The lungs lie beneath: gentle pressure only, never hard or sharp.
附分 Fufen
“The Attached Branch” · BL41
Foot Taiyang · 41 of 67 · crossing-point
Where. Below the second bump under the neck bone (C7), four finger-widths from the spine, at the inner edge of the shoulder blade.
For. Stiff neck; tight shoulders and upper back; a numb arm.
Press. Ask a partner to press gently with a thumb, about a minute each side.
Caution. The lungs lie beneath: gentle pressure only, never hard or sharp.
附分，在第二椎下，附項內廉，兩傍各三寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Fufen Stands on the Upper Back
The dataset locates Fufen precisely: on the back, below the spinous process of the second thoracic vertebra, 3 cun lateral to the posterior midline, at the medial border of the scapula. Unpacked for hands rather than rulers: the centre seam of the back carries a chain of small knuckle-like ridges — those are spinous processes, the rearward tips of the vertebrae stacked into the spinal column. Below the starting knob at the base of the neck rise the ridges of the twelve thoracic vertebrae, and this point waits beside the second of them. A cun, as elsewhere on this site, is the traditional proportional measure taken from the person being examined rather than from a ruler; three cun is customarily taken as the combined breadth of the four fingers held together side by side. The point exists twice, mirrored on both sides of the spine.
The setting rewards a slow look. Between the spine’s central seam and the shoulder blade runs a soft valley of muscle, and the medial border of the scapula — the long inner edge of the shoulder blade, the side nearest the spine — traces that valley’s outer wall. Fufen stands right along this border, so the landmark you count toward and the landmark you touch agree. It matters, quietly, what lies beneath: the upper back is thin country, ribs curving beneath the muscles and the lung riding high behind them. Everything about working here argues for gentleness.
The neighbourhood explains the point’s role. At the very same vertebral level, one and a half cun from the midline — half the distance — stands Fengmen (BL12) on the bladder channel’s inner line. Classical cartography draws the bladder meridian as the longest pathway in the body, sixty-seven stations strong, beginning at the inner corner of the eye, sweeping over the head, and descending the whole back to the little toe. Down the spine it travels as two paired vertical routes: an inner line one and a half cun from the midline, and an outer line three cun out. Fufen is where the outer line makes its first appearance — the attached branch setting out alongside the older road.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit or stand tall and let the shoulders soften. Find the base of the neck first: there a prominent knob at the junction of neck and shoulder glides under your fingertips when you turn your head. Below that starting post rise the ridges of the twelve thoracic vertebrae. Walk straight down the centre seam, count past the first ridge, and settle into the soft step beneath the second. From there step outward the width of four fingers held together — three cun — and your fingertips arrive at the inner border of the shoulder blade, where Fufen waits on both sides of the spine at once.
A few confirmations help before any pressing begins. With the arms hanging relaxed, trace the inner edge of one shoulder blade upward with the other hand; the border is easy to follow, and the point sits along it, level with the ridge you counted. Touch feather-light and compare sides: many people notice a faint, dull awareness at the true spot and little sensation a finger-width away. Let a slow breath move under your fingers and feel the back widen slightly. If you land on bare rib or on the flat of the blade itself, ease inward half a finger-width and search again.
The classic mistakes are worth naming. The first is stopping too soon, halfway out, on the inner line — that is Fengmen’s territory, and it means repeating the outward measurement at its full three-cun span. The second is wandering outward onto the flat surface of the shoulder blade; the dataset ties the point to the blade’s medial border, its innermost strip, not its face. The third is miscounting among the ridges: some backs offer two knobs at the neck’s root, so trust the one that moves when the head turns. Whenever doubt arises, return to the neck and count once more, slowly.
