浮白 Fubai
“Floating White” · GB10
Foot Shaoyang · 10 of 44 · crossing-point
Where. Behind the ear, on the scalp just above and behind the bony knob behind the earlobe.
For. Headache; ringing ears; a stiff neck.
Press. Gentle fingertip pressure on the scalp, about a minute each side.
浮白，在耳後，入髮際一寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Fubai Sits Behind the Ear
Fubai occupies the curved shelf of bone behind and above the ear. The dataset places it on the head, behind and above the mastoid process — the rounded prominence of bone that can be felt directly behind the earlobe — at the junction of the upper third and middle third of the arcuate line drawn from Tianchong (GB9) to Wangu (GB12). An arcuate line is simply a curved reference path: imagine a shallow arc traced across the skull behind the ear, starting higher up at Tianchong and sweeping down to end at Wangu beside the base of the mastoid. Fubai sits where the top third of that arc hands over to the middle third — roughly one-third of the way down the line from Tianchong. When the records measure distances in cun, that is the traditional proportional unit taken from the body being examined rather than from any ruler.
What lies under the fingertips here is calm territory by head standards. The point rests within the scalp and hair-bearing skin, over solid bone where the temple and back-of-head regions meet; there is no soft doorway into deeper spaces the way there is over the chest or throat. Because the site sits inside the hairline, self-palpation is a matter of pressing through hair rather than on bare skin, and many people find the spot first by pressure-sense — a broad, mild awareness under the pad of a finger — before they ever see anything. The area generally tolerates light touch well, though scalps differ, and anyone whose skin there is tender, inflamed, or freshly shaven should treat it with extra patience.
The neighbours confirm the address. Tianchong, the top anchor of the arc, is recorded two cun above the posterior border of the root of the ear, within the hairline; Wangu, the bottom anchor, sits in the depression below and behind the mastoid process. Between them the records list Touqiaoyin (GB11) one cun below Fubai. So four points form a short descending chain down the curve behind the ear: Tianchong highest, then Fubai, then Touqiaoyin, then Wangu nearest the mastoid base. If your finger finds one link confidently, the others fall into place around it — which is why classical location teaching favours reading the whole line rather than hunting a single dot.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit upright in a good light with shoulders released, and give yourself permission to go slowly. Rest the index finger of the opposite hand just behind your earlobe and find the firm, rounded knob of bone there — the mastoid process. Slide the fingertip upward and slightly backward along the bone until you clear the top rim of that prominence; you are now on the curving surface where the arcuate line runs. Sweep gently down the curve: higher up lies the region of Tianchong, lower down the line drops toward Wangu’s hollow. Fubai waits about one-third of the way down this sweep from the top, behind and above the mastoid’s upper edge. Part the hair with the other hand if needed, and press with the pad of the finger, never the nail.
A few quiet checks settle the placement. Press feather-light on the candidate spot, then a thumb-width away in several directions, and compare: the true point often announces itself as a slightly fuller, faintly dull awareness compared with its surroundings. Mirror-search the other side and notice whether the two spots sit at matching heights relative to each ear; small asymmetry is common and worth knowing about. Let a slow breath pass while contact rests there, because scalp muscle tightens when attention sharpens, and a relaxed scalp reports more honestly. If you cannot decide between two candidates, prefer the one that satisfies the two hard anchors — clearly behind and clearly above the mastoid’s upper margin — since height errors matter more than small sideways drifts.
Two classic slips account for most misses. The first is dropping too low: the moment your fingertip slides into a hollow below and behind the mastoid, you have wandered past Touqiaoyin toward Wangu’s depression and left Fubai a full stretch above. The second is drifting forward into the soft area directly above the opening of the ear, which belongs to a different neighbourhood entirely. When lost, return to the earlobe, re-find the mastoid knob, climb over its upper rim once more, and make one slow sweep downward along the bone. Counting the sweep in thirds — top third, middle third — puts Fubai at the handover point without any measuring tools at all.
