手三里 Shousanli
“Arm Three Miles” · LI10
Hand Yangming · 10 of 20
Where. On the back of the forearm, thumb side, three finger-widths below the outer end of the elbow crease.
For. A tired, weak arm, belly ache, toothache.
Press. Firm thumb pressure into the muscle, about a minute each arm.
三里二穴，在曲池下二寸，按之肉起，兌肉之端按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Shousanli Sits on the Forearm
Turn your palm downward and look at the back of your forearm: the dataset locates Shousanli on its thumb-facing side, on the line connecting Yangxi (LI5) and Quchi (LI11), two cun below the elbow crease. Quchi occupies the outer end of the crease itself, and Yangxi waits much farther down at the wrist, in the hollow at the base of the thumb. The line between them runs diagonally across the back of the forearm, hugging the thumb side, so two cun below the crease lands in the upper third of that line, where the forearm is fullest with muscle. As always, a cun is the traditional proportional measure taken from the person being examined — about one thumb-width at the knuckle — so the exact spot shifts a little from body to body, and locating it on your own arm beats memorising centimeters.
What lies beneath the skin here makes the point friendly to beginners. This stretch of forearm is thickly muscled: several muscles that steady the wrist and thumb gather along the very line the dataset describes, and they bunch visibly when you make a tight fist and relax it. Press anywhere near the true site and you meet springy muscle draped over solid bone, with room to spare before anything delicate. There is no chest wall here, no abdomen, none of the fragile territory that makes certain points demand extraordinary respect — just the well-padded landscape of a working limb. The sensation that answers good pressure is the familiar one: a dull, spreading soreness that settles in slowly and tells you a point has been found.
Shousanli also has company along the channel worth knowing. Above it, at the outer end of the elbow crease, sits the famous Quchi (LI11), and one thumb-width farther down the same line waits Shanglian (LI9); the sequence Quchi, LI10, LI9 marks off the forearm in even steps, like milestones along one road. Knowing the neighbors turns a lonely guess into a cross-check: if you can feel the crease-end point above you, you are on the right road, and a fixed distance of travel brings you home. Losing track mid-search simply means returning to the elbow crease and starting again.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit comfortably and lay the back of your forearm on a table, palm facing the floor, so the thumb side faces upward and outward, and bend the elbow a little. With the free hand, find the outer end of the elbow crease — the hollow-and-bone landmark where Quchi lives — and rest a fingertip there. Now walk straight down the forearm along the thumb-side line, two thumb-widths’ distance, letting the fingertip ride over the muscular swell. Around that second milestone, press gently into the flesh and search for the spot that answers with a dull, spreading awareness rather than plain pressure.
Several small checks settle the location. Clench and release your fist a few times: the tissue under your fingertip should firm and soften, confirming you sit on muscle rather than tendon or bare bone. Compare sides — most people find a similar sensitivity mirrored on the other arm, though one side often speaks louder than the other. Trace the line again slowly from elbow toward wrist to be sure your two thumb-widths ran parallel to the channel rather than drifting toward the palm side of the forearm, which belongs to different territory altogether. If everything feels flat and silent, nudge a finger-width in any direction and ask again; point-hunting rewards patience far more than force.
Three slips account for most misses. The first is starting from the wrong end: measuring two thumb-widths up from the wrist lands far short, because this point hugs the elbow. The second is drifting to the palm side of the forearm, where other channels run their courses; stay on the back-of-the-hand-facing surface, thumb side. The third is confusing Shousanli with its neighbor Shanglian (LI9), one further thumb-width down the line — a harmless mix-up, though the soreness that answers at the true point is usually the clearer voice. When doubt wins, return to the elbow crease, find its outer end, and measure down once, slowly.
Reading the Name: Three Li of the Hand
The name reads plainly once the pieces are known. Shou 手 means hand; san 三 is three; and li 裡 is the li, an ancient unit of walking distance — the word travelers once used for the stretches between villages. Rendered together, Shousanli is the Hand Three Li. The hand prefix does real work: it separates this point from its celebrated counterpart on the leg, Zusanli, the Leg Three Li (ST36), which shares the same mileage figure. The pair reads like two signposts planted on parallel roads — one marking a stage of the arm channel below the elbow, the other a famous stage of the stomach channel below the knee.
