EX-LE12 · 经外奇穴Qiduan qì duān · 气端
Location. On the toes, at the centre of the tip of each of the ten toes, 0.1 cun (finger cun) from the free margin of the nail; ten points in all, on both feet.
The name means the end of the qi, and it is one of a small group of points whose site is the very tip of a digit: the toes here, the fingers at Shixuan (EX-UE11). The classical image is of the channels reaching their end and the qi being at its furthest point, which is why points at the tips are the ones recorded for releasing a drop of blood and for waking. It is a point outside the fourteen channels. The standard note gives the distance from the free margin of the nail in finger cun, that is, in proportion to the person's own finger, not as an absolute length. Later literature discusses the point in the context of the toes and of the foot. The classical record is thin, the reported effects are not established by modern research, and this entry makes no claim of benefit.
定位。在足趾，十趾端的中央，距趾甲游离缘 0.1 寸（指寸），左右共 10 穴。
穴名「气端」，谓气之所终。穴位在趾端者本属少数：足为气端，手为十宣（EX-UE11）。古典意象是经气行至末端、气之极处，故末端诸穴多记点刺出血与醒神之用。为十四经之外的奇穴。标准条文以「指寸」给出距趾甲游离缘的距离，即按本人手指为准的比例寸，而非绝对长度。后世文献多于足趾与足的语境下讨论本穴。本穴古典记载较简，所述作用未经现代研究证实，本条不作疗效陈述。
Classical record · not a treatment recommendation. Needling technique is a licensed practitioner's skill and is out of scope here.
The site is the tip of the toe, next to the nail, and that is the whole of the safety issue. Do not needle these points, do not prick them to draw blood, and do not apply moxa or any heat to them yourself: the tip of a toe has skin, nail bed and bone within a few millimetres, there is no padding, infection there reaches the bone, and paronychia and osteomyelitis of the toe are both real outcomes of a small break in the skin. Heat is the second problem, and it is the one that does the damage quietly: a person with diabetes or with peripheral arterial disease may not feel a burn at the tip of a toe, and a burn on a foot with poor blood supply does not heal. For exactly this reason, nothing at the tip of a toe should be self-administered by anyone with diabetes, with peripheral vascular disease, with neuropathy, or with an open wound or ulcer on the foot; in that group the safe thing to do with a toe is to look at it daily and to keep it covered, and the unsafe thing is to treat it. A toe that is blue, black, cold or suddenly painful is a circulation problem and goes to a clinician the same day. There is nothing a reader should self-administer at this site.