BL-17 (Ge Shu) Diaphragm Shu

What does BL-17 Ge Shu do?

Ge Shu BL-17 is the Hui-Meeting point of Blood — the one point of the body classically held to govern blood as a substance, wherever in the body it is at issue — and it is the shu point of the diaphragm. Sacred Lotus sources & references record the Hui-Meeting classification directly, and it is the decisive fact about this point: of the eight Hui-Meeting points set out in the Nan Jing, BL-17 is the one assigned to blood. That is why a point on the mid-back is reached for in bleeding, in blood stasis and in blood deficiency alike, regardless of where the complaint is felt.

• Invigorates blood and dispels stasis — the first action recorded in our own record, and the one that follows most directly from the Hui-Meeting classification. It is the reasoning behind the point's use in fixed, stabbing pain, in masses, in dark clotted menstruation, and in the chronic pain patterns the tradition attributes to blood that has stopped moving.
• Cools blood heat and stops bleeding — the other side of the same classification. Recorded for coughing or vomiting of blood, nosebleed, and the hot, red, itching skin presentations the tradition places under heat in the blood.
• Nourishes and harmonises the blood — for blood deficiency: pallor, dizziness, dry skin, scanty menstruation, palpitations. That a single point serves stasis, heat and deficiency of blood is exactly what a Hui-Meeting classification means — it governs the tissue, not one of its disorders.
• Harmonises the diaphragm and descends rebellious qi — the local action, and the one the name states. The diaphragm sits between the upper and middle burners, and qi that fails to descend through it produces the presentations recorded here: hiccup, belching, vomiting, difficulty swallowing, and a sense of obstruction at the level of the chest.
• Benefits the chest and the breath — cough, wheezing and chest oppression appear on its indication list because the diaphragm is the floor of the chest; BL-17 is regularly added to Lung treatments for that reason rather than because it is a Lung point.
• Clears deficiency heat — the recorded basis for its long-standing use in afternoon fever, night sweating and the depleted, dry presentations, often together with the neighbouring back points.

Why does the Hui-Meeting point of Blood classification matter?

The eight Hui-Meeting or influential points, set out in the Nan Jing, each govern one tissue or category across the whole body rather than one channel or organ. BL-17 is assigned blood (xue). The practical consequence is that it is selected on the basis of the tissue involved rather than the site of the complaint: for bleeding anywhere, for stasis anywhere, for blood deficiency anywhere. That is why it appears in prescriptions for headache, for skin disease, for gynaecological complaints and for pain in the limbs, none of which is a mid-back problem. It is the single most useful fact to carry away about this point.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing action record; Hui-Meeting classification queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 272); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 178); Hui-Meeting point scheme per Nan Jing (Classic of Difficulties), Difficulty 45; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is BL-17 Ge Shu used for?

Ge Shu BL-17 is used for two quite different families of complaint: disorders of blood — bleeding, stasis, deficiency — and disorders of the diaphragm, which in practice means hiccup, belching, vomiting and difficulty swallowing. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are vomiting, hiccup, belching, difficulty in swallowing, asthma, cough, spitting of blood, afternoon fever, night sweating and measles; the standard reference literature sets them out more fully below. These describe traditional use, not proven treatment, and this point carries the pneumothorax caution set out under needling.

• Hiccup, belching and regurgitation
• Vomiting and nausea
• Difficulty swallowing and a sense of obstruction in the throat or chest
• Spitting or coughing of blood
• Nosebleed and vomiting of blood
• Blood in the stool or urine
• Fixed, stabbing pain attributed to blood stasis
• Irregular, painful or dark clotted menstruation
• Pallor, dizziness and palpitations attributed to blood deficiency
• Cough, wheezing and fullness of the chest
• Afternoon (tidal) fever and bone-steaming heat
• Night sweating and spontaneous sweating
• Itching, urticaria, dry skin and chronic skin disease
• Measles and rashes that are slow to express
• Pain and stiffness of the back between the shoulder blades
• Poor appetite and weakness after long illness

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 272); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 178).

Where is BL-17 Ge Shu, and how is it used in practice?

Ge Shu lies on the mid-back, one and a half cun either side of the midline, level with the lower border of the spinous process of the seventh thoracic vertebra — that is, level with Zhi Yang DU-09 on the spine itself, and roughly level with the lower tips of the shoulder blades when the arms hang by the sides. Sacred Lotus sources & references give it in both terms. It is a bilateral point, needled on both sides, and it sits in the muscle mass beside the spine at the level where the diaphragm attaches behind.

