Stone Gate

Shimen, 石门, is the “stone gate.” 石 is stone; 门 (門) is gate. The glosses connect it with the Kidney, which stores Essence, and with hard abdominal masses, the “stone concretions” (石瘕). The Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) establishes it as the Front-Mu point of the Triple Energizer: «石門，三焦募也». The Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing also gives it a specific warning: in its list of points where moxibustion is not applied, «石門女子禁不可灸» appears, meaning that moxibustion is not applied at Shimen in women. This prohibition appears to be the source of the widely repeated tradition that considers it a point that can prevent conception.

Its alternative names call for attention. One of them is 命門, the same name as GV4, Mingmen, the Du Mai point on the lumbar spine, which has nothing to do with this one. Another is 丹田, which it shares with CV5 and CV6: the three points below the navel were candidates, according to the schools of internal alchemy and of medicine, for the true lower “field of cinnabar.” This is not an error in the sources, but a real historical dispute. The same Jiayi Jing also gives it 利機 and 精露, and the reference works add 端田.