臑會 Naohui
“A Meeting on the Upper Arm” · TH13
Hand Shaoyang · 13 of 23
Where. On the back of the upper arm, at the lower back edge of the shoulder muscle.
For. Pain of the upper arm and shoulder blade.
Press. Gentle finger pressure, about a minute each arm.
Naohui — the name speaks of a gathering on the upper arm — holds the thirteenth of the san jiao channel’s twenty-three stations, three cun below the shoulder point Jianliao, on the deltoid’s lower-rear border. Classical practice reached for it when arm and shoulder blade ached, and when old records noted swellings at the neck. This guide covers finding it by touch and pressing it gently.
按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Naohui Sits on the Outer Arm
On the outer aspect of the arm, Naohui occupies the stretch where shoulder gives way to upper arm. The dataset places it on the line connecting the tip of the elbow and Jianliao (TH14), three cun below Jianliao, on the posteroinferior border of the deltoid muscle — the lower, rearward rim of the muscle that caps the shoulder. A cun is the traditional measuring unit of Chinese point-location: proportional lengths taken from the person being examined rather than from a ruler, with the width of one thumb serving as the everyday rough equivalent. Measured that way, three cun below the shoulder point sets Naohui high on the outer arm — close enough to the shoulder that its muscle still shapes the terrain, far enough down that the arm’s own musculature has begun. Because the measurement hangs on the person, tall and slight bodies alike carry the point at their own proportional address — one reason locating by touch beats memorising centimetres.
What lies under the fingertips here is friendly terrain. The posteroinferior border of the deltoid is a generous ledge: dense muscle above, the long muscles of the upper arm beginning below, and the arm bone resting safely deep beneath substantial padding. Unlike points high on the chest wall or beside thin wrist creases, nothing fragile sits directly underfoot here, and a gentle press travels nowhere dangerous. The residents worth minding are the nerves and vessels threading the corridor between shoulder and arm — residents that reward patience and punish force. Because the tissue is thick, honest pressure arrives as a spreading, satisfying ache, which makes this stretch another comfortable classroom for learning how much sensation is enough. Nothing about locating the point requires strength; the landmarks introduce themselves to slow fingers.
Naohui belongs to a ladder of points that climbs the outer arm. Below waits Xiaoluo (TH12), which the records set midway between Qinglengyuan (TH11) and Naohui itself; Qinglengyuan, in turn, sits two cun above the tip of the elbow. Above waits Jianliao (TH14), tucked into the hollow below and behind the bony shelf of the shoulder. The san jiao channel — drawn classically from the ring finger up the outer arm toward the temple — walks this posterolateral slope, and Naohui keeps the mile where shoulder becomes arm, standing thirteenth among the channel’s twenty-three stations. Locating by neighbours confirms itself: a fingertip three thumb-widths down from Jianliao, resting on the deltoid’s lower-rear rim, has found the address within ordinary tolerance. Losing the position mid-search simply means returning to the shoulder hollow and counting down again, slowly.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Stand or sit comfortably and let the arm hang loose, palm turned toward the thigh, shoulders released. With the opposite hand, find the bony shelf at the top of the shoulder and the hollow that appears below and behind it when you lift the arm a little sideways: that hollow marks Jianliao (TH14). From there, walk your fingertips downward along the outer, slightly rearward face of the arm, counting off about three thumb-widths. Slow down as you go and explore with gentle presses: the deltoid’s firm cap gives way along its lower-rear border, and most people meet a faintly tender, springy band where the muscle changes texture. That band, sitting on the line that runs toward the elbow tip, is Naohui’s address.
Two confirmations help before any real pressing begins. First, recruit the muscle itself: brace the arm lightly against your side or thigh, or resist lifting it away from the body, and the deltoid stands out in relief — follow its rear edge downward until the muscle yields, and search there. Second, compare sides with a feather-light touch: the authentic spot usually answers with a faint, dull awareness that a finger-width away does not share. Walking up from below offers a further check: start at the elbow tip, rise past Qinglengyuan (TH11), two cun above it, and continue until the deltoid’s border announces itself. None of these checks requires force; all ask only for slow, curious fingers.
