陰市 Yinshi
“Yin Market” · ST33
Foot Yangming · 33 of 45
Where. On the front of the thigh, four finger-widths above the outer top corner of the kneecap.
For. Weak legs, knees that will not bend or straighten easily.
Press. Firm thumb pressure, about a minute each leg.
陰市，一名陰鼎，在膝上三寸，伏兔下，若拜而取之按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Yinshi Sits on the Front Thigh
On the front of the thigh, Yinshi occupies the position the dataset records: on the line running from the anterior superior iliac spine to the lateral end of the base of the patella, three cun above the base of the patella. Those anatomical names untangle readily. The anterior superior iliac spine is the bony prominence at the very front of the hip — the shelf you feel under your waistband at each side; the base of the patella is the upper border of the kneecap, and its lateral end is that border’s upper-outer corner. Stretch a mental string between the two and you have the line the point lives on, slanting gently across the front of the thigh. A cun is the traditional proportional unit of Chinese point-location, taken from the person being examined: one thumb-joint’s width makes a cun, and four fingers held together span roughly three, so your own body supplies the ruler.
What awaits the fingertips is some of the friendliest country in point-location. The spot sits in the great muscle mass of the front thigh — the quadriceps, the engine that straightens the knee — wrapped in generous padding, with no thin spaces or delicate structures announcing themselves at the surface. Unlike the chest wall or the throat, nothing here asks for apology. The real risk is complacency: thick muscle invites heavy hands, and heavy hands earn only a sore thigh tomorrow. Flesh this dense answers patience rather than force, and a point buried in a working muscle is best courted when the muscle is warm and at rest.
The neighbours confirm the address. The same line hosts a small procession of stomach-channel points: Biguan (ST31) up near the hip, Futu (ST32) six cun above the kneecap, and Liangqiu (ST34) two cun above it. Yinshi, three cun above the kneecap, therefore sits squarely between Futu and Liangqiu — three thumb-widths below the former, one thumb-width above the latter. Classical texts describe the stomach channel descending the whole front of the body from the face toward the second toe, and this stretch of thigh is the corridor through which it passes on its way to the knee. Locating Yinshi locates a station on that corridor, and the corridor anchors every search on the front thigh.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit upright with the feet flat on the floor and the thighs released, or lie back with the legs supported. Find the kneecap first: trace up its edges to the topmost border, then walk outward along that border to its upper-outer corner. From that corner, climb three thumb-widths straight up the thigh along the imagined line toward the front-of-hip bone, pressing gently as you go. The third stride lands in the thick of the front-thigh muscle, a palm’s height or so above the kneecap. Press softly: a broad, even yielding under the pads — no rim, no groove, no bone — tells you the search has landed. Repeat the survey on the other side, because the point comes in a mirrored pair.
A few quiet confirmations help before any pressing begins. Compare sides with feather-light touch: many people notice a faint dull awareness at the true point and little sensation half a thumb away. Rest your fingertip in place and slowly straighten and bend the knee a few degrees — the muscle stirs beneath the skin and the spot rides with it, confirming you are on living muscle rather than tendon or bone. Check the line, too: the point belongs out on the front of the thigh, nearer the outer edge than the inner. If your finger has drifted toward the groin fold or the inner thigh, return to the kneecap corner and climb again, keeping the path faithful to the line toward the hip.
Two slips account for most misses. The first is letting the upward path bow outward or inward — unsupervised hands wander, and a diagonal of even one thumb-width carries the search off the recorded line. The second is careless counting: skin stretches, thumbs vary their spread, and one enthusiastic stride can swallow two cun into one. Re-anchor often: back to the upper-outer corner of the kneecap, then three slow, deliberate strides upward. People who locate the point this way a few times usually develop a reliable inner map of the whole thigh line, after which the measuring becomes a formality rather than a survey.
Reading the Name: Yin Market
The name pairs two spare characters. Yin 陰 means shade — the sheltered side of a hill, the cool side of a slope — and by extension the yin principle itself: the cooler, quieter, heavier half of the tradition’s great pair of opposites. Shi 市 means market: the crowded square where goods gather, change hands, and move on. Together, Yinshi reads as the yin market. Naming a bodily site after a market declares it a hub where something collects — and in this reading, what collects are the very qualities the tradition calls yin.
