It is the longest channel on the syllabus. Study it in stretches: head, back, leg. Not all at once.
The study pathway
It starts at BL1, at the inner corner of the eye. It rises over the forehead and vertex, descends the neck and splits into two lines on the back: a more medial one, where the shu points sit, and a more lateral one. It continues over the sacrum, the back of the thigh, the popliteal fossa (BL40), the calf, BL60 behind the lateral malleolus, and ends at BL67, at the lateral nail corner of the little toe.
Three points so you do not get lost
BL23 in the lumbar region, associated in study with the kidney. BL40 at the centre of the popliteal crease. BL60 behind the lateral malleolus. With those three the channel stops being a list of 67.
Water and its pair
Bladder is water, paired with kidney, and on the clock it occupies 15–17. The back-shu points live on this channel. That family is studied here, not on a channel of the front of the leg.
Bladder sheetBL23BL40BL60Back region
Questions
- How many bladder points are there?
- 67 on the classical classroom channel. The meridian sheet lists them; you do not copy them all on day one.
- Is BL40 a knee point?
- It sits in the popliteal crease, behind the knee. It is studied as a channel point, not as a rehabilitation exercise.
Study reference within traditional Shiatsu/TCM frameworks. Does not diagnose or treat.