京骨 Jinggu
“Capital Bone” · BL64
Foot Taiyang · 64 of 67 · yuan-source
Where. On the outer edge of the foot, just past the bony bump halfway along it, where the skin of the top meets the sole.
For. Headache; stiff neck; low back and leg ache.
Press. Thumb pressure, about a minute each foot.
京骨，在足外側大骨下，赤白肉際陷者中按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Jinggu Sits on the Outer Edge of the Foot
The dataset locates this point on the lateral side of the foot, below the tuberosity of the fifth metatarsal bone, at the junction of the red and white skin. Each phrase rewards a slow read. The fifth metatarsal is the long bone running along the outer border of the foot from midfoot out to the little toe, and its tuberosity is the rounded, emphatic knob near the bone’s base — usually the most prominent bump a fingertip meets anywhere along the outer edge. Below means on the soleward side of that knob, not underneath the foot as a whole: the point hugs the seam where the upper surface of the border turns toward the sole. Notice too what is absent: no cun measurements appear anywhere in the record. Location here is given entirely in landmarks, which makes it unusually friendly to self-palpation.
The junction of the red and white skin deserves its own word, because it is doing real work in the description. Run a gaze along the outer edge of your own foot and you will see two skin territories meeting: the thinner, often faintly pinker skin of the top of the foot, and the paler, tougher skin of the sole. Where they join runs a boundary line, sometimes crisp and sometimes soft, and the classical phrase simply names it. Jinggu sits on that seam directly beneath the bony knob, where fingertip finds cushion rather than bare bone. Underneath lie only skin, thin padding, and the tuberosity itself — the bone is genuinely close to the surface here, which is why the landmark announces itself so readily and why pressure should stay kind.
Neighbors confirm the placement. Toward the heel, directly below the front border of the outer ankle bone and at the lower edge of the cuboid bone, sits Jinmen (BL63); toward the toes, just behind the base of the little toe’s knuckle, sits Shugu (BL65). Jinggu holds the middle ground between them, attached to its unmistakable bump. If a search wanders, the fix is always the same: return to the knob, verify it is the largest prominence on the outer border, and settle onto the seam just below it.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit on a firm chair and rest your right ankle across the left knee, or lay the foot flat and reach down to it — whichever lets the foot go completely slack, because a tensed foot hides its own landmarks. Beginning just behind the little toe, walk your index finger slowly backward along the outer border. You will feel a narrow ridge rise and swell until, roughly halfway between toe and ankle, it lifts into a distinct rounded knob: the tuberosity of the fifth metatarsal. Park your fingertip there for a moment to memorise its shape, then slide half a thumb-width downward, onto the soleward side of the knob, and let the pad come to rest in the soft strip where top-of-foot skin gives way to sole skin. That strip, level with the underside of the bump, is the location the dataset describes.
A few quiet confirmations help before any pressing begins. Press lightly on the knob itself: hard, unyielding bone. Slide down onto the seam: the quality changes at once to thin cushioning over bone, and many people notice a faint, dull awareness at the true spot that fades a finger-width away in any direction. Check the colour boundary under decent light — the visible line where the two skins meet should pass beneath your fingertip. Compare feet; the geography mirrors faithfully, though one side may report sensation more readily than the other. If what you feel is smooth shaft with no knob nearby, you have drifted forward toward the toes; if you are in a hollowed region close to the ankle, you have drifted back. The knob anchors everything.
Two common mistakes deserve naming. The first is hunting standing up, with the foot loaded and muscles braced: the tissues flatten, the seam tightens, and even experienced hands second-guess themselves. Sit down first; the landmarks return within seconds. The second is pressing into the side face of the tuberosity rather than below it — the sensation turns sharply bony and unpleasant. The point lives on the soleward slope, in the transition strip, not against the flank of the bone. When in doubt, trace from the little toe again, unhurried, and let the bump introduce itself once more.
Reading the Name: Capital Bone
The characters sketch the site in two strokes of meaning. Jing 京 in everyday use means capital city, but in older usage the same word could also describe a great mound or high hill — something that rises conspicuously above its surroundings. Gu 骨 means bone, plainly. Read together, the name pictures a commanding mass of bone, and commentators have long understood it to name the very prominence this point rests beside: the proud tuberosity of the fifth metatarsal, rising like a small citadel along the outer border of the foot. Like the gates, valleys, courtyards, and storehouses scattered through the channel maps, the metaphor is descriptive, not decorative — the name is a locating instruction that has stayed accurate for centuries.
