維道 Weidao
“The Binding Way” · GB28
Foot Shaoyang · 28 of 44 · crossing-point
Where. Half a thumb-width forward and down from GB27, below the bony front tip of the hip.
For. Irregular periods; low belly pain; hip and back pain.
Press. Gentle fingertip pressure, about a minute each side.
維道，一名外樞，在章門下五寸三分按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Weidao Sits on the Lower Flank
The dataset places Weidao on the lateral abdomen, anteroinferior to the anterior superior iliac spine, and half a cun anteroinferior to Wushu (GB27). Each clause earns its unpacking. A cun is the traditional proportional unit of Chinese point-location, taken from the person being examined rather than from any ruler — the width of your own thumb at its knuckle is the everyday approximation, so half a cun comes to roughly half a thumb-width. Anteroinferior names two directions at once: forward, toward the front of the body, and downward, toward the thigh. The anterior superior iliac spine is the knuckle-like prominence you can feel at the very front of the hip bone, the end of the firm crest that arches around the waist. Put together, the address reads: stand on the soft side-wall of the lower abdomen just ahead of that bony point, then step half a thumb-width forward and down.
The reference point helps fix the height. Wushu’s own record places it anterior to the anterior superior iliac spine, level with a point three cun below the navel — a proportional measure that sets the whole neighbourhood well below the waistline, in the shallow basin where the abdomen begins its turn toward the groin. Weidao then sits a half-step further along that slope, closer to the crease where the leg meets the trunk. What lies beneath the fingertips here is generous compared with the thinly covered chest wall higher up the channel: skin and a cushioning layer, then the layered sheets of muscle that build the abdominal wall, all near the solid frame of the pelvis. Nothing delicate rides close beneath the surface at this address — a fact that shapes much of what the safety section later says.
Orientation helps before fingers start moving. Both sides carry the point, mirror twins facing opposite ways, and comparing them as you explore teaches the local terrain faster than any description could. The bony prominence at the front of the hip is the anchor for the entire search: find it first and every other instruction becomes a short walk from home. Level is a hint rather than a law, because body shape and posture shift how the landmarks read from person to person — but the sequence of bony point, soft wall, half-step forward and down holds steady across most bodies.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Stand naturally, or sit upright on a firm chair with feet down and the belly easy — do not suck the stomach in, because tension flattens the very landscape being searched. Rest the flat hand on the side of the waist and slide it down and forward along the firm rim of the hip bone until the bone ends at a distinct, knuckle-like prominence at the front: the anterior superior iliac spine. From that bony point, let the fingertips move inward onto the soft abdominal wall directly ahead of it — this shelf of softness in front of the bone is Wushu’s doorstep. Now walk the pads about half a thumb-width further forward and down, following the gentle slope toward the groin fold, and settle them where the wall still feels clearly like flank rather than groin. Repeat the whole search on the other side with hands swapped.
Two light confirmations help before anything more happens. First, touch feather-light and compare sides: many people notice a faint, dull awareness right at the settled spot and almost nothing a finger-width away, though responses vary person to person. Second, breathe slowly and let the abdominal wall rise under patient fingertips — unlike the rigid ribs higher up the torso, the soft wall here moves noticeably with the breath, and that mobility confirms you are resting on relaxed tissue rather than braced muscle. If the fingers have found bare bone instead, they have drifted back onto the hip’s rim; slide inward and forward onto the soft slope and search again.
Failed searches stumble in familiar ways. Stopping on the bony prominence itself leaves you a thumb-width shy of the mark — the point lives on soft wall, never on bone. Sliding too far arrives at the groin crease and the corridor where the pulse of the thigh runs, which belongs to a different geography altogether; come back up the slope. Searching with a clenched abdomen hides everything; exhale fully and let the belly soften first. When in doubt, return to the bony point at the front of the hip and repeat the little journey slowly — soft wall ahead, then half a step down the slope.
