REN-02 (Qu Gu) Curved Bone

What does REN-02 Qu Gu do?

Qu Gu REN-02 is the Conception Vessel's point on the pubic bone, and its recorded work is to benefit urination, to regulate the lower jiao, and to warm and invigorate the Kidneys. Sacred Lotus sources & references record those three actions directly. All three follow from position: this is the lowest point of the Conception Vessel on the abdomen, sitting on the top edge of the pubic bone with the bladder immediately behind it, and it is the point at which the midline vessel of the front of the body reaches the pelvic floor.

• Benefits urination — the first recorded action and the busiest one. Our own indication record carries retention and dribbling of urine and bed-wetting at this point, and a data-mining study of the classical and modern literature found that the commonest single indication for Qu Gu used alone was urinary retention, in both eras (PMID 36633248). No other action of this point has anything like the same weight behind it.
• Regulates the lower jiao — the "lower burner", the tradition's name for the pelvic compartment holding the bladder, the intestines and the reproductive organs. This is the umbrella action from which the point's gynaecological and genital indications follow: irregular menstruation, painful periods, vaginal discharge and hernia are all recorded here.
• Warms and invigorates the Kidneys — the third recorded action, and the reason moxibustion is so often used at this point rather than needling. In the tradition the Kidneys govern the lower body, urination and reproduction, and cold or depletion there is treated with warmth applied low on the midline. The classical literature, as the data-mining study found, records moxibustion at Qu Gu more often than needling (PMID 36633248).
• Meets the Liver channel — recorded in our own category field as a Meeting Point of the Conception Vessel with the Liver Channel, and this is the theoretical key to the point's genital indications. The Liver channel of Foot Jue Yin is the channel that curves around the external genitalia, and REN-02 is where it meets the midline. That relationship is why the point is used for genital pain and hernia, and it is the same relationship that gives Li Gou LIV-05, the Liver channel's Connecting point, its own genital indications — a record held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing action record; channel and the Meeting Point classification with the Liver Channel queried directly; the LIV-05 record queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 498); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 235); PMID 36633248; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is REN-02 Qu Gu used for?

Qu Gu REN-02 is used first and foremost for urinary retention and dribbling of urine, and after that for bed-wetting, for genital and reproductive complaints, and for painful and irregular periods. 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 pregnancy and bladder facts set out under needling.

• Retention of urine and difficulty passing urine — the leading indication in both the classical and the modern record
• Dribbling and incomplete emptying of the bladder
• Bed-wetting and urinary incontinence
• Frequent and urgent urination
• Painful, scanty or burning urination
• Nocturnal emission
• Impotence and erectile difficulty
• Pain and swelling of the external genitalia
• Hernia and dragging pain in the groin
• Profuse or abnormal vaginal discharge
• Irregular menstruation
• Painful periods
• Cold, aching and weakness of the lower abdomen
• Pain and distension of the lower abdomen above the pubic bone

How the indication list has shifted over time, measured rather than asserted. A data-mining study systematically compared this point's use across 140 passages of classical literature and 73 modern articles. Used alone, its commonest classical indications were urinary retention, profuse vaginal discharge and hernia; its commonest modern ones were urinary retention, erectile dysfunction and chronic prostatitis. Used in combination, the classical indications were vaginal discharge, painful urinary dribbling and hernia; the modern ones urinary retention, erectile dysfunction and prostatic enlargement. The authors' summary is the interesting part: the classical record used Qu Gu for a broad range of conditions and valued its distal action, while modern practice uses it chiefly for local disorders of the region it sits over (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2023;43(1):101–6, PMID 36633248). Urinary retention is the one indication that sits at the top of both lists.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record, reformatted here as a list); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 498); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 235); PMID 36633248; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is REN-02 Qu Gu, and how is it used in practice?

Qu Gu sits on the midline of the lower abdomen, right on the top edge of the pubic bone — the curved bar of bone that can be felt at the very bottom of the belly, in the midline, above the genitals. Sacred Lotus sources & references give it both as the midpoint of the upper border of the pubic symphysis and as five cun below the navel, and the two descriptions meet at the same place. It is the lowest point of the Conception Vessel on the abdomen; below it the vessel continues to Hui Yin REN-01 in the perineum, held here and queried, which is a Meeting Point of the Conception, Penetrating and Governing Vessels. Above it the midline run continues at one-cun intervals through Zhong Ji REN-03, Guan Yuan REN-04, Shi Men REN-05 and Qi Hai REN-06.