The dataset records Jinggu’s official standing as well: it belongs to the category of source points. Classical teaching assigns each of the twelve regular channels one such station, a place where the channel’s own qi is said to pool closest to the surface and can be engaged most directly. On the yang channels these stand as separate offices rather than doubling with other categories, and the bladder channel — a yang channel — keeps its source point here, far down the limb. There is a pleasing coherence to the choice: the bladder system belongs to the water phase in five-phase thinking, and a wellspring image suits a point imagined as the head of the channel’s own gathering waters. These are frameworks of the tradition, offered for understanding rather than asserted as physiology.
Pinyin renders the name Jīnggǔ: a first tone on jing — level and held high, like a sustained note — and a third tone on gu, the dipping tone that falls and rises again. Two characters, easy to hold in memory alongside the anatomy they encode. Find the mound of bone; find the point beneath it. Many of the oldest point names work exactly this way, compressing a location lesson into a couple of syllables, which is one reason learning even a handful of them quietly improves how a person reads the whole map.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: headache, stiff neck, lower back and leg pain, cloudy vision, and epilepsy. Framed as tradition rather than promise, classical practice traditionally reached for Jinggu when head and neck complaints tracked the bladder channel’s vast territory. That channel is drawn beginning at the inner corner of the eye, sweeping over the crown and down the entire back, then continuing behind the legs to end at the little toe — the longest course assigned to any channel. A point stationed on the foot therefore belonged to the same corridor as the crown of the head, and the old literature routinely consulted distant stations along a route for discomfort arising anywhere upon it.
Lower back and leg pain follows the same logic at greater length. Because the channel descends the whole back and the backs of both legs before arriving at the outer border of the foot, complaints spanning the low back and the leg were classically approached along the route, and a source point — where the channel’s own qi gathers — was treated as an especially direct address. Cloudy vision belongs to a different register: a traditional description of dimmed, fogged, or veiled sight, understood through the fact that the channel’s journey opens at the eye. Linking a foot-end station to a head-end function may look strange to modern eyes, but it is exactly the reasoning the channel map exists to express.
Epilepsy asks for plain speech. Old records grouped convulsive seizures under headings like this one and listed points accordingly; today a seizure disorder belongs strictly under medical care, and nothing on this page approaches it. More broadly, it bears repeating: these are traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered 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. Hold the tradition lightly, and hold the safety rules firmly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point located by the walkthrough above, settle in: seated, foot relaxed across the opposite knee or propped on a rolled towel so the outer border faces you comfortably. Rest the pad of your thumb — pads, never tips, elbows, or tools — on the seam beneath the tuberosity. Begin with simple contact for a few breaths, letting the foot grow used to being attended to. Then add small, slow circles, allowing the skin to glide over the tissue beneath rather than grinding against the bone. Aim for a pleasant dullness or mild warmth, the sort of pressure that invites the shoulders to drop rather than the jaw. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per foot, once or twice daily, finishing with the other foot so the two sides receive equal care.
Quality matters more than duration. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact fits the wellness register this page practises; force teaches the body nothing and risks bruising tissue that spends all day inside a shoe. Warm hands make gentler instruments — cold fingertips make feet flinch and guard. Choose a quiet moment rather than a screen: many people find a warm, settled time easiest to practice in, after a bath or an evening wind-down, pairing each slow exhale with a softening of pressure. Anchoring the minute or two to an existing habit — putting on socks in the morning, sitting down after dinner — serves better than willpower, because consistency is what self-care traditions actually ask for, not intensity.
Treat the exercise as a brief ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks you might notice the area feels less tender to the touch, that the foot feels more alive under your hand, or simply that you spent two minutes attending to a part of yourself that carries you everywhere. Every one of those outcomes fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a particular result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness, or set the practice down for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
An honest starting point: the licensed dataset records no special cautions for this point, which is why the caution block on this page echoes an empty list. That absence is meaningful in one direction — no specific hazard attaches to Jinggu in the record, unlike points high on the chest or neck — but it is not permission for force. Universal limits govern every point page here, and on the foot they carry extra weight, because feet bear weight all day and their tissues forgive less than their owner expects.
