Kidney Channel
Returning Current
复溜FùliūAnatomical location
2 cun above KI3, on the anterior border of the Achilles tendon, in the depression between the tibia and the soleus muscle.
Main function
Tonifies Kidney Yin, regulates fluid metabolism, strengthens the lumbar region, consolidates the Wei Qi (Defensive Qi), and harmonizes the Lower Jiao.
- Jing-River point (Metal)
- Tonification Point
Therapeutic indications
- Edema
- spontaneous sweating
- low back pain
- knee weakness
- enuresis
- dysuria
- dysmenorrhea
- insomnia
- tinnitus
- night sweats
- absence of sweating
- diarrhea
- borborygmi
- lumbago
- leg atrophy
- abdominal distension
Ryodoraku
- Tonification of Kidney
Name and classical tradition
Fuliu, 复溜, means “the returning flow.” 复 (復) is to return, to repeat; 溜 is to flow. The usual reading ties it to the sequence of the Five Shu points: the Qi, which had pooled at KI3, Taixi, runs on again here. The Lingshu (Spiritual Pivot), in the chapter Ben Shu (本輸), describes it with a phrase that fits that idea: “行於復溜，復溜，上內踝二寸，動而不休，為經”. The Qi travels through Fuliu, two cun above the medial malleolus; it moves without rest; it is the Jing-River point (經穴). On the Yin channels, the Jing-River point corresponds to Metal.
The reference works give it several alternative names: 昌陽, “flourishing Yang,” and 伏白, “hidden white.” A third, transcribed 外命, may be a truncated form and could not be confirmed.
The Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) counts it among the points where you should not draw much blood when needling: “複留刺無多見血”.