Reading the Name: Floating White
The name compresses a small scene into two characters. Fu 浮 means floating — the picture is of something resting at or near a water’s surface, buoyant and shallow rather than sunken. Bai 白 means white, the colour of frost, of unbleached cloth, of pale light. Together, Fubai reads naturally as Floating White, and it stands tenth of the forty-four stations on this channel. The name belongs to a family of point names on this stretch of the pathway that borrow images from sky, water, and bone: Tianchong is the Heavenly Rush, Wangu the Complete Bone. Names of this kind were mnemonic devices as much as labels, handing the student a mental image to carry location and character together.
Why white, and why floating? Commentators working within the tradition have usually pointed to the local geography: this is a place where something superficial shows at the surface, and the classical explanations speak of a shallow, floating vessel whose course could be glimpsed beneath the skin near here, pale against scalp and hair. Another line of commentary reads the image more plainly — the whiteness of sparse-scalped or exposed skin where the hair thins behind the ear. The dataset itself records the point simply as a crossing-point, a category the tradition reserves for places where more than one pathway is understood to share ground; later commentaries commonly name the yang linking vessel (yangwei mai) as the partner pathway along this stretch of the head. All such readings belong to the interpretive layer of the tradition — offered as heritage, not anatomy.
Pinyin renders the name Fúbái, and both syllables carry the same melody: fu spoken in the second tone and bai also in the second tone, each a rising inflexion. Dictionary tones matter more than they appear, because reading a character in the wrong tone can turn a tidy name into a different word altogether. The hanzi pair 浮白 is short enough to take in at a glance. Like much of the vocabulary of this channel — gates and valleys, heavens and bones — the metaphor does quiet work, telling you the tradition thought of the side of the head as landscape: currents running shallow near the surface, colours showing through, a white glint where water meets air.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The record lists nine actions for Fubai: headache, tinnitus, deafness, eye pain, sore throat, stiff neck, cervical scrofula, goitre, and toothache. Read as tradition, the first cluster needs little translation — headache, ringing in the ears, and diminished hearing were the complaints classical practice reached for this point most readily, gathered under the old terms tinnitus and deafness. Eye pain joins them naturally: the side of the head carries pathways the old maps show threading past ear and temple, and discomfort in eyes, ears, and head was often read together as one regional story rather than three separate troubles.
The throat, neck, and tooth entries extend the same logic downward. The gallbladder channel’s map, as the tradition draws it, sweeps across the side of the head and then descends toward the neck and jaw before continuing down the body; a point on the head-side stretch was therefore considered relevant to discomfort tracking along that route — a stiff neck, an angry throat, an aching tooth. Being recorded as a crossing-point strengthened the case in classical reasoning: places where pathways meet were treated as natural hubs for complaints that ranged widely across a region instead of sitting neatly inside one organ’s column.
Cervical scrofula and goitre sound strangest to modern ears and deserve their historical setting. Scrofula named the chronically swollen glands of the neck; goitre named a swelling at the front of the throat. Classical medicine grouped both among phlegm-and-stagnation patterns, and points along the Gallbladder channel — associated with the wood phase and with the free flow of qi — recur in old discussions of such nodular complaints. These are frameworks of premodern pathology, documented here for understanding. They are not claims that pressing this point treats any condition; where modern research has touched acupressure at all, reviews suggest modest, context-dependent effects, and evidence for any single point remains thin.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point located by the walkthrough above, settle in: seated, spine easy, jaw loose. Part the hair so the pad of a finger can rest against the scalp itself, curl the index and middle fingers together, and lay the pads — never nails — on the spot. Begin with simple still contact for a few breaths, then add small, slow circles, letting the scalp glide minutely over bone rather than scrubbing or pulling the hair. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or warmth, never sharpness. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, timed to unhurried exhales; finish by mirroring the sequence on the other side so the session stays symmetrical.
