Light touch only; never press in under the collarbone.
俞府 Shufu
“Shu Mansion” · KI27
Foot Shaoyin · 27 of 27
Where. Just under the collarbone, halfway between the breastbone and the nipple line.
For. Cough; chest pain; poor appetite.
Press. A light fingertip touch on the surface, about a minute each side.
Caution. Light touch only; never press in under the collarbone.
輸府，在巨骨下，去璇璣傍各二寸陷者中按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Shufu Sits on the Upper Chest
On the upper chest, close in toward the midline, Shufu occupies a shallow resting place immediately beneath the lower border of the collarbone. The dataset places it on the chest, at the inferior border of the clavicle, 2 cun lateral to the anterior midline. A cun is the traditional proportional unit of point-location — lengths taken from the body being examined rather than from a ruler — and a person’s own thumb width serves as the everyday yardstick, so 2 cun comes out at roughly two thumb-widths out from the centre line. On most bodies that puts the point well toward the middle: considerably nearer the breastbone line than the shoulder, in the firm, slightly sloped terrain where the collarbone settles onto the chest wall.
What lies under this stretch of chest deserves particular respect, and the licensed record says so plainly: the lung apex and pleura lie beneath. The apices of the lungs are their highest reaches, climbing behind the collarbones toward the root of the neck, so the muscular padding between skin and the pleural lining runs thinnest of all here, at the very top of the chest wall. Under the fingertips the surface belongs to the upper fibres of the pectoralis major lying over the bony arch of the upper ribs. Nothing about locating the point requires force; the landmarks announce themselves to patient, feather-light touch, and everything that follows in this guide depends on keeping it that way.
A small map of the neighbourhood keeps searches honest. Along the kidney channel’s own column, the companion points stand directly below: the line climbs the front of the chest at two cun from the midline, point by point, until Shufu caps it at the collarbone. Farther out along the same shelf of bone, toward the shoulder, the lung channel opens its own first points around six cun from the midline — a different line entirely, and a familiar source of confusion when searching by memory rather than by measurement. If a candidate spot feels closer to the armpit than to the breastbone, the search has drifted lateral; return to the centre line, recount two thumb-widths, and begin again.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit upright on a firm chair with both feet down and shoulders released, so the chest muscles soften. First establish the midline: the soft notch between the inner ends of the two collarbones, just above the breastbone. From that notch, walk your fingertips outward along the top of the left collarbone about two thumb-widths — your own thumb, because the cun is personal. Then slide the fingertips around to the underside of the bone at that spot and let them settle into whatever shallow hollow presents itself just beneath the lower border. That resting place — close to the centre line, directly under the bone — is the location the dataset describes. Swap hands and repeat the search on the right side, so the two sides receive equal care.
A few quiet confirmations help before any pressing begins. Touch feather-light and compare sides: many people notice a faint, dull awareness at the true spot and little sensation a finger-width away. Let a slow breath move under your fingertips — the top of the chest lifts and settles by a hair with each cycle, and a still finger can feel it. Run the horizontal sanity check too: the site should sit clearly nearer the breastbone than the shoulder, about two thumb-widths from the centre line. If you feel only the bare edge of bone, ease the pressure off rather than digging — the hollow here is shallow, and pressing firmly flattens it out of existence. Soften, drift a fraction, and let the pocket find you.
The classic mistakes are predictable. Drifting outward past the mid-collarbone line leaves the kidney column entirely and wanders into different territory. Hunting instead for the large hollow beneath the outer end of the collarbone finds the lung channel’s opening, several cun too far lateral. And pressing hard enough to bruise these thin tissues teaches the wrong lesson about the whole exercise. The sequence protects against all three: midline, two thumb-widths, underside of the bone, done. When in doubt, return to the notch between the collarbones and walk the distance out once more, slowly — the point has not moved, and patience costs nothing.