The practical rules are short. Gentle, surface-level pressure only: thumb pad or finger pad, nothing sharper, no devices. Skip the point over broken, blistered, callused-to-the-point-of-cracking, or visibly irritated skin, and pause the practice during feverish illness or any acute flare that leaves you unwell. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and do not try again that day. Pregnant readers, and anyone living with diabetes, neuropathy, poor circulation, or injury in the feet, should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new foot practice — small wounds and unnoticed strain matter more in those circumstances, not less. Professional techniques belong to trained hands in clinical settings; home acupressure stays on the surface, and that distinction is the whole safety story.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Seek prompt medical attention — not a pressure routine — for headaches that change character or worsen steadily, neck pain following injury, back pain accompanied by numbness, tingling, weakness in the legs, or any change in bladder or bowel control, and for disturbances of vision or any seizure. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. A knobby landmark on the outer edge of the foot offers most people a modest, kindly gift: a few minutes of attention, practiced safely.
Jinggu, the Capital Bone, waits on the outer edge of the foot beneath a knobby prominence of bone, where the long bladder channel gathers itself before running on to the little toe. Classical practice traditionally kept it close for headache, stiff neck, and aching lower back and legs. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it gently.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Jinggu without knowing anything about cun?
- You barely need measurements at all — the location is written in landmarks. Sit down, trace the outer edge of the foot backward from the little toe, and find the largest rounded bump along that border: the tuberosity of the fifth metatarsal, roughly halfway between toe and ankle. Settle your fingertip on the soleward side of that bump, in the strip where the skin of the top of the foot changes to sole skin. The dataset’s description encodes exactly that spot.
- Why does a point of the bladder channel sit on the outer edge of the foot?
- Because that is where the channel’s journey nearly ends. Classical maps draw the bladder channel starting at the inner corner of the eye, crossing the crown, descending the whole back and the backs of the legs, and finishing at the little toe. The final stretch of that long walk crosses the lateral border of the foot, and Jinggu stands along it — a late station on the body’s longest channel, just before the path steps onto the little toe.
- What did classical practice use Jinggu for?
- The traditional record lists headache, stiff neck, lower back and leg pain, cloudy vision, and epilepsy. Classical texts describe it as the source point where the bladder channel’s own qi gathers, which is why complaints along the channel’s huge head-to-foot territory dominate its historic portfolio. These are traditional frameworks documented for cultural context — not evidence-backed treatment claims, and seizures in particular belong solely in medical hands today.
- What does it mean that Jinggu is a source point?
- In classical teaching, each of the twelve regular channels carries one designated station called its source point, where the channel’s own qi is said to pool closest to the surface. The metaphor is of a wellhead on a river — the same water, met closer to its origin. It is a way the tradition marks certain points as conceptually central to their channel; it is not a claim about measurable physiology, and this page treats it as the framework of ideas it is.
- Is pressing Jinggu safe, and when should I skip it?
- Light fingertip or thumb-pad pressure at the surface is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, and the licensed record notes no special caution for this point. Skip it over broken or irritated skin, during feverish illness, and whenever anything feels sharp or radiating — that means stop for the day. If you are pregnant, or live with diabetes, neuropathy, or circulation problems in the feet, ask a qualified practitioner first. Persistent symptoms always belong with a clinician, never with a pressure routine.
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 source-point theory.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for BL64 Jinggu — 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/bl64/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/bl64/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/bl64/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "BL64",
"name": {
"en": "Jinggu",
"gloss": "Capital Bone",
"zh-Hant": "京骨",
"zh-Hans": "京骨"
},
"channel": {
"id": "BL",
"order": 64,
"of": 67
},
"location": {
"text": "On the outer edge of the foot, just past the bony bump halfway along it, where the skin of the top meets the sole."
},
"for": [
"headache",
"stiff neck",
"low back and leg ache"
],
"press": {
"text": "Thumb pressure, about a minute each foot.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/bl64",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}