Common slips are few and easy to correct. Drifting forward onto the purely outer face of the arm leaves you on worthy muscle, but the record’s wording keeps Naohui slightly rearward, on the deltoid’s posteroinferior border. Wandering too low slides you toward the armpit, where Xiaoluo’s middle country begins; wandering too high climbs onto the shoulder itself. Searching through a thick sleeve mutes every landmark — bare skin or a thin layer serves far better. Holding the arm rigid hides the muscle’s edges entirely; relaxation is part of the map. When in doubt, find the shoulder hollow once more and measure down three thumb-widths a single time, slowly.
Reading the Name: A Meeting on the Upper Arm
The name arrives carrying old anatomy. Nao 臑 is a classical word for the upper arm and its flesh — the sort of term ancient medical writers reached for when describing the arm’s own country — and it survives in cousin names such as Naoshu, the upper-arm station on the small intestine channel. Hui 會 means to meet, to gather, to convene; it is one of the most sociable characters in the point-name vocabulary, appearing wherever traditions imagined flows converging. Set together, Naohui invites a reading of the meeting on the upper arm: the place where the channel gathers itself against the arm’s flesh, or where several threads of flow were thought to convene. Commentators have read the hui more than one way; the image either way is arrival and assembly, not mere passage.
Pinyin writes the name Nàohuì, with a falling fourth tone on nao and a falling fourth tone on hui — two downward strokes of the voice, fitting for a name about settling into one place. The hanzi pair 臑會 is compact enough to take in at a glance, though the first character is rare outside medical writing. The channel owns twenty-three stations, and Naohui stands thirteenth among them — just past the journey’s midpoint, where the climb leaves the elbow country behind and turns its attention to the shoulder. Many neighbours carry landscape names — pools, ravines, clearing waters — but this station takes a human arrangement for its emblem: not a feature of terrain but an event, currents and company coming together.
There is a quieter lesson folded into the name. A meeting asks hospitality: whoever hosts one receives guests, attends to them, and sees them onward — none of which is done by force. Old teaching wrote that temperament into the label. Carry it into practice and the hands soften on their own: the task at this station is not to press something back into place but to receive what the arm offers — its ache, its guardedness, its slow unwinding — and let the encounter run its natural course. Like many of the best point names, this one is a small set of instructions.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded actions read: pain of the arm and scapula, cervical scrofula, hernia, and goitre. Take the first in its own era’s language. Aching, stiffness, and heaviness along the arm belonged to the classical category of painful obstruction — qi and blood failing to move freely along their roads — and the san jiao channel runs precisely this territory, drawn from the ring finger up the outer arm and across the shoulder. Discomfort ringing the shoulder girdle, whether on the arm’s outer face or tracking toward the shoulder blade, was therefore met in traditional practice with points along this stretch, and Naohui stood squarely mid-route.
The two neck indications travel together. Cervical scrofula is the old records’ name for chains of bead-like nodules strung along the side of the neck; goitre named a visible swelling at the base of the throat. Classical drawings carry the channel past the ear and up the side of the neck toward the temple, so troubles gathered along that roadside belonged, in the tradition’s map, to the channel’s stations — and old practice reached down the route’s length for points to enlist. The reasoning reflects a worldview in which pathways carried trouble and relief along the same lines; it is presented here as history, not anatomy. One modern note must sound clearly: any new lump or swelling at the neck today belongs promptly with a physician, whatever the old books paired with it.
Hernia closes the list. In the old records the word gathered a family of complaints — descents and draggings felt at the groin, swellings that came and went — read as qi sinking where it should rise. Why an arm point entered such discussions reflects the tradition’s habit of distant pairing and its picture of the san jiao as steward of the body’s qi mechanics, not any local logic; it is documented here for context. Anyone who suspects a hernia today needs proper medical assessment, not a pressure routine. And the standing honesty of these pages applies throughout: these are traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered for cultural and historical understanding. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, and evidence tied to any single point remains thin.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point found by the walkthrough above, settle in: seated, spine tall but unforced, the working arm hanging heavy or resting across a cushion so the shoulder stays lazy. Curl your index and middle fingers together and lay the pads — never the tips — on the spot. Begin with contact alone for a few breaths, then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the muscle beneath. Aim for a pleasant dullness, a mild spreading warmth — the honest ache of good pressure — never sharpness or electricity. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, matched where possible to long exhales so each circle rides the breath out. Swap hands and repeat on the other arm, keeping the sessions symmetrical.
