SI-7 Zhizheng - Upright Branch

Upright Branch maintains spirit and Heart integrity: a branch maintains its center as it flows in the wind. A branch both joins and divides Heaven and Earth, and it gives support and balance when a person is leaning to one side. We cannot separate properly without being upright, tilting too far one way or the other; think of splits. Use it when you want to pull in and move energy from the Heart, the sister meridian, since it is critical that they work together. The Heart's virtue is propriety, and its partner needs to be upright and correct too. It supports the Small Intestine's upright work of carrying the Heart's intention out into the world, giving a sense of being able to stand tall and show one's brightness without sinking into pollution. This is the person who says, "I'll settle for that": bending, inconsistent, compromising with what is toxic or wrong, too flexible with junk and impurity. When we stand upright we can tell good from evil; like DU-12, this point gives the Small Intestine the integrity to take a stand against junk. The Heart is the sovereign, the natural rightness of our spiritual being, and if we are not aligned with it we cannot tell pure from impure or true from false. This point calls on help from that central source and lines us up with our own truth.

• Not to be needled from the 6th month of pregnancy onward

Location: On the back of the forearm, 5 ACI above the wrist crease. With the arm straight and the forearm turned palm down, it sits right on the medial margin of extensor carpi ulnaris.
Needle depth: 3 fen
Moxa: 3-7 cones

• When the person is leaning to one side, the head is not upright, or the patient is in his head
• When there are splits in the person
• When the energy of the Heart needs to be pulled in and moved
• When there is inappropriate behavior or remarks, innuendo or waspishness
• When there is mental jumpiness, or the person misreads what others do
• When there is mental imbalance, with anxiety, fright, sadness or restlessness
• When the person compromises, settles for less, or bends with junk and impurity
• When the person cannot discriminate in matters of feeling and communication
• For the bitterness, frustration and sarcasm that come when a person feels misunderstood or not truly appreciated

• HT-5 Penetrating Inside with SI-7: levels the two pulses when they differ in quality

• Junction point to the Heart
• Enhances quality on the Small Intestine
• Assembly point for the head and neck: an upright head means the flow is right
• The name carries the idea of reaching the line one had to reach and stopping there, without straying
• Without upright communication between its minister, the Small Intestine, and the Heart as sovereign, the Heart's capacity to rule can suffer