Commentators have unfolded the name along two natural lines. One connects the market to the channel itself: classical teaching pictures the stomach as the body’s granary-official, the organ that receives grain and provisions, and a market is precisely where grain and wares are traded — so a market-station on the stomach channel needs little explaining. The other reading starts from terrain and record together: the legs lie low on the body, in the shadier, earthier territory the tradition assigns to yin, and the complaints classically listed here — cold, heaviness, weakening limbs — are just what older writers describe when dampness and cold settle downward and accumulate. Whether one hears the market trading grain or hoarding chill, both readings agree on the essential: this is a place where things gather.
Pinyin renders the name Yīnshì. The first syllable, yin, carries the first tone — a high, level note held steady, neither rising nor falling. The second, shi, carries the fourth tone — it sets out high and drops firmly, the falling cadence of a settled verdict. The hanzi pair 陰市 is compact enough to memorise at a glance. Like the gates, valleys, courtyards and storehouses scattered along the other channels, the commercial metaphor does real work: it says the tradition treated this spot not as a way-station things merely pass through, but as a destination where things arrive. The dataset attaches no special point class to Yinshi itself — the offices of mu point and cleft point belong elsewhere — leaving the plain market image to carry the name alone.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: atrophy and paralysis of the lower limb, restricted flexion and extension of the knee, weak legs, and cold hernial abdominal pain. The first three travel together. Atrophy translates the broad classical category wei — withering and weakening of the limbs — rather than any single modern diagnosis: legs gone feeble and reluctant to carry their owner. Paralysis in the old records spans a range from heavy sluggishness to loss of power. Restricted flexion and extension is plainly said: a knee that resists bending and straightening through its comfortable range. Weak legs completes the picture. Together they describe the territory this point was traditionally consulted for — thighs and knees that had lost confidence in themselves.
The last indication needs its own honest framing. Cold hernial abdominal pain gathers, in the old records, a family of complaints felt in the lower abdomen and groin — dragging, cold-feeling pain that classical writers filed under the wide heading of hernial disorders, a far broader tent than the modern surgical hernia alone. Symptoms of that kind today can mark anything from muscular strain to conditions needing urgent assessment, so any new lump, swelling, or severe pain in the groin or lower abdomen belongs promptly with a doctor, never with a pressure routine. Within the tradition, the reasoning ran along the channel: classical texts describe the stomach channel descending from the lower abdomen onto the front of the thigh, so practice worked along the route where the discomfort lay.
It bears repeating 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 restores strength or frees a joint, and nothing in this guide replaces assessment by a qualified clinician. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. Persistent weakness, new numbness or tingling, a joint that swells, locks, or gives way, or pain following an injury all deserve professional eyes before — and alongside — any self-care experiment.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point located, settle in: seated, thigh uncovered and relaxed, hands warm. Curl your index and middle fingers together and rest the pads — never the tips — on the spot. Begin with simple contact for a few breaths, then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the muscle beneath. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or mild warmth, spreading loosely into the surrounding tissue — never sharpness. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, matched where possible to slow exhales so each circle rides the breath out. Swap hands and give the other leg equal time, keeping the sessions symmetrical.
Quality matters more than duration. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact fits the wellness register this page practises; hard jabbing teaches a thick muscle nothing and bruises it plenty. Warm cold hands first, because chilled muscle guards itself. Choose a quiet corner over a screen, since the minutes double as a pause in the day; many people enjoy pairing the practice with a moment of rest after a walk, when the legs have done their work and welcome attention. Anchor the routine to an existing habit — morning washing, an evening wind-down — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for.
