殷門 Yinmen
“Gate of Abundance” · BL37
Foot Taiyang · 37 of 67
Where. In the middle of the back of the thigh, two hand-widths (eight finger-widths) below the buttock crease.
For. Low back ache; weak, tired legs.
Press. Firm thumb pressure, about a minute each leg.
殷門，在肉郤下六寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Yinmen Sits on the Back of the Thigh
The licensed dataset places this station plainly: on the back of the thigh, on the line connecting Chengfu (BL36) and Weizhong (BL40), six cun below Chengfu. Each landmark is easy to picture once named. Chengfu sits at the midpoint of the gluteal crease — the horizontal fold where the buttock folds into the back of the thigh — while Weizhong lies at the midpoint of the popliteal crease, the transverse crease behind the knee. The line joining them runs, for practical purposes, straight down the centre of the thigh’s back. A cun is the traditional proportional unit of Chinese point-location, taken from the body being examined rather than from a ruler; the width of a person’s own thumb serves as the everyday approximation. Six such widths below the crease lands, on most bodies, in the broad muscular middle country of the posterior thigh — well clear of the buttock above and comfortably short of the knee crease below.
What lies under the fingertips here is muscle, generously thick. The back of the thigh belongs to the hamstring group — the long family whose cords appear in this channel’s own records as the biceps femoris and semitendinosus tendons — gathering at the sitting bone above and running down to cross the knee. Beneath the skin and this generous muscle padding, larger structures pass quietly on their way between hip and calf, which is one more reason every touch at this address stays light. Nothing about finding or pressing this point rewards force; the terrain is soft, deep, and agreeable, and it gives up its landmarks to patient fingers far more readily than to insistent thumbs.
The neighbourhood map is unusually simple here, and that simplicity helps. Between Chengfu at the fold and Weizhong at the knee, Yinmen is the only station the bladder channel keeps on the central line of the posterior thigh — a long, quiet interval of road without a crossroad. For the searcher this means small errors matter little: anywhere near the measured spot you are still on the channel’s own corridor, and sliding a thumb-width up or down brings you home. The point sits mid-route on the longest single course in the traditional atlas — sixty-seven stations running from the inner corner of the eye down the whole back and onward to the little toe.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Choose a position that lets the hamstring go slack, because a tense muscle hides its own landmarks. Lying face-down on a bed or mat, forehead resting on stacked hands and a small pillow beneath the ankles, is the most comfortable arrangement; standing with one heel rested on a low stool works too. Begin by finding the gluteal crease where buttock becomes thigh, and settle a fingertip at its midpoint. From there walk straight down the centre line of the thigh’s back, measuring six thumb-widths with the pads of your fingers — unhurried, counting each width aloud if it helps — until the fingertip rests on the firm, springy slope of the hamstring belly. That measured spot, neither high toward the fold nor low toward the knee, is the address the dataset describes.
A few quiet confirmations come before any real pressure. Touch first with feather-lightness: most people notice a dull, heavy awareness gathering under the pad at the true point, and considerably less sensation a thumb-width away. Keeping contact gentle, bend the knee a fraction — the hamstring firms and lifts unmistakably beneath the finger, confirming you rest on the muscle road itself rather than off at its border. Compare the two sides; the same measurement should land symmetrically. Check the line too: the spot should sit on the vertical middle of the thigh’s back, not drifted inward toward the inner thigh nor outward toward the side of the leg. If you find tendon edge or bone instead, return to centre and measure again.
Two slips account for most missed searches. The first is direction: six cun are counted downward from Chengfu, below the gluteal crease, not upward from the knee — start at the wrong end and the count wanders. The second is drift sideways off the centre line, usually toward the outer border where the hamstring cord stands proudest; the recorded address keeps to the middle of the thigh’s back. Searching while perched on a deep sofa makes both mistakes likelier, because the crease disappears into the cushion. When in doubt, stand up, find the fold afresh, and measure one slow time from the top.
