Stomach Channel
Storehouse Hall
库房Kù FángAnatomical location
In the first intercostal space, 4 cun lateral to the anterior midline, on the mammary line.
Main function
Regulates Qi, descends rebellious Qi, benefits the chest, relieves cough and asthma.
Therapeutic indications
- Cough
- asthma
- chest pain
- mastitis
- breast pain
- dyspnea
- chest fullness
- purulent expectoration
- costal pain
Name and classical tradition
Kufang (库房) is the “storehouse chamber.” 库 (庫) is the storehouse; 房 is the room, the chamber. Behind the gate of ST13, it is the second room in the architectural series that the Stomach channel unfolds across the chest. Tradition reads the thorax as the reservoir of Lung Qi.
The standard references cite a gloss with the tone of an old commentary: “穴在玉堂、紫宮之外旁，正當肺氣儲積之處也”. The point lies beside Yutang and Zigong, right where Lung Qi gathers. Yutang, the “jade hall,” and Zigong, the “purple palace,” are CV18 and CV19, two palace-named points of the Ren Mai (Conception Vessel). The sentence has not been traced to any particular commentator, so it is best read as a traditional explanation without an author. The point first appears in the Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion), in the 3rd century.