Treat the exercise as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks, notice what changes: perhaps the thigh feels less guarded, perhaps the knee simply feels friendlier while you press, perhaps nothing shifts except that you spend ninety seconds attending to the parts of yourself that carry you everywhere. Every outcome fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — pressing harder or longer to force a result, especially around a knee that already complains. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness, or take the question to the practitioner who knows your history.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This is one of the calmer addresses on the channel: the licensed dataset records no cautions for Yinshi, and nothing in its geography approaches the danger zones found elsewhere on the trunk. The point sits amid thick muscle on the front of the thigh, far from lungs, abdominal organs, and major surface vessels, and home acupressure stays strictly on the surface regardless. Still, an empty caution field is a record, not an invitation: dense muscle invites heavy hands, and heavy hands buy soreness. Keep contact light and strictly superficial — finger pads only, no tools, no elbows, no driving downward — and always short of any sensation that sharpens.
Set the practice aside whenever circumstances counsel pause: during a feverish illness; over broken, irritated, or infected skin; and over a thigh or knee in the grip of an acute injury — a fresh sprain, a contusion, or post-operative recovery — until a clinician clears ordinary activity. Skip the point entirely while a knee flare is hot, swollen, or severely painful, because that picture needs assessment rather than massage. Stop at once on sharp, electric, or radiating sensation, and do not retry that day. Pregnant readers should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice, and anyone living with a diagnosed neurological, vascular, or joint condition should do likewise.
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 sudden weakness or numbness in a leg, a knee that locks or gives way, marked swelling, redness, or heat, pain that began with an injury, or any symptom that frightens you or persists beyond a couple of weeks. Persistent complaints belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as suits the situation. The market imagery is charming, but the soundest gift Yinshi offers most people is a friendlier daily acquaintance with the strong, patient machinery of their own legs, tended kindly.
Yinshi, the Yin Market, stands in the soft bulk of the front thigh, three cun above the base of the kneecap along the line that climbs toward the hip. Classical practice reached for it when legs grew weak and knees resisted bending. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it safely.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Yinshi without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the kneecap as the start of the map. Trace to the topmost border of the kneecap, walk out to its upper-outer corner, then climb three of your own thumb-widths straight up the thigh along the line toward the front-of-hip bone. The yielding depth of muscle you find there — neither on bone nor in a groove — is the location the dataset records. Cun measurements encode the identical landmark sequence in proportional language.
- Is pressing Yinshi myself actually safe?
- For healthy adults, gentle fingertip pressure on the surface is generally reasonable self-care, and the licensed record notes no specific cautions for this point — the front thigh is forgiving country compared with the chest wall or the throat. The realistic hazards are bruising a tired muscle and ignoring signals that deserve attention. Respect the stop rules: sharp, electric, or radiating sensation, worsening pain, or an acute injury mean finish immediately and let the area rest.
- What did classical practice use Yinshi for?
- The traditional record lists withering or weakening of the lower limb, knees that resist bending and straightening, weak legs, and cold hernial-style pain of the lower abdomen and groin. Classical reasoning placed the point on the stomach channel as it descends the front thigh toward the knee, which made it a natural station in discussions of leg strength and knee ease. Those are traditional frameworks, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why is a point on the thigh named after a market?
- Because classical naming loved images of gathering. Shi, market, marks a place where things collect and exchange. Commentators linked the image both to the channel — the tradition pictures the stomach as the granary-official who receives grain, and markets are where grain trades — and to the yin qualities of cold and damp that were thought to gather in the lower limbs. Either way the name works as a small instruction: expect accumulation here.
- Can acupressure at Yinshi replace proper care for my weak knee?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not a diagnostic tool, and a knee that swells, locks, gives way, or aches persistently needs professional assessment — as does any leg weakness that arrives suddenly or keeps worsening. Think of the two as different floors of the same building: daily self-care lives downstairs, clinical medicine keeps the consulting room upstairs, and 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 and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for ST33 Yinshi — 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/st33/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/st33/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/st33/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "ST33",
"name": {
"en": "Yinshi",
"gloss": "Yin Market",
"zh-Hant": "陰市",
"zh-Hans": "阴市"
},
"channel": {
"id": "ST",
"order": 33,
"of": 45
},
"location": {
"text": "On the front of the thigh, four finger-widths above the outer top corner of the kneecap."
},
"for": [
"weak legs",
"knees that will not bend or straighten easily"
],
"press": {
"text": "Firm thumb pressure, about a minute each leg.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/st33",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}