前谷 Qiangu
“Front Valley” · SI2
Hand Taiyang · 2 of 19 · ying-spring
Where. With a loose fist, on the outer edge of the hand, in the dip just in front of the little finger’s base knuckle.
For. Headache, ringing ears, sore throat.
Press. Thumb pad, slow circles, one minute each hand.
前谷者，水也。在手小指外側，本節前陷者中按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Qiangu Sits on the Outer Edge of the Hand
With the fist slightly clenched, as the dataset instructs, Qiangu appears on the ulnar side of the hand — ulnar simply meaning the little-finger side, the border furthest from the thumb. The full recorded location reads: distal to the fifth metacarpophalangeal joint, at the junction of the red and white skin, at the head of the transverse crease. Unpacked, every term maps onto something visible on an ordinary hand. The fifth metacarpophalangeal joint is the knuckle at the base of the little finger. Distal means the fingertip side of that joint rather than the wrist side. The junction of the red and white skin is the traditional name for the soft colour line where the paler skin of the palm side meets the deeper-toned skin of the back of the hand. And the transverse crease is the fold that rides across the base of the finger when the fist closes; its head — the far end running out along the ulnar border — meets that colour line exactly where the point sits.
What lies beneath the skin here asks for gentleness. The dip rests directly over the joint capsule and the slender tendon that straightens the little finger, with only thin tissue between them and the surface; tiny digital nerves and blood vessels travel nearby along both borders of the finger. Hands are densely wired and superficially built precisely because they are sensing organs — good news for acupressure, since feeling arrives early and force is never required, and equally a reason to abandon any thought of pressing hard onto a small joint. The point answers patient contact generously; it has no interest in strength.
Neighbours help confirm the address. Counting along the ulnar border from the nail toward the wrist, the channel’s first station, Shaoze (SI1), hugs the ulnar corner of the little fingernail; past the rounded crest of the knuckle, the hollow on its fingertip side is Qiangu; stepping back to the wrist side of the same crest brings you to Houxi (SI3); and further along still, at the wrist itself, Wangu (SI4) receives the channel and sends it onward. First, second, third — the early small intestine channel lays its stations out along one short border like milestones on a single road, a road that eventually runs nineteen stations long, all the way to the depression in front of the ear.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit comfortably and make a loose half-fist, curling the fingers enough to round the knuckles without squeezing. With the other hand, find the knuckle at the base of the little finger — the joint where the finger meets the hand proper. Slide your exploring fingertip to the little-finger-facing edge of that knuckle, then walk it slightly toward the fingertip, over the rounded crest of the joint. Just beyond the crest the ground should fall away into a shallow dip; settle there, and check that the spot lies along the faint boundary where palm-coloured skin yields to the darker skin of the hand’s back. That dip, on that edge, at that boundary, is the whole of the location.
Two quiet confirmations earn their keep. First, compare sides with feather-light taps: many people notice a faint, dull awareness at the true point and almost nothing a few millimeters away. Second, change the finger’s posture — clench a little tighter and the hollow tends to deepen and announce itself, while straightening the finger lets it soften again. If your fingertip rests on a hard ridge instead of a dip, you are probably sitting on the crest of the bone itself; ease off toward the palm side or a touch further toward the fingertip and search again. None of this probing should hurt — discomfort during location usually means too much pressure rather than the wrong place.
Common slips are predictable. Hugging the underside of the finger leaves the colour boundary and strays toward the palm surface. Drifting too far around toward the wrist carries you past Houxi’s territory, which is the wrong side of the crest for this exercise. Using a fingernail instead of the pad turns a gentle search into a poke, so trim nails and let the fleshy pad do the work throughout. When confusion wins, release the fist, shake the hand out, re-clench softly, and begin again from the knuckle; the landmark has never moved.
Reading the Name: Front Valley
The name reads like a pocket map. Qian 前 means front or before, and gu 谷 means a valley — the low ground between heights where water collects. Called Front Valley, the point takes its position literally: it sits in front of the knuckle, on the fingertip side, while its neighbour behind the joint — Houxi, the Back Ravine — keeps the wrist side. One in front, one behind; a valley ahead and a ravine behind; the two names annotate each other across a single small joint. Pinyin writes it Qiángǔ, a rising second tone on qian and a dipping third tone on gu. The two characters 前谷 are easy to hold in memory: a direction and a landform.