Reading the Name: The Binding Way
Wei 維 carries the sense of a rope or cord that ties things together — to fasten, to link, to hold in relationship — and in older usage named the great cords used for binding and lifting. Dao 道 is road, course, way. Read together, as generations of commentators have read them, Weidao speaks of a tethered path: a road kept in order by a binding. That image lands precisely because of where the point stands. Classical descriptions group the three neighbouring flank points — Daimai, whose own record anchors it just below the free end of the eleventh rib level with the navel, then Wushu, then Weidao — as places where the gallbladder channel crosses the Dai Mai, the extraordinary vessel pictured as a belt circling the waist and holding the vertically running channels in place, the way a soldier’s belt gathers a robe.
Position in the channel adds a second layer. Weidao is the twenty-eighth of the forty-four points the registry assigns to the gallbladder channel, a line classical descriptions send zigzagging down the side of the head, then along the side of the trunk — through exactly this lower-flank territory — toward the hip, down the leg, ending at the fourth toe. At this address the descending channel meets the encircling belt: a crossing of roads, one running vertically and one horizontally, and a name about tying makes immediate sense of it. The classical frame drew its own conclusions from the meeting: whatever gathered or sagged in the basin below was read against the belt’s duty of holding things up and together.
Pinyin renders the name Wéidào: wei rises on the second tone, dao falls decisively on the fourth. The hanzi pair is spare enough to memorise at a glance, and — like many of the best point names — quietly functional. Before any theory begins, the name already reports what the tradition saw here: a junction where a running channel is caught and bound to a circling belt. Read the name, rest a hand on the lower flank, and old word and living body confirm each other.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: irregular menstruation, vaginal discharge, uterine prolapse, lower abdominal pain, lumbar and hip pain, and hernia. Framed as tradition rather than promise, the first three form the cluster classical practice gathered under women’s health. Irregular menstruation covered cycles arriving early, late, painfully, or unpredictably. Vaginal discharge — dai xia in the classical vocabulary, literally that which flows beneath the belt — grouped a family of flow complaints the old books classified by colour and character. Uterine prolapse the records described in the vocabulary of sinking and descent: something meant to be held up failing to be held — which is exactly why a point named for binding, standing on the belt vessel itself, belonged in that discussion.
The remaining entries follow the logic of the map. Lower abdominal pain sits directly inland of this address, inside the basin the flank walls in. Lumbar and hip pain reaches around to the back and side of the pelvis — the channel runs past here on its descent toward hip and leg, so discomfort along that stretch was approached at points along the route. Hernia, in the old records, described certain bulging or bearing-down complaints of the groin and lower abdomen — a family of presentations the tradition connected with a failure of containment, and therefore with the belt’s office. None of this is physiology as modern readers meet it; it is the tradition’s own coherent geography of complaint, recorded here to explain why the old books grouped what they grouped.
It bears repeating plainly: these are the 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, and nothing here replaces assessment by a qualified clinician — least of all for matters of the menstrual cycle and pelvis, which deserve prompt, proper examination whenever they misbehave. 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; hold the safety rules firmly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point located by the walkthrough above, settle in: seated or reclined, clothing loose, belly unclenched. Curl the index and middle fingers together and lay the pads — not the tips — on the spot. Begin with contact alone for a few slow breaths, then add small, unhurried circles, letting the skin glide over the layer beneath rather than dragging across it. 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 so each circle rides the breath out. Swap hands and repeat on the other side, keeping the two sessions symmetrical.
Quality matters more than duration. Light, patient, regularly repeated contact fits the wellness register this page practises; hard jabbing teaches the body nothing and serves no tradition worth following. Warm cold hands before starting, because chilled muscle guards. Choose a quiet corner over a screen — the practice doubles as a standing pause in the day: inhale through the nose, feel the lower flank rise under still fingertips, press gently on the long exhale. People who keep a routine often anchor it to an existing habit, morning or evening, because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for.
Treat the exercise as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Notice what changes across weeks: perhaps the area feels less guarded, perhaps the days feel fractionally steadier, perhaps nothing shifts except that you spend those minutes attending to your own body. Every one of those outcomes fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — harder, longer, deeper, to force a result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness or simply stop for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
Here this guide gets to deliver an unusual message: the licensed record carries no cautions for Weidao. The dataset’s safety column stands empty — no warning about depth, no special instruction — and the geography explains why. Higher up the channel, the chest-wall points live behind thin walls beside delicate neighbours, which is why their records speak warnings; here on the lower flank, the point lies over a thickly layered abdominal wall with the solid pelvis nearby, far from lungs and major organs. An empty caution column is not an invitation to force, mind — it simply means the tradition recorded nothing specific to guard against, and ordinary care still governs everything done at the body’s surface.