A measurement conflict worth flagging rather than hiding. Our location record gives the navel-to-pubic-symphysis distance as five cun, following the 2006 Chinese national standard. A study that physically measured 101 young women found that distance to be 6.5 cun — matching the figure given in the Ling Shu's "Bone Measurements" chapter rather than the modern standard — while confirming the national standard for the chest measurements it also checked (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2022;42(3):287–9, PMID 35272406). Our location record is kept unchanged, because it follows the standard the rest of this library is measured against and because changing one division would put every point between the navel and the pubic bone out of step with the others. The discrepancy is recorded because it is real, because it is between the modern standard and a classical text rather than an error by either, and because it affects where REN-03, REN-04, REN-05 and REN-06 fall between the two ends. In practice it changes nothing about REN-02 itself: this point is defined by a bone you can feel, not by a division.

Which points is REN-02 combined with?

• With Zhong Ji REN-03 and Guan Yuan REN-04 — the two points immediately above it on the same midline, and by a wide margin its commonest partners. The data-mining study of this point's literature found REN-03 and REN-04 to be its highest-frequency companions in both the classical and the modern record (PMID 36633248). REN-03 is the Front Mu point of the Bladder and REN-04 the Front Mu point of the Small Intestine, both queried here, and both are also Meeting Points of the Conception Vessel with the Spleen, Liver and Kidney channels. Practitioners work up and down this short stretch of midline according to how deep in the pelvis the complaint is felt to lie.
• With San Yin Jiao SP-06 — the Three Yin Intersection on the inner lower leg, a Meeting Point of the Spleen, Liver and Kidney channels, held here. It was the third high-frequency partner in the classical record (PMID 36633248), and the abdomen-plus-leg structure it makes with REN-02 is the standard shape of a urinary or gynaecological prescription.
• With Zu San Li ST-36 — which replaced SP-06 as the third high-frequency partner in the modern record (PMID 36633248). Held here as a He-Sea and Earth point, a Gao Wu Command Point, a Ma Dan-yang Heavenly Star Point and a Point of the Sea of Water and Grain.
• With Shen Shu BL-23, Pang Guang Shu BL-28 and Ci Liao BL-32 — the Back Shu point of the Kidneys, the Back Shu point of the Bladder and the sacral point, all held here and all queried. Bracketing the pelvis front and back is the conventional structure for bladder complaints, and it is how REN-02 appears in the published urinary-retention literature (for example J Tradit Chin Med 2008;28(2):83–5, PMID 18652110, an uncontrolled series of 36 cases).
• For prostatic enlargement — a systematic review of acupoint selection across 85 studies of acupuncture for benign prostatic hyperplasia in older men identified Qu Gu CV-2 among the ten highest-frequency points, alongside REN-04, REN-03, SP-06, REN-06, BL-23, ST-28, BL-28, SP-09 and BL-32 — all of which are held in this library (Medicine (Baltimore) 2025;104(32):e43802, PMID 40797416, PMC12338299). That is a finding about what practitioners select, not about what works, and the review's own conclusion is that rigorous trials are still needed.
• With Li Gou LIV-05 and Tai Chong LIV-03 — where the complaint involves the genitals, because REN-02 is a Meeting Point with the Liver channel and those are the Liver channel's Connecting and Source points. Both are held here.

Why is REN-02 the lower boundary of a whole range of points?

Because our own needling record does not treat it as a single point at all — it names it as one end of a run. Sacred Lotus sources & references state that great care must be taken with the Conception Vessel points from Qu Gu REN-02 up to Shang Wan REN-13 in pregnant women. That is a twelve-point range covering the entire midline of the abdomen from the pubic bone to just below the breastbone, and REN-02 is its lowest member — the point lying closest to the pelvic organs. The same caution is carried on the REN-03, REN-04, REN-06 and REN-12 records held here, and on the extra point Zi Gong Xue, which lies at REN-03's level and lateral to it. Shang Wan REN-13 at the upper end is a Meeting Point of the Conception Vessel with the Stomach and Small Intestine channels, queried here. Reading REN-02 as the bottom of that range rather than as an isolated point is the accurate way to hold it, and the substance is set out under needling.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (both location records; existing needling record including the REN-02 to REN-13 pregnancy caution; the REN-01, REN-03, REN-04, REN-05, REN-06, REN-12, REN-13, SP-06, ST-36, BL-23, BL-28, BL-32, LIV-03, LIV-05 and Zi Gong Xue records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 498); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 235); PMID 36633248; PMID 35272406; PMID 40797416 (PMC12338299); PMID 18652110 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is REN-02 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 498): On the midline of the lower abdomen, at the superior border of the pubic symphysis, 5 cun below the umbilicus.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 235): On the midpoint of the upper border of the symphysis pubis.

