Not on the belly in pregnancy.
大巨 Daju
“Great Giant” · ST27
Foot Yangming · 27 of 45
Where. On the lower belly, three finger-widths below the navel and three finger-widths out from the midline.
For. A full, aching lower belly, difficult urination, poor sleep.
Press. Gentle flat-finger pressure, about a minute each side.
Caution. Not on the belly in pregnancy.
大巨，一名腋門，在長溪下二寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Daju Sits on the Lower Abdomen
The dataset places Daju on the lower abdomen, two cun below the centre of the umbilicus and two cun lateral to the anterior midline. A cun is the traditional proportional measure of Chinese point-location, taken from the body being examined rather than from any ruler; the width of a person’s own thumb across the knuckle serves as the everyday stand-in for one cun. So the recorded address translates into landmarks almost anyone can follow: find the exact centre of the navel, drop straight down about two thumb-widths, then step sideways the same distance clear of the body’s midline. The result is a matched pair of points, one on each side of the lower belly, sitting roughly where the abdomen begins its final slope toward the groin.
The stomach channel climbs this ladder rung by rung, and the recorded addresses make the neighbourhood legible. Tianshu (ST25) sits level with the navel itself, two cun to each side. One cun below comes Wailing (ST26); one cun further down is Daju; one cun below again waits Shuidao (ST28), whose name means Waterway, and the sequence continues toward the groin with Guilai (ST29) and Qichong (ST30). If your fingertip lands anywhere along that vertical corridor two cun wide of the midline, you are inside the right street; counting down from the navel tells you which door is which. Beneath the skin here lies the layered wall of the lower abdomen — abdominal muscle padded with fat — and deeper still, loops of bowel and the bladder. That depth asks for light hands, never force.
The wider journey matters too. Classical maps draw the stomach meridian running down the front of the body from the face to the second toe, and through the trunk it keeps this steady line two cun wide of the midline before angling toward the groin and continuing down the front of the thigh. Daju therefore sits mid-way along the abdominal descent, above the turn toward the leg. Traditional reasoning treats every stretch of that road as continuous: what gathers in the lower belly belongs, in the classical imagination, to the same flowing system the neighbouring point-names celebrate — waterways, returns, surging qi — and the tradition reads this point against the whole descending course rather than as an isolated spot.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat — bending the knees softens the abdominal wall and makes everything easier to feel. Rest the palm flat over the navel to find its centre, then place the edge of your little finger just below it: four stacked fingers span roughly two cun of height. From there, slide both index fingertips outward until each rests two thumb-widths clear of the midline, one hand per side. Press feather-light and sweep slowly in small circles. Most people meet a shallow, slightly tender zone there — less a pinhead than a coin-sized neighbourhood. Mark the spot mentally on each side and let the fingers rest while your breathing settles.
Three quick checks build confidence before pressing begins. First, compare sides with equal, gentle pressure: the two points usually answer similarly, though one side may speak a little more readily. Second, verify the horizontal distance — the spot should sit clearly off the midline, near the outer border of the rectus muscle that tenses when you lift your head slightly, yet not hidden away toward the hip bone. Third, breathe slowly and watch the belly rise under still fingertips; the healthy wall moves as a whole. If everything feels silent, reseat the fingers half a thumb-width in any direction and search again with patience rather than pressure — the zone announces itself to persistence, not force.
The common slips are predictable. Measuring down from the navel but forgetting the lateral step parks you on the midline itself, where nothing useful lives. Measuring sideways first and then forgetting to descend leaves you at Tianshu, level with the navel. Dropping too low carries you past Daju toward Shuidao and Guilai; drifting too high finds Wailing. When in doubt, return to the anchor — the exact centre of the navel — and repeat the little journey slowly: down two thumb-widths, out two thumb-widths. The repetition is not wasted effort; it is how the hand learns the map.
Reading the Name: Great Giant
The name is short and enormous. Da 大 means big or great — the character began, most scholars agree, as a simple picture of a person standing with arms spread wide, taking up space. Ju 巨 means giant or immense, and it survives today in compounds for anything outsized. Read together, Daju is often rendered the Great Giant. Pinyin writes it Dàjù, and the music is easy to remember because both syllables ride the fourth tone — the clipped falling tone that starts high and drops sharply — so dà falls, jù falls, and the name lands like two small hammer-blows, all weight and no lingering.