In practice BL-17 is used far more often for blood than for the diaphragm. It is one of the standing additions to any prescription in which blood is the object — stasis, heat or deficiency — and it is frequently treated by bloodletting or by cupping rather than by ordinary needling, which is the traditional technique most associated with it. As a local point it is used for the mid-back and for hiccup that will not settle.

Which points is BL-17 combined with?

• With Xue Hai SP-10 — the "Sea of Blood" on the thigh. The Hui-Meeting point of blood with the point named for blood is the standard structure whenever blood is being addressed, and modern accounts of bloodletting practice record exactly this pairing, with Wei Zhong BL-40 added, as the core blood-regulating group (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(4):505–509, PMID 40229160).
• With Gan Shu BL-18 — the Liver's Back-Shu point two levels below at T9. The classical division of labour is exact: BL-17 for blood as a substance, BL-18 for the organ that stores it. The pairing is one of the most-used on the inner Bladder line.
• With Dan Shu BL-19 — the two together are the classical grouping known as the Si Hua, the "Four Flowers": bilateral Ge Shu BL-17 and bilateral Dan Shu BL-19, four points treated as a unit and traditionally moxibusted for consumptive and depleted conditions. The grouping survives into the modern literature — fire needling at the Si Hua points has been trialled alongside chemotherapy in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2019;44(2):136–9, PMID 30945491).
• With Pi Shu BL-20 — the Spleen's Back-Shu point, for blood deficiency treated at its root, on the reasoning that the Spleen governs the production of blood and holds it in the vessels.
• With San Yin Jiao SP-06 — the meeting of the three leg yin channels, for gynaecological complaints and for blood deficiency.
• With Fei Shu BL-13 — for cough and wheezing, adding the diaphragm to the Lung. This is the prescription tested in the largest point-application trial of asthma, which used Feishu BL-13, Xinshu BL-15 and Geshu BL-17 as one of three compared prescriptions (J Tradit Chin Med 2023;43(1):146–153, PMID 36640006).
• With Zhong Wan REN-12 and Nei Guan P-06 — for hiccup, vomiting and rebellious qi at the diaphragm, joining the Hui-Meeting point of the fu organs and the Pericardium channel's Luo-Connecting point.
• With Ge Guan BL-46 — "Diaphragm Pass", BL-17's outer companion three cun lateral at the same T7 level. The two are the inner and outer expression of the same idea, and both were used in the pilot study of acupuncture and diaphragm function noted below.

Where does BL-17 sit among the eight Hui-Meeting points?

The eight Hui-Meeting or influential points, set out in the Nan Jing, each govern one tissue or category across the whole body rather than one channel. All eight are held in Sacred Lotus sources & references, and the set is worth learning together because it lets a practitioner choose a point by the tissue involved rather than by where the complaint is felt:

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

Two of the eight sit on the Bladder channel in the upper back within a few levels of each other, Da Zhu BL-11 for bones and Ge Shu BL-17 for blood. The pairing of qi (Shan Zhong REN-17) and blood (Ge Shu BL-17) is the one to hold in mind, because qi and blood are the paired substances of the whole system: REN-17 on the front of the chest and BL-17 on the back are the two points a practitioner reaches for when the intent is to address one or the other as a substance rather than an organ.

Is BL-17 one of the twelve Back-Shu points?

No — and the distinction is worth stating, because the name invites the mistake. The twelve Back-Shu points each correspond to a zang or fu organ. The diaphragm is neither: it is a structure, not an organ of Chinese medicine. Ge Shu is therefore a shu point of a structure, sitting on the same inner Bladder line and named in the same pattern, but outside the organ set. Our own record reflects that: it carries the Hui-Meeting classification and no Back-Shu organ classification. The same is true of Du Shu BL-16, the "Governing Shu". The twelve organ Back-Shu points held here are:

• Fei Shu BL-13 — Lungs
• Jue Yin Shu BL-14 — Pericardium
• 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

