KI-22 (Bu Lang) Corridor Walk

What does KI-22 Bu Lang do?

KI-22 unbinds the chest and lowers rebellious Lung and Stomach qi — and it is the one point in this library whose needling record warns explicitly about the HEART.

• Unbinds the chest — the classical phrase for relieving a tight, oppressed sensation in the chest
• Lowers rebellious Lung and Stomach qi — coughing and vomiting being the two upward movements it addresses

The Kidney channel’s chest ladder, confirmed by query. Six points climb the chest at 2 cun from the midline, one in each intercostal space:

• KI-22 Bu Lang — fifth intercostal space (this point, the lowest)
• KI-23 Shen Feng — fourth · KI-24 Ling Xu — third · KI-25 Shen Cang — second · KI-26 Yu Zhong — first
• KI-27 Shu Fu — below the clavicle, the channel’s final point

One point per space with no gap and no doubling — among the most regular arrangements in the whole point system, and every position confirmed against our own location records.

Four of the six share the same recorded action. KI-22, KI-23, KI-24 and KI-25 all carry “unbinds the chest” and “lowers rebellious Lung and Stomach qi” in the same words. This library discloses that overlap rather than manufacturing distinctions between the pages — the same approach taken across the BL-03 to BL-09 scalp run and at BL-31 and BL-34 on the sacrum.

On the name. “Bu Lang” means Corridor Walk. The reading usually offered takes the ribs as a corridor and the channel as walking up it — which is a fair description of what the six points actually do, ascending one space at a time.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; all six chest points queried and their spaces and actions compared against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is KI-22 Bu Lang used for?

KI-22 is used for cough and asthma, for distension and fullness in the chest and flank, and for vomiting and loss of appetite. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Cough
• Asthma
• Distension and fullness in the chest and hypochondriac region
• Vomiting
• Anorexia (loss of appetite)

It is the only one of the six with digestive indications, and that follows from its position: the fifth intercostal space is the lowest of the run, closest to the diaphragm and the stomach beneath it. Its neighbours above carry cough, asthma and chest fullness, and KI-23, KI-24 and KI-26 add mastitis or breast entries. Vomiting and loss of appetite appear here alone.

An honest note, and the chest entry is the one that matters most. CHEST PAIN OR TIGHTNESS IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY until proven otherwise — particularly with breathlessness, sweating, or pain spreading to the arm or jaw. A point recorded for “fullness in the chest” sits directly over the heart, and that coincidence is the reason this warning is stated first. Asthma can be fatal and requires prescribed management; an attack not responding to reliever medication is an emergency. Persistent vomiting, or loss of appetite with weight loss, requires medical assessment. This record documents classical use only, and nothing here should delay care.

How it is combined. With KI-23 to KI-27 up the same 2-cun line. With REN-17 Shan Zhong on the midline at the fourth space — the Hui-Meeting point of qi. With P-06 Nei Guan and ST-36 Zu San Li distally for the digestive entries. With BL-13 Fei Shu on the back for the respiratory ones. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the KI-23 to KI-27, BL-13, P-06, REN-17 and ST-36 records queried and compared from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is KI-22 Bu Lang located?

KI-22 is on the chest, two cun out from the midline, in the fifth space between the ribs — the lowest of the Kidney channel’s six chest points.

• In the fifth intercostal space, 2 cun lateral to the midline
• KI-23 Shen Feng lies one space above, in the fourth
• REN-16 Zhong Ting sits on the midline at this level; ST-18 Ru Gen further out at 4 cun

The intercostal spaces are real landmarks, which makes this run unusually reliable. Unlike the vertebral counting chains on the back that this library repeatedly warns about, the ribs can be felt directly, and the nipple line in men sits at the fourth intercostal space — a conventional reference for finding the level, though it is not reliable in women or in older men. Counting up or down from a felt rib is a shorter and safer chain than counting spinous processes from the neck.

A 2-cun line, on the chest this time. This library has flagged the unusual lateral distances as they appear — BL-35 at 0.5 cun, BL-09 and BL-10 at 1.3 cun, SI-15 at 2 cun on the back. On the front, the Kidney chest line at 2 cun runs between the Conception Vessel on the midline and the Stomach channel at 4 cun, so all three can be present in one intercostal space.

