Weizhong and Chengshan
Star委中、承山 (Wěizhōng, Chéngshān)
Modern Chinese point-pair (对穴) teaching, as compiled by Guo Changqing and colleagues at the School of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.
Points
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He-Sea point of the Bladder and command point of the back; relieves lumbar pain and frees the whole channel.
Patient prone: at the midpoint of the popliteal crease, between the tendons of biceps femoris and semitendinosus. Insert perpendicularly 0.5–1.0 cun into the muscles of the popliteal fossa, seeking an aching, distended, numb sensation that travels down the calf to the foot.
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Calf point of the Bladder channel; relaxes the sinews of the calf and treats haemorrhoids.
Patient prone with the legs straight and the toes pointed: in the midline of the back of the lower leg, in the hollow below the bellies of gastrocnemius where the calf muscle gives way to its tendon. Insert obliquely 0.5–1.0 cun through the calf toward tibialis posterior, seeking local aching and numbness radiating to the calf and foot.
Treatment Principle
Relax the sinews, free the channel and relieve pain; regulate the Large Intestine.
Indications
Method
Both points are needled with the patient prone — BL40 perpendicularly 0.5–1.0 cun, BL57 obliquely 0.5–1.0 cun — until the sensation spreads down the calf to the foot. The book gives no retention time or moxibustion instructions for this pair.
⚠ Cautions
Avoid the popliteal artery and tibial nerve at BL40 and do not needle it deeply.
About
Two Bladder-channel points on the back of the leg — the centre of the knee crease and the base of the calf — for pain and damp-cold obstruction of the lower back and legs, hemiplegia, and haemorrhoids and constipation.
Rationale
BL40 is the He-Sea point of the Bladder and the command point of the back; BL57 relaxes the calf and is the classic distal point for the anus. The Bladder channel's divergent pathway passes through the anus, which is why points on the calf treat haemorrhoids and, with the Large Intestine regulated, constipation. Together the two points free the whole posterior leg from the knee down.
Sources
- Guo Changqing (ed.). Acupuncture of Acupoint Combinations: Quick Lookups. Daylesford: Heart Space Publications, 2020 (English edition; © China Science and Technology Press). ISBN 978-0-6489215-5-4. Chapter 4, combination 17.
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