Tinghui and Yifeng
Star聽會、翳風 (Tīnghuì, Yìfēng)
Modern Chinese point-pair (对穴) teaching, as compiled by Guo Changqing and colleagues at the School of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.
Points
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Opens the ear from the front; the Gallbladder channel's point for hearing.
Patient seated with the mouth open. The point is in front of the intertragic notch, in the hollow that appears behind the condyloid process of the mandible when the jaw drops. Insert perpendicularly, 0.5–1.0 cun, with the mouth held open; the needle passes the subcutaneous tissue and lies near the parotid gland. Seek a local ache with numbness.
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Triple Energiser–Gallbladder meeting point behind the ear; expels wind and opens the ear from behind.
Patient seated. Fold or press the earlobe back against the head: the point is in the hollow it covers, between the mastoid process and the angle of the mandible. Insert perpendicularly, 0.8–1.2 cun, through the skin and subcutaneous fascia and the fascia over the parotid, into the part of the parotid that lies behind the mandible. The ache and numbness should spread forward into the face and the front of the tongue.
Treatment Principle
Benefit the ears, free the flow in the channel and calm the spirit.
Indications
Method
Needle both points perpendicularly with the patient seated, Tinghui with the mouth open. Tinghui gives a local ache and numbness; at Yifeng the sensation should travel forward to the face and tongue.
⚠ Cautions
Yifeng is a sensitive point: insert gently, and do not drive the needle deep toward the base of the skull. The facial nerve emerges beneath this area, so avoid heavy manipulation.
About
A front-and-back pairing around the ear: one point in the hollow before the tragus, the other in the hollow behind the lobe. It is the source's basic combination for ringing in the ears and loss of hearing, and it also treats facial deviation, headache and dizziness.
Rationale
The Triple Energiser and Gallbladder channels both circle the ear, and each sends a branch into it; Yifeng is a meeting point of the two. Needling one point in front of the ear and one behind it brackets the organ between two channels that serve it. Both points lie over the path of the facial nerve, which is why the pair is also used for deviation of the eye and mouth.
Clinical Notes
The source's depth for Yifeng (0.8–1.2 cun) is deeper than the 0.5–1.0 cun in our point record; it falls within the range given in Chinese textbooks, but in a slight patient or on a first treatment the shallower range is prudent.
Sources
- Guo Changqing (ed.). Acupuncture of Acupoint Combinations: Quick Lookups. Daylesford: Heart Space Publications, 2020 (English edition; © China Science and Technology Press). ISBN 978-0-6489215-5-4. Chapter 2, combination 3.
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