Ge Shu BL-17 falls between BL-15 and BL-18 in that sequence, which is exactly why it is so often mistaken for a member of it. Each Back-Shu point pairs with its organ's Front-Mu point on the front of the trunk, and the full set of twelve Front-Mu points is held here as well — Zhong Fu LU-01 for the Lungs, Shan Zhong REN-17 for the Pericardium, Ju Que REN-14 for the Heart, Qi Men LIV-14 for the Liver, Ri Yue GB-24 for the Gallbladder, Zhang Men LIV-13 for the Spleen, Zhong Wan REN-12 for the Stomach, Shi Men REN-05 for the San Jiao, Jing Men GB-25 for the Kidneys, Tian Shu ST-25 for the Large Intestine, Guan Yuan REN-04 for the Small Intestine and Zhong Ji REN-03 for the Bladder. The diaphragm has no Front-Mu point, for the same reason it has no Back-Shu classification — there is no organ for one to belong to.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (BL-17 record; the eight Hui-Meeting points, the twelve Back-Shu points and the twelve Front-Mu points queried directly, and reproduced here identically to the sets carried in the GB-34, GB-39, BL-23, BL-18 and BL-13 records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 272); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 178); Nan Jing, Difficulty 45; PMID 40229160; PMID 30945491; PMID 36640006; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is BL-17 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 272): 1.5 cun lateral to the lower border of the spinous process of the seventh thoracic vertebra (T7).
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 178): 1.5 cun lateral to Zhiyang (DU-9), at the level of the lower border of the spinous process of the seventh thoracic vertebra.

How is BL-17 Ge Shu needled, and what is the pneumothorax risk?

Stated plainly: BL-17 lies over the thorax beside the seventh thoracic vertebra, with the lung and the pleura 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 same bounded figure our records give for Feng Men BL-12, Fei Shu BL-13 and Pi Shu BL-20 on the same line.
• Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 272) and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 178) record oblique insertion directed medially, toward the spine, in a comparable range, and both attach an explicit caution against deep or perpendicular 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.
• Bloodletting and cupping are recorded at this point and are strongly associated with it, given its blood classification — a modern account of bloodletting practice names Geshu BL-17 among the points most frequently selected for it (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(4):505–509, PMID 40229160). Superficial bloodletting and cupping do not carry the depth hazard that needling does, which is part of why they predominate here.
• Moxibustion is recorded as applicable, and the Si Hua grouping of BL-17 with BL-19 is classically a moxibustion prescription rather than a needling one.
• For comparison within our own records: the 0.5–0.7 inch recorded at BL-17 is bounded in the same way as the 0.3–0.5 inch given for GB-21 over the apex of the lung and for BL-43 over the upper back, and considerably shallower than the 1–1.2 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 what each study actually measured

• A CT study that measured BL-17 itself. This is the point-specific finding. A retrospective study measured, directly from chest 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 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 measured depth at Ge Shu BL-17 was 25.37 ± 6.87 mm in boys and 23.62 ± 6.20 mm in girls, a difference that was significant at this point (P = 0.021). Across the five age bands the depth at BL-17 rose from 19.14 mm at ages 4 to 6 to 28.33 mm at ages 16 to 18 — roughly a third less margin at the youngest end than at the oldest — and it rose with body size as well, from 22.23 ± 4.57 mm in the lightest weight band to 29.35 ± 9.86 mm in the heaviest, and from 23.21 ± 4.98 mm in the underweight body-mass-index group to 29.03 ± 9.72 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.
• Why that figure is worth reading twice. Under two centimetres in the youngest band is the entire margin, and a standard deviation of nearly seven millimetres in boys means individual children differed from one another by more than the whole textbook insertion range. Honest limit on the adult figure: no imaging study measuring a safe needling depth at BL-17 in adults could be located, and none is quoted. For adults, 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.
• Cadaveric mapping of the pleural dome. 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 higher on the same line — explicitly alongside Tian Tu REN-22, Jian Jing GB-21, Qi She ST-11 and Ding Chuan EX-B1. 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' conclusion is the operative one: 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):346–8, PMID 16739850). That study named BL-11, not BL-17, and it mapped the pleural dome at the top of the chest rather than the mid-thoracic level at which BL-17 sits; it is cited for the region and for its conclusion about exceeding recorded depth.
• How thin the tissue can be in this region. The nearest directly measured adult figure 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, DOI 10.1016/j.jams.2018.06.004). That figure is for GB-21, not for Ge Shu, and GB-21 lies over the lung apex rather than beside a mid-thoracic vertebra; it is offered as the measured scale of the region, not as a number for this point.
• 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):388–99, PMID 1338010). Neither abstract names BL-17 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, measured by MRI, CT, ultrasound and cadaveric dissection — both concluded that depths measured for the same point differ greatly between subject groups and measuring methods, and that the definition of "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).
• What lies beneath, in plain terms. At the T7 level the needle passes through skin, subcutaneous tissue, trapezius and latissimus dorsi, then the erector spinae mass beside the vertebra. In front of those lie the seventh and eighth ribs and, between them, the intercostal space with the parietal pleura and the lung immediately behind it. The diaphragm attaches to the back wall of the trunk below this level, and the pleural cavity continues downward behind it as the posterior costophrenic recess. There is no bony floor at this point. That is the whole anatomical reason for the recorded medial angle and shallow depth.

