BL-14 (Jue Yin Shu) Jue Yin Shu

What does BL-14 Jue Yin Shu do?

Jue Yin Shu BL-14 is the Back-Shu point of the Pericardium — the place on the back where the Pericardium's qi is said to infuse the body surface — and its recorded work is to unbind the chest, regulate the Heart, spread constrained Liver qi and regulate and descend rebellious qi. Sacred Lotus sources & references record that classification and those actions directly. It lies beside the fourth thoracic vertebra on the inner Bladder line, one level above Xin Shu BL-15, and it is the point at which the tradition treats the Heart by way of its protective envelope rather than directly.

• Unbinds the chest — the primary recorded action. This is the point for a chest that feels gripped, full, oppressed or tight, whether the sensation is read as qi stagnation, as phlegm, or as constraint of the emotions in the chest.
• Regulates the Heart — the Back-Shu action proper, delivered through the Pericardium. In classical theory the Pericardium is the Heart's envelope and takes on what the Heart itself should not, so a Pericardium Back-Shu point is a Heart point that works at one remove.
• Spreads constrained Liver qi — the action that most often surprises readers of this point's record, and one it genuinely carries in the reference literature. Constraint of qi in the chest with irritability, sighing, oppression and a sense of a lump is the presentation, and BL-14 is one of the upper back points reached for in it.
• Regulates and descends rebellious qi — for cough, hiccup, belching, nausea and vomiting: qi moving upward that should be moving downward.
• Serves as the Pericardium's diagnostic point — as with all Back-Shu points, tenderness, a sunken quality or a change in the tissue at BL-14 is read as a sign referring to the organ it names, and the point is palpated as well as needled. This one has been studied in that specific role: see the research section under the notes.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing action record; Bladder channel and Back-Shu of the Pericardium classification queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 269); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 177); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is BL-14 Jue Yin Shu used for?

Jue Yin Shu BL-14 is used for pain in the cardiac region, palpitations, a stuffy or oppressed chest, cough and vomiting — the complaints of the chest and its contents rather than of the back it sits on. The indications below are those carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references together with those set out in the standard reference literature. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment, and this point carries the pneumothorax safety facts set out under needling.

• Cardiac pain and pain in the chest
• Palpitations and irregular heartbeat
• Stuffiness, fullness and oppression of the chest
• Cough
• Vomiting and nausea
• Hiccup and belching
• Difficult or shortened breathing
• Anxiety, agitation and restlessness
• Irritability and constrained emotions with sighing
• Toothache
• Pain and stiffness of the upper back at the level of the shoulder blades
• Insomnia with a disturbed, oppressed feeling in the chest

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 269); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 177).

Where is BL-14 Jue Yin Shu, and how is it used in practice?

Jue Yin Shu lies on the upper back, one and a half cun either side of the midline, level with the lower edge of the fourth thoracic vertebra. Sacred Lotus sources & references give it in exactly those terms, on the Governing Vessel's line of reference. It is a bilateral point, needled on both sides, and it sits one level below Fei Shu BL-13, the Lungs' Back-Shu point, and one level above Xin Shu BL-15, the Heart's — three organs of the chest in three consecutive rib spaces, in the order they occupy the trunk.

In practice BL-14 is very rarely used alone. It is the middle member of a run that is treated together, and the clinical literature reflects this: where the presentation is cardiac or respiratory, BL-13, BL-14 and BL-15 tend to appear as a group. Like the rest of the upper thoracic Shu points it is heavily treated with moxibustion, cupping, press needles and herbal point application, none of which carries the depth hazard that needling in this band does — one reason so much of the treatment delivered here involves no needle at all.

Which points is BL-14 combined with?