A second layer belongs to point classification. Classical teaching organises the points nearest the fingers and toes into five offices per channel, named for water gathering force downhill: a well, a spring, a stream, a river, and a sea. Qiangu holds the spring office of the small intestine channel — the stage where the flow, having surfaced at the well, gathers into something lively but still young. Classical five-phase teaching, as carried in standard references such as A Manual of Acupuncture, assigns the spring points of the yang channels to the water phase, and water’s traditional role in that system is to meet and temper heat. There is a pleasing symmetry for classical eyes here: the tradition itself marks the small intestine channel with the fire element, so a water-natured spring point riding a fire channel reads as balance sketched into the body’s map. It is a lens for reading the tradition, not a laboratory finding.
The imagery repays attention. A spring is cool, quick, and constant — exactly the qualities classical practice liked to reach for when the body ran hot, whether the heat showed as feverishness, an inflamed throat, or reddened eyes. The old aphorism, paraphrased rather than quoted, taught that spring points answer hot states. Whatever one makes of the physiology, the classification does real explanatory work: it tells you at a glance why a small point on a knuckle spent centuries appearing in discussions of febrile illness alongside sore throats and eye complaints. The name, once again, doubles as instructions.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: febrile disease without sweating, headache, red eyes, tinnitus, sore and swollen throat, breast abscess, and insufficient lactation. Read traditionally, they hang together. Take the fevers first: the old records liked to distinguish fevers that had already opened into sweat from those still locked tight, and an exterior held closed was understood as something awaiting release. Hot-state points — the spring points above all — were the classical places to consult when the body ran feverish, and this point’s entry in that register explains why the old lists speak specifically of febrile illness that has not yet sweated.
Headache, red eyes, tinnitus, and sore and swollen throat travel together along the channel’s itinerary. Classical texts draw the small intestine channel beginning at the little finger and climbing the arm toward the face, passing the neck and cheek, with its final station, Tinggong (SI19), sitting in the depression directly in front of the ear. Points near a channel’s beginning were read as speaking to territory along its whole route, so a hand point could be consulted for heads, eyes, ears, and throats. Breast abscess and insufficient lactation form the last pair, and their presence repeats a pairing already recorded at neighboring Shaoze: breast complaints were classically approached through the channels of the chest wall, and this channel’s appearance in such discussions stands in the literature as recorded usage — coherent within its own map, even where anatomy alone would not predict it.
It bears saying 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 any condition, and nothing in this guide substitutes for assessment by a qualified clinician. Where modern research has touched self-applied acupressure at all, reviews suggest effects tend to be modest and dependent on context, and evidence specific to any single point remains sparse. Hold the tradition lightly and the safety rules firmly, and the two will never collide.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
Settle first: seated, shoulders heavy, the located hand resting palm-down on your thigh. Bring the pad of your opposite thumb or index finger onto the dip, and begin with bare contact — a few unhurried breaths carrying no pressure beyond the weight of the finger itself. Then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue rather than grinding against the joint beneath. Aim for a pleasant dullness, perhaps a mild warmth spreading along the finger’s edge; any sharpness anywhere in the experience is a cue to lighten or stop. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, with the pressure riding gently on each exhale. Swap hands and give the other side its turn.
Fingers ask for even less force than body points. Their skin is thin, their nerves sit close to the surface, and their joints are small — so halve whatever pressure feels normal elsewhere, and keep nails short so the pad, not the edge, does the work. Warm hands press more kindly than cold ones; if yours run cold, rub them together before starting. Quality beats duration: two minutes of genuinely light, attentive contact serves the practice better than ten absent-minded ones. Many people anchor the routine to an existing habit — morning coffee, an afternoon pause at the desk — because regularity, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually request.
Treat the minutes as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks you may notice the area feeling less tender, the hand moving more freely, or simply that you spent ninety seconds attending to your own body — every outcome inside the honest scope of self-acupressure. What falls outside it is escalation: pressing harder, longer, or more sharply to force a result. Curiosity that pulls that way is best answered by returning to gentleness, or by closing the practice for the day. The valley has waited centuries already; it can wait until tomorrow.
Cautions and Safe Practice
The licensed dataset records no special cautions for this point, and it is worth stating that plainly — together with what it does not mean. An empty caution column is not an invitation to force. Small joints, thin skin, and nerves travelling just beneath the surface mean this neighbourhood rewards exactly the light, purely superficial contact this page recommends everywhere else, and it punishes jabbing. Never press hard onto a bony ridge, never work with a tool or device, and never push sensation beyond pleasant dullness.
