Pa Ba Xu (拍八虛): Tapping the Eight Hollows
拍八虛
Percussion at the elbow, armpit, groin and knee. A five-minute practice that is unusually easy to do badly by hitting too hard.
Percussion at the elbow, armpit, groin and knee. Five minutes, no equipment, immediately accessible — and unusually easy to do badly by hitting too hard.
The eight hollows八虛
- 拍pāi
- To pat, to clapNot 打 (to strike). The character itself specifies the intensity.
- 虛xū
- Empty, hollowThe same character as in the empty step and the hollow armpit. Here it names the soft flexion creases.
The four paired regions — both sides of each — give eight sites in total:
| Site | Chinese | Location | Traditionally associated with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elbow nests | 肘窩 | Inner crease of the elbow | Heart and lung |
| Armpits | 腋窩 | The hollow of the armpit | Heart and pericardium |
| Groin voids | 腹股溝 | The crease where thigh meets torso | Liver |
| Knee nests | 膕窩 | Behind the knee | Kidney and lower back |
How to do it
- 01Elbow nests · 拍肘窩
Extend one arm, palm up. With the loose open palm of the other hand, tap the inner elbow crease. Thirty to forty light taps, then swap. The hand should bounce off rather than land.
- 02Armpits · 拍腋窩
Raise one arm. With a loose cupped palm, tap into the armpit hollow. Twenty to thirty taps, then swap. Lighter than the elbow — this region is more sensitive.
- 03Groin voids · 拍腹股溝
Standing, with loose open palms, tap the crease where the thigh meets the torso on both sides simultaneously. Thirty to forty taps. Keep the knees soft.
- 04Knee nests · 拍膕窩
Bend forward slightly or raise one foot onto a low surface. With loose palms, tap behind the knee. Thirty taps each side. The lightest of the four.
- 05Settle
Stand still for thirty seconds afterward. There is usually a distinct warmth and a slight tingling; let it settle rather than moving straight on.
The force question
This is the whole thing. Tapping practices are widely taught with far too much force, usually because harder feels more effective and the sites are not obviously fragile.
- The hand is loose. Open palm or very loose fist, wrist relaxed. The weight of the hand does the work.
- It bounces. The contact is brief. A hand that lands and stays is pressing, not tapping.
- Warmth, not soreness. The region should feel warm and slightly alive afterward. Tenderness the next day means it was too hard.
- Rhythm over power. Steady and moderately quick, around two taps per second.
- Never the joint itself. The target is the soft hollow, not bone. In the morning set version at the lower back, the same rule applies — either side of the spine, never on it.
What it is good for
Practically, it is the most accessible thing in the curriculum. There is no balance requirement, no strength requirement, no sequence to memorise, and it can be done seated. That makes it a reasonable entry point for people for whom standing practice is difficult.
It is also useful as preparation. Five minutes of tapping before a longer set warms the tissue and — more usefully — brings attention into the body before you ask it to stay there. It works well in the morning, when the body is cold, and after long periods of sitting.
What it is not is a treatment for anything. The traditional organ associations are traditional; see Reading the Evidence Honestly for the general position on claims of this kind.