Quality matters more than duration. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact fits the wellness register this page practises; hard jabbing bruises the muscle and teaches the body nothing. Warm cold hands before starting, because chilled muscle guards. Choose a quiet corner over a screen and let the minutes double as a pause: inhale through the nose, feel the arm soften under still fingers, lean the pressure in gently as the breath leaves. People who keep a routine often anchor it to an existing habit — after morning stretching, before the afternoon slump — 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 shoulder rides looser, perhaps the tender band grows less talkative, perhaps nothing shifts except that you spend ninety seconds genuinely listening to your own arm. Every one of those outcomes fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — digging harder, lingering longer, or pressing through pain to force a result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness or simply stop for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This entry carries a quieter safety story than some of its neighbours. The licensed dataset attaches no caution to Naohui — its warning field stands empty — and the geography helps explain why: generous muscle padding, the arm bone lying deep, and no thin gap or delicate cavity at the site itself. But an empty field records the absence of a written warning, not a licence for force. Nerves and vessels thread the corridor between shoulder and arm, the deltoid’s borders deserve unhurried fingers, and every rule of gentle practice applies here as it does everywhere. The record’s silence asks for ordinary care, not extraordinary boldness.
Practical rules follow. Use finger pads only — no elbows, knuckles, or tools — and skip the point entirely over broken, irritated, swollen, or freshly injured skin, and over any lump or swelling of uncertain cause, which is a subject for examination rather than pressing. A sudden sharp or electric streak means stop at once and do not try again that day; dull ache may be welcome, electricity never is. Pregnant readers, and anyone managing a chronic illness, taking regular medication, or recovering from arm or shoulder surgery, should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice. Readers living with conditions that affect the nerves of the arm should ask their clinician first as well.
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 longer pressing session — for numbness or weakness spreading into the hand, pain following a fall or injury, fever alongside limb pain, any new lump or swelling at the neck, or any symptom that frightens you. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. Of the four matters the old records entrusted to this quiet station, the safest gift it still offers most people is acquaintance: a few unhurried minutes spent learning the border where shoulder becomes arm.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Naohui without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the shoulder and the elbow as the whole map. Find the hollow below and behind the shoulder’s bony shelf, walk down the outer, slightly rearward line of the arm about three thumb-widths, and search the faintly tender band where the deltoid’s lower-rear border yields. That is the address the dataset describes; cun measurements simply encode the same landmarks in proportional language.
- Is pressing Naohui myself actually safe?
- For healthy adults, gentle fingertip pressure held on this padded muscular stretch is generally reasonable self-care — the dataset records no special caution for this point, and muscle and bone lie under the hand. Ordinary rules still govern: finger pads only, nothing over broken or swollen skin, and sharp, electric, or radiating sensation ends the session immediately.
- What did classical practice use Naohui for?
- The traditional record lists pain of the arm and scapula, cervical scrofula, hernia, and goitre. Classical theory read them through the channel’s climb from the arm across the shoulder and up the side of the neck. Those are documented frameworks for understanding the body, offered for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why would an arm point appear in old discussions of neck swellings?
- Channel thinking, not local anatomy. Classical texts draw the san jiao channel from the ring finger up the outer arm, over the shoulder, and along the side of the neck toward the temple, so complaints gathered along that roadside were traditionally met with stations along the whole route — and Naohui sits mid-route, its very name promising a gathering.
- Can pressing Naohui replace seeing a doctor about a neck lump?
- No. A new lump, nodule, or swelling at the neck always deserves prompt professional assessment, whatever else you choose to do for comfort. Think of the two as different floors of the same building: daily self-care lives downstairs, and clinical medicine keeps the consulting room upstairs. Neither substitutes for the other, and the neck is no place to test the difference.
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, channel pathway, and classical indication context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for TH13 Naohui — 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/th13/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/th13/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/th13/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "TH13",
"name": {
"en": "Naohui",
"gloss": "A Meeting on the Upper Arm",
"zh-Hant": "臑會",
"zh-Hans": "臑会"
},
"channel": {
"id": "TH",
"order": 13,
"of": 23
},
"location": {
"text": "On the back of the upper arm, at the lower back edge of the shoulder muscle."
},
"for": [
"pain of the upper arm and shoulder blade"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle finger pressure, about a minute each arm.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/th13",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}