Why would the classics plant a giant here? Commentators have offered readings rather than a single verdict, and an honest account keeps them side by side. Some point to the sweep of the lower belly itself: the channel’s line runs broad and unhurried through this stretch, gathering breadth before it turns toward the groin, and the name honours that widening. Others read the giant against the region’s workload in the classical map — territory the old texts assigned to the lower burner, where waterways were governed and the body’s deep stores kept. Still others note simply that the neighbouring stations — Waterway, Return, Surging Qi — sketch a landscape of movement, and a landscape invites a giant. These are glosses on a name, treasured for how they train attention, not claims about what the point does.
Set back into its sequence, the name also does quiet navigational work. Walking the stomach channel down the abdomen means walking through a named countryside: Celestial Hub at the navel, Outer Mound just above, then Waterway, Return, and Qi Rushing toward the groin. Travellers in the classical literature found their way by such names the way sailors once did by coastlines, and the Giant stands mid-way along that shore. For a modern reader locating the point, the name renders the same service it always did: a memorable landmark pinned to a measurable place.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The licensed dataset records six indications for Daju: distending pain of the lower abdomen, hernia, difficult urination, nocturnal emission, premature ejaculation, and insomnia. Each deserves its traditional reading rather than a modern promise. Distending pain — fullness with a stretched, bloated quality — was the classic picture of qi failing to move freely in the lower belly. Hernia in the old records covers swellings and descents in the groin and lower abdomen as classically understood, a family of presentations the tradition grouped together under its own ancient category. Difficult urination meant hesitant, dribbling, or unsatisfying passing of water, read in the classical frame as the lower burner’s waterways running sluggish.
The next pair — nocturnal emission and premature ejaculation — belong to the same traditional territory: matters of the lower burner and the stores of essence that classical texts located deep in this region, discussed then as men’s health concerns are discussed now, with more delicacy than drama. Classical practice reached for lower-abdominal points along the stomach channel for such complaints because the channel passes directly through the territory, and the tradition treated the surface of the body as a map of its deep interior. Nothing in these records should be heard as a claim that pressing the point resolves any of them; they document what practitioners of earlier centuries reached for, and why.
Insomnia completes the list, and it looks strangest until the classical frame is restored. Old teaching drew the trunk as one connected landscape in which digestion, water metabolism, and sleep disturb one another freely — texts describe unquiet bowels making unquiet nights, and stagnation in the lower reaches of the body clouding the calm the heart is meant to keep after dark. A lower-abdominal point could therefore appear in lists about sleep without anyone imagining a wire from belly to brain. As for modern evidence: reviews of acupressure research suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. These pages carry the tradition for understanding, and leave treatment decisions where they belong — with qualified clinicians.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With both points located, settle in: lying down, knees bent, shoulders heavy, jaw loose. Curl two fingertips together and rest the pads — never the tips — on one side. Begin with contact alone for three slow breaths, letting the belly rise against still fingers, then add small, slow circles so the skin glides over the tissue beneath. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or faint warmth, spreading rather than sharp. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, timed to long exhales so each circle rides the breath out. Finish on the second side with the same gentleness, keeping the sessions symmetrical.
Quality outranks duration. Warm the hands first if your fingers run cold, because chilled muscle guards itself. Choose a quiet corner rather than a screen; the few minutes double as a pause in the day. Empty the bladder beforehand — comfort decides whether the belly can relax at all. People who keep the habit up tend to anchor it to something already routine: after morning washing, before an afternoon walk. Consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask, and a lower-abdominal point rewards exactly that patience — light, regular, unhurried contact across weeks, with no scorekeeping.
Treat the outcomes honestly. Across weeks you may notice the area feeling less guarded, digestion settling on the evenings you practise, or simply the pleasure of two minutes spent attending to your own body. All of that fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a result, especially over organs. If soreness follows a session, lighten the touch next time or skip a day. Curiosity that pulls toward force has misread the practice: the tradition these pages borrow from asked for rhythm and attention, and saved its warnings for those who forget.