Reading the Name: Gate of Abundance
The two characters carry a generous idea. Yin 殷 speaks of abundance and fullness — the word old writers used for prosperous households and plentiful years — and by extension a depth of earnest feeling, as when care or hope is described as deep and sincere. Men 門 is simply a gate or door. Read together, Yinmen is the Gate of Abundance. The name fits the geography the way the tradition liked names to fit: classical writers pictured the channels as roads along which qi and blood travel, and where the bladder vessel crosses the broad, powerful musculature of the posterior thigh, its current was imagined to run wide and deep. A gate marks the place a road gathers itself before continuing — and this station, midway on the longest channel journey in the atlas, invites exactly that reading.
It is worth noticing what the name does not claim. The dataset records no special class for Yinmen — not a mu point where an organ’s activity pools, not a source, not a crossing — no office beyond being itself. Its distinction is purely geographic: an ordinary way-station made memorable by the road it serves. The bladder channel is the longest single course on the traditional map, sixty-seven stations from the inner corner of the eye to the tip of the little toe, and its crossing of the posterior thigh is one of that road’s longest quiet stretches. Gates, doors, valleys and pools recur across the channel’s naming landscape; here the gate-name honours abundance gathered on the move rather than any ceremonial duty assigned to the spot.
Pinyin writes the name Yīnmén: a flat, high first tone on yin, steady as a level road, then a rising second tone on men, lifting like the beginning of a question. The hanzi 殷門 are simple enough to memorise at a glance — abundance beside a door. Names like this reward a moment’s attention, because they record how the tradition understood a place: not an abstract coordinate but a characterful stretch of country on a long road, worth naming the way travellers name passes and bridges.
Traditional Indications, Explained
Read as a record rather than a promise, the dataset lists three actions: lower back pain, atrophy and paralysis of the lower limbs, and weak legs. The first follows the channel map directly. Classical descriptions trace the bladder meridian from the inner corner of the eye, over the head, and down the entire length of the back in paired routes before it continues through the buttock region and down the back of the thigh toward the popliteal crease — the longest course in the traditional atlas. Complaints of the low back were therefore discussed all along that descending road, and this mid-thigh station kept its place in those conversations. There is also a plainer thread a hand can feel: the hamstrings take their origin at the sitting bone at the base of the pelvis, and the same strap of muscle runs on from there, uninterrupted, down the back of the thigh through this very territory.
The second and third indications travel together in classical language. Atrophy and paralysis of the lower limbs — the old texts’ wilting pattern, limbs grown thin, heavy, or unresponsive — was understood as qi and blood failing to reach and nourish what lay downstream, and classical practice answered by gathering points along the affected channel’s course, encouraging flow onward toward the feet. Weak legs is the everyday cousin of that grand phrase: heaviness on stairs, trembling after standing, a stride that has lost its spring. It is telling that the record assigns the very same indication to Weizhong at the knee below; the tradition treated this thigh-to-knee corridor as one continuous conversation about carrying a body forward. Mid-route stations served the road’s far end — that is the logic, stated as tradition rather than as claim.
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 here 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; the honest pleasure of this practice lies in attention, not in promises.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point found by the walkthrough above, arrange comfort deliberately. Lying face-down with a pillow beneath the ankles lets the hamstring soften best; seated on the floor with the legs extended serves too, especially for anyone at home on the floor. Warm the territory first: long, slow strokes with the open palm, from just below the crease toward the knee, repeated several times until the thigh feels companionable under the hand. Then settle the pads of three or four fingers together onto the measured spot and begin small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the muscle beneath rather than grinding against it. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness spreading outward, or a mild warmth — never sharpness. One to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, is a rhythm many people keep; match the circles to slow exhales and swap sides so the session stays symmetrical.
Quality outranks duration, here more than almost anywhere, because the hamstring is a big muscle with firm opinions about being poked. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact suits the wellness register this page practises; jabbing teaches nothing and sours the habit. Warm your hands first if they run cold, choose a quiet corner over a screen, and consider anchoring the practice to something already routine — after a shower, alongside an evening hamstring stretch, during the last unhurried minutes before sleep. People who keep self-care habits rarely succeed by willpower alone; they succeed by making the practice small enough and pleasant enough to want to repeat tomorrow.
Treat the few minutes as attention paid to your own body rather than treatment administered to it. Across weeks you may notice the thigh feels less guarded, that stretching afterwards comes easier, that the low back feels more willing on the morning stairs — or perhaps nothing changes except that you now spend ninety seconds a day tending yourself. Every one of those outcomes sits inside acupressure’s honest scope. What sits outside it is escalation: pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness or close the day’s practice early.