How is REN-02 Qu Gu needled, and what are the safety facts?

Stated plainly: REN-02 sits on the top edge of the pubic bone with the urinary bladder immediately behind and above it, and two reference facts govern this point. First, Sacred Lotus sources & references carry the pregnancy caution explicitly in their own needling record, stating that great care must be taken with the Conception Vessel points from Qu Gu REN-02 up to Shang Wan REN-13 in pregnant women — a range of which REN-02 is the lowest member and the point closest to the pelvic organs. Second, the standard texts specify that the patient empties the bladder before needling here, because a full bladder rises out of the pelvis and lies directly under the point. Our own record gives perpendicular insertion of 0.5 to 1.0 inch, with moxibustion applicable. Everything below records what the textbooks and the published anatomical studies document. 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 perpendicular insertion of 0.5 to 1.0 inch, with moxibustion applicable, and carry the REN-02 to REN-13 pregnancy caution in the same record.
• Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 498) and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 235) record a comparable perpendicular range on the upper border of the pubic symphysis, both noting the bladder beneath and both attaching a pregnancy caution to the lower abdominal midline. Deadman & Al-Khafaji also record oblique insertion directed downward at this point in some applications; the angle is part of the record, not a detail.
• The bladder is emptied first — a documented step, not an aside. The reference literature specifies that the patient voids before the lower abdominal points are needled. The reason is anatomical: an empty bladder sits down inside the bony pelvis behind the pubic bone, whereas a full one rises above the pubic bone into the lower abdomen and comes to lie directly beneath the skin at exactly this level. This is recorded here as neutral reference fact because it is the single most consequential piece of preparation documented for the whole lower midline run.
• Moxibustion is recorded as applicable and, in the classical record, was used at this point more often than needling — the data-mining study of Qu Gu's literature found moxibustion the commoner classical method and needling the commoner modern one (PMID 36633248).
• For comparison within our own holdings: queried directly, our records give the same 0.5 to 1.0 inch perpendicular figure at REN-03 and REN-04 immediately above. The uniformity is informative — the constraint belongs to the region rather than to any single point in it.

The measured anatomy — and precisely what the study measured

• A CT study measured CV-2 by name, and CV-2 behaved differently from its neighbours. A retrospective study measured, directly from abdominal CT images, the safe depth — defined as the distance from the skin surface at the point to the transverse fascia — at twelve Conception Vessel points, CV-2 to CV-7 and CV-9 to CV-14, in 219 patients aged 7 to 15 scanned at a single Taiwanese hospital between 1997 and 2006. Safe depth at all twelve points increased significantly with age, body weight and waist girth. It was 1.3 to 2.1 times greater in the 12-to-15 age group than in the 7-to-9 group, and 1.7 to 3 times greater in overweight than in underweight children. And one point stood apart: "except for CV-2, there was no significant difference in safe depth of the other 11 acupoints between sexes" — CV-2 was the only one of the twelve at which boys and girls differed significantly (Chen HN et al., Complement Ther Med 2008;16(6):331–5, PMID 19028333). The limits belong with the figures: these are children aged 7 to 15, they are hospital patients rather than healthy volunteers, they come from a single centre, and a skin-to-fascia distance is a measurement, not a recommended needling depth. What the study establishes for this page is that the tissue over REN-02 varies by a factor of two or three between one child and another, and that this particular point is where the sexes diverge.
• What that study's companion paper measured — and did not. The same group published a second analysis comparing therapeutic depth against safe depth at twelve abdominal points in 204 children, reporting a ratio of 0.67 to 0.88 (J Altern Complement Med 2009;15(9):1033–7, PMID 19715462). Its twelve points are CV-3, CV-4, CV-6, CV-10, CV-12, CV-14, KI-12, ST-24, ST-25, SP-15, LIV-13 and LIV-04 — REN-02 is not among them, and no figure from it is claimed here. It is named so that a reader who finds it does not assume it covers this point; it is cited on our KI-12 record, which it does cover.
• What lies beneath, in plain terms. The needle path at REN-02 is skin, subcutaneous fat, the tough midline seam where the abdominal muscles meet (the linea alba), and then the space immediately behind the pubic bone. The urinary bladder occupies that space, sitting low and behind the bone when empty and rising above it when full. Behind and above the bladder lie the uterus in women and the prostate and seminal vesicles in men, and the small intestine loops down into the pelvis above them.
• 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 vary 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).