Cautions and Safe Practice
An honest safety section starts with what the record says. Unlike points high on the chest or in the neck, Daju carries no point-specific caution in the licensed dataset — the catalogue records none, and this page echoes that emptiness deliberately. Emptiness is not licence. The lower abdominal wall shelters bowel and bladder within a hand’s depth of the skin, and classical location texts have always counted the abdomen among regions to be treated gently. Surface acupressure stays far above anything professional technique might reach, and staying purely superficial is precisely what keeps it comfortable and sensible.
Practical rules keep it that way. Use finger pads only — never elbows, knuckles, or tools. Skip the point over broken or irritated skin, during febrile illness, and while recovering from abdominal surgery until a clinician clears ordinary activity. Anyone living with a diagnosed hernia, inflammatory bowel disease, recurrent urinary trouble, or pelvic pain should ask a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice rather than pressing first and asking afterwards. During pregnancy, consult a practitioner before beginning any new abdominal point work. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and do not try again that day.
And the wider rule stands over everything. This page is educational; acupressure here is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Seek prompt medical care — not a pressure routine — for sudden or severe abdominal pain, inability to pass urine, blood in the urine, fever alongside belly pain, a new lump or bulge in the groin, or insomnia severe enough to erode days and weeks. Persistent symptoms belong with licensed practitioners, medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. The Great Giant is best visited politely: lightly touched, respectfully timed, and sent on its way when the body says enough.
Daju, the Great Giant, rests on the lower belly two thumb-widths below and beside the navel, a station on the stomach channel’s descent. Classical practice reached for it in distending lower-abdominal pain, hernia, difficult urination, and restless sleep. This guide covers finding it by touch, pressing it gently, and the boundaries that keep self-care kind.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Daju without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the navel as the entire map. Lie back with knees bent, find the exact centre of your navel, walk straight down two thumb-widths, then step sideways two thumb-widths clear of the midline — and mirror it on the other side. Bending the knees first softens the belly, which makes the tender little zone easier to notice. Cun measurements simply encode the same walk in proportional language; your thumbs do the converting.
- Is pressing Daju myself actually safe?
- For healthy adults, gentle fingertip contact held on the surface is reasonable self-care. The terrain is more forgiving than chest or neck points — no lungs nearby — yet bowel and bladder sit closer to the surface than most people imagine, which argues for pads, circles, and lightness rather than force. Respect the stop signals: sharp or electric sensation, nausea, or discomfort that worsens all mean finish immediately and try another day.
- What did classical practice use Daju for?
- The traditional record lists distending pain of the lower abdomen, hernia, difficult urination, nocturnal emission, premature ejaculation, and insomnia. Classical texts describe the stomach channel descending straight through this territory, which is why lower-abdominal complaints dominate its historic portfolio, and old teaching linked digestive and waterway disharmony to unquiet sleep. Those are frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does a stomach-channel point appear in lists about sleep?
- Because the classical body was drawn as one landscape. Nightly rest belonged to the heart’s calm, but that calm was understood to depend on the middle and lower burners doing their work quietly — food transforming, water moving, nothing stagnating. A lower-abdominal station entered sleep discussions through that web of dependencies, not through any anatomy of nerves. It is a different model of the person than the modern one — coherent on its own terms, and worth understanding as culture rather than prescription.
- When should I choose a doctor instead of self-care here?
- Whenever the body raises its voice. Sudden or severe abdominal pain, inability to pass urine, blood in the urine, fever alongside belly pain, a new groin bulge, or insomnia that dismantles your days all belong with prompt professional assessment — not a pressure session. And if you live with a diagnosed hernia or pelvic condition, or you are pregnant, seek a practitioner’s guidance before adding any new point work. Self-care is for the quiet days; medicine is for the loud ones.
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 and channel context for the lower abdominal stations.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for ST27 Daju — location, 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/st27/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/st27/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/st27/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "ST27",
"name": {
"en": "Daju",
"gloss": "Great Giant",
"zh-Hant": "大巨",
"zh-Hans": "大巨"
},
"channel": {
"id": "ST",
"order": 27,
"of": 45
},
"location": {
"text": "On the lower belly, three finger-widths below the navel and three finger-widths out from the midline."
},
"for": [
"A full",
"aching lower belly",
"difficult urination",
"poor sleep"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle flat-finger pressure, about a minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [
"Not on the belly in pregnancy."
],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/st27",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}