In pregnancy, ask a practitioner first.
石關 Shiguan
“Stone Pass” · KI18
Foot Shaoyin · 18 of 27 · crossing-point
Where. Four finger-widths above the navel, half a thumb-width out from the midline.
For. Vomiting; belly ache; constipation.
Press. Lying down, a light fingertip touch, about a minute.
Caution. In pregnancy, ask a practitioner first.
石關，在陰都下一寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Shiguan Sits on the Upper Abdomen
The dataset places Shiguan on the upper abdomen, three cun above the centre of the umbilicus and half a cun lateral to the anterior midline. A cun is the traditional proportional unit of Chinese point-location: lengths taken from the person being examined rather than from any ruler, so a cun at the waist of a broad-framed adult differs from a cun on a slight teenager. Two familiar conversions carry most of the practical weight here: the width of four fingers held side by side along the knuckle line approximates three cun, and half a thumb’s breadth approximates half a cun. Three cun above the navel therefore lands roughly one hand-span up the belly toward the rib arch — high enough that the slope beneath the costal margin begins to matter, yet still comfortably on the front wall rather than tucked underneath it.
Two relationships make the spot easier to picture. Directly on the midline at exactly the same height sits Jianli (CV11), which the ren-channel record likewise locates three cun above the centre of the umbilicus — so finding one fixes the level for both. Along the kidney channel itself, Shangqu (KI17) rests one cun below and Yindu (KI19) one cun above, because the channel climbs the abdomen as a tidy vertical file of points spaced one cun apart, all holding steady half a thumb-width beside the midline. Beneath the fingertips lie the layered sheets of the abdominal wall — skin, soft tissue, and the paired strap of the rectus muscle running close by — and deeper still, the quiet territory classical maps assigned to the stomach. Locating the point asks nothing more than patient surface contact.
The height matters in how the tradition reads the point. The band between the navel and the base of the breastbone is where classical texts concentrated their descriptions of digestion: food received above, transformed, and moved downward through the passages below. Points climbing this band were arranged like milestones along that descending route, and Shiguan — the third milestone above the navel on the kidney line — stood close beside Jianli at the level where the old books placed much of the stomach’s work. Knowing the neighbourhood helps in a practical way too: because every neighbour on the line shares the same half-cun offset, once you have found one kidney-line point on your own abdomen you effectively hold the map for the entire climb.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit or recline somewhere warm and unhurried, with the abdomen completely relaxed — a slow breath fully out lets the belly soften. First find the centre of the navel. Lay the four fingers of one hand flat across the abdomen just above it, fingers together and aligned along the knuckle line: their combined width approximates three cun, and the top edge of the hand marks the horizontal level you want. Next find the anterior midline — the shallow vertical seam running from the navel up toward the base of the breastbone — and at that level step half a thumb-width to one side of it. Settle your fingertip pad gently there, on the upper-abdominal slope. Then repeat the search mirrored on the other side, because Shiguan exists as a matched pair, one point either side of the midline.
A cross-check makes the placement certain. Slide back onto the midline at your chosen height: if your finger rests in the shallow hollow a little below where the rib arches converge, you are touching the neighbourhood of Jianli, and stepping half a thumb-width aside from it brings you to Shiguan. Compare the two sides with feather-light touch; many people notice a faint, dull awareness at the true spot and almost nothing a thumb-width further out. Let a slow breath move under the fingertip — the abdominal wall rises and settles, and the point stays put beneath it. Sensation should remain mild and diffuse; nothing in a location search ever needs force.
Two slips are worth naming in advance. The first is drifting outward: people expect abdominal points to sit farther from the midline than they do, and half a cun is genuinely narrow — little more than the length of a fingernail. Land two thumb-widths to the side and you have wandered toward the stomach channel’s parallel line instead. The second is taking measurements on a tense or pushed-out abdomen, which shifts the landmarks; set your bearing on a settled exhale rather than a braced one. Whenever doubt creeps in, return to the navel, lay the four-finger span down again slowly, and begin once more.