• With Shan Zhong REN-17 — the Shu-Mu combination. REN-17, on the front midline of the breastbone, is the Front-Mu point of the Pericardium, confirmed by query in Sacred Lotus sources & references, and it is written up in this library. Back-Shu with Front-Mu — the back and the front of one organ, treated together — is the oldest structured pairing in the medicine, and this is its Pericardium instance. It is also the most useful of the twelve to know, because REN-17 carries a second classification that no other Front-Mu point does: it is the Hui-Meeting (influential) point of Qi, the point the Nan Jing assigns to qi itself. Pairing BL-14 with REN-17 therefore brings a general qi point to bear at the same time as the organ pairing, which is exactly what a chest that will not unbind calls for.
• With Xin Shu BL-15 — one level below at T5, the Heart's Back-Shu point. The two are constantly used together for the chest and the heart, and clinical accounts describe locating the tender points corresponding to Jue Yin Shu BL-14 and Xin Shu BL-15 and treating them as a pair (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2026;46(2):275–280, PMID 41741992).
• With Fei Shu BL-13 — one level above at T3, the Lungs' Back-Shu point, added wherever cough and breathlessness are part of the presentation. The three-point run BL-13, BL-14, BL-15 appears repeatedly in the trial literature: a randomised trial of 60 patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease applied press needles at Dazhui DU-14, Shan Zhong REN-17, Qi Hai REN-06, Guan Yuan REN-04, Zhi Yang DU-09 and bilateral Feishu BL-13, Gaohuang BL-43, Jueyinshu BL-14, Xinshu BL-15, Geshu BL-17, Pishu BL-20 and Shenshu BL-23 alongside pulmonary rehabilitation, reporting better lung function, walk distance and symptom scores than rehabilitation alone (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(8):1042–1046, PMID 40825685). All of those points are held here.
• With Nei Guan P-06 — the Connecting point of the Pericardium at the wrist and the tradition's principal distal point for the chest and the heart. Back-Shu point of an organ with the Connecting point of that organ's own channel is the natural structure, and P-06 is the point the classical record reaches for most often in cardiac complaints of any kind.
• With Da Ling P-07 — the Pericardium's Yuan-Source point at the wrist crease, giving the Shu-Yuan pairing: Back-Shu point on the back with Source point on the limb. Our own records confirm P-07 as the Source point of this organ's channel, and the data-mining of ancient prescriptions for chest obstruction and heart pain found Da Ling P-07 at the head of the high-frequency list, under the governing principle summarised as "the Pericardium acting on behalf of the Heart" (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(10):1505–1511, PMID 41074530).
• With Ge Shu BL-17 — three levels below at T7, the Hui-Meeting point of blood, added wherever blood stasis is the pattern behind a fixed, stabbing chest pain.
• With Gao Huang BL-43 — the outer-line point at the T4 level, three cun lateral, so directly beside BL-14 on the same rib space. It is one of the most heavily moxibusted points in the whole repertoire, and the two are treated together as the inner and outer points of that level.

Where does BL-14 sit among the Back-Shu points?

The Back-Shu points run down the inner Bladder line, one and a half cun either side of the spine, one for each organ, in roughly the order the organs sit in the trunk. Sacred Lotus sources & references hold the complete set of twelve:

• Fei Shu BL-13 — Lungs
• Jue Yin Shu BL-14 — Pericardium. This page.
• Xin Shu BL-15 — Heart
• Gan Shu BL-18 — Liver
• Dan Shu BL-19 — Gallbladder
• Pi Shu BL-20 — Spleen
• Wei Shu BL-21 — Stomach
• San Jiao Shu BL-22 — San Jiao
• Shen Shu BL-23 — Kidneys
• Da Chang Shu BL-25 — Large Intestine
• Xiao Chang Shu BL-27 — Small Intestine
• Pang Guang Shu BL-28 — Bladder

Each Back-Shu point pairs with its organ's Front-Mu point on the front of the trunk. Sacred Lotus sources & references hold that set complete too, and it was queried directly: Zhong Fu LU-01 (Lungs), Tian Shu ST-25 (Large Intestine), Zhong Wan REN-12 (Stomach), Zhang Men LIV-13 (Spleen), Ju Que REN-14 (Heart), Guan Yuan REN-04 (Small Intestine), Zhong Ji REN-03 (Bladder), Jing Men GB-25 (Kidneys), Shan Zhong REN-17 (Pericardium), Shi Men REN-05 (San Jiao), Ri Yue GB-24 (Gallbladder) and Qi Men LIV-14 (Liver). BL-14's counterpart is therefore REN-17.

