Small Intestine meridian, Hand Taiyang

Course of the channel

It starts at the outer tip of the little finger, follows the ulnar edge of the hand through Houxi, rises past the wrist along the back inner forearm, passes the elbow between the olecranon and the inner epicondyle, ascends the back of the arm to the shoulder, zigzags over the shoulder blade at Tianzong, rises along the neck, crosses the cheek to the outer canthus, turns into the ear and ends in front of it at Tinggong. An inner branch connects with the Heart and belongs to the Small Intestine.

Show the channel on the model

Key points

• Houxi (SI3). Point code by WHO 2008.
• Tianzong (SI11). Point code by WHO 2008.
• Tinggong (SI19). Point code by WHO 2008.

The channel has 19 points on each side. The World Health Organization standardised their locations in 2008, and this atlas uses its codes.

Disorders of the channel

When disturbed there is sore throat, swollen jaw, a neck that cannot turn, a shoulder that feels pulled and an arm that feels broken. Disorders it governs include deafness, yellow eyes, swollen cheeks and pain along the neck, jaw, shoulder, arm and back outer elbow.

These are the words of the Lingshu, chapter 10. They name patterns, not diagnoses, and any of them calls for a medical examination.

Hour of the channel

In the midnight noon ebb and flow, qi and blood peak in the Small Intestine meridian at the Wei hour, from 13:00 to 15:00. Chinese medicine reads symptoms that worsen at a fixed hour through this cycle, and tonifies or drains a channel at its hour. Chronobiology confirms that many body functions follow a daily rhythm, but has not confirmed the twelve channel sequence.

What anatomy says

On the shoulder blade the points of this channel fall on the tender spots that physiotherapy calls trigger points of the infraspinatus and supraspinatus. The forearm portion passes near the ulnar nerve in the elbow groove, the spot that tingles when the elbow is leaned on. Small Intestine in the name refers to the separating function of Chinese medicine more than to the anatomical small bowel.

Organ and paired channel

Organ: Small IntestinePaired: Heart meridian, Hand Shaoyin

The twelve channels in order of the qi flow:

Questions and answers

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Sources

1. Yellow Emperor Inner Classic, Spiritual Pivot (Lingshu), chapter 10 Jingmai. The course and disorders of the twelve channels are summarised from this chapter.
2. WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region, World Health Organization, 2008. Point counts and codes follow this standard. iris.who.int/handle/10665/353407
3. WHO International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific Region, 2007. English channel names follow this standard. iris.who.int/handle/10665/206952
4. Langevin H. M., Yandow J. A. Relationship of acupuncture points and meridians to connective tissue planes. The Anatomical Record, 2002. The connective tissue plane hypothesis. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12467083/
5. 3D model: Z-Anatomy (CC BY-SA 4.0), built on BodyParts3D, The Database Center for Life Science. Meridian paths are drawn by the atlas on the skin of this model as an approximate illustration, not a measured atlas of points.

Compiled and reviewed by Master Ung Khiem

© 2026 Master Ung Khiem · UK MASTER CORP. The text of this library is protected by copyright. Reposting all or part of it without written permission is not allowed. Short quotations must credit the source and link back to the original page. The 3D model is from Z-Anatomy and BodyParts3D (The Database Center for Life Science) under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

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