Shaohai 少海

🖼See it in pictures

Rendered straight from the 3D model at the computed location. The glowing ring marks Shaohai.

1Where is Shaohai?

Front-inner elbow, just in front of the humerus's medial epicondyle.

It is level with the elbow crease.

2How do I find it on my body?

1. Bend the elbow.
2. Put one finger on the inner (little-finger) end of the elbow crease.
3. Put another on the bony bump of the inner elbow (medial epicondyle).
4. Press halfway between them.

3The classical posture

1. Bend the elbow and lift the hand toward the head (the Yixue Rumen's "hand bent toward the head").
2. Follow the crease across the front of the elbow to its inner (little-finger) end and press the hollow there.
3. WHO 2008 and China's GB/T 12346-2021 also use a bent elbow, but they place the point halfway between the inner end of the crease and the medial epicondyle — possibly a little nearer the bone than the old 'end of the crease' (our reading).
4. Our 3D model keeps the arm straight, so the crease does not show; "How to find" above reaches the same spot from the bones.

4Before you press

5How has it been used traditionally?

• Classified as the He-sea (Water) point of the Heart meridian — a historical classification, not a claim of effect.
• The name joins shao (for the Shaoyin channel) and hai (sea): read as the place where the channel's flow gathers like a sea.
• The Ming-dynasty Yixue Rumen (1575) locates it with the elbow bent and the hand turned up toward the head.

From traditional texts — not a claim of effect.

6Classical text

Donguibogam (Heo Jun, 1613), Acupuncture and Moxibustion, "Shaohai"

一名曲折在肘內廉節後陷中《銅人》
在肘內大骨外去肘端五分《綱目》
在肘內廉節後陷中動脈應手屈肘得之《資生》
肘內廉橫紋頭盡處陷中曲手向頭取之《入門》
手少陰脈之所入爲合 …《銅人》

1. ①Also called Quzhe. On the inner edge of the elbow, in the hollow behind the joint. Tongren Shuxue Zhenjiu Tujing
2. ②Outside the large bone of the inner elbow, five fen from the elbow tip. Yixue Gangmu
3. ③In the hollow behind the joint on the inner edge of the elbow, where a pulse meets the hand; it is found with the elbow bent. Zhenjiu Zisheng Jing
4. ④In the hollow at the end of the crease on the inner elbow; take it with the hand bent up toward the head. Yixue Rumen
5. ⑤Where the Hand Shaoyin channel enters, which makes it the He-sea point. Tongren Shuxue Zhenjiu Tujing

• Source tags as given in the Donguibogam: Tongren = Tongren Shuxue Zhenjiu Tujing (1026), Gangmu = Yixue Gangmu, Zisheng = Zhenjiu Zisheng Jing, Rumen = Yixue Rumen (1575).
• The garbled glyph 狪 in the Wikisource text has been corrected to 肘 (elbow) in six places.
• The Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing writes the alternative name as 曲節.
• Line ② (Gangmu) is almost the same as the location line for SI8 (Xiaohai, 小海); the two similarly named points may have been mixed in the old texts (our reading, still to be verified).
• "…" marks the needling depth and moxa count, left out because they are for licensed practitioners.

Original text as written · translation is ours.

?FAQ

Positions computed from the WHO standard locations (2008) on Z-Anatomy (CC BY-SA 4.0) · BodyParts3D © DBCLS. For reference only — not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment. See a clinician if you are unwell.