BL-14 is the only one of the twelve whose organ is not an organ. Eleven of the Back-Shu points name a physical viscus. The Pericardium, in classical Chinese medicine, is not a viscus in that sense: it is the envelope, membrane or "heart-protector" that surrounds the Heart and takes the blow that would otherwise fall on the monarch. Its Back-Shu point is named accordingly — not Xin Bao Shu, "Pericardium transport", but Jue Yin Shu, "transport of the Terminal Yin", naming the channel pair rather than an organ. It is the only Back-Shu name in the set that does not name an organ, and that is worth noticing rather than glossing over.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location, channel and Back-Shu classification; the full twelve-point Back-Shu set and the twelve Front-Mu points queried directly; REN-17 confirmed as Front-Mu of the Pericardium and as Hui-Meeting point of Qi; the P-06 and P-07 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 269); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 177); Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties), Difficulty 45, on the Hui-Meeting points; PMID 41741992; PMID 40825685; PMID 41074530; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is BL-14 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 269): 1.5 cun lateral to the lower border of the spinous process of the fourth thoracic vertebra (T4).
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 177): 1.5 cun lateral to the Governor Vessel, at the level of the lower border of the spinous process of the fourth thoracic vertebra.

How is BL-14 Jue Yin Shu needled, and what is the pneumothorax risk?

Stated plainly: BL-14 lies over the thorax beside the fourth thoracic vertebra, with the lung directly beneath it, and pneumothorax — a punctured lung — is the documented hazard at this point and at every point in the band it belongs to. The reference texts do not record a perpendicular insertion here. Our own record specifies oblique insertion of 0.5 to 0.7 inch, and the angle is the substance of the record, not a stylistic detail. Everything below is recorded as neutral reference data describing what the textbooks and the published anatomical studies state. It is not instruction, this page does not teach technique, and needling is carried out only by a qualified, licensed practitioner.

The angle and depth the texts record

• Sacred Lotus sources & references record oblique insertion of 0.5 to 0.7 inch, with moxibustion applicable — the identical bounded figure our records give for Feng Men BL-12 above, Fei Shu BL-13 immediately above, Xin Shu BL-15 immediately below, Ge Shu BL-17 and Pi Shu BL-20 further down the same line. The whole thoracic run is bounded identically, which is itself informative: the constraint belongs to the region, not to any one point in it.
• Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 269) and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 177) record oblique insertion directed medially, toward the spine, in a comparable range, and both attach an explicit caution against deep or laterally angled insertion at the thoracic Shu points because of the lung beneath. Angling toward the vertebral column keeps the needle in the muscle mass with bone behind it; angling outward points it at the intercostal space and the pleura behind that.
• Moxibustion, cupping, press needles and herbal point application are all recorded here and are very common at this point — the COPD trial cited under uses above used adhesive press needles at BL-14 rather than filiform needling (PMID 40825685). None of those methods carries the pneumothorax hazard.
• For comparison within our own holdings: the 0.5–0.7 inch recorded at BL-14 is bounded in the same way as the 0.3–0.5 inch given for GB-21 over the apex of the lung, and is considerably shallower than the 1 to 1.2 inch given for BL-23 in the lumbar region below the ribs. Depth figures in this literature track the structure underneath, not the size of the region.