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 thorax or 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.

The proportion of the risk

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, DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045961). Both facts belong together: the overall rate is low, and the events that do occur concentrate in the band of points over the thorax to which Ge Shu belongs. The bounded oblique depth exists to keep it that way.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 272); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 178); PMID 40229160; PMID 16739850; PMID 29936338; PMID 2054884; PMID 1338010; PMID 26922245 (PMC4769822); PMID 21417806; PMID 23935678; 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 Ge Shu mean?

Ge Shu means "Diaphragm Shu" — ge, the diaphragm, and shu, a transport point. The character ge also carries the plain sense of a partition or a separating membrane, which is what the diaphragm is: the sheet that divides the chest from the abdomen and, in Chinese medicine, the upper burner from the middle. The name is therefore a location and a function at once — the point on the back at the level of the partition, used to settle what will not pass through it. Sacred Lotus sources & references translate the name as Diaphragm Shu.

Why does a point named for the diaphragm govern blood?

This is the question readers most often bring to BL-17, and it deserves a direct answer: the two roles come from two different traditions, and neither is derived from the other. The shu name records where the point sits — on the inner Bladder line at the level of the diaphragm — and it accounts for the hiccup, belching, vomiting and swallowing indications, which are all disorders of qi failing to pass the partition. The blood role comes from the Nan Jing's scheme of eight Hui-Meeting points, a separate classical system that assigns eight points to eight tissues. The traditional explanation offered for the assignment is positional in its own way: BL-17 sits between the Heart Shu above it and the Liver Shu below it, and the Heart is said to govern the blood while the Liver stores it, so the point between them was taken to govern blood itself. That is the classical reasoning as the sources give it. What matters practically is that both roles are real and are used independently — a practitioner selecting BL-17 for blood stasis in the leg is not thinking about the diaphragm at all.

What is the Si Hua, the "Four Flowers"?

The Si Hua or Four Flowers is a classical grouping of four points treated as a single prescription: bilateral Ge Shu BL-17 and bilateral Dan Shu BL-19. It was a moxibustion prescription above all, used for the wasting, consumptive and depleted conditions of the classical literature — the same territory as Gao Huang Shu BL-43 on the outer line nearby. Both points of the pair are held in Sacred Lotus sources & references. The grouping is still in use: fire needling at the Si Hua points has been trialled alongside chemotherapy in sixty patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, with the authors reporting changes in the Th1/Th2 cytokine balance and less deterioration in performance status than chemotherapy alone (Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2019;44(2):136–9, PMID 30945491). Sixty patients, no sham arm — but a modern study of a named classical grouping, which is uncommon.

Is there research on BL-17 Ge Shu?

BL-17 has a modest point-specific literature, and the most interesting item in it is a small human study that measured whether acupuncture including this point actually changes the diaphragm. The honest summary is that no trial isolates BL-17, and the strongest evidence about it is evidence about how often practitioners choose it.

