Not in pregnancy, or if you could be pregnant.
次髎 Ciliao
“Second Bone-Hole” · BL32
Foot Taiyang · 32 of 67
Where. In the second small hollow on the sacrum, just below and inside the low-back dimple.
For. Period pain; low back ache; difficult urination.
Press. Reach behind and press with the fingertips, about a minute.
Caution. Not in pregnancy, or if you could be pregnant.
次窌，在第二空，俠脊陷者中按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Ciliao Sits on the Sacrum
The dataset places Ciliao with a surveyor’s economy: on the sacrum, below and medial to the posterior superior iliac spine, exactly over the second posterior sacral foramen. Unpacked for hands rather than rulers, that reads as follows. The sacrum is the strong wedge of five fused vertebrae at the base of the spine, set between the two hip bones like a keystone. Across its flat back surface run four pairs of small openings, the posterior sacral foramina, through which nerves pass outward toward the pelvis and legs. The posterior superior iliac spine is the firm knuckle at the back rim of each hip bone — the landmark many people know as a back dimple. Ciliao sits below that knuckle and toward the spinal midline, resting directly over the second opening counted from the top.
Unlike many points described in proportional units, this one leans wholly on bony landmarks — good news for anyone locating it alone. The four openings form a short vertical row on either side of the central ridge of the sacrum, spaced closely enough that a careful fingertip can walk down them in order. Neighbors keep strict formation. One station higher, over the first opening, stands Shangliao (BL31), the Upper Bone-Hole; one below lies Zhongliao (BL33) over the third; and Xialiao (BL34), the Lower Bone-Hole, marks the fourth nearest the tailbone, beside the sacral hiatus where the canal within the sacrum reaches the surface. Classical writers gathered all eight — the four openings and their mirror twins left and right — into one family under the collective name the eight liao, a phrase still used when the whole sacral row is discussed.
The channel context completes the map. Classical cartography draws the bladder meridian as the longest pathway in the body: sixty-seven stations beginning at the inner corner of the eye, sweeping over the head, descending the entire length of the back in paired vertical routes, and ending at the little toe. On its way down, the routes cross the sacrum — the territory Ciliao occupies — before continuing through the gluteal region and along the leg. Tradition assigns the bladder system to the water phase among the five phases, an image of flow and reserves that classical writers liked to connect with the waterworks of the lower body. All of this is heritage geography, offered for orientation rather than as anatomy confirmed.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Begin settled: kneel beside a bed, lie face down, or stand and shift your weight so the low back softens. Find the posterior superior iliac spine first. Rest the backs of your hands on the sides of your waist and glide them backward along the rim of the hip bone until each stops against a firm knuckle — often visible on the skin as a shallow dimple. Confirm it with a movement test: rock gently side to side and notice the knuckle staying fixed while muscle slides around it. That fixed point is the landmark the dataset names, and everything else is measured from it.
From the knuckle, travel downward and inward onto the broad plate of the sacrum. Touch lightly with a fingertip pad and sweep slow little circles across the surface: most backs offer a faint vertical seam of shallow depressions roughly a thumb-width either side of the midline ridge, one above another. Count from the top. The first depression sits near the level where the hip knuckle meets the sacrum; the second — Ciliao — lies just below and slightly closer to the midline, matching the recorded description: below and medial to the spine of the hip bone. Press feather-light and compare sides; many people register a mild, dull awareness at a true point and little sensation a thumb-width away. Search both sides, because the two stations never substitute for each other.
Three slips account for nearly every mislocation. Wandering upward sets fingers on the lumbar vertebrae instead — big, separate ridges quite unlike the smooth fused plate of the sacrum; drop lower until the ridges give way to one continuous bone. Wandering outward lands on bare hip bone; slide back toward the midline until the sacral surface returns. And confusing Ciliao with its upper neighbor is common — if you are still level with the dimple itself, you are touching the first opening, Shangliao; ease down one more station. When doubt survives every check, reverse-count from the tailbone: find the lower end of the sacrum and walk upward past the fourth and third depressions to reach the second. Patience beats precision instruments here.
Reading the Name: Second Bone-Hole
The name is a map legend in two characters. Ci 次 means second — plain vocabulary for order in a sequence, the same character used for the second day of a month or the next item in a list. Liao 髎 takes the bone radical and carries the old sense of a hollow in bone, an aperture where structure opens. Read together, Ciliao is simply the Second Bone-Hole: the point named, honestly and precisely, for the second of the sacrum’s rear openings. There is no metaphor to decode and none needed; classical naming here chose the address system itself.