The measured anatomy — and precisely what each study measured

• Honest limit, stated first. No adult imaging study measuring a safe needling depth at BL-14 specifically could be located. One paediatric CT study does measure this point by name, and its figure is given next. Beyond it, rather than borrow a figure taken elsewhere and attach it to this point, what is recorded here is the bounded depth and specified angle the reference texts give, together with the measured anatomy of the surrounding region — with every measurement attributed to the point at which it was actually made.
• A CT study that measured BL-14 itself. This is the point-specific finding, and it corrects an earlier statement on this page that was based on the study's abstract rather than its tables. A retrospective study measured, directly from CT images, the safe needling depth at 23 upper-back acupoints in 319 patients aged 4 to 18 (205 boys, 114 girls), defining safe depth at the points off the midline as the distance from the skin surface of the point to the pleura. The 23 points were DU-09 to DU-14, BL-11 to BL-17, BL-41 to BL-46, SI-14, SI-15, GB-21 and SP-21 — the abstract does not list them, the full text does, in Tables 2 to 6. The measured depth at Jue Yin Shu BL-14 was 24.92 ± 7.95 mm in boys and 22.69 ± 6.63 mm in girls, a difference that was significant at this point (P = 0.008). Across the five age bands it rose from 18.90 ± 2.66 mm at ages 4 to 6 to 27.71 ± 8.48 mm at ages 16 to 18 (P < 0.001), and with body size as well — from 21.86 ± 5.44 mm in the lightest weight band to 28.99 ± 12.37 mm in the heaviest, and from 22.72 ± 5.91 mm in the underweight body-mass-index group to 29.00 ± 11.85 mm in the obese one. Multiple regression identified weight as the single most important determinant at all 23 points (Ma YC et al., BMC Complement Altern Med 2016;16:85, PMID 26922245, PMC4769822, DOI 10.1186/s12906-016-1060-x). State the limits precisely: these are children and adolescents drawn from a single Taiwanese hospital population, all of them patients rather than healthy children, and the figure is the distance at which the pleura is reached — not a recommended needling depth.
• Cadaveric mapping of the pleural dome — the study named BL-11. A dissection study of 46 adult bodies mapped the dome of the pleura against the commonly used points around it, naming Da Zhu BL-11 — the Bladder-channel point three levels above Jue Yin Shu on the same line — explicitly alongside Tian Tu REN-22, Jian Jing GB-21, Qi She ST-11 and Ding Chuan. The projection of the pleural dome varied widely between individuals, extending beyond the medial third of the clavicle in almost 60 per cent of bodies. The authors' operative conclusion was that when a point is 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):346–348, PMID 16739850). That study named BL-11, not BL-14; the finding is cited for the region, not as a measurement of this point.
• How thin the tissue actually is over the lung — measured at GB-21. The nearest directly measured figure in this region comes from Jian Jing GB-21 on the shoulder: ultrasonography in 101 adults measured the depth from skin to the pleural line at 17.4 mm in men and 14.6 mm in women on average, increasing with weight, height and body mass index (Lin S-K et al., J Acupunct Meridian Stud 2018;11(6):355–360, PMID 29936338). That figure is for GB-21, not for Jue Yin Shu. It is offered as the measured scale of the region rather than as a number for this point — but it makes the essential fact concrete: over the shoulder girdle and upper back, a centimetre and a half can be the whole of the margin.
• A note on how that figure was found. The abstract of that study does not list its 23 points individually, and reading the abstract alone led this record at first to state that BL-14 had not been measured. The full text was then retrieved and Tables 2 to 6 read, which name every point. The correction is recorded openly here rather than quietly, because the same abstract-only reading affected several records in this region.
• Adult back depths, measured as a region. A CT study of 120 patients, grouped by weight, height and sex, measured the distance from the skin of the back to the thoracic pleura at the relevant acupuncture locations and defined that distance as the safe depth. Depths did not differ significantly between the sexes but differed highly significantly between body-size groups (P < 0.01) (Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi 1991;11(1):10–13, PMID 2054884), with a companion study doing the same for the chest (Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi (Taipei) 1992;50(5):388–399, PMID 1338010). Neither abstract names BL-14 among the points measured.
• No single agreed safe depth exists for any point. Two systematic reviews of the safe-depth literature — 33 studies in the first, 47 in the second, by MRI, CT, ultrasound and cadaveric dissection — both concluded that measured depths for the same point differ greatly between subject groups and measuring methods, and that "safe depth" has never been standardised (J Altern Complement Med 2011;17(3):199–206, PMID 21417806; Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2013;2013:740508, PMID 23935678). A textbook depth figure describes an average body, not a constant.
• What lies beneath, in plain terms. At the T4 level the needle passes through skin, subcutaneous tissue, trapezius and rhomboid, then the erector spinae mass beside the vertebra. In front of those lie the fourth and fifth ribs and, between them, the intercostal space with the parietal pleura and the lung immediately behind it. There is no bony floor here in the way there is over the scapula or the occiput. That is the whole anatomical reason for the recorded medial angle and shallow depth — and it is the same anatomy that makes this the Pericardium's Back-Shu point, because the heart and its envelope lie behind the chest wall at about this level.