Why three li, and why here? Commentators have offered more than one answer, and honesty means reporting them as traditions rather than choosing among them. One reading ties the number to position: measured along the channel, the point stands at a recognisable remove from the elbow, a milestone like any other on the road down the arm. Another, homelier reading — the kind that survives in folk teaching — says that pressing this point was thought to refresh a weary traveler, restoring enough vigor to walk another few li. The story may be embellished, but it preserves something true about how the tradition regarded the point: a helper of tired limbs, a station on a long road.
Pinyin writes the name Shǒusānlǐ: a dipping third tone on shou, a flat high tone on san, another dip on li. The hanzi 手三里 are simple enough to memorise at a glance. Names like this belong to a larger family in which points carry the names of geography — gates, valleys, pools, markets, and mileposts — because the classical writers genuinely pictured the channels as roads carrying qi and blood through the body. On that map, Shousanli is not an abstract coordinate but a waypoint: a place where a walker pauses, catches breath, and finds strength renewed. The image is poetry, yet it organises the tradition’s practical memory remarkably well.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications run: weakness of the arm, paralysis of the upper limb, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, toothache, and swelling of the cheek. Take the first two together, because the tradition did. A limb that has lost strength, or movement itself after illness or injury, is exactly the complaint for which classical practice worked along the affected channel, attending to the points that lie over the weakened terrain. A forearm point sitting amid the muscles that drive the hand was a natural station for such care — approached, in the traditional idiom, as encouraging the channel’s flow through ground where it had stalled.
Abdominal pain and diarrhoea look stranger on the list until the channel map returns. The large intestine channel begins at the index finger and climbs the arm toward the face, and in classical physiology it belongs to the bowel of the same name; points along its course were therefore understood to share in the organ’s concerns. The yangming channels in particular were described as rich in qi and blood — well-supplied roads — and a well-supplied road could be asked to carry support toward the districts it passed. This kind of distal reasoning, reaching for a forearm point on behalf of the belly, is one of the tradition’s signature moves, visible throughout its literature.
Toothache and swelling of the cheek complete the picture, because the channel finishes its climb in the face, crossing the lower-jaw region before ending beside the nose. Where a channel travels, points along it may be reached for complaints of its route: that is the traditional logic, and the face belongs to this road. It bears repeating plainly that these are recorded traditional uses, offered for cultural and historical understanding rather than as claims that self-applied pressure treats disease. Where modern research touches acupressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and heavily context-dependent, 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 found, settle in: seated, forearm supported palm-down on a cushion or desk, shoulders easy. Bring the pads of two or three fingers down onto the spot — never a fingertip tip, knuckle, or elbow — and begin with plain contact for a few breaths. Add slow, small circles, letting the skin travel gently over the muscle beneath. Aim for the pleasant, dull warmth of good contact, never sharpness; if the arm flinches, lighten at once. A comfortable home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, paired where possible with slow exhales so each circle rides the breath out. Then swap hands and give the other arm its turn.
Because the forearm is always within reach, Shousanli suits the small pockets of the day better than most points: a pause between meetings, the minute while tea cools, the wind-down before sleep. Keep the pressure conversational rather than insistent, the way you would rub a friend’s shoulder. Warm hands help — cold ones make muscle guard itself. People who keep a routine usually anchor it to something already habitual, the morning coffee or the evening wash, because regularity, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually request. Both arms deserve the same courtesy; keeping the sessions symmetrical keeps the practice honest.
Treat the minutes as attention, not therapy. Across weeks you may notice the spot feeling less guarded, the arm moving more freely after long days at the keyboard, or nothing at all except a daily moment spent inhabiting your own body — and that last outcome sits squarely within what self-acupressure honestly offers. What falls outside its borders is escalation: pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a result, or continuing through pain. When curiosity pulls in that direction, return to gentleness or close the session for the day. The practice runs on consistency and restraint, not on drama.
