BL-11 (Da Zhu) Great Shuttle

What does BL-11 Da Zhu do?

BL-11 is the Hui-Meeting Point of the BONES — the classical influential point for bone — and it carries more classifications than almost any point on the back. Our own record lists four roles for it at once.

• Hui-Meeting Point of the Bones — one of the eight influential points, the one for bone
• Point of the Sea of Blood
• Meeting Point of the Bladder, Small Intestine, San Jiao and Gallbladder channels and the Governing Vessel — five pathways crossing at one point

Its recorded actions follow from those roles: it benefits the bones and joints, expels pathogenic factors and firms the exterior, and regulates Lung qi and alleviates cough.

The eight Hui-Meeting points, verified complete in our own records. Each is the influential point for one tissue or class of organ, and querying our data returns all eight with no gap:

• Bones — BL-11 Da Zhu (this point)
• Blood — BL-17 Ge Shu; Sinews — GB-34 Yang Ling Quan; Marrow — GB-39 Xuan Zhong
• Vessels — LU-09 Tai Yuan; Qi — REN-17 Shan Zhong; Zang organs — LIV-13 Zhang Men; Fu organs — REN-12 Zhong Wan

Why it also treats cough. BL-11 sits at T1, immediately above BL-12 Feng Men and BL-13 Fei Shu, the Back-Shu point of the Lung. The top of this band is respiratory territory, and the exterior-firming and cough actions belong to that position as much as to the point’s own classifications.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category and action records; all eight Hui-Meeting points and the BL-12 and BL-13 records queried and verified against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is BL-11 Da Zhu used for?

BL-11 is used for headache, neck and back pain, pain around the shoulder blade, neck rigidity, cough and fever. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Headache
• Pain in the neck and back
• Pain and soreness in the scapular region
• Neck rigidity
• Cough
• Fever

Note what is not in the list: bone disease. BL-11 is the influential point for the bones, and it would be easy to present that as a general indication for bone and joint disorders. Our recorded indications are regional — neck, upper back, scapula — plus cough and fever. The Hui-Meeting classification is a classical designation carried by the point’s category field and by its recorded action of benefiting the bones and joints; it is not evidence, and this library reports the two separately rather than merging them.

The Sea of Blood designation is worth a precise note. Querying our own records for the four classical seas returns: Sea of Qi at DU-14, DU-15, REN-17 and ST-09; Sea of Marrow at DU-16 and DU-20; Sea of Water and Grain at ST-30 and ST-36; and Sea of Blood at BL-11 alone. It is the only point in our data carrying that designation.

An honest note. Fever with neck rigidity and headache is a combination requiring urgent medical assessment. This record describes classical use and should never delay that. Persistent neck or upper-back pain also warrants assessment.

How it is combined. With BL-12 Feng Men and BL-13 Fei Shu immediately below for cough and exterior conditions. With DU-14 Da Zhui on the midline for fever. With SI-14 and SI-15 laterally for the scapula. With GB-39 Xuan Zhong, the influential point for marrow, as the classical bone-and-marrow pairing. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and category records; the four seas, the eight Hui-Meeting points, and the BL-12, BL-13, DU-14, SI-14, SI-15 and GB-39 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is BL-11 Da Zhu located?

BL-11 is on the upper back, one and a half cun out from the midline, level with the lower edge of the first thoracic spinous process. It is the first point of the inner Bladder line on the back.

• 1.5 cun lateral to the midline, level with T1
• Level with DU-13 Tao Dao on the midline; BL-41 Fu Fen sits at 3 cun on the outer line
• BL-12 Feng Men is one level below at T2, BL-13 Fei Shu at T3

Counting from the right place. T1 is found from DU-14 Da Zhui, the prominent vertebra at the base of the neck — the first spinous process below it is T1. Miscounting the starting vertebra shifts every point below it, which is the commonest error on the back and the reason this library states the reference level on every one of these records. Note also that C7 and T1 can both be prominent, and in some people T1 is the more prominent of the two.

