Not on the belly in pregnancy; keep off any pulse in the groin.
府舍 Fushe
“Mansion Lodging” · SP13
Foot Taiyin · 13 of 21 · crossing-point
Where. Low on the belly just above the groin crease, about a finger-width above Chongmen (SP12).
For. Lower belly pain, aching at the groin.
Press. Lying with knees bent, gentle finger pads, one minute each side.
Caution. Not on the belly in pregnancy; keep off any pulse in the groin.
府舍，在腹結下三寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Fushe Sits on the Lower Belly
The dataset locates Fushe on the lower abdomen: four cun below the centre of the umbilicus, seven-tenths of a cun above Chongmen (SP12), and four cun lateral to the anterior midline. Three anchors, each worth unpacking. A cun is the traditional measuring unit of Chinese point-location — proportional lengths taken from the person being examined rather than from a ruler, so a cun on a broad-framed adult differs from a cun on a slight teenager. On the front of the trunk, the conventional grid measures five cun from the centre of the navel down to the upper border of the pubic bone, which places the recorded height about one cun above the pubic crest. Four cun lateral to the midline sets the point on the flank-side line that the spleen points of the belly share — by the traditional hand-rule, the width of four stacked fingers plus a thumb.
Seven-tenths of a cun above Chongmen adds a second way in. Chongmen, the previous point on the channel, sits in the lateral groin at the level of the top of the pubic bone, just outside the spot where a pulse can be felt — so Fushe begins barely a thumb-width above the crease where belly meets thigh. Because these heights are measured from different landmarks, they do not promise to coincide to the millimetre; treat them as a small neighbourhood rather than a pinhead, and let gentle touch settle the question. Beneath the skin here there is no bone close by, only the soft layers of the abdominal wall, with loops of bowel deeper still and the vessels of the groin just below and outside. Everything about that picture argues for feather-light fingers, and the point comes as a pair — one on each side, mirrored about the midline.
The map around it explains the point’s place on the channel. The registry describes the spleen meridian as ascending from the big toe up the inner leg to the chest; along the way it crosses the groin at Chongmen, then climbs the flank of the lower abdomen on the four-cun line. Fushe is the first landing after that crossing. Above it the recorded locations step steadily upward — Daheng (SP15) sits level with the navel, still four cun lateral — until the line reaches the ribs and the lateral chest. Read downward, the pathway drops from here to the groin and turns into the leg, so classical thinking treats the spot as a gateway between the journey of the leg and the journey of the belly. Location, in this tradition, already tells a story about direction.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Begin settled. Visit the bathroom first so the bladder is empty, then lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat — bending the knees lets the abdominal wall soften, which makes every landmark easier to feel. Find the centre of the navel. Lay the stacked width of four fingers just below it: by the traditional hand-rule that span counts as three cun, so one further thumb-width completes the four. Now slide the same hand-ruler outward from the midline until you have crossed roughly four cun. You are aiming at the soft slope above the crease where the belly folds toward the thigh — low on the abdomen, clearly off the midline, well inside the rim of the hip bone.
A second route starts from below and suits people who prefer landmarks confirmed by feel. Slide your fingertips into the crease where the leg meets the front of the torso, beside the pubic bone, and rest them lightly until any strong pulsing fades from under the pad — that sensitive doorway is the neighbourhood of Chongmen. Glide straight upward less than a full thumb-width, about seven-tenths of a cun, and you arrive at the recorded height of Fushe. Before any real pressure, confirm: touch feather-light and compare sides, since most people notice a faint, dull awareness at the true spot and little a finger-width away; let a slow breath move beneath your fingers and feel the wall rise and fall. If a pulse beats distinctly under your fingertip, drift gently until it fades — the point is not on the vessel.
The usual slips have simple fixes. Searching too far toward the middle carries you onto the points of the midline itself; dropping too far down settles you in the groin crease among structures that were never the target; probing with a tensed, braced belly hides everything, which is why standing searches fail so reliably. Should your fingers land on the firm rim of the pelvic bone, you have wandered low and far out — return to the navel, re-measure, and begin the descent again. The point is a small zone rather than a pinhead; patient, light searching finds it faster than force ever could.