Reading the Name: Stone Pass
The characters tell the story in miniature. Shi 石 means stone — the character pictures rock beneath a cliff edge. Guan 關 carries the sense of a gate, a pass, a barrier, or the act of closing; it is the same guan written across China’s mountain strongholds, and the same character tradition used when calling the body’s joints its own gates. Together the name reads Stone Pass. Commentators over the centuries offered several readings of the image: some heard in it the firm, resistant quality of the epigastric region under the examining hand; others took the stony metaphor for obstruction itself — a stretch of road where movement risks turning immovable; still others pictured a gate standing guard over the route by which food and qi descend through the upper abdomen. Every reading shares one intuition: this is a checkpoint on a busy road, not open countryside.
The dataset records Shiguan as a crossing point, and the classical geography behind that label runs along the whole upper reach of the kidney channel. Traditional sources describe the file of kidney-line points across the lower and mid abdomen — from the pubic margin up toward the rib arch — as crossings where the kidney channel meets the Chong vessel, the penetrating vessel tradition associates with the surge of qi and blood and with the reproductive and digestive spheres. The dataset’s crossing-point label places Shiguan squarely within that described company: a spot where two classical maps overlay. The label matters less as doctrine than as an image — a junction on the channel’s climb, answering to the gate in its name.
Pinyin renders the name Shíguān. The syllable shí carries the second tone — a brief rising inflection, the voice climbing through the vowel — while guān holds the first tone, level and sustained, high and even from start to finish. The hanzi pair 石關 is compact enough to memorise at a glance, and it joins a large family of points named for architecture and terrain: gates, passes, valleys, courtyards, storehouses. As with the treasury names of the chest or the valleys scattered along the hands and feet, the metaphor does real work. It records that the tradition thought about this spot as a controlled opening on a route — something that can be shut, and something whose proper business is letting things through.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: vomiting, abdominal pain, constipation, infertility, and morning sickness. Framed as tradition rather than promise, the first three form a natural cluster for an upper-abdominal gate. Vomiting covers the upward rebellion of stomach contents, which classical practice understood as qi failing its proper downward descent. Abdominal pain in the old records usually means the dull, blocked, or colicky discomforts of the middle trunk rather than sudden severe agony, which has always belonged to urgent care. Constipation was framed as the passages themselves slowing — and the stone-pass image fits that reading almost too neatly: a gate where movement stalls.
The last two indications widen the view. Infertility appears across the classical literature in connection with this stretch of the kidney channel and its Chong-vessel crossings, because tradition bound reproduction to the abundance and free movement of qi and blood that the penetrating vessel was said to govern. Morning sickness — nausea in early pregnancy — likewise sits in the recorded portfolio, an extension of the point’s digestive role toward the particular queasiness of early pregnancy. Both belong firmly to history and context on this page: they explain what the classical authors believed the point was doing, and they are not claims that pressing it treats any condition. Anyone who is pregnant or trying to conceive should treat any new point practice, however gentle, as a conversation to have with a qualified practitioner first.
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 evidence-backed treatment claims, and nothing in this guide replaces assessment by a qualified clinician. Where modern research has touched self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and heavily context-dependent, and evidence attached 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 in: seated or lying comfortably, abdomen soft, shoulders heavy. Rest the pad of your index or middle finger — never the tip — on the spot. Begin with contact alone for a few slow breaths, then add small circles, letting the skin glide gently over the tissue beneath rather than grinding inward. 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, timed where possible to unhurried exhales. Because Shiguan comes as a matched pair, give both sides equal time, and consider closing with a moment of resting both palms flat over the upper abdomen.
Quality matters more than duration. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact is what the wellness register practises; hard jabbing teaches the body nothing and can leave the abdomen bruised or guarded. Warm your hands first if they run cold, because chilled muscle sets its guard. Choose a quiet corner over a screen, and let the minutes double as a breathing pause: inhale through the nose, feel the belly swell beneath still fingers, ease the pressure on the long exhale. People who keep such routines often anchor them to an existing habit — after washing up, before sleep — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually request. Stop early whenever the skin feels sore or the abdomen tenses against you.