Reading the Name: Shu Mansion
The characters tell the story in miniature. Shu 俞 belongs to a family of related characters — 輸, to convey or transport, and 腧, the classical term for the transport points themselves — and in point names it marks a place where the channel’s activity conveys inward and back out, a customs house for qi. Fu 府 means a mansion: a residence of standing, and by extension a repository where something valued is kept and administered. Commentators have long rendered the pair as the Shu Mansion — the mansion of conveying. And because Shufu is the twenty-seventh and final point of the kidney channel, the name pictures a terminus: the house at the top of the stairs, where a long climb finally arrives.
Position deepens the image. Classical channel theory draws the kidney pathway rising from the sole of the foot, up the inner leg and the trunk, to end here beneath the collarbone — the site’s own registry describes a channel ascending from the sole to the chest, rooting the body’s foundational qi. Traditional teaching adds that the kidneys receive and hold the qi that breathing draws downward: a partnership between breath above and root below, with exhalation settling into the depths. Shufu, standing at the channel’s summit beside the gateway of the chest, reads in that light as the mansion where the ascent completes itself — the place tradition chose to mark where breath’s upper story meets the body’s foundations.
Pinyin renders the name Shūfǔ, with a high, level first tone on shū and a dipping third tone on fǔ. The hanzi pair 俞府 is compact enough to memorise at a glance, and like so many points named for architecture — gates, valleys, courtyards, mansions — the metaphor performs work rather than decorating. It says the tradition treats this spot as a residence where things arrive and are managed, not a way-station merely passed through. Read that way, the name is itself a small set of instructions: come here deliberately, treat the place as inhabited, and behave accordingly.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: cough, asthma, chest pain, vomiting, and poor appetite. Framed as tradition rather than promise, classical practice traditionally reached for Shufu in coughs of many kinds and in wheezing, effortful breathing — the historical records gathered a wide range of noisy, laboured breathing patterns under the heading of asthma. Chest pain in these lists usually denotes the duller register of complaint: oppression, fullness, a stuck quality across the chest, understood classically as qi failing to move freely there. Sudden, severe chest pain belonged then, as now, to urgent care rather than to any point-practice.
The digestive pair — vomiting and poor appetite — looks surprising beside the respiratory entries until the classical lens is applied. Old commentaries read vomiting as stomach qi rebelling upward instead of descending smoothly, and poor appetite as that same movement faltering; chest-region points figured in classical discussions of easing the chest and encouraging rebellious qi to settle downward. The traditional picture is of traffic management rather than targeted repair: the chest as a crossroads where breath, food-qi, and emotion all pass, and a well-chosen point on the route helping the flows resume their proper directions. These are frameworks for understanding, inherited from a pre-modern physiology, not laboratory findings.
It bears repeating plainly: the uses above are the ones recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered for cultural and historical understanding. They are not claims that pressing this point treats disease, and nothing here 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 tied to any single point remains thin. Hold the tradition lightly, and hold the safety rules firmly — nowhere more so than at this address.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point located by the walkthrough above, settle into position: seated, spine tall but unforced, shoulders heavy. Choose a single finger — index or middle — because a lone broad pad suits this narrow shelf of bone better than two fingers crowded side by side. Begin with contact alone for a few easy breaths, then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue beneath rather than grinding against the ribs. Sensation 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, with the circles riding slow exhales wherever possible. Finish one side, swap hands, and give the other the same unhurried minute.
Quality matters more than duration. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact fits the wellness register this page practises; jabbing causes harm and teaches the body nothing. If your hands are cold, warm them first, because chilled muscle guards. Prefer a quiet corner to a screen — the practice doubles as a breathing pause, with attention resting on the top of the chest while the fingers stay still between rounds. People who keep such routines often anchor them to an existing habit: after morning washing, before the afternoon slump. Consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for, and at a site this close to the lung’s highest reach, gentleness is not a style preference but the entire point.