Cautions and Safe Practice
The licensed record lists no specific caution for this point — a plain fact worth stating, because absence of a warning entry is not absence of common sense. This is a big-muscle address over deep thoroughfares: major nerve trunks travel the posterior thigh between hip and calf, and they announce themselves unmistakably if pressed upon. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation running down toward the knee or calf means stop at once and do not try again that day. Gentle surface work never meets these structures; only force ever goes looking for them.
The practical rules fit in a breath. Use finger pads or palm, never elbows, knuckles, or tools. Never press through pain, into numbness, or while holding the breath. Skip the point over broken, irritated, or recently bruised skin, after any thigh or hip injury until healing has settled, and during feverish illness. If you are pregnant, live with a circulatory or neurological condition, or take blood-thinning medication, ask a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice — the question costs nothing and occasionally matters greatly. Keep sessions moderate besides: the aim of home practice is a comfortable acquaintance with your own body, not a workout for it.
Certain symptoms belong with prompt professional assessment, whatever your routine: low back pain accompanied by numbness or tingling spreading down a leg, new weakness such as a foot that catches or drags, fever alongside back pain, or any change in bladder or bowel control. These call for a licensed practitioner’s examination — medical or East Asian medical, as suits the complaint — not for firmer pressing. This page is educational only, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. The gate imagery is charming, but the safest gift this station offers most people is a friendlier relationship with the strong, hard-working back of their own thigh.
Yinmen, the Gate of Abundance, stands on the back of the thigh, partway down the straight line the bladder channel walks between the gluteal crease and the crease behind the knee. Classical practice reached for it when the low back ached or the legs felt heavy and unwilling. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it gently at home.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Yinmen without knowing anything about cun?
- Let the two creases do the measuring. Find the fold where buttock meets thigh and the crease behind the knee, then imagine the straight line joining their midpoints down the back of the thigh. Walk six of your own thumb-widths along that line from the upper end, and you arrive within a thumb-width of the recorded spot. Cun measurements are simply this landmark walk written in proportional language — your body supplies the ruler.
- Is pressing Yinmen myself actually safe?
- Gentle fingertip or palm pressure held at the surface is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, and the dataset records no specific caution for this point. The main respect owed is to the deep nerve trunks of the posterior thigh: stay superficial, press with pads rather than fingertips or tools, and treat any sharp or electric sensation as an immediate stop signal — not something to breathe through.
- What did classical practice use Yinmen for?
- The traditional record lists lower back pain, atrophy and paralysis of the lower limbs, and weak legs. The connecting logic is geographic: this station stands mid-route on the bladder channel’s long descent from back to foot, and classical practice gathered mid-route points when complaints involved the low back or the strength of the limbs. Those are traditional frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why is it called the Gate of Abundance?
- Yin 殷 carries senses of abundance, fullness, and earnest depth; men 門 is a gate. Classical writers pictured the channels as roads carrying qi and blood, and imagined the current running wide and deep through the great muscles of the posterior thigh — hence a gate named for abundance. The name records geography and imagination, not a promised effect.
- Can acupressure at Yinmen replace seeing someone about my back pain?
- No. Self-acupressure is comfort practice, not diagnosis, and back pain with red flags — leg numbness or tingling, new weakness, fever, or any change in bladder or bowel control — needs prompt professional assessment. Think of the two as different floors of one building: daily self-care lives downstairs, and the consulting rooms upstairs are for symptoms that persist, worsen, or frighten you.
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 and bladder-channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for BL37 Yinmen — location, point class, actions, and indication 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/bl37/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/bl37/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/bl37/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "BL37",
"name": {
"en": "Yinmen",
"gloss": "Gate of Abundance",
"zh-Hant": "殷門",
"zh-Hans": "殷门"
},
"channel": {
"id": "BL",
"order": 37,
"of": 67
},
"location": {
"text": "In the middle of the back of the thigh, two hand-widths (eight finger-widths) below the buttock crease."
},
"for": [
"low back ache",
"weak",
"tired legs"
],
"press": {
"text": "Firm thumb pressure, about a minute each leg.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/bl37",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}