For fingertip acupressure the practical rules stay familiar. Keep pressure light enough that it always feels like comfort rather than contest. Use finger pads only; no elbows, knuckles, or tools. Skip the point entirely over broken, irritated, or infected skin, during a feverish illness, and while any acute abdominal complaint is actively flaring; hold off after recent lower-abdominal or hip surgery until a clinician clears ordinary activity. Pregnant readers should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice, and anyone managing a diagnosed gynecological or pelvic condition does well to ask their treating clinician before beginning. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and do not try again that day.
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 sudden severe abdominal or pelvic pain, heavy or unusual bleeding, discharge that changes abruptly or arrives with fever, a new lump in the groin, or any symptom that frightens you. Persistent menstrual, pelvic, or lower-back symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, Western or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. The belt imagery is tidy, but the safest gift Weidao offers most people is a calmer acquaintance with their own lower flank, touched lightly and left alone whenever in doubt.
Weidao — a name commentators read as the Binding Way — sits low on the side of the body, where the flank slopes away toward the front of the hip. Classical records reached for it around irregular cycles, vaginal discharge, and bearing-down complaints, and for aches where the waist meets the hip. This guide covers finding it by touch and pressing it gently at home.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Weidao without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the hip bone as the whole map. Slide your hand down the side of your waist along the firm rim of the pelvis until the bone ends in a knuckle-like prominence at the front of the hip. Move onto the soft abdominal wall directly ahead of that point, then walk about half a thumb-width further forward and down the slope toward the groin fold. That settled spot on the soft flank is the location the dataset describes. Cun measurements encode the same landmark walk in proportional language.
- Is pressing Weidao myself actually safe?
- Gentle fingertip pressure on the surface is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, and this point carries no recorded cautions in the licensed dataset — its neighbourhood is padded muscle and bone rather than the thin-walled chest higher up the channel. Reasonable still has edges: no tools, no digging pressure, nothing over broken skin, and an immediate stop if anything sharp or electric appears. When in doubt, lighten the touch or leave the point for another day.
- What did classical practice use Weidao for?
- The traditional record lists irregular menstruation, vaginal discharge, uterine prolapse, lower abdominal pain, lumbar and hip pain, and hernia. Classical texts group the point with its two flank neighbours as crossings of the Dai Mai — the belt-like vessel pictured circling the waist — which is why complaints of gathering, sinking, and unruly flow dominate its historic portfolio. Those are traditional frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does a gallbladder-channel point concern itself with women’s cycles?
- Because of the crossing. Classical theory sends the gallbladder channel down the side of the trunk straight through this flank territory, and describes the Dai Mai encircling the waist there like a belt, meeting the channel at these three lower flank points. In the traditional frame the belt’s duty was holding things in place, so the old books consulted its stations for complaints of sinking, bearing down, and disordered flow. It is map logic of its own kind — coherent inside the tradition, offered here as context rather than claim.
- When should I skip this point entirely?
- Conservatively and often: over broken, irritated, or infected skin; during feverish illness; while any acute abdominal complaint is flaring; after recent lower-abdominal or hip surgery, until a clinician clears normal activity; and during pregnancy unless a qualified practitioner has advised otherwise. Menstrual, pelvic, or abdominal symptoms that persist, worsen, or frighten you belong with medical assessment first — self-acupressure accompanies good care; it never substitutes for it.
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, belt-vessel crossing lore, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for GB28 Weidao — 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/gb28/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/gb28/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/gb28/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "GB28",
"name": {
"en": "Weidao",
"gloss": "The Binding Way",
"zh-Hant": "維道",
"zh-Hans": "维道"
},
"channel": {
"id": "GB",
"order": 28,
"of": 44
},
"location": {
"text": "Half a thumb-width forward and down from GB27, below the bony front tip of the hip."
},
"for": [
"irregular periods",
"low belly pain",
"hip and back pain"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle fingertip pressure, about a minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/gb28",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}