The exhausted bone · qiong gu

Also rendered: The exhausted bone (keeps the graph) · The sacrum (exact, and it is the chapter's own gloss) · The tail bone (plain, and it is too low)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-10-25

At a glance

Pinyin: qióng gǔ
Simplified: 穷骨
Literal: 窮 qióng — exhausted, at the end; 骨 gǔ — bone. The bone at the end of the spine, and the chapter glosses it in the same breath.
Shuowen: 《說文》：窮，極也。骨，肉之覈也。「窮骨」本篇2見，一用一釋，釋作骶骨。

In brief

The bone at the lower end of the spine, which the chapter itself glosses as the sacral bone. It comes at the close of the treatment for the falling disease: the physician keeps company with the patient, watches where the seizure will take hold, bleeds the full place and keeps the blood in a gourd; when the fit comes the blood stirs, and if it does not stir the sacrum is cauterised twenty壮. The gloss is the earliest plain equation of 窮骨 with 骶骨, and it is why the entry matters: the book stops to define its own anatomical word.

Senses in the classical corpus

The point named 灸窮骨二十壯

灸穷骨二十壮

Cauterise the exhausted bone twenty壮.

灸窮骨二十壯 — 靈樞·癲狂

The gloss 窮骨者，骶骨也

穷骨就是骶骨

The exhausted bone is the sacral bone.

窮骨者，骶骨也 — 靈樞·癲狂

Its use here 不動，灸窮骨二十壯

血不动，就灸穷骨二十壮

If it does not move, cauterise the sacrum twenty壮.

不動，灸窮骨二十壯 — 靈樞·癲狂

Occurrences in the classics

Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.

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1 passages

靈樞·癲狂 Read in context →

治癲疾者，常與之居，祭其所當取之處，病至，視之有過者寫之，置其血于瓠壺之中，至其發時，血獨動矣；不動，灸窮骨二十壯。窮骨者，骶骨也。治癫疾者，常与之居，祭其所当取之处，病至，视之有过者写之，置其血于瓠壶之中，至其发时，血独动矣；不动，灸穷骨二十壮。穷骨者，骶骨也。

zhì diān jí zhě, cháng yǔ zhī jū, jì qí suǒ dāng qǔ zhī chù, bìng zhì, shì zhī yǒu guò zhě xiè zhī, zhì qí xuè yú hù hú zhī zhōng, zhì qí fā shí, xuè dú dòng yǐ; bù dòng, jiǔ qióng gǔ èr shí zhuàng. qióng gǔ zhě, dǐ gǔ yě.

In treating seizure disease, stay with the patient and watch for the place that should be taken. When an attack comes, drain whatever is excessive. Put the blood drawn into a gourd vessel: at the time of the next attack the blood will stir of itself. If it does not stir, cauterise the exhausted bone twenty times. The exhausted bone is the sacrum.

「窮骨」本篇2見，句末即以骶骨自釋，為全書最直之解剖訓詁。

Compounds built on this term

骶骨

dǐ gǔ

the sacral bone

窮骨之釋

灸窮骨二十壯

jiǔ qióng gǔ èr shí zhuàng

cauterise the sacrum twenty壮

癲疾之灸

How it has been translated

Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.

This site	the sacrum	the gloss the chapter itself gives
Literal	the exhausted bone	exact, and it needs the gloss
Anatomical	the sacral bone	clear, and it is an identification

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-25

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