Reading the Name: the Attached Branch
The characters tell the story plainly. Fu 附 means to attach, adhere, or lie close beside; fen 分 means to divide, or a part sent forth from a whole. Read together, Fufen is the attached branch — a limb of the main way lying close alongside it. Few names fit their geography so neatly: on the upper back the bladder channel’s single road divides into twin routes, and this station guards the very top of the newer, outer branch, attached close to the parent line it accompanies down the spine.
Pinyin writes the name fùfēn. Fu carries the fourth tone, a falling note that lands like a settled decision; fen carries the first tone, high and held steady, the flattest and brightest of the tones. Both syllables are short enough to memorise at a glance, and like many points named for roads, gates, valleys and courtyards, the image does real work: it tells you this is a place where a route puts out a companion line.
One more title belongs to the story. The dataset files Fufen under the category of crossing-points — stations that classical teaching describes as meeting grounds where two channels exchange their courses. Classical texts commonly pair this particular crossing with the small intestine channel, whose pathway climbs from the little finger, up the arm, and onward toward the face, passing through exactly the shoulder-blade country this point overlooks. Meeting imagery suits a point whose recorded concerns gather at the junction of neck, shoulder, and arm: where roads cross, tradition reasoned, travellers and their burdens pass from one route to another.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: stiff pain of the neck and nape, contracture of the shoulder and back, numbness of the elbow and arm, inability to raise the arm, and cough. Framed as tradition rather than promise, these are vivid categories. Neck and nape covers the stiffness that follows long hours of holding the head forward — the whole back of the neck drawn taut. Contracture is the old word for a muscle-drawn-tight quality, a pulling, binding tension rather than a torn or injured structure. Numbness in the classical vocabulary describes sensation gone dim and distant, as though the limb were wrapped in cloth.
Why these complaints, at this address? The channel map supplies the traditional logic. An outer line that flanks the whole back passes directly beside the shoulder girdle, and the neck and nape rise just above; classical practice approached stiffness along a channel by reaching for stations along its course. The arm complaints travel the same reasoning by way of the crossing: where two pathways meet, movement and feeling along either road belonged to one shared discussion. And cough enters the record because the upper back stands behind the lung’s own territory — one ridge below, on the inner line, rises Feishu (BL13), the transport station assigned to the lung.
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. 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. One practical note belongs here rather than in the safety section: numbness that is new, persistent, spreading, or joined by weakness deserves professional assessment promptly — that holds true whatever self-care may follow.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point found, settle in: seated, spine tall but unforced, shoulders heavy, head level — resist the habit of craning toward a screen, which tightens the very muscles this point watches over. Rest the pads of the index and middle fingers — never the tips — on the spot and begin with contact alone for a few breaths. Then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue beneath rather than grinding against the ribs. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharpness. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, matched where possible to slow exhales; then swap hands and repeat on the other side, keeping the two sessions symmetrical.
Quality matters more than duration. Warm cold hands first, because chilled muscle guards. Choose a quiet corner over a screen, and treat the practice as a pause rather than a chore: inhale through the nose, feel the upper back broaden under still fingers, press gently on the long exhale. People who keep a routine often anchor it to an existing habit — morning washing, an afternoon stretch — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for. On days when the neck already feels tight, go lighter and slower than usual, not harder.
Treat the exercise as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks, notice what changes: perhaps the shoulders ride less high by late afternoon, perhaps the neck turns a little more freely, perhaps nothing shifts except that you spend a few unhurried minutes attending to your own upper back every day. Every one of those outcomes fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — pressing deeper, longer, or harder to force a result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness or simply stop for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This point earns more respect than most, and the licensed record says why. The dataset cautions that Fufen must not be worked deeply — treatment reaching too far beneath the skin at this site may injure the lung — the same family of warning its upper-back neighbours carry. The geography is plain: the upper back is a thin wall, only muscle and ribs between the skin and lung tissue that rides highest in this region. Professional training manages that risk with exact technique; home self-care manages it differently and far more safely — by never leaving the surface at all.