Treat the exercise as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks, notice what changes: perhaps the area feels less guarded, perhaps breathing feels smoother while you press, perhaps nothing shifts except that you spend ninety seconds attending to your own chest. 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. At Shufu especially, remember the geography: deeper is never better here, because the interesting structures begin almost at once. When curiosity pulls toward force, return to gentleness, or simply stop for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This point earns more respect than most, and the reason stands written in the licensed record. The dataset warns practitioners not to needle deeply, because the lung apex and pleura lie beneath. The anatomy behind the warning is simple: the lungs rise to their highest points behind the collarbones, reaching up toward the root of the neck, so at the top of the chest wall only a thin layer of muscle separates the skin from the pleural lining that wraps the lung. Professional training manages that margin 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 the picture. Keep pressure light and strictly superficial: the intention stays in skin and superficial muscle, never driving inward beneath the bone. Use finger pads — never elbows, knuckles, or tools — and never press while holding the breath or through pain. Skip the point entirely during any acute breathing difficulty, during a feverish illness, 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, coughing blood, a cough lasting beyond a few weeks, wheeze that will not settle, or any symptom that frightens you. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, whether medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. The mansion imagery is charming, but the safest gift Shufu offers most people is a calmer, kinder acquaintance with the top of their own chest — visited lightly, and left intact.
Shufu — the Shu Mansion — crowns the kidney channel at the very top of the chest, tucked beneath the inner half of the collarbone. Classical practice reached for it amid cough, laboured breath, and chest discomfort. This guide walks through finding it by touch, and keeping every self-care contact gently on the surface, which is where the safety of this high-chest point lives.
Cautions from the classical sources
- Keep insertion shallow; the top of the lung and the pleura lie underneath.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Shufu if cun measurements mean nothing to me?
- Use the collarbone and the centre line as the whole map. Find the soft notch between the inner ends of the two collarbones, walk outward along the bone about two thumb-widths of your own hand, then curl your fingertip underneath and settle into the shallow hollow beneath the lower border. That spot — close to the midline, directly under the bone — is the location the dataset records. The cun figures simply encode the same landmark walk in proportional language.
- Is pressing Shufu 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 the dataset flags. The recorded danger concerns deep professional technique at a site where the lung apex and pleura lie close beneath — a category home acupressure never approaches. Respect the stop signals: sharp pain, electric or radiating sensation, or discomfort that worsens all mean finish immediately and try nothing further that day.
- What did classical practice use Shufu for?
- The traditional record lists cough, asthma-style laboured breathing, chest pain, vomiting, and poor appetite. Classical texts describe the point as the summit of the kidney channel’s climb and read its roles through that position — easing the chest, and settling qi understood as rebelling upward. Those are traditional frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does the kidney channel end its journey at the collarbone?
- Classical channel theory draws the kidney pathway beginning at the sole of the foot, ascending the inner leg and the trunk, and surfacing finally at the top of the chest — the registry summarises it as a channel rising from sole to chest, rooting the body’s foundational qi. Ending beneath the collarbone gives the deepest channel of the lower body a window at the height of breath, which is why traditional teaching paired this endpoint with respiration through ideas like the kidneys holding the qi that breathing draws down.
- Can acupressure at Shufu replace seeing a doctor about my cough?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not a diagnostic tool, and a cough carrying red flags — blood, fever, worsening breathlessness, duration beyond a few weeks — needs prompt professional assessment. 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, transport-point theory, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for KI27 Shufu — 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/ki27/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/ki27/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/ki27/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "KI27",
"name": {
"en": "Shufu",
"gloss": "Shu Mansion",
"zh-Hant": "俞府",
"zh-Hans": "俞府"
},
"channel": {
"id": "KI",
"order": 27,
"of": 27
},
"location": {
"text": "Just under the collarbone, halfway between the breastbone and the nipple line."
},
"for": [
"cough",
"chest pain",
"poor appetite"
],
"press": {
"text": "A light fingertip touch on the surface, about a minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [
"Light touch only; never press in under the collarbone."
],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/ki27",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}