A naming caution this library has flagged. Our records hold DU-14 with the pinyin “Da Zhu” where the correct pinyin is Da Zhui — and “Da Zhu” is BL-11’s name. Two different points, one keystroke apart, both in the same small area of the upper back. The correction is recorded in our data-quality notes and awaits sign-off; until then a reader searching our records for “Da Zhu” may reach either point, and this note exists so they know why.

On the name. “Da Zhu” means Great Shuttle — the shuttle of a loom, the reading usually offered being the shape of the upper thoracic spinous processes ranked in a row. Positional.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the DU-13, DU-14, BL-12, BL-13 and BL-41 records and the recorded DU-14 pinyin flag queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 264): 1.5 cun lateral to the lower border of the spinous process of the first thoracic vertebra (T1).
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 176): 1.5 cun lateral to Taodao (DU-13), at the level of the lower border of the spinous process of the first thoracic vertebra.

How is BL-11 Da Zhu needled, and what is the pneumothorax risk?

Stated plainly: BL-11 lies over the top of the thorax with the dome of the lung beneath it, and pneumothorax — a punctured lung — is the documented hazard here. Everything below is a neutral record of what the reference literature and the published anatomical studies document. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle and depth as recorded: oblique, 0.5–0.7 inch. The obliquity is the safety feature, not a stylistic detail — angling toward the spine keeps the needle in muscle with bone behind it; angling outward points it at the pleura.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable. It carries no pneumothorax hazard, which is part of why the upper back is so often treated without needles.
• Regional anatomy: trapezius and the rhomboids overlie the erector spinae group; the first rib and the apex of the lung lie deep, with the pleural dome rising above the level of the first rib.

BL-11 is one of the few points in this library with a measurement attributed to it by name, and it has two.

• Paediatric chest CT. A study measuring safe needling depth at 23 back and shoulder points in children gives BL-11 as 33.39 mm in boys and 28.95 mm in girls on average. For off-midline points such as this one the measurement is skin to the pleura; the Governing Vessel points in the same study are measured skin to the epidural layer, a different definition entirely. These are paediatric figures and are not adult values (Wang J et al., PMID 26922245, PMC4769822).
• Adult cadaveric mapping of the pleural dome. A dissection study of 46 adult bodies mapped the pleural dome against the points around it and names Da Zhu BL-11 explicitly, alongside REN-22, GB-21, ST-11 and Ding Chuan. The dome’s projection varied widely between individuals, extending beyond the medial third of the clavicle in almost 60 per cent of bodies. The authors’ conclusion is the operative one: located and angled as the standard describes, the pleura is not reached — but exceeding the recorded depth breaches the pleural membrane (Chen Y et al., Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2006;26(5):346–8, PMID 16739850).

The two studies say the same thing from different directions: the margin here is real but modest, it varies between individuals, and the recorded angle and depth are what keep the needle on the safe side of it.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged); PMID 26922245 / PMC4769822 (paediatric chest CT, BL-11 among the 23 measured points, skin-to-pleura for off-midline points); PMID 16739850 (adult cadaveric pleural-dome mapping naming BL-11); regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on BL-11, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates BL-11. Where the point appears it is one component of a neck, upper-back or respiratory protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

The research that does name BL-11 is anatomical, not clinical — and that is the useful kind here. Two studies measure or map this point by name: the paediatric CT work and the adult cadaveric pleural-dome mapping. Neither says anything about whether needling BL-11 helps anyone; both say a great deal about the margin above the lung. This library treats that as the more valuable material, because it is directly attributable and directly relevant.

What this page can state with confidence. BL-11 is the Hui-Meeting point of the bones, one of the eight influential points — all eight verified present and complete in our own records. It is the only point in our data carrying the Sea of Blood designation. It is a meeting point of five pathways. And its recorded indications are regional rather than skeletal, which is worth stating because the bone classification invites the opposite assumption.

A note on searching for it. “BL 11”, “UB 11” and “Dazhu” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material, and there is a specific trap: “Da Zhu” and “Da Zhui” differ by one letter and name different points — BL-11 here, DU-14 on the midline — and our own records currently carry that error on the DU-14 entry. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (category, indication and location records; the eight Hui-Meeting points, the four seas and the DU-14 pinyin flag queried from our own data); PMID 26922245 and PMID 16739850 for the measured and mapped anatomy.