That honesty extends across the whole family. The four stations carry ordinal names from top to bottom — Shangliao, Upper; Ciliao, Second; Zhongliao, Middle; Xialiao, Lower — matching the first through fourth openings. This is one of the few places in the point catalogue where the tradition numbered its addresses outright, and gathering them under the eight liao made the sacral row easy to teach, remember, and discuss as a unit. A reader who holds only the naming logic can reconstruct the entire neighborhood without memorising anything: four holes, counted from above, mirrored left and right.
Pinyin renders the name Cìliáo: ci falls away sharply on the fourth tone, while liao rises on the second tone. The hanzi pair 次髎 stays legible at a glance — second, bone-hole. Like the gates, valleys, and courtyards scattered through the catalogue, the label performs real work rather than decorating: remember “second hole,” and the location doctrine follows on its own. In a layer of the tradition where names often encode function or imagery, this one encodes pure position — which makes it, fittingly, one of the easiest names to trust.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: nocturnal emission, orchitis, irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhea, vaginal discharge, difficult urination, hernia, lumbosacral pain, and paralysis of the lower limbs. Framed as tradition rather than promise, the list gathers nearly everything classical practice associated with the pelvic basin and its structural frame. The sacral row was treated as a crossroads of the lower torso — the region where cycle, urinary, and reproductive matters converge with the weight-bearing architecture of the low back — and Ciliao stood near the middle of that row, so classical texts describe practitioners reaching here whenever several of those domains complained at once.
A few older terms deserve gentle glossing. Nocturnal emission appears matter-of-factly throughout old case literature as involuntary release during sleep, a complaint kept within the same pelvic sphere. Irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhea — painful periods in present-day vocabulary — and vaginal discharge form the cycle-related cluster. Difficult urination covered hesitant, obstructed, or uncomfortable flow. Hernia in old records ranged over certain groin swellings and dragging sensations; any suspected hernia today belongs promptly with a clinician. Orchitis translates to inflammation of a testicle — again, assessment territory, not self-care territory. And paralysis of the lower limbs was the classical heading for weakness or numbness of the legs approached along the channel; modern changes of sensation or strength always warrant medical evaluation first.
It bears repeating plainly: these are the traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered here for cultural and historical understanding. They are not claims that pressing this point treats disease, and nothing in this guide replaces assessment by a qualified clinician. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. Hold the tradition lightly, and hold the safety rules firmly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point found by the walkthrough above, settle into position — kneeling, lying face down, or standing with hips released — and curl your index finger so its pad, not its tip, rests on the spot. Begin with contact alone for a few breaths, then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the firm tissue beneath rather than grinding against bone. Pressure should read as pleasant dullness spreading outward, perhaps a mild warmth, never sharpness. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, matched where possible to long, unhurried exhales. Swap hands and repeat on the other side, keeping sessions symmetrical even when only one side feels interesting.
Quality outweighs duration. Warm your hands first if they run cold — chilled muscle guards. Choose a quiet corner over a screen and treat the minutes as a pause of attention: feel the breath move into the low back while the fingertip waits, then ride each circle out along the exhale. People who keep such routines usually anchor them to an existing habit — after a shower, before sleep — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for. Across weeks you may notice the area feels less guarded, or simply that you spend a minute attending to your own body; both outcomes sit comfortably inside what self-acupressure honestly offers.
Skip the practice entirely over broken, irritated, or infected skin, during an acute flare of low-back injury, and after recent surgery anywhere near the pelvis until ordinary activity is cleared. When the area feels tender — some people prefer lighter contact during heavy period days — reduce pressure or rest the practice for a day; comfort, not endurance, is the measure. And resist escalation: pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a result teaches nothing and risks soreness. If curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness or stop for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
On paper, this point carries a lighter safety story than many others in the collection. The licensed record for BL32 lists zero specific cautions — no warning paragraph follows the entry, unlike the chest points whose records carry them in bold. Plain geography explains why. The sacrum is solid bone wearing a thick blanket of muscle and fascia, and nothing delicate sits immediately beneath the skin here the way it does high on the chest. Surface pressure meets armor, not architecture. That structural luck, however, relaxes nothing else: the universal discipline of this layer stands everywhere, on every point.