Conservative defaults cover the rest. Skip the point entirely over cuts, scrapes, broken or irritated skin, warts, eczema patches, or any inflammation around the nail folds or knuckle; leave it alone while a finger or hand injury, sprain, or recent surgery heals, until ordinary use feels comfortable again or a clinician clears it. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and do not retry that day. Pregnant readers should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice, and anyone living with a condition that affects the circulation or sensation of the hands — diabetes with neuropathy, Raynaud-type sensitivity, and similar — does best to consult a clinician beforehand. When in doubt, ask first; the question costs nothing.
Red flags outrank routines. True fever — especially in a young child — is a medical question first and a heritage topic a distant second. A hot, swollen, painful breast calls for prompt clinical assessment, not a pressing schedule; a headache that worsens steadily or changes character, eye pain with disturbed vision, and ear pain or discharge likewise deserve professional attention promptly. And the standing rule rises over everything: this page is educational, acupressure is comfort-oriented daily care rather than diagnosis or therapy. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner — Western medicine or East Asian medicine, whichever suits the complaint. A quiet valley makes a poor clinic; save the real clinics for the professionals who staff them.
Qiangu — literally “front valley” — waits on the outer edge of the hand, in the shallow dip just beyond the knuckle of the little finger, where pale palm skin gives way to the darker back of the hand. Classical practice kept this small spring point close for feverish states, headache, and troubled eyes and ears. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it safely at home.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Qiangu without measuring anything?
- Make a soft fist and use the knuckle of the little finger as the entire map. Slide to its little-finger-facing edge, walk just past the rounded crest toward the fingertip, and settle into the shallow dip you find there, checking that it lies on the faint boundary between palm-coloured and hand-back skin. Nothing needs measuring: the dataset’s own wording names landmarks only, with no cun counts anywhere in it.
- Is pressing so close to a knuckle really safe?
- Gentle fingertip pressure held on intact skin is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, and this point’s superficial nerve supply means sensation arrives early, long before any force would matter. The realistic risks come from hard or repeated jabbing on a small joint, which the technique simply excludes. Respect the stop signals — sharp pain, lingering tingling, discomfort that worsens — and finish the session immediately if any appear.
- What did classical practice use Qiangu for?
- The traditional record lists febrile disease without sweating, headache, red eyes, tinnitus, sore and swollen throat, breast abscess, and insufficient lactation. Classical frameworks explain much of the grouping: spring-point doctrine associated this class of points with hot states, and the channel was drawn climbing from the little finger to the face, finishing in front of the ear. Those are traditional ways of mapping the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why would a point on the little finger relate to ears, eyes, and breasts at all?
- In classical channel theory the small intestine meridian begins beside the little fingernail and climbs the limb to the face, where its course ends at a point directly in front of the ear. Points near a channel’s start were read as relevant to regions along its route, which carries the head, eye, and ear entries. The breast pairings belong to recorded practice history — the dataset repeats what the older literature kept together — and stand apart from anatomical cause and effect.
- Can acupressure at Qiangu take the place of seeing a doctor?
- No. Self-acupressure offers comfort, not diagnosis, and fever — particularly in a young child — or a hot, swollen, painful breast needs professional assessment promptly, whatever else you do for comfort. Picture two floors of one building: daily self-care lives downstairs, and clinical medicine keeps the consulting room upstairs for when symptoms persist or escalate. Neither replaces the other, and the downstairs tenant should always send serious matters upstairs.
Sources
- 01WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region (2008), World Health Organization — location conventions.
- 02A Manual of Acupuncture, Peter Deadman, Mazin Al-Khafaji and Kevin Baker — point-name tradition, five-phase spring-point classification, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for SI2 Qiangu — 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/si2/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/si2/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/si2/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "SI2",
"name": {
"en": "Qiangu",
"gloss": "Front Valley",
"zh-Hant": "前谷",
"zh-Hans": "前谷"
},
"channel": {
"id": "SI",
"order": 2,
"of": 19
},
"location": {
"text": "With a loose fist, on the outer edge of the hand, in the dip just in front of the little finger’s base knuckle."
},
"for": [
"headache",
"ringing ears",
"sore throat"
],
"press": {
"text": "Thumb pad, slow circles, one minute each hand.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/si2",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}