Reading the Name: Mansion Lodging
Fu 府 belongs to the same family of images as the treasury names found elsewhere on the body: it means a mansion or official residence, and by extension a repository where things valued are kept. She 舍 means a dwelling or lodging-house — the place a traveller stops for the night. Set together, Fushe reads as the lodging of the mansion, a reception hall on the body’s lower story where arrivals are received and housed. The imagination behind such names is architectural throughout: gates, courtyards, storehouses, and guest-quarters turn anatomy into buildings a practitioner can walk through mentally, and every building implies what happens at its door.
The name fits the point’s recorded office with unusual neatness. The catalogue marks Fushe a crossing-point — one of the places where classical descriptions say more than one pathway meets. Among the guests, commentaries through the centuries most often name the yin wei, the yin-linking vessel that traditional maps draw climbing the inner leg and crossing the lower belly before rising toward the chest. Whether one follows those commentaries or keeps to the bare category, the image holds: a lodging-house stands where roads meet, and this point stands where the spleen channel’s own road, fresh from the groin crossing, begins its climb beside the navel line. Guests arrive; the house receives them.
Pinyin writes the name Fǔshè, and the tones deserve a dictionary glance rather than a guess. Fu 府 carries the dipping third tone; she 舍 here carries the falling fourth tone, the reading reserved for dwellings and hostels — distinct from the third-tone shě that means to give something up, as when relinquishing a possession. Chinese pairs such readings on many common characters, and point names reward checking character by character. The hanzi pair 府舍 is compact enough to memorise at a glance, and like many channel points named for rooms and buildings it compresses location and function into two syllables: this is a place where the tradition expects company.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read plainly: hernia, abdominal pain, and abdominal masses. The first word needs historical translation. In classical records, the term rendered hernia covered a broad family of complaints of the lower belly and groin — dragging sensations, swellings that came and went, colicky grips descending inward — long before modern medicine separated out the structural defect now called an inguinal hernia. Tradition was addressing patterns of discomfort as it understood them; it was not describing the anatomy a surgeon sees. That distinction matters practically, because a genuine structural hernia belongs with a physician, and no rubbing routine has any business substituting for that assessment.
The other two entries belong to the traditional language of the abdomen. Pain there was read through qualities — cold, stuck, wandering, worse with worry — and points were chosen along the channels passing the region, which is why a crossing-point on the spleen line recurs in older discussions of lower-belly discomfort. Masses, in the classical vocabulary of accumulations, named lumps and fullness felt in the belly, understood as qi, blood, or phlegm settling into stationary form. However poetic the frame, the modern response to any new lump is not poetry: an unexplained mass, persistent pain, or a groin bulge that turns hard, painful, or will not go back calls for medical care promptly — urgently, if nausea and vomiting join in.
It bears repeating plainly: these are the traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered for cultural and historical understanding. They are not claims that pressing this point treats any condition, and where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, with evidence tied to single points remaining thin. Hold the tradition lightly and hold the safety rules firmly; the sections ahead show how little force this kind of practice actually asks for.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point located, arrange the practice kindly. Lie back with knees bent, or recline supported in a chair, and let several slow breaths settle the belly. Rest the pads of two or three fingers — never the tips alone, never a knuckle or tool — on the spot and begin with contact only, letting the wall grow accustomed to your presence. Then add small, slow circles, allowing the skin to travel over the tissue beneath. 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, easing gently deeper on the exhale and softening again on the inhale. Finish by repeating everything on the other side, keeping the session symmetrical.
Quality outranks duration, here as everywhere in self-care. Warm your hands first — chilled fingers make the belly guard — and trim nails so the pad, not an edge, meets the skin. Choose a quiet corner rather than a screen; many people fold the practice onto something already in the day, morning or evening, because regularity, not intensity, is what home traditions actually ask for. Treat the few minutes as a pause with a purpose: notice the breath moving the wall beneath still fingers, notice the day loosening by a notch.
Across weeks, observe honestly. Perhaps the area feels less guarded; perhaps digestion feels calmer on the days you practise; perhaps nothing shifts except that you spent two minutes attending to your own middle instead of scrolling past it — and that, too, sits squarely within the honest scope of self-acupressure. What sits outside it is escalation: pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a result, or continuing through pain in the hope that persistence converts into benefit. When curiosity pulls toward force, return to gentleness, or set the practice down for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
No special caution is recorded for this point in the licensed dataset — the entry carries an empty caution field — and that absence describes the record, not a licence for enthusiasm. Geography still asks for respect. The lower belly is a soft wall over quiet, busy machinery: bowel lies deeper than gentle pressure reaches, and the vessels of the groin run just below and outside the point’s neighbourhood. The practical translation is simple: keep every touch light and strictly superficial, never drive inward, never press with a full bladder, and never work over skin that is cut, irritated, or inflamed.