What is documented, and how often

Pneumothorax is the second most frequently reported serious adverse event in acupuncture. A systematic review of the Chinese case-report literature from 1956 to 2010 identified 1,038 adverse-event cases across 167 articles, of which 307 were pneumothorax — behind only fainting. Thirty-five deaths were recorded across the whole series, and the authors attributed the events chiefly to improper technique, concluding that most were avoidable through standardised training (He W et al., J Altern Complement Med 2012;18(10):892–901, PMID 22967282). A companion systematic review of 115 Chinese-language articles reporting 479 adverse events including 14 deaths reached the same conclusion about traumatic complications (Zhang J et al., Bull World Health Organ 2010;88(12):915–921C, PMID 21124716, PMC2995190). The presentation is not always immediate: an emergency-medicine case report describes a healthy 38-year-old woman who developed pleuritic chest pain the day after dry needling of the back, with bedside ultrasound showing absent lung sliding and a lung point on the right (Cureus 2021;13(3):e14207, PMID 33948398, PMC8086747). Fatal cases exist: an autopsy report describes bilateral pneumothoraces following electroacupuncture, the authors noting that electrical pulses and the muscle contraction they cause may draw needles deeper than the depth at which they were inserted (J Forensic Sci 2022;67(1):377–383, PMID 34435369). A pneumothorax after needling over the upper back may declare itself hours later, with sudden chest pain, breathlessness or a persistent dry cough; it is a medical emergency requiring immediate assessment.

What we will not claim. Despite an extensive search, we could not source a published case report naming BL-14 specifically as the point at which a pneumothorax or other injury occurred, and no such claim is made here. What is recorded is what is documented: a bounded oblique depth in all the reference texts, cadaveric evidence that exceeding the recorded depth in this band breaches the pleura, an ultrasound-measured margin of about a centimetre and a half over the nearby shoulder, and a large published record of pneumothorax following needling over the thorax and upper back.

Risk in proportion

A meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies estimated serious adverse events in acupuncture at approximately 1 per 10,000 patients and around 8 per million treatments, with about half of all recorded events being bleeding, pain or flare at the needle site, placing acupuncture among the safer treatments in medicine (Bäumler P et al., BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268). Both facts belong together: the overall rate is low, and the events that do occur concentrate in the band of points over the lung to which Jue Yin Shu belongs. The bounded oblique depth exists to keep it that way.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record; the BL-12, BL-13, BL-15, BL-17, BL-20, BL-23 and GB-21 needling records queried directly for comparison); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 269); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 177); PMID 16739850 (named BL-11); PMID 29936338 (measured GB-21); PMID 26922245 (PMC4769822 — full text Tables 2–6 read; measured BL-14 ITSELF); PMID 2054884; PMID 1338010; PMID 21417806; PMID 23935678; PMID 40825685; PMID 22967282; PMID 21124716 (PMC2995190); PMID 33948398 (PMC8086747); PMID 34435369; PMID 34489268 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation.

What does the name Jue Yin Shu mean?

