What do Chinese children know about facial massages?
The facial pressure points Chinese children learn without realising it: where each sits on your own face, how hard to press, and what the evidence really says.
Chinese culture
The points used in everyday Chinese facial massage are a short list, and almost all of them sit around the eyes and the jaw. The six worth learning are 睛明 (jīng míng) in the dip at the inner corner of the eye, 攒竹 (cuán zhú) at the notch under the inner end of the brow, 太阳 (tài yáng) in the hollow of the temple, 四白 (sì bái) on the cheekbone below the pupil, 迎香 (yíng xiāng) in the groove beside the nostril, and 下关 (xià guān) at the hinge of the jaw in front of the ear. Each takes light, steady pressure held for roughly ten to twenty seconds, and the whole circuit is done in about three minutes.
I learned these the way most Chinese children do, which is to say nobody ever taught them to me as a system. At school we did 眼保健操, the eye exercises, twice a day to a recording piped through the classroom speakers. It took moving to Germany and being asked what on earth I was doing for me to find out that the spots I had been pressing since I was six all had names, and rather good ones.
So here they are properly: where each point sits, in language you can follow on your own face, what it is traditionally used for, how hard to press, and how long to hold. And then the part most pages leave out, which is what the evidence actually says about whether the specific point matters at all.
What are facial pressure points, actually?
They are named locations from Chinese medicine, each with a Chinese name, a translated name, and a code such as BL-1 or ST-2. On the face they nearly all sit on something you can physically feel: a notch in the brow bone, a dip in the cheekbone, the hollow at the temple, the hinge of the jaw. You do not have to accept any theory about meridians to use them as a map of where to put your fingers.
The naming is far less mysterious than it looks once you see the pattern. Every point belongs to a channel, the channel gets a two-letter code, and the point gets a number along it. 睛明 is the first point of the bladder channel, so BL-1. 四白 is the second point of the stomach channel, so ST-2. A handful sit outside the channel system altogether and are labelled EX, which is where 太阳 lives. The positions are not folklore left to individual interpretation either: the World Health Organization published a standard for the location of 361 acupuncture points in 2008, precisely because practitioners had been placing them differently enough to make research difficult.
Where are the main facial pressure points, and what is each one for?
Six points cover almost everything people use facial massage for: 睛明 at the inner corner of the eye, 攒竹 under the inner end of the brow, 太阳 at the temple, 四白 on the cheekbone below the pupil, 迎香 beside the nostril, and 下关 at the jaw hinge. Traditionally they group as the eye points, the nose point, and the jaw points. All of them are pressed and held rather than rubbed.
| Point | Where it sits | Traditionally used for | How to press |
|---|---|---|---|
| 睛明 jīng míng (BL-1), bright eyes | The small dip at the inner corner of the eye, where the bridge of the nose meets the eye socket. Your ring finger falls into it by itself. | Tired, strained eyes. The first place most Chinese households go at the end of a long day. | Ring finger, pressing gently in towards the bone rather than towards the eye. Hold for five slow breaths, about fifteen seconds. |
| 攒竹 cuán zhú (BL-2), gathered bamboo | The notch you can feel on the underside of the brow bone at the inner end of the eyebrow, roughly a thumb-width out from 睛明. | A heavy brow, and the tightness that builds from frowning at a screen. | Hook both thumb pads up under the brow bone and let the weight of your head rest on them. Ten seconds, three times. |
| 鱼腰 yú yāo (EX-HN4), fish waist | The middle of the eyebrow, directly above the pupil, sitting on the brow bone. | The middle of the brow line. Worked as part of the same sweep as 攒竹 rather than on its own. | Same thumb position, sliding outward along the brow. Two or three passes rather than a long hold. |
| 太阳 tài yáng (EX-HN5), the temple | The soft hollow about a thumb-width behind the midpoint between the outer end of your brow and the outer corner of your eye. | Heaviness behind the eyes after a long day of screens. Probably the most used point in Chinese daily life. | Two fingertips, small slow circles, twenty to thirty seconds a side. The one point that is circled rather than held. |
| 四白 sì bái (ST-2), four whites | A finger-width below the lower rim of the eye socket, in line with the pupil, in a small dip in the cheekbone. | The under-eye area, and the puffiness that settles there overnight. | Ring finger, very light, straight in, fifteen seconds. If it feels sharp you are pressing too hard, not in the wrong place. |
| 迎香 yíng xiāng (LI-20), welcome fragrance | In the groove beside the nostril, level with its widest point, where the nose meets the cheek. | The nose, which is what its name refers to. A traditional association, and not a treatment for anything. | Index fingers, light pressure angled slightly inward, ten to fifteen seconds. Small circles if holding feels odd. |
| 下关 xià guān (ST-7), below the joint | Just in front of the ear, under the cheekbone. Open and close your mouth and feel for the hollow that appears as your jaw drops. | Jaw tension, and the ache that follows a night of clenching. | Press with your mouth relaxed and slightly open. Small circles, thirty seconds a side. |
| 颊车 jiá chē (ST-6), jaw chariot | The belly of the chewing muscle, about a finger-width up and forward from the corner of your jaw. Clench once and it bulges under your finger. | The same clenching tension, one step further down the muscle. | Knuckle or fingertip, firmer than anywhere else on this list, circling for thirty seconds. |
Fingers, or a sandalwood comb
A fingertip is a perfectly good instrument and it was the only one my grandmother ever used. The reason I reach for the snail comb is that its rounded end is smaller than a fingertip and does not slip, which matters at 攒竹 and 睛明 where the target is about the width of a match head. Sandalwood also takes your body heat within a few seconds, so it does not feel like being prodded with a cold object at seven in the morning.
If you use anything harder than a finger, halve the pressure you think you need. The tool is there for precision, never for force.
How do I work through all of them in one go?
Start at the inner corner of the eye, move outward along the brow, continue to the temple, come back in and down to the cheekbone, then the nose, then the jaw, and finish by sweeping down the neck. It runs inner to outer and top to bottom, which is the direction the face drains. The circuit takes about three minutes, and both sides are done at once.
- Warm your hands, then find 睛明 Rub your palms together until they are properly warm, because cold fingers make you flinch and flinching is the opposite of the point. Then rest a ring finger in the dip at the inner corner of each eye, angle the pressure towards the bone rather than towards the eye itself, and hold for five slow breaths. Close your eyes while you do it.
- Out along the brow: 攒竹, then 鱼腰 Hook both thumbs up under the inner ends of your eyebrows, into the small notch you can feel there, and let your head rest forward onto them for ten seconds. Release, move a centimetre outward, and repeat. Keep going until you reach the middle of the brow above the pupil, which is 鱼腰.
- Finish the brow line at 太阳 Come out to the outer end of the eyebrow and keep going another thumb-width into the soft hollow at the side of your head. Switch from thumbs to two fingertips and make slow circles for twenty to thirty seconds. This is the point everyone finds without being told, usually at a desk, usually with their eyes shut.
- Back in and down to 四白 Rest a ring finger on the bone below each eye, a finger-width down from the rim of the socket and in line with the pupil, and press very lightly straight in for fifteen seconds. Stay on the bone. The soft hollow just above it is not a place for pressure of any kind.
- Beside the nose: 迎香 Slide your index fingers down into the groove where the nostril meets the cheek and press gently inward for ten to fifteen seconds. This is the one people find oddly satisfying and cannot explain. Its name means welcome fragrance, which tells you what it was traditionally associated with and nothing whatsoever about what it will do for you.
- The jaw hinge: 下关 Let your mouth fall slightly open and feel just in front of the ear, under the cheekbone, for the hollow that opens as your jaw drops. Circle there slowly for thirty seconds. If you clench at night, this will feel quite different from everything above it.
- Down the muscle: 颊车 Clench once so the chewing muscle bulges, then unclench and press into the belly of it with a knuckle, about a finger-width up and forward from the corner of your jaw. Firmer pressure is fine here. Thirty seconds a side, or longer if it is asking for it.
- Take everything down the neck Finish with five or six light sweeps from just behind the ear down the side of the neck towards the collarbone. Nothing is pressed and nothing is held; this is simply the exit route for whatever the last three minutes moved. It is the step people skip, and the difference between a face that feels touched and a face that looks it.
If you have sixty seconds rather than three minutes
攒竹, 太阳, then the neck. The brow, the temple, the way out. That is where most of the tension in a screen-lit day collects, and three things done every morning will always beat eight things done when you happen to remember.
FAQ
Do I need to find the point exactly right?
Not really, and this is the most reassuring thing on the page. The best evidence we have suggests that pressing a centimetre off does close to the same thing as pressing exactly on it, so aim for the landmark, feel for the place where your finger drops in slightly, and stop worrying about precision.
What does matter is staying on bone around the eyes and off the eyeball. That one is about safety rather than accuracy.
Should I press both sides of my face at the same time?
Yes, and it is easier that way. Every point on this list is bilateral, so you use both hands and mirror yourself, which also keeps the pressure roughly even between the two sides.
The one exception is when you want to find out whether any of this is doing something. Do one side, look in the mirror, then do the other. It is a far more honest test than a photograph taken an hour later.
What do the codes like BL-1 and ST-2 actually mean?
They are shorthand for where a point sits in the traditional channel system. The letters name the channel and the number is its position along it, so 睛明 is the first point of the bladder channel and 四白 is the second point of the stomach channel. Points that sit outside the system are labelled EX, which is why 太阳 is EX-HN5.
The codes exist so a practitioner in Berlin and one in Chengdu mean the same spot. You will never need them at your own bathroom mirror, but they make anything much easier to look up.
Is it safe to press near my eyes if I wear contact lenses?
Take them out first, or leave 睛明 and 四白 until later in the day. Pressing at the inner corner can shift a lens or push it against the eye, and there is nothing to gain from the irritation.
Everything else on the list is fine with lenses in: the brow, the temple, the nose and the jaw are all well clear.
Can I press these points too often?
The points themselves are hard to overdo. What can be overdone is the skin around your eyes, and the usual way people manage it is by pressing harder each time in the hope of feeling more.
Once or twice a day is plenty. If an area feels tender the next morning, take that as a signal to go lighter rather than to skip a day. Some tenderness on the jaw in the first week is common and settles quickly.
