BL-30 (Bai Huan Shu) White Ring Shu

What does BL-30 Bai Huan Shu do?

BL-30 benefits the lumbar region and legs, regulates menstruation, and stops leucorrhoea and seminal emission — the most explicitly urogenital action record of any point on the inner Bladder line.

• Benefits the lumbar region and legs — the local and channel action
• Regulates menstruation
• Stops leucorrhoea and seminal emission

Unlike several points in this project, its actions and indications agree. This library has documented three records where the action field claims something the indication list does not support — BL-11 (bones), BL-51 (breasts) and BL-55 (uterine bleeding). BL-30 is the opposite case: the urogenital actions are matched entry for entry by urogenital indications. Where the two fields do line up, that is worth saying too, because it means either field can be relied on.

On the name, which is genuinely obscure. “Bai Huan Shu” means White Ring Shu, and our record holds “White Ring Shu” as its second designation as well. The readings offered for it vary more than for most points — the “white ring” has been taken as a reference to the anus, to a jade ring worn at the waist, and to white vaginal discharge, which is one of the point’s own indications. Our data does not settle which is meant, and this record does not choose. Where sources genuinely disagree this library discloses the disagreement rather than picking one silently.

Its place among the -shu names. Nineteen points on this channel end in -shu; twelve are organ Back-Shu points and seven, including this one, are not. Our BL-26 record sets out the full breakdown, and our DU-02 record the same trap on the Governing Vessel.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action and translation records; the BL-11, BL-51 and BL-55 mismatches and every -shu name on this channel queried against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is BL-30 Bai Huan Shu used for?

BL-30 is used for bed-wetting, difficult urination, hernia pain, abnormal vaginal discharge and irregular menstruation, and for constipation, straining at stool, rectal prolapse and cold aching in the lower back. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Enuresis (bed-wetting)
• Dysuria (difficult or painful urination)
• Pain due to hernia
• Morbid leucorrhoea (abnormal vaginal discharge)
• Irregular menstruation
• Constipation
• Tenesmus (straining, with a sense of incomplete emptying)
• Prolapse of the rectum
• Cold sensation and pain of the lower back

Nine entries, and eight of them are pelvic. Urinary, genital, gynaecological and anorectal — only the cold aching back is outside that group, and that is local. It is one of the most tightly regional indication lists in the library, comparable to DU-01 and BL-35 at the coccyx. The reason is the same one our BL-31 and BL-53 records set out: the nerves supplying the bladder, rectum and reproductive organs leave the canal through the sacrum, and this point sits at the fourth sacral level.

A note on the record itself. The previous version of this indication field contained the entire list twice over, with a stray heading between the copies — a duplication that this rewrite removes. Querying every record in the library, BL-30 was the only point affected. The list itself was correct; only the repeat was wrong, and the nine entries above are exactly those our source record holds.

An honest note. Rectal prolapse requires medical assessment. Tenesmus — persistent straining with a sense of incomplete emptying — requires medical assessment, particularly with bleeding, weight loss or a change in bowel habit. Difficulty passing urine, and especially inability to pass urine, requires urgent care. A hernia that becomes painful, tense or irreducible is a surgical emergency. Abnormal vaginal discharge and any change in menstrual pattern require assessment. This record documents classical use only, and nothing here should delay any of it.

How it is combined. With BL-28 Pang Guang Shu, the Bladder’s Back-Shu point, and BL-29 above on the same line. With BL-31 to BL-34, the liao points, medial to it. With REN-03 Zhong Ji and REN-04 Guan Yuan on the lower abdomen. With SP-06 San Yin Jiao and KI-03 Tai Xi distally. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record, reproduced once and the duplicated copy removed; every indication record queried for the same defect and BL-30 confirmed the only one; the BL-28, BL-29, BL-31 to BL-34, BL-35, BL-53, DU-01, KI-03, REN-03, REN-04 and SP-06 records checked against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is BL-30 Bai Huan Shu located?

BL-30 is on the buttock, an inch and a half out from the midline, level with the fourth posterior sacral foramen — the lowest of the four holes in the sacrum.

