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BL-67 Reaching Yīn

至阴 〔至陰〕 zhì yīn

Alternate names: 指井 zhǐ jǐng, Digit Well

Channel: BL, foot greater yáng (tài yáng) bladder channel

Modern location: An acupoint located a little more than 1 fēn below the base of the nail on the lateral aspect of the little toe.

Classical location: On the outer side of the small toe, the width of a garlic chive leaf away from the corner of the nail. From The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (针灸大成 zhēn jiǔ dà chéng)

Local anatomy: The network formed by the dorsal digital artery and plantar digital proprial artery. The plantar digital proprial nerve and the lateral dorsal cutaneous nerve of the foot.

Action: Courses wind in the vertex; rectifies qì and quickens the blood; clears the brain and brightens the eyes.

Modern indications: Headache; eye pain; nasal congestion; nosebleed; malposition of the fetus; difficult delivery.

Classical indications: Nosebleed with clear snivel; eye screens; seminal emission; inhibited urination; generalized itching; pain and weakness of the limbs; retention of the placenta; paralysis; heart vexation.

Needle stimulus: Needling: 0.1 cùn upward oblique insertion. Moxa: 3‒5 cones; pole 3‒5 min.

Point groups: Well (jǐng) (metal) point.

Point name meaning:

The pictograph 至 (zhì) can mean to arrive at or to reach. BL-67 is the last point of the bladder (yang) channel, from which the qì then passes to the kidney (yīn) channel. Therefore, BL-67 is said to be Reaching Yīn. Alternatively, we may recall that the kidney is referred to in Sù Wèn as Extreme Yīn (肾者，至阴也). If the character 至 (zhì) is interpreted as meaning extreme, then the point name is indicative of the point’s connection to the kidney. A rendering of this point’s name as Extremity of Yīn is also valid if we consider the tenet that the extreme of yīn or yáng engenders its complement. Thus, we are reminded that the very end of the yáng channel contains the beginnings of the yīn channel and vice versa. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

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