BL-05 (Wu Chu) Fifth Place

What does BL-05 Wu Chu do?

BL-05 eliminates wind, descends yang and clears heat, and it clears the head and nose. The descending-yang phrasing sets it slightly apart from its neighbours, whose actions are recorded simply as expelling wind and clearing the head.

• Eliminates wind, descends yang and clears heat
• Clears the head and nose

Its name is a count, and the count is checkable. “Wu Chu” means Fifth Place — and BL-05 is indeed the fifth point of the Bladder channel: BL-01 Jing Ming at the inner eye, BL-02 Zan Zhu at the eyebrow, BL-03 Mei Chong on the forehead, BL-04 Qu Cha where the channel turns outward, then BL-05. Verified against our own numbering. Counting names are rare in the system, and where they occur they are worth confirming rather than assuming — this one holds.

Why “descends yang” belongs on a point at the top of the head. The Bladder channel is the great yang channel, and the scalp is the highest ground it crosses. Heat and yang rising to the head is the classical account of the headache-with-dizziness presentation these points address, and a descending action is the corresponding remedy. The phrasing is consistent with the position.

The scalp run, stated once and referred to on each of its records. BL-03 through BL-09 are seven points in a line, and their actions and indications overlap heavily — headache, blurred vision and nasal complaints recur across nearly all of them, and every one carries the same subcutaneous 0.3–0.5 inch insertion. This library discloses that rather than manufacturing distinctions.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action and translation records; the channel numbering BL-01 to BL-05 and the full BL-03 to BL-09 run queried and verified against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is BL-05 Wu Chu used for?

BL-05 is used for headache and blurred vision, and for epilepsy and convulsions. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Headache
• Blurring of vision
• Epilepsy
• Convulsion

BL-05 carries the heaviest convulsive group in the scalp run. Within BL-03 to BL-09, epilepsy is recorded only here and at BL-03 Mei Chong, and convulsion is recorded only here. Half of this point’s four indications are convulsive, which is the highest proportion of the seven and is the one substantive way its list differs from its neighbours’.

An honest note, and it is the most important passage on this page. Epilepsy is a medical condition requiring diagnosis and prescribed management, and seizures can be life-threatening. A first seizure, a prolonged seizure, or a seizure in a child is a medical emergency requiring immediate care. This record documents classical indications; it makes no claim that acupuncture treats epilepsy or seizures, and nothing here should displace prescribed treatment or delay emergency care. Our BL-63 record carries the same framing for the same reason.

How it is combined. With BL-04 Qu Cha in front and BL-06 Cheng Guang behind on the same line. With DU-23 Shang Xing on the midline, which our record places 1.5 cun medial to this point. With DU-20 Bai Hui at the vertex and GB-20 Feng Chi at the occiput for headache. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the BL-03, BL-04, BL-06, BL-63, DU-20, DU-23 and GB-20 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is BL-05 Wu Chu located?

BL-05 is on the scalp one cun inside the hairline, half a cun behind BL-04, on the 1.5-cun lateral line — level with DU-23 Shang Xing on the midline.

• 1 cun inside the anterior hairline, on the 1.5-cun lateral line
• 0.5 cun directly behind BL-04 Qu Cha
• 1.5 cun lateral to DU-23 Shang Xing on the midline

Two references, which is what makes this point locatable. Our record gives BL-05 both as a step back from BL-04 and as a lateral offset from DU-23 — so it can be found from the point in front of it or from the midline, and the two can be checked against each other. Most points in this run are given only as a step from the previous one, which means an error early in the chain propagates the whole way back. BL-05 is a place where the chain can be verified.

The 1.5-cun line itself is established at BL-04, whose record defines it proportionally as one third of the distance from DU-24 to ST-08 Tou Wei. Every point from BL-05 to BL-08 sits on the line fixed there.

The hairline problem. These points are measured from the anterior hairline, and a receded or asymmetrical hairline removes the reference; the classical solution takes anterior to posterior hairline as 12 cun and measures fractions of it. Our BL-03 record sets that out in full.

On the name. “Wu Chu” — Fifth Place. Purely a count, and it is accurate: this is the channel’s fifth point.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the BL-03, BL-04, DU-23 and ST-08 positions and the channel numbering queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 259): 0.5 cun directly posterior to Quchai BL-4, 1 cun within the anterior hairline, and 1.5 cun lateral to Shangxing DU-23.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 175): 1 cun directly above the midpoint of the anterior hairline and 1.5 cun lateral to the midline.

How is BL-05 Wu Chu needled?

The standard texts record SUBCUTANEOUS insertion — the needle laid along under the skin — to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Angle and depth as recorded: subcutaneous (transverse), 0.3–0.5 inch — the same insertion recorded at every point in the BL-03 to BL-09 run.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable here. Our records state it at BL-04, BL-05, BL-07 and BL-09 but not at BL-03, BL-06 or BL-08; nothing is asserted about why.
• Regional anatomy: the epicranial aponeurosis lies beneath thin skin at the junction of the frontalis and the aponeurosis; branches of the supraorbital nerve and the superficial temporal and supraorbital vessels run in the region; the frontal bone lies directly beneath.

Why subcutaneous, and why that is the whole safety story. There is bone immediately under the scalp, so the transverse angle is the only insertion the anatomy permits, not a stylistic choice. This is a low-hazard point in that specific sense: no cavity, no organ, no major vessel. The scalp is richly vascular and bleeds readily — a nuisance rather than a danger, and recorded here as such.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at BL-05 could be located, and none is borrowed. The paediatric chest-CT study this library uses covers 23 points on the trunk and shoulder and does not include the scalp. No case report naming BL-05 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the recorded insertions across BL-03 to BL-09 compared), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on BL-05, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates BL-05. Where the point appears it is one component of a headache protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point. No claim is made here that acupuncture treats epilepsy or seizures, despite both appearing in the classical indication list — that list records historical use, not evidence.

A caution specific to the scalp. “Scalp acupuncture” is a distinct modern system with its own named zones and its own trial literature, and it is not the same thing as the classical Bladder-channel scalp points. Searches for evidence about points on the head return those trials, and they are not evidence about BL-05.

What this page can state with confidence. BL-05 is the fifth point of the Bladder channel, which is exactly what its name claims and is verifiable against our own numbering. It carries the heaviest convulsive indication group in the scalp run — the only point of the seven recording convulsion, and one of two recording epilepsy. Its location can be checked two ways, from BL-04 and from DU-23, which most points in this run cannot. And its insertion is subcutaneous because the skull is immediately beneath.

A note on searching for it. “BL 5”, “UB 5” and “Wuchu” searches return protocol trials and a large volume of unrelated material — Wuchu matches place and personal names. Our library codes this channel BL- while some sources use UB-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and translation records; the channel numbering and the BL-03 to BL-09 run queried and verified against our own data).