So the rules remain the rules. Finger pads only — never elbows, knuckles, or tools. No pressing over broken skin, rashes, bruises, or known injury to the pelvis or tailbone. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and leave the point alone for the day. Pregnant readers should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point work, since traditional teaching leaves several points around the pelvis and lower trunk alone during pregnancy. Anyone living with conditions affecting bladder or bowel control, or with persistent numbness in the legs, should likewise clear new practices with their clinician first.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Certain signs call for prompt medical care rather than any routine — blood in the urine, fever alongside back pain, new loss of bladder or bowel control, progressive weakness or numbness in a leg, severe or steadily worsening pelvic or low-back pain, or pain that wakes you at night. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, whether medical or East Asian medical suits the complaint. The Second Bone-Hole asks little of its visitors; give it lightness, and let heavier questions travel to professionals trained for them.
Ciliao, the Second Bone-Hole, rests low on the back of the pelvis, tucked below and inward of the familiar back dimple, directly over the second of the four small openings that pierce the sacrum. Classical practice turned here for matters of the lower torso — cycle complaints, urinary difficulty, low-back ache. This guide shows how to find it by touch and press it gently.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Ciliao without knowing any anatomy?
- Use the dimple. Rest your hands on your waist, glide backward along the hip rim until each stops at the firm knuckle that many backs show as a shallow dimple, then travel downward and inward onto the smooth plate of the sacrum. Sweep light circles until you meet a short column of shallow depressions about a thumb-width either side of the midline ridge, and count from the top — the second depression is the spot. Reverse-counting upward from the tailbone works as a cross-check.
- Is pressing Ciliao myself actually safe?
- For healthy adults practising gentle, purely surface contact, generally yes — the area offers thick muscle over solid bone, and home acupressure never approaches the deep structures that professional training manages. Respect the ordinary stop signals: sharp or radiating sensation, discomfort that worsens, any skin broken or irritated beneath the fingers. Skip the practice during pregnancy until a practitioner advises you, and treat persistent symptoms as reasons to see someone, not reasons to press harder.
- What did classical practice use Ciliao for?
- The traditional record groups it with the pelvic basin: irregular menstruation, painful periods, vaginal discharge, nocturnal emission, testicular swelling and pain, difficult urination, hernia-type complaints, lumbosacral pain, and weakness of the legs. Classical texts describe the sacral row as a crossroads of the lower torso, which is why these domains cluster around one address. Those are traditional frameworks, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why is it called the Second Bone-Hole — are there other liao?
- There are three siblings plus mirrors. Four openings pierce the back of the sacrum on each side, and the points over them carry ordinal names: Shangliao (Upper, BL31) over the first, Ciliao (Second, BL32) over the second, Zhongliao (Middle, BL33) over the third, and Xialiao (Lower, BL34) over the fourth. Counted together — four left and four right — the classical literature calls them the eight liao. The numbering doubles as a map legend, which is why the name is worth remembering.
- Can acupressure at Ciliao replace seeing someone about my symptoms?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not a diagnostic tool, and cycle troubles, urinary changes, or back pain that persist, worsen, or arrive with red flags — fever, blood, loss of control, night pain — need professional assessment promptly. Picture the two as different floors of one building: daily self-care lives downstairs, clinical medicine keeps the consulting room upstairs, and neither substitutes for the other. Use the downstairs room freely; climb the stairs without hesitation when symptoms knock more than once.
Sources
- 01WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region (2008), World Health Organization — nomenclature conventions.
- 02A Manual of Acupuncture, Peter Deadman, Mazin Al-Khafaji and Kevin Baker — point-name tradition, the eight liao of the sacrum, and bladder-channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for BL32 Ciliao — location, point class, and action record.
Last reviewed
牌記This leaf, for machines
Old books ended with a colophon saying who printed them. Every leaf here carries the same facts as structured data for agents and search, with no layout in the way.
- GET /en/points/bl32/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/bl32/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/bl32/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "BL32",
"name": {
"en": "Ciliao",
"gloss": "Second Bone-Hole",
"zh-Hant": "次髎",
"zh-Hans": "次髎"
},
"channel": {
"id": "BL",
"order": 32,
"of": 67
},
"location": {
"text": "In the second small hollow on the sacrum, just below and inside the low-back dimple."
},
"for": [
"period pain",
"low back ache",
"difficult urination"
],
"press": {
"text": "Reach behind and press with the fingertips, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [
"Not in pregnancy, or if you could be pregnant."
],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/bl32",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}