• 1.5 cun lateral to the midline, at the level of the fourth posterior sacral foramen
• BL-34 Xia Liao sits over that foramen, medial to this point at the same level
• BL-29 Zhong Lu Shu lies one level above, at the third foramen

The level is given by a foramen, not by a vertebra, and that is a real advantage. On the thoracic and lumbar back every point is located by counting spinous processes, and a miscount displaces everything below it. On the sacrum the vertebrae are fused and the spinous processes reduced to a ridge — so our records use the posterior sacral foramina, which can be felt, as the reference instead. BL-30’s level can therefore be fixed from BL-34, which sits directly in the fourth foramen, and the 1.5 cun measured laterally from there. Our BL-31 and BL-34 records set out the foramina as landmarks.

Two lines, two ways of being placed. The liao points are defined by the holes themselves; BL-29 and BL-30 are defined by the level of a hole plus a lateral measurement. They are not the same points and not the same distance from the midline, which is worth keeping straight when reading a sacral prescription.

A practical note. This point is on the buttock, and treatment here calls for the same standards of consent, draping and professional conduct that apply anywhere on that region.

On the name. “Bai Huan Shu” — White Ring Shu. As set out above, the sense of the “white ring” is genuinely disputed, and this record leaves it open.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the BL-29, BL-31 and BL-34 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 292): 1.5 cun lateral to the midline, at the level of the fourth posterior sacral foramen.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 182): 1.5 cun lateral to the Governor Vessel, at the level of the fourth posterior sacral foramen.

How is BL-30 Bai Huan Shu needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.8–1.2 inches — and it is the one point in this lumbosacral group whose record does NOT state moxibustion. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.8–1.2 inches — the same range our records give at BL-26, BL-29, BL-31, BL-34 and BL-53. Over the sacrum and the thick lumbar muscle the recorded depths across this whole region agree, which is an internal consistency worth noting.
• Moxibustion: not stated at this point. Comparing the group, our records state it as applicable at BL-26, BL-29, BL-31, BL-34 and BL-53 — and at BL-30 alone it is absent. Whether that reflects a genuine distinction or an omission in the source material cannot be determined from our data, and nothing is asserted either way. Our DU-06 record documents the same kind of single omission on the Governing Vessel, where a classical moxibustion prohibition is separately recorded — no such prohibition is recorded for BL-30, and none is implied.
• Regional anatomy: gluteus maximus arises over the lower sacrum; the sacrum lies beneath, with the pelvic cavity beyond the bone; the fourth sacral nerve emerges through the foramen medial to the point.

Hazard, stated proportionately. No pleura, no kidney, no body cavity within reach — the thoracic and renal hazards this library documents higher on the channel do not extend here. Solid sacral bone lies beneath with thick muscle above it, and the recorded depth reflects that thickness rather than greater licence, the same relationship our BL-53 record describes.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at BL-30 could be located, and none is borrowed. The paediatric chest-CT study covers 23 points on the trunk and shoulder from DU-09 upward; the kidney-region MRI measured BL-21, BL-22, BL-23, BL-50, BL-51 and BL-52. Neither reaches the sacrum. Verified. No case report naming BL-30 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the recorded depths and moxibustion statements across BL-26, BL-29, BL-31, BL-34, BL-53 and DU-06 queried and compared; the point lists of PMID 26922245 and PMID 36075596 confirmed not to include BL-30), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on BL-30, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates BL-30. Where the point appears it is one component of a pelvic, urinary or low-back protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

The nearby points that carry a literature are the liao group, BL-31 to BL-34, which appear in labour and dysmenorrhoea trials — and, as our BL-31 and BL-34 records set out, they are almost always needled as a set, so even there the evidence attaches to the group rather than to any single point. BL-30 is medial-adjacent to that group and borrows nothing from it.

What this page can state with confidence. BL-30 sits at the level of the fourth sacral foramen on the inner line. Eight of its nine recorded indications are pelvic — one of the most tightly regional lists in the library — and unlike BL-11, BL-51 and BL-55, its action and indication fields agree. It is the only point in its lumbosacral group whose record omits moxibustion. And the sense of its name is genuinely unsettled between sources, which this record discloses rather than resolving.

A defect in our own data, recorded so the fix is traceable. The previous version of this point’s indication field held the entire list twice, with a stray heading between the copies. Querying every record in the library, BL-30 was the only point affected. This rewrite reproduces the list once. The content was never wrong — only doubled.

A note on searching for it. “BL 30”, “UB 30” and “Baihuanshu” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material matched on transliteration, and the unsettled English name makes this point harder to search than most. 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; every indication record queried for the duplication defect, and the BL-11, BL-31, BL-34, BL-51 and BL-55 records compared, against our own data).