Some situations call for skipping the point and asking first. Anyone pregnant should consult a qualified practitioner before adding a lower-abdominal point to a routine; conservative practice treats the pregnant belly with particular gentleness, and individual guidance comes first. Pause during feverish illness, and for some weeks after any abdominal or groin surgery unless a clinician has cleared ordinary activity. On heavy or uncomfortable menstrual days, let comfort decide whether to practise at all. During a session, sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and do not try again that day; a lingering ache afterwards means the pressure exceeded what the tissue welcomed.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care — not diagnosis, not therapy, not a substitute for examination. Seek prompt medical care, not a longer pressing session, for a new or unexplained lump anywhere in the abdomen, a groin bulge that becomes hard, painful, or impossible to reduce, abdominal pain with vomiting or fever, blood in the stool, or pain that persists beyond a couple of weeks. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. The lodging-house imagery is charming, but the surest gift this point offers most readers is a kinder acquaintance with their own lower belly.
Fushe, the Mansion Lodging, sits low on the belly just above the crease where abdomen meets thigh, four cun out from the body’s midline. Classical practice reached for it in hernia-pattern complaints, abdominal pain, and masses of the belly. This guide covers finding it by touch, pressing it gently, and the boundaries that keep self-care safe.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Fushe without knowing anything about cun?
- Use your own hand as the ruler, because cun measurements are only proportions written down. From the centre of the navel measure four finger-widths down and add a thumb; from the midline measure the same distance out to the side; the soft slope where those levels cross, just above the groin crease, is the recorded neighbourhood. Or climb up from the crease itself: rest your fingers beside the pubic bone until any pulse fades, then glide upward a shade less than a thumb-width.
- Is pressing this spot myself actually safe?
- For healthy adults, gentle fingertip contact held on the surface is generally reasonable self-care: it works in skin and the outermost layers of the abdominal wall, well short of the structures beneath. The habits that matter are lightness, an empty bladder, and stopping on any sharp or radiating sensation. Skip the point when skin is broken, during feverish illness, and soon after abdominal or groin surgery — and if you are pregnant, ask a qualified practitioner before beginning at all.
- What did classical practice use Fushe for?
- The traditional record lists hernia-pattern complaints of the lower belly and groin, abdominal pain, and abdominal masses. Classical texts describe the point as a crossing-place where pathways meet, and its historic portfolio follows the channel’s own road through groin and lower belly. Those are frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims, and never a reason to delay care for a lump or a trapped bulge.
- Why does the name mention a mansion?
- Fu means a residence or repository and she a lodging-house, so the name pictures a reception hall on the body’s lower story. The catalogue’s crossing-point label supplies the guests: classical descriptions speak of more than one pathway meeting here, with the yin wei — the yin-linking vessel — the guest commentaries most often name. Names in this tradition are rarely decoration; this one records that the point was imagined as a place where travellers gather and are housed.
- I have a groin bulge that comes and goes — should I press this point?
- No. A bulge in the groin or lower abdomen needs medical assessment before any self-care begins, however mild it seems, because only an examination can tell whether tissue is protruding and whether it reduces freely. Pressing is never a substitute for that look. If a bulge ever turns hard, painful, or will not go back — especially with nausea or vomiting — seek urgent care rather than trying to manage it at the wall of the belly.
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 theory, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for SP13 Fushe — 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/sp13/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/sp13/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/sp13/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "SP13",
"name": {
"en": "Fushe",
"gloss": "Mansion Lodging",
"zh-Hant": "府舍",
"zh-Hans": "府舍"
},
"channel": {
"id": "SP",
"order": 13,
"of": 21
},
"location": {
"text": "Low on the belly just above the groin crease, about a finger-width above Chongmen (SP12)."
},
"for": [
"lower belly pain",
"aching at the groin"
],
"press": {
"text": "Lying with knees bent, gentle finger pads, one minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [
"Not on the belly in pregnancy; keep off any pulse in the groin."
],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/sp13",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}