The pregnancy question, stated with its evidence

The caution our own record carries is a traditional one, transmitted in the reference literature, and it is recorded here as documented reference fact. Its evidential status is separately worth knowing, and is honestly mixed. A commentary in the peer-reviewed acupuncture literature examined the long-standing concern that certain "forbidden points" might harm a pregnancy through a supposed abortifacient effect, and concluded that the small number of available publications on the question does not appear to support the proposition, while calling for animal research and a systematic review to settle it (da Silva AV et al., Acupunct Med 2011;29(2):135–6, PMID 21422007). Both facts are given because both are true: the caution is standard across the reference texts and is what practitioners are trained to observe, and the published evidence testing it is thin rather than confirmatory. Nothing on this page recommends a course of action either way.

What is documented in this region

• The ordinary events are minor. Bruising and local soreness are what the reference literature records at abdominal points; a meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies found that about half of all recorded acupuncture adverse events across the whole repertoire were bleeding, pain or flare at the needle site (Bäumler P et al., BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268).
• The serious events cluster in this territory. A systematic review of the Chinese case-report literature from 1956 to 2010 identified 1,038 adverse-event cases across 167 articles, attributing them chiefly to improper technique and 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 review of 115 Chinese-language articles reporting 479 adverse events reached the same conclusion (Zhang J et al., Bull World Health Organ 2010;88(12):915–921C, PMID 21124716, PMC2995190). Both reviews find the events concentrated at points over the chest, the abdomen, the neck and the orbit — and the abdominal points are in that group in a way the limb points are not.
• Honest limit. We could not source a published case report naming REN-02 specifically as the point at which an injury occurred, and no such claim is made. What is recorded is what is documented: a bounded perpendicular depth, a measured skin-to-fascia distance at this point that varies two- to threefold between children, an explicit voiding step in the reference texts, an organ that changes position depending on whether it is full, and a pregnancy caution carried across the whole lower midline.

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, placing it among the safer treatments in medicine (PMID 34489268). Both facts belong together: the overall rate is low, and the events that do occur concentrate over the trunk, where REN-02 lies. The bounded depth and the voiding step exist to keep it that way.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record, including the REN-02 to REN-13 pregnancy caution; both location records; the REN-03, REN-04 and REN-13 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 498); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 235); PMID 19028333; PMID 19715462 (cited for what it does not measure); PMID 36633248; PMID 21422007; PMID 21417806; PMID 23935678; PMID 34489268; PMID 22967282; PMID 21124716 (PMC2995190) — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation.

What does the name Qu Gu mean?

Qu Gu means "Curved Bone" — qu, curved or bent, and gu, bone. Sacred Lotus sources & references translate it exactly that way. The curved bone is the pubic bone itself: the arch of bone that closes the front of the pelvis, which can be felt as a hard curved bar at the very bottom of the abdomen in the midline. The name is an unusually literal one for a classical point — it does not describe an action or a metaphor, it names the landmark the point sits on. Anyone who can feel the bone has found the level.

The naming is worth setting alongside its neighbours to see how differently the Conception Vessel's points are named. Hui Yin REN-01 below it is "Meeting of Yin"; Zhong Ji REN-03 above it is "Central Pole"; Guan Yuan REN-04 is "Origin Pass"; Qi Hai REN-06 is "Sea of Qi". Those are all conceptual names describing what the tradition holds the place to be. Qu Gu is the one that simply points at the skeleton — which is fitting, because it is the only point in the run whose position needs no measuring at all.

Why does the Liver channel meet the Conception Vessel here?

Because this is where the Liver channel's course brings it to the midline, and the Liver channel is the one that encircles the genitals. Our own record classifies REN-02 as a Meeting Point of the Conception Vessel with the Liver Channel — queried directly — and that single classification explains a set of indications that would otherwise look out of place on a urinary point. The Liver Channel of Foot Jue Yin runs up the inside of the leg, passes through the genital region, curves around the external genitalia and continues up the abdomen. Hernia, dragging pain in the groin, pain and swelling of the external genitals and genital itching are all read in the tradition as Liver-channel territory, and all of them appear at points where that channel can be reached.

Three of those points are held here and are worth reading against each other. Li Gou LIV-05, the Liver channel's Connecting point on the inner lower leg, is the classical distal point for genital itching and for damp-heat in the lower burner. Tai Chong LIV-03 is the channel's Yuan-Source point on the foot. And REN-02 is the local point on the midline at the level the channel crosses it. Distal on the leg, source on the foot, local on the pubic bone: the same channel reasoning reaching the same region from three distances.