Jue Yin Shu means "Terminal Yin Transport" — jue yin, the Terminal or Absolute Yin channel pair, and shu, a transport point. Sacred Lotus sources & references carry the name untranslated, and that is itself the point: unlike the other eleven Back-Shu names, this one does not name an organ. Fei Shu is "Lung transport", Xin Shu is "Heart transport", Shen Shu is "Kidney transport". This one is "Terminal Yin transport", naming a channel pair.

The reason is that the Pericardium is not an organ in the way the other eleven are. In classical Chinese medicine it is the xin bao, the heart-wrapper — the membrane and envelope around the Heart, described as the monarch's guard, which takes the attack that would otherwise reach the Heart itself. The Terminal Yin (jue yin) pairing joins the Pericardium channel of the hand to the Liver channel of the foot, and naming the point for that pairing rather than for a viscus is a small piece of classical precision. It also has a practical consequence: this point's recorded actions include spreading constrained Liver qi, which looks anomalous until the jue yin in its name is noticed.

Why does being the Pericardium's Back-Shu point matter?

Because it is the only one there is. Each of the twelve organs has exactly one Back-Shu point, and BL-14 is the Pericardium's, confirmed by query in Sacred Lotus sources & references. Three things follow.

• It is a diagnostic point as well as a treatment point. Back-Shu points are palpated, and tenderness or a change in the tissue at BL-14 is read as a sign referring to the Pericardium and, through it, the Heart. That diagnostic use is old and it has a modern echo. A clinical study compared the distribution of pressure-sensitive points on the body surface in 70 patients with bronchial asthma against 70 healthy subjects: sensitive points were found in 91.4 per cent of the asthma patients against 15.7 per cent of the healthy subjects, they clustered on the Bladder, Lung and Large Intestine channels and on the C4, C6 and T1–T6 nerve segments, and the four most frequent points were Feishu BL-13, Xinshu BL-15, Chize LU-05 and Jueyinshu BL-14 (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2020;40(2):169–172, PMID 32100503). In animal work the same phenomenon has been imaged: in mice with acute myocardial ischaemia, photoacoustic imaging of the microvessels at "Feishu" BL-13, "Jueyinshu" BL-14, "Quze" P-03 and "Chize" LU-05 found measurable changes in vessel structure at the point regions (Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2021;46(6):497–504, PMID 34190454), and dye-leakage and nerve-excitability studies in the same model localised the changes to the T1–T5 segments at BL-13, BL-14 and BL-15 (Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2023;48(9):833–842, PMID 37730253; Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2025;50(7):743–753, PMID 40691024). These are animal studies of a proposed mechanism, not evidence of clinical effect — but they are point-named and they concern precisely the phenomenon the tradition calls a Back-Shu point becoming tender when its organ is in trouble.
• It is not on the Pericardium channel. The Pericardium channel runs from the chest out to the middle finger and does not cross the back at all. Its Back-Shu point is therefore on the Bladder channel — assigned by where the organ can be reached from behind, not by which line runs over the spot. The same is true of all twelve.
• It pairs with a Front-Mu point that carries a second classification. The Pericardium's Front-Mu is Shan Zhong REN-17, on the breastbone between the nipples, confirmed by query and written up in this library. REN-17 is also the Hui-Meeting (influential) point of Qi — the point the Nan Jing assigns to qi across the whole body — and a Point of the Sea of Qi besides. No other Front-Mu point in the set carries anything comparable, and it makes the Pericardium's Shu-Mu pair the most heavily loaded of the twelve.

Why does this library write P-06 rather than PC-6?

Because that is the convention Sacred Lotus sources & references use throughout, and it was checked by query rather than assumed. The Pericardium channel's points are held here as P-06 Nei Guan, P-07 Da Ling, P-08 Lao Gong and so on. The published literature uses several conventions for the same channel — PC, P, PE, HP (heart protector), TE or TB for the related San Jiao channel — and a reader moving between sources will meet all of them. They refer to the same twelve points; only the letters differ. Where a study is quoted on this page its own coding is preserved inside the quotation and this library's coding used elsewhere, so that a citation can be checked against the original.

Is there research on BL-14 Jue Yin Shu?