• Diaphragm function measured by ultrasound in healthy volunteers. A proof-of-concept controlled pilot study in ten healthy adults measured respiratory rate, inspired volume, diaphragm excursion and diaphragm thickening by ultrasound at baseline and after sham or real acupuncture at Yanglingquan GB-34, Taichong LIV-03, Danzhong REN-17, Geshu BL-17 and Geguan BL-46. During ordinary tidal breathing nothing changed. During breaths at vital capacity the real-acupuncture condition showed a significantly higher diaphragm thickening ratio than baseline or sham (270.6 ± 136.4 versus 188.6 ± 41.7 and 172.4 ± 57.4 per cent, P = 0.0414), with a non-significant trend toward larger tidal volume (Formenti P et al., Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2022;2022:6608200, PMID 35677369, PMC9168091, DOI 10.1155/2022/6608200). Ten participants, five points at once, and a single significant result among several outcomes — this is a pilot, not a finding. It is included because it is the only study located that measured the structure this point is named for, and because it used both Ge Shu and its outer companion Ge Guan.
• Skin temperature at BL-17 in human asthma. Sixty-one patients with chronic persistent asthma were divided by lung-function level and the skin surface temperature measured at bilateral Feishu BL-13, Geshu BL-17, Pishu BL-20 and Shenshu BL-23. Temperature at all four was higher in the reduced-lung-function group and was negatively correlated with the standard lung-function indices (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(3):274–279, PMID 40097207). Observational, but a direct measurement made at this point in patients.
• Point-selection analyses, where BL-17 recurs wherever blood is the object. A data-mining study of 112 papers and 102 complete prescriptions for headache with blood stasis syndrome placed Geshu BL-17 among the ten most frequently used points, alongside Fengchi GB-20, Taiyang, Baihui DU-20, Hegu LI-04 and Xuehai SP-10 (J Pain Res 2024;17:2455–2471, PMID 39081327, PMC11288322). An analysis of 26 papers on acupuncture for psoriasis found Ashi points, Geshu BL-17, Feishu BL-13, Ganshu BL-18 and Quchi LI-11 the most-used, with strong association rules linking BL-17, BL-13, BL-18 and BL-23 (Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2024;49(9):993–1000, PMID 39401838). And an analysis of 352 articles and 158 prescriptions for acute and chronic urticaria named Zusanli ST-36, Sanyinjiao SP-06, Geshu BL-17 and Feishu BL-13 among its highest-frequency points (Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2025;50(8):974–982, PMID 40854865). Taken together these say something useful and limited: across three different conditions in which the tradition holds blood to be implicated, practitioners converge on this point — which is a measurement of practice, not of effect.
• Bloodletting practice. A published account of one senior practitioner's bloodletting method records Geshu BL-17, Xuehai SP-10 and Weizhong BL-40 as the points most often selected for blood regulation, with Bladder-channel points predominating (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(4):505–509, PMID 40229160). This is documentation of a clinical style rather than a trial.
• The largest trial in which the point is a variable. Four hundred and fifty-six asthma patients were randomised to three point prescriptions for summer herbal point application, one of which was Feishu BL-13, Xinshu BL-15 and Geshu BL-17. All three reduced attack frequency and total serum IgE; the BL-13/BL-15/BL-17 prescription performed less well than the other two, and the authors concluded that the choice of points, not the duration of application, determined the effect (J Tradit Chin Med 2023;43(1):146–153, PMID 36640006, PMC9924751). Worth recording precisely because the result was not the flattering one.

What is missing should be said plainly: there is no sham-controlled randomised trial of BL-17 alone for bleeding, blood stasis, blood deficiency or hiccup — its four principal traditional uses. The point's standing rests on the Nan Jing classification, on continuous clinical use, and on a small amount of measurement taken at the point itself.

How does BL-17 compare with the points around it?

Xin Shu BL-15 lies two levels above at T5 and is the Heart's Back-Shu point; the Heart governs the blood, so the two are often used together, but BL-15 addresses the organ and BL-17 the substance. Du Shu BL-16 sits immediately above at T6 and is, like Ge Shu, a shu point of a structure rather than an organ — the "Governing Shu" of the Governing Vessel. Gan Shu BL-18 lies two levels below at T9 and is the Liver's Back-Shu point, which stores the blood: BL-17 with BL-18 is the classical blood combination. Dan Shu BL-19 at T10 completes the Si Hua grouping with it. Ge Guan BL-46 is BL-17's outer companion three cun lateral at the same level, and Gao Huang Shu BL-43 is the outer-line point higher up that covers much of the same depleted-condition ground. Away from the back, Xue Hai SP-10 on the thigh is BL-17's constant distal partner for blood, and Shan Zhong REN-17 on the front of the chest is its opposite number among the Hui-Meeting points — qi to BL-17's blood.

Source: Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 272); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 178); Sacred Lotus sources & references (BL-17 record; the eight Hui-Meeting points, the Back-Shu and Front-Mu sets and the neighbouring points queried directly); Nan Jing, Difficulty 45; PMID 35677369 (PMC9168091); PMID 40097207; PMID 39081327 (PMC11288322); PMID 39401838; PMID 40854865; PMID 40229160; PMID 30945491; PMID 36640006 (PMC9924751) — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.