Treat the exercise as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks you may notice the area feels less guarded, that the middle of the body feels calmer while you rest there, or simply that you spent ninety seconds attending to yourself. Every outcome in that range 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
The licensed record lists no cautions specific to Shiguan, and it is worth saying so plainly: the dataset entry carries none. Absence of a recorded caution is not, however, an invitation to force. The point lies on the abdominal wall over quiet but real depths — muscle and membrane, and beneath them the organs of digestion. Professional training manages those depths with exact technique; home self-care manages them far more simply, by never leaving the surface at all. Gentle fingertip contact engages skin and the outermost muscular layer and stops precisely where the interesting anatomy begins.
The practical rules follow from that picture. Use finger pads only — never elbows, knuckles, or tools. Skip the point entirely during acute abdominal pain, during a feverish illness, over broken or irritated skin, and after abdominal 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 deserve a special word, precisely because morning sickness appears in the point’s traditional record: pregnancy changes the weighing of any new practice, so clear even gentle acupressure with a qualified practitioner before beginning. The same invitation extends to anyone living with digestive diagnoses, hernias, or unexplained abdominal symptoms.
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 severe or worsening abdominal pain, repeated vomiting, vomiting blood, blood in the stool, fever alongside abdominal complaints, or any symptom that frightens you. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, whether in mainstream or East Asian medicine as suits the complaint. The stone-pass imagery is evocative, but the safest gift Shiguan offers most people is a calmer acquaintance with their own abdomen, treated kindly.
Shiguan, the Stone Pass, stands on the upper abdomen three cun above the navel, half a thumb-width beside the midline. Classical practice reached for this crossing point when vomiting, abdominal pain, constipation, infertility, or morning sickness weighed on a person. This guide covers finding it by touch, reading its name, what tradition recorded for it, and pressing it gently and safely.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Shiguan without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the navel as your origin and your hand as the ruler. Place four fingers side by side just above the navel; the top edge of that span marks roughly three cun up. Then find the vertical midline seam and come half a thumb-width to the side of it at that height. Cross-check by confirming the level matches Jianli on the midline, three cun above the navel. The whole scheme is proportional body-measurement wearing numbers.
- Is pressing Shiguan safe during pregnancy?
- Approach it with care. Although morning sickness sits in the point’s traditional indication record, pregnancy changes the priorities of any new practice, and this guide cannot weigh them for you. Ask a qualified practitioner before adding any point work, however gentle, and lean on prenatal care rather than acupressure for anything concerning. Outside pregnancy, gentle fingertip contact on the surface is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults.
- What did classical practice use Shiguan for?
- The traditional record lists vomiting, abdominal pain, constipation, infertility, and morning sickness. Classical sources place the point among the kidney channel’s abdominal crossings with the Chong vessel, which is why digestive and reproductive complaints dominate its historic portfolio. Those are traditional frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does the kidney channel cross the abdomen at all?
- Classical channel theory draws the kidney pathway ascending from the sole of the foot, climbing the inner leg, entering the trunk low on the abdomen, and finishing in the chest — a rise the meridian overview summarises as rooting the body’s foundational qi. The abdominal file of kidney-line points marks that climb step by step, half a cun beside the midline, and Shiguan sits partway up it, three cun above the navel.
- Can acupressure at Shiguan replace seeing a doctor about digestive problems?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not a diagnostic tool. Severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, blood in vomit or stool, unexplained weight change, or symptoms lasting beyond a couple of weeks need professional assessment promptly. Keep the two in different rooms: daily gentleness lives at home, while clinical medicine keeps the consulting room you visit when something persists, escalates, or frightens you.
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 context, and channel background.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for KI18 Shiguan — 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/ki18/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/ki18/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/ki18/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "KI18",
"name": {
"en": "Shiguan",
"gloss": "Stone Pass",
"zh-Hant": "石關",
"zh-Hans": "石关"
},
"channel": {
"id": "KI",
"order": 18,
"of": 27
},
"location": {
"text": "Four finger-widths above the navel, half a thumb-width out from the midline."
},
"for": [
"vomiting",
"belly ache",
"constipation"
],
"press": {
"text": "Lying down, a light fingertip touch, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [
"In pregnancy, ask a practitioner first."
],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/ki18",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}