How is REN-02 different from the points above it?

By one cun each time, and by what sits behind them. Our records place Zhong Ji REN-03 one cun above REN-02, Guan Yuan REN-04 two cun above, Shi Men REN-05 three and Qi Hai REN-06 three and a half. The differences are not merely positional:

• REN-02 Qu Gu — on the pubic bone. No point category. Closest to the bladder and the pelvic floor; the urinary point of the run, and the Meeting Point with the Liver channel.
• REN-03 Zhong Ji — the Front Mu point of the Bladder, and a Meeting Point of the Conception Vessel with the Spleen, Liver and Kidney channels. The point at which the bladder's qi is said to gather on the front of the body, and the one usually chosen when the bladder is the target as an organ.
• REN-04 Guan Yuan — the Front Mu point of the Small Intestine, and the same three-channel Meeting Point. The great tonifying point of the lower abdomen, sitting directly over the uterus.
• REN-05 Shi Men — the Front Mu point of the San Jiao.
• REN-06 Qi Hai — "Sea of Qi", carrying no category but among the most used points in the repertoire for depletion.

All five were queried directly. The practical reading is that REN-02 is the local point of the group — chosen for what is immediately behind it — while the points above it carry organ-level classifications and are chosen for what they represent.

Is there research on REN-02 Qu Gu?

Yes — modestly. There is one genuinely point-specific randomised trial, one systematic study of the point's own literature, and a measured anatomical study that names it. That is more than most points in this library can show, and it is still a thin base.

• A randomised trial in which Qu Gu was the added variable. Ninety men with type-III chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome were randomised to drug therapy alone or to the same drug therapy plus triple acupuncture at the Qugu acupoint twice weekly for four weeks, then followed for four weeks. The treatment group showed lower symptom-index scores for pain and for urination, better quality-of-life scores and lower depression-scale scores, with a recurrence rate of 15.6 per cent against 35.6 per cent and a longer time to recurrence (Zhonghua Nan Ke Xue 2017;23(5):464–7, PMID 29717841). The cautions belong with it: it is a single centre, the acupuncture arm was unblinded with no sham, and it tests acupuncture added to drugs rather than acupuncture on its own. But the point under test was this one, and that is uncommon.
• A systematic study of the point's own literature. The data-mining analysis of 140 classical passages and 73 modern articles described under indications (PMID 36633248) is the most useful single reference on Qu Gu. It establishes what the point has actually been used for, by whom and with which partners, and it documents a real historical shift from distal to local use.
• A measured anatomical study naming CV-2. The paediatric CT study of safe depth at twelve Conception Vessel points (PMID 19028333) measured this point and found it the only one of the twelve with a significant sex difference. Set out in full under needling.
• An animal study, labelled as one. Twenty anaesthetised rats had bladder pressure measured while needles were inserted 4 mm at six points including "RN2 (Qugu)". Stimulation at RN2, along with REN-01, REN-03, BL-28 and BL-32, inhibited bladder motility when the bladder was active and increased it when the bladder was static — a dual effect the authors attributed to shared spinal segmental innervation between the point and the organ (BMC Complement Altern Med 2015;15:267, PMID 26253168, PMC4529689). This is a rat study, not a study of human anatomy or clinical effect, and is recorded only to state that it exists and what it is.
• Where the point appears without being the variable. Qu Gu CV-2 is among the ten highest-frequency points in a systematic review of acupoint selection for benign prostatic hyperplasia (PMID 40797416, PMC12338299), and appears in an uncontrolled series of 36 urinary-retention cases alongside REN-03, REN-04, SP-06, SP-09, BL-23, BL-28, BL-32 and BL-39 (PMID 18652110). Neither isolates this point, and nothing in them is attributable to it alone.
• What is not here. There is no sham-controlled trial of REN-02 and no study of it in urinary retention — the indication that tops both its classical and its modern list. That gap is worth naming precisely because the indication is so consistent across two thousand years of record.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, translation, channel and the Meeting Point classification with the Liver Channel queried directly; the REN-01, REN-03, REN-04, REN-05, REN-06, LIV-03 and LIV-05 records and their Front Mu classifications queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 498); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 235); Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), "Bone Measurements"; PMID 29717841; PMID 36633248; PMID 19028333; PMID 26253168 (PMC4529689, rat study); PMID 40797416 (PMC12338299); PMID 18652110; PMID 35272406 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.