SI3

On the ulnar border of the hand, in the marked depression proximal to the head of the fifth metacarpal bone, at the border between the red and white flesh.

With the hand in a loose fist, the distal palmar crease runs out to the ulnar border and ends in a small bulge; the place is in the palpable depression just proximal and dorsal to it. With the hand open, find it by sliding from the wrist towards the little finger along the ulnar border until the finger meets the head of the fifth metacarpal.

• tête du 5e métacarpien
• pli palmaire distal
• limite des chairs rouge et blanche

Sources : deadman-manual · focks-atlas — reworded, never copied

On the dorsum of the hand, in the depression proximal to the ulnar side of the fifth metacarpophalangeal joint, at the junction between the shaft and the head of the fifth metacarpal bone.

Bone landmarks: head and shaft of the fifth metacarpal. White, Cummings and Filshie additionally describe the connective-tissue plane between the neck of the fifth metacarpal and the hypothenar muscles, and assign the place to dermatome C8, myotome T1 and sclerotome C8. No critical structure is flagged for this place in their chart, although the chart does flag some for other points in the same series: the absence is treated as data, not as a reading oversight.

• tête du 5e métacarpien
• col du 5e métacarpien
• muscles hypothénariens

Sources : oms-standard-2008 · focks-atlas · white-cummings-filshie — reworded, never copied

What the finger seeks

A substantial depression proximal to the head of the fifth metacarpal; in a loose fist, a bulge forms at the end of the distal palmar crease and the hollow sits just behind it.

Put simply — Make a loose fist: the hollow is just behind the bump that appears at the end of the palm crease.

Sources : deadman-manual · focks-atlas — reworded, never copied

What is unknown

Put simply — The mark is not a dot: it shows what is unknown. Two practitioners looking for this place will not put a finger in exactly the same spot.

Sources : sciotti-2001

Perpendicular, directed towards LI3, the hand held in a loose fist so that the metacarpals stay in one plane; or oblique in a distal direction. Focks notes that this point is reputedly painful to needle. No depth is published: see the caution.

No depth is published: no critical structure is documented in the verified holdings for this place, and a depth figure is never published without the structure it is set against. Absence of data is not a statement of safety.

Channel functions

Expels Wind and Heat from taiyang, opens the channel and the luo vessels, clears heat and benefits the sensory orifices, regulates the Governing vessel.

Put simply — It works on two networks at once: the Small Intestine channel and the Governing vessel, which runs up along the spine.

Sources : deadman-manual · focks-atlas — reworded, never copied

Organ functions

Through the channel's interior-exterior coupling with the Heart and its confluence with the Governing vessel, both works credit it with calming the shen.

Put simply — A point that tradition calls calming, through its kinship with the Heart.

Sources : deadman-manual · focks-atlas — reworded, never copied

Main channel

Shu-stream and Wood point of the channel, confluent point of the Governing vessel — Focks tabulates it paired with BL62. It is the major distal point for the neck, the scapula, the upper back and the spine; both works also use it for the shoulder, the elbow and the fingers.

Put simply — The neck and upper-back point that is needled at the hand.

Sources : deadman-manual · focks-atlas — reworded, never copied

Sinew channel

This place lies on the pathway of the Small Intestine sinew channel, between its origin at the little finger and its binding at the wrist. Both works describe, for that pathway, bi-type suffering along its course, with stiffness and lost range of motion as far as the neck.

Put simply — The sinew pathway covers wider ground than the primary channel: that is why a point on the hand serves the neck.

Sources : maciocia-channels · focks-atlas — reworded, never copied

Name, history and character

Houxi, 'Back Stream', facing Qiangu, 'Front Valley': two hollows on either side of the same joint. Deadman recalls that the Ode of the Obstructed River counts it among the 'eight therapeutic methods' — that is, among the eight confluent points of the extraordinary vessels — and that the Song More Precious Than Jade recommends it for the five types of epilepsy.

Field open in the schema; no matter is recorded for this place.

Anatomical landmark

Focks situe 3IG (SI3/Houxi) au bord ulnaire de la main, dans la dépression proximale à l'articulation métacarpo-phalangienne du 5e doigt, à la jonction entre diaphyse et tête du 5e métacarpien — repère osseux seulement, aucune mention nerveuse ou vasculaire.

Extrait de contrôle (p. 225) : « On the ulnar border of the hand, in the depression proximal to the metacarpophalangeal joint, at the border of the 'red and white' skin. » Vérifié dans l'original le 2026-08-15.

Segmental assignment

Selon White, Cummings & Filshie (ch. 16), l'aiguille à 3IG (SI3/Houxi) cible le plan de tissu conjonctif situé entre le col du 5e métacarpien et les muscles hypothénariens ; le point est rattaché au dermatome C8, au myotome T1 et au sclérotome C8, en direction perpendiculaire. Aucune mise en garde vasculo-nerveuse n'est indiquée pour ce point précis dans cette table, à la différence d'autres points de la même série (ex. LI4 : artère radiale ; TE13 : nerf radial) — absence traitée comme une donnée, pas comme une lacune de lecture.

Extrait de contrôle (p. 197, Table 16.1.2) : « On the palmar aspect of the neck of the 5th metacarpal, in the tissue plane between the metacarpal neck and the hypothenar muscles. » D C8 / M T1 / S C8. Vérifié dans l'original le 2026-08-15. SI2, SI4, SI5 et SI6 sont ABSENTS de ce chapitre (recherche exhaustive des codes SI2/SI4/SI5/SI6 et de leurs pinyin dans tout l'ouvrage — aucune occurrence) : lacune du fonds pour ces 4 points, nommée ici, non comblée.

Named structures

• os-metacarpien-5-tete
• os-metacarpien-5-col
• m-hypothenariens
• art-metacarpo-phalangienne-5

Muscular relations

Sources : white-cummings-filshie

Contemporary medicine

Safety: no critical structure is documented for this place in the verified holdings. Absence of data is not a statement of safety; no depth is published, for want of a critical structure to set against it. Innervation: absent from the location sources surveyed. Clinical concordance: not tested — no verification by Justin.

No risk referenced for this place in the verified holdings. The reservation below states what was searched for.

Author’s note

The most used of the five. It holds two networks at once — the hand taiyang and the Governing vessel — and it is that overlap, more than its position, that explains why it is needled for the neck, the scapula and the whole spine. Loose fist: without that hand position, it is missed by half a centimetre.

Codes