For fingertip acupressure the rules follow simply. Keep all pressure light and strictly superficial; the intention stays in skin and superficial muscle, never driving inward toward the ribs. Use finger pads, never elbows, knuckles, or tools. Never press through pain, while holding the breath, or over broken or irritated skin. Skip the point during a feverish illness or any acute flare of symptoms, and after recent chest or upper-back injury or surgery until a clinician clears ordinary activity. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and do not try again that day. Pregnant readers, and anyone living with chronic illness, should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Seek prompt medical care — not a pressure routine — for numbness or weakness that is new, persistent, or spreading; for a stiff neck that follows an injury or arrives with fever and severe headache; for breathlessness, chest pain, or any symptom that frightens you. Persistent complaints belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as suits the problem. The branching-road imagery is elegant, but the safest thing Fufen offers most people is a kinder acquaintance with their own upper back.
Fufen, the Attached Branch, opens the bladder channel’s outer back line, level with the second thoracic vertebra at the shoulder blade’s inner border. Classical practice reached for it when the neck and nape grew rigid, the shoulder and back drew tight, or the arm hung heavy and numb. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it gently.
Cautions from the classical sources
- Keep insertion shallow; going too deep can puncture the lung.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Fufen without knowing anything about cun?
- Let two landmarks confirm each other. Count down the centre of the back from the moving knob at the base of the neck, settle beneath the second ridge, then measure outward the width of four fingers held together. Independently, relax your arms and trace the inner border of the shoulder blade upward — the point sits along that edge, level with the ridge you counted. If both agree, you are there; if not, return to the neck and count again slowly.
- Is pressing Fufen myself actually safe?
- Gentle fingertip pressure held on the surface is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, because it engages skin and superficial muscle far short of the structures beneath the ribs. The recorded danger concerns deep professional techniques that could reach the lung — a category home acupressure never approaches. Respect the stop signals: sharp pain, electric or radiating sensation, or discomfort that worsens all mean finish immediately and leave the area alone for the day.
- What did classical practice use Fufen for?
- The traditional record lists stiff pain of the neck and nape, contracture of the shoulder and back, numbness of the elbow and arm, inability to raise the arm, and cough. Classical texts describe it as the opening station of the channel’s outer back line and as a crossing-place shared with the small intestine channel, which suits its historic focus on neck, shoulder, and arm stiffness. Those are traditional frameworks for understanding the body — documented for context, not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does the bladder channel have two lines on the back?
- Classical cartography gives the bladder meridian the longest journey in the body, from the inner corner of the eye over the head and down the whole back to the little toe. Along the spine it splits into paired vertical routes — an inner line one and a half cun from the midline carrying the organs’ transport stations, and an outer line three cun out travelling alongside it. Fufen stands at the head of that outer line, the branch attaching to run parallel down the back.
- My arm has been going numb — should acupressure be my first step?
- No. New, persistent, or worsening numbness deserves professional assessment first, so that anything needing proper care is identified early. Think of the order this way: causes clarified upstairs in the consulting room, daily comfort practice downstairs afterward if appropriate. Self-acupressure works best as a complement once serious causes are ruled out — never as a substitute for finding out why the symptom is there.
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, crossing-point theory, and bladder-channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for BL41 Fufen — location, point class, actions, and caution 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/bl41/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/bl41/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/bl41/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "BL41",
"name": {
"en": "Fufen",
"gloss": "The Attached Branch",
"zh-Hant": "附分",
"zh-Hans": "附分"
},
"channel": {
"id": "BL",
"order": 41,
"of": 67
},
"location": {
"text": "Below the second bump under the neck bone (C7), four finger-widths from the spine, at the inner edge of the shoulder blade."
},
"for": [
"stiff neck",
"tight shoulders and upper back",
"a numb arm"
],
"press": {
"text": "Ask a partner to press gently with a thumb, about a minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [
"The lungs lie beneath: gentle pressure only, never hard or sharp."
],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/bl41",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}