On the name. “Bu Lang” — Corridor Walk, the corridor being the space between the ribs.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the BL-09, BL-10, BL-35, KI-23, REN-16, SI-15 and ST-18 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 359): In the fifth intercostal space, 2 cun lateral to the midline.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 197): In the fifth intercostal space, 2 cun lateral to the Conception Vessel.

How is KI-22 Bu Lang needled, and what does our record warn about?

Our own record states oblique insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch with moxibustion applicable — and then adds, in its own words, “TO AVOID INJURING THE HEART, DEEP INSERTION IS NOT ADVISABLE”. Querying every needling record in this library, KI-22 IS THE ONLY POINT WHOSE OWN RECORD CARRIES A HEART-INJURY CAUTION — and one of only FOUR carrying an explicit organ-injury caution of any kind. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Our record’s caution, retained verbatim: to avoid injuring the heart, deep insertion is not advisable.
• Angle and depth as recorded: oblique, 0.3–0.5 inch. On the chest the obliquity is the safety feature and not a stylistic detail: a needle laid along the intercostal space stays in the chest wall, while a perpendicular one is aimed into the thorax.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable. It carries none of these hazards.
• Regional anatomy: pectoralis major overlies the intercostal muscles; the intercostal nerve and vessels run along the lower border of the rib above; the pleura and lung lie deep to the intercostal muscles, and at the fifth space 2 cun from the midline the heart and pericardium lie behind the sternum and the medial chest wall.

Why this point and not its neighbours — a real distinction, and our data draws it. KI-22 is the lowest and most medial-lying of the six chest points in terms of what sits behind it: the fifth intercostal space close to the sternum is the region of the cardiac notch, where the left lung is scooped away and the heart lies nearest the chest wall. Our records for KI-23, KI-24, KI-25 and KI-26 in the spaces above carry the same oblique 0.3–0.5 inch without the heart clause. The caution belongs to KI-22 and is not exported upward, exactly as it is not imported from anywhere else.

Two hazards, not one. Pneumothorax is the documented hazard of the whole chest and rib region — our BL-12, BL-45 and BL-46 records set out the measured margins for it on the back. Cardiac injury is a separate and rarer matter, and our record raises it only here.

The full set of organ-injury cautions in our data, counted by query. Only four points carry one in their own needling record: KI-21 You Men — the liver; KI-22 — the heart; and LU-01 Zhong Fu and LU-02 Yun Men — the lung. Three of the four are on the front of the trunk and two are consecutive points on this very channel, KI-21 and KI-22, one naming the liver and the next the heart. Where our source material singles a point out this way, this library keeps the wording and does not extend it to neighbours.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at KI-22 could be located, and none is borrowed. The paediatric CT study this library uses measured 23 points on the back and shoulder; a separate study measured 28 front-of-chest points, and KI-22 is not among the points our records attribute to either. No case report naming KI-22 was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record including the heart caution, retained verbatim; every needling record in the library queried and KI-22 confirmed the only one carrying it; the KI-23 to KI-26 needling records compared and confirmed not to carry it), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on KI-22, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates KI-22. Where the point appears it is one component of a respiratory or chest protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence, and the first item is the reason it exists. Our record for KI-22 carries an explicit heart-injury caution, and it is the only point in this library whose own record does — established by querying every needling record we hold, not by impression. Only four points carry an organ-injury caution of any kind: KI-21 (liver), KI-22 (heart), LU-01 and LU-02 (lung). That caution belongs to this point, in the fifth intercostal space where the heart lies nearest the chest wall, and it is not extended to the five points above it whose records do not carry it.

The rest is checkable too. The six Kidney chest points climb one intercostal space at a time at a constant 2 cun from the midline — fifth, fourth, third, second, first, then below the clavicle — one of the most regular arrangements in the point system, confirmed against our own location records. Four of the six share the same recorded action word for word. And KI-22 is the only one of them with digestive indications, which follows from being the lowest and nearest the diaphragm.

A note on searching for it. “KI 22”, “KID 22” and “Bulang” searches return protocol trials and a large volume of unrelated material — Bulang is a place name, an ethnic group and a tea-producing mountain region, which dominates results entirely. Our library codes this channel KI- while some sources use KID-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling, action, indication and location records; every needling record queried for a heart caution and KI-22 confirmed unique, and all six chest points' spaces and actions compared, against our own data).