BL-14 is reasonably well represented in the research literature, but the distinction has to be drawn carefully: the studies that name it individually are observational and mechanistic, while the clinical trials that use it are multi-point protocols in which nothing is attributable to this point alone.

• Point-sensitisation studies name it directly. The asthma pressure-sensitivity study (PMID 32100503) and the mouse myocardial-ischaemia imaging and electrophysiology studies (PMID 34190454, PMID 37730253, PMID 40691024) described above all name Jueyinshu BL-14 explicitly. They are the closest thing in the literature to research about this point rather than research using it, and they concern the diagnostic property rather than any treatment effect.
• Clinical trials that include the point. The randomised trial of 60 patients with stable COPD using press needles at a thirteen-point prescription including BL-14 (PMID 40825685) is the clearest example; a clinical account of chronic mastitis at the lump stage describes locating and treating the tender points corresponding to BL-14 and BL-15 as a pair (PMID 41741992); and a multi-centre randomised trial of Qihuang needle therapy for autism spectrum disorder with sleep disorder includes BL-14 in its protocol (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(3), PMID 40097214). All are single- or few-centre, unblinded, whole-protocol studies; none isolates this point.
• The classical record treats the Pericardium, not this point, as the carrier. Data-mining of the earliest ancient prescriptions for chest obstruction and heart pain found the high-frequency points to be Da Ling P-07, Nei Guan P-06, Tai Xi KI-03, Tai Chong LIV-03, Shang Wan REN-13, Yong Quan KI-01 and Xin Shu BL-15, with the governing principle summarised as "the Pericardium acting on behalf of the Heart" (PMID 41074530). Jue Yin Shu is not in that leading group — the classical repertoire reached for the Pericardium channel's own limb points and for the Heart's Back-Shu point rather than for the Pericardium's. That is worth stating plainly rather than implying a classical prominence the record does not support.
• What is missing should be said plainly: there is no randomised trial of BL-14 alone, no sham-controlled study of it, and none of its cardiac or chest indications has been tested at this point specifically. The one genuinely point-specific study is anatomical rather than clinical: the paediatric CT measurement of safe depth at BL-14 described under needling (PMID 26922245, PMC4769822).

How does BL-14 compare with the points around it?

Fei Shu BL-13 lies one level above at T3 and is the Lungs' Back-Shu point; it takes the cough, wheeze and chest complaints from the respiratory side, and it is the point to choose where the presentation is breathing rather than heart. Xin Shu BL-15 lies one level below at T5 and is the Heart's Back-Shu point; the two are constantly used together, and the division between them follows the classical principle that the envelope is treated on the monarch's behalf — where the presentation is emotional constraint and a bound chest, BL-14; where it is palpitations, poor memory, insomnia and disturbed spirit, BL-15. Ge Shu BL-17 three levels below at T7 is the Hui-Meeting point of blood and is added wherever blood stasis is the pattern. Gao Huang BL-43 is BL-14's outer companion three cun lateral at the same T4 level, and one of the most heavily moxibusted points in the repertoire. Shen Dao DU-11 and Shen Zhu DU-12 lie on the midline just below and just above, both held here. Shan Zhong REN-17 on the front of the chest is BL-14's Front-Mu counterpart and the Hui-Meeting point of Qi. And for readers looking for the Pericardium channel's own points, note that they are all on the arm — Nei Guan P-06 at the wrist is the usual distal choice, with Da Ling P-07 as the Source point and Lao Gong P-08 in the palm. All are held in Sacred Lotus sources & references.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, channel, Back-Shu classification, the Back-Shu and Front-Mu sets, the Pericardium-channel coding, and the BL-13, BL-15, BL-17, BL-43, DU-11, DU-12, REN-17, P-06, P-07 and P-08 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 269); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 177); Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties), Difficulty 45, on the Hui-Meeting points; PMID 32100503; PMID 34190454; PMID 37730253; PMID 40691024; PMID 40825685; PMID 41741992; PMID 40097214; PMID 41074530 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.