelling near the breast or armpit, or any symptom that frightens you. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. The pool imagery is lovely, but the safest gift Yuanye offers most people is a better acquaintance with their own side of the chest, treated kindly.
Yuanye — the Deep Pool of the Axilla — marks the spot where the gallbladder channel steps off the shoulder and onto the lateral chest wall. Classical practice reached for this point when fullness in the chest, pain along the side of the trunk, or swelling near the armpit made itself felt. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it gently and safely.
Cautions from the classical sources
- Keep insertion shallow; the lung sits below, and too deep a needle can collapse it (pneumothorax).
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Yuanye without knowing anything about cun?
- Raise the arm, find the middle of the armpit, and follow the vertical line straight down the side of the torso. Lay your other hand’s four gathered fingers at the top of that line; the zone near their far edge is where the record places the point. Search that zone lightly for a clear groove between ribs. Cun measurements simply encode the same landmark sequence in proportional language — the four-finger span is itself the traditional three-cun measure.
- Is pressing Yuanye myself actually safe?
- Gentle fingertip pressure held on the surface is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, because it engages skin and superficial muscle far short of the structures behind the ribs. The recorded danger concerns deep professional techniques that reach toward the lung — a category home acupressure never approaches. Respect the stop signals: sharp pain, radiating sensation, or discomfort that worsens all mean finish immediately.
- What did classical practice use Yuanye for?
- The traditional record lists fullness of the chest, hypochondriac — that is, flank — pain, swelling near the armpit, painful obstruction of the upper limb, and chills with fever. Classical practice read these complaints against the channel’s course down the side of the body, which passes this point as it leaves the shoulder for the trunk. Those are traditional frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does the gallbladder channel run along the side of the body?
- Classical channel theory draws the pathway from the outer corner of the eye, zigzagging across the head and around the ear, descending the neck and shoulder, then stepping onto the lateral chest at Yuanye before winding down the flank, hip and leg to end at the fourth toe — forty-four stations in all. The tradition associates the channel with tension and decision-making, the gallbladder’s own portfolio. Yuanye stands where that long lateral journey first meets the chest wall, which is why flank and side-of-body complaints feature so prominently in its record.
- Can acupressure at Yuanye replace seeing a doctor about chest or flank symptoms?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not a diagnostic tool, and fullness or pain in the chest or flank carrying red flags — breathlessness, fever, a new lump, worsening pressure, pain after injury — needs 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 that you visit 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, water imagery, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for GB22 Yuanye — location, 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/gb22/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/gb22/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/gb22/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "GB22",
"name": {
"en": "Yuanye",
"gloss": "Deep Pool of the Axilla",
"zh-Hant": "淵腋",
"zh-Hans": "渊腋"
},
"channel": {
"id": "GB",
"order": 22,
"of": 44
},
"location": {
"text": "With the arm raised, on the side of the chest straight below the armpit, four finger-widths down, between ribs."
},
"for": [
"A full chest",
"pain along the ribs",
"swelling under the arm"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle fingertip pressure in the rib groove, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/gb22",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}