Cautions and Safe Practice
Unlike points high on the chest wall or at the throat, Shousanli arrives with an empty caution shelf: the licensed dataset records no contraindications for it. Geography explains the difference. The point sits over thick forearm muscle padded onto bone, far from lungs, eyes, abdomen, and every structure that makes certain locations delicate. Professional practice works here routinely, and home fingertip pressure engages only the most superficial layers of an already forgiving landscape. Still, an empty caution field is a fact about the record, not an invitation to force; every point deserves the same basic manners.
Those manners are quickly listed. Use finger pads only, and keep pressure at the level of pleasant dullness. Skip the spot over cuts, rashes, sunburn, or broken skin, and around prominent veins or any lump or recent injury you cannot account for. Sharp, electric, or numbing sensations mean stop at once and leave the point alone for the day. Pregnant readers, and anyone with a diagnosed condition affecting the arms — numbness, radiating pain, recent surgery — do best to consult a qualified practitioner before adding new point practices. None of this is special to Shousanli; it is simply what respectful self-care looks like everywhere.
And above the specifics stands the universal rule: this page is educational, acupressure is self-care, and neither diagnoses nor treats anything. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner. Because the traditional indications include abdominal complaints and toothache, say it concretely: belly pain that is severe, worsening, or accompanied by fever or blood, and diarrhoea that lasts beyond a couple of days, call for prompt medical attention rather than longer pressing sessions. A toothache needs a dentist. Let the forearm routine be the comfortable companion of good care, never its substitute.
Shousanli, Hand Three Li, rests on the thumb side of the back of the forearm, a little way below the outer end of the elbow crease. Classical practice reached for it when an arm felt weak or unwilling, and, through the channel’s long journey, for belly troubles and toothache besides. This guide walks you to the spot by touch and shows how to press it gently at home.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Shousanli without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the elbow crease as the whole map. Lay the back of your forearm palm-down, find the outer end of the crease, then walk two of your own thumb-widths straight down the thumb-side line of the forearm. The spot amid the muscular swell that answers with a dull, spreading ache is the one the dataset describes. Cun measurements simply write the same landmark walk in proportional language.
- Is pressing Shousanli myself actually safe?
- For healthy adults, gentle fingertip pressure on this part of the forearm is among the least fraught forms of self-acupressure: the licensed records carry no caution entry for the point, and the territory under the skin is muscle over bone. Keep to the pads of the fingers, keep the pressure pleasant, and honour the stop signals — sharpness, numbness, anything radiating — and the practice stays well inside sensible bounds.
- What did classical practice use Shousanli for?
- The traditional record lists weakness of the arm, paralysis of the upper limb, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, toothache, and swelling of the cheek. Classical reasoning connected the forearm point to the arm it crossed and, by way of the large intestine channel’s long course from hand to face, to the belly and the jaw as well. These are traditional frameworks, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does its name echo Zusanli on the leg?
- Both names use li, the old walking-distance word, joined to a numeral: three li on the hand, three li on the leg. The pairing made the two points easy to remember as counterparts — one a station of the arm channel below the elbow, the other the famous station of the stomach channel below the knee. Commentaries differ on whether the numbers measure literal distance or something looser, and the tradition preserved the question rather than a single answer.
- Can acupressure at Shousanli replace seeing someone about my symptoms?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not a diagnosis or a therapy. Arm weakness that persists, belly pain that is severe or lasting, diarrhoea that will not settle, a nagging toothache — these deserve qualified eyes promptly. Think of the routine and the clinic as different floors of the same building: daily self-care downstairs, professional assessment upstairs whenever symptoms persist, worsen, or frighten you. 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, li-unit lore, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for LI10 Shousanli — location, point class, actions, and indication 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/li10/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/li10/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/li10/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "LI10",
"name": {
"en": "Shousanli",
"gloss": "Arm Three Miles",
"zh-Hant": "手三里",
"zh-Hans": "手三里"
},
"channel": {
"id": "LI",
"order": 10,
"of": 20
},
"location": {
"text": "On the back of the forearm, thumb side, three finger-widths below the outer end of the elbow crease."
},
"for": [
"A tired",
"weak arm",
"belly ache",
"toothache"
],
"press": {
"text": "Firm thumb pressure into the muscle, about a minute each arm.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Tongren Shuxue Zhenjiu Tujing, book 5",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/li10",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}