Quality outranks duration here as everywhere on the head. Light, patient, repeated contact suits the wellness register this page practises; hard digging tires the scalp, tangles hair, and teaches nothing. Warm your hands first if your fingers run cold, because chilled muscle guards. Choose a quiet corner rather than a screen, and let the practice double as a pause: eyes closed or gaze softened, breath dropping out slowly under the circling pads. Anchoring the minute to an existing habit — after morning washing, during an afternoon break — serves better than willpower alone, because the tradition asks chiefly for regularity. People with sensitive scalps can rest their contact through the hair and shorten sessions; gentleness scales, force does not.
Treat those few minutes as attention paid to yourself, not therapy administered. Over weeks you may notice the area feels less guarded when you touch it, that the ritual carves out a calmer pocket in the day, or simply that you spent ninety seconds attending to a neglected corner of your own body. All of that fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. Escalation does not: pressing harder, longer, or deeper to force a result turns a comfort practice into an argument with your own scalp. When curiosity pulls that way, soften, or set the practice down for the day and pick it up fresh tomorrow.
Cautions and Safe Practice
For this point the licensed dataset records no special cautions — the caution ledger is empty, and this page echoes that emptiness faithfully. An empty ledger tells you the sources add no point-specific warning to the universal rules, and nothing more; it is not a licence to press hard. By head-and-scalp standards Fubai sits over solid bone in hair-bearing skin, which makes it anatomically forgiving compared with points over the chest, throat, or eye; the practical risks of home acupressure here are the ordinary ones — soreness, scalp irritation, and the mischief done by fingernails.
The everyday rules cover the rest. Skip the point over broken, inflamed, or recently irritated skin, and during any acute illness that leaves you feeling fragile. Stop at once on sharp, electric, or radiating sensation, and do not retry that day. Never practise through genuine pain, and do not hand the job to tools, massagers, or knuckles when fingers suffice. Pregnant readers, and anyone managing a neurological condition, a recent head or neck injury, or ongoing ear disease, should ask a qualified practitioner before adding any new point work. Children’s scalps deserve an adult’s lighter hand or a professional’s guidance.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, acupressure is self-care, and neither diagnoses nor treats. Seek prompt medical care — not a pressure routine — for a sudden, severe, or worst-ever headache; headache with fever, confusion, or a stiff neck unlike your usual tension pattern; new or changing hearing loss; persistent ringing that worsens; or any symptom that frightens you. Persistent complaints of any kind belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as fits the problem. Floating White is a lovely name; its safest gift is familiarity with your own head, handled kindly.
Fubai, Floating White, sits on the curve of bone behind the ear, where the gallbladder channel bends its way down the side of the head. Classical practice reached for it when headache, ringing ears, or a stiff neck made themselves felt. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it gently at home.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Fubai without knowing anything about cun?
- Use the ear and its bone as the whole map. Find the rounded knob of bone directly behind your earlobe — the mastoid process — climb your fingertip up and slightly back over its upper rim, then sweep slowly downward along the curve of the skull behind the ear. About one-third of the way down that sweep, behind and above the mastoid’s top edge, is the spot the dataset describes. The cun measurements simply encode the same landmark journey in proportional language.
- Is pressing Fubai myself actually safe?
- Gentle fingertip contact through hair on the scalp is ordinary, reasonable self-care for healthy adults, and the licensed dataset records no special caution for this point. Because solid bone lies just under the area, the realistic risk profile is soreness or scalp irritation rather than anything deeper. Respect the usual stop signals all the same: sharp or radiating sensation, genuine pain, or skin irritation all mean stop, and persistent symptoms belong with a practitioner.
- What did classical practice use Fubai for?
- The traditional record lists nine indications: headache, tinnitus, deafness, eye pain, sore throat, stiff neck, cervical scrofula, goitre, and toothache. Head-side complaints led the list, which fits a point on the channel that maps the side of the head before descending the body. Those are premodern frameworks documented for cultural context — not claims that pressing the point treats disease.
- Why does this stretch of the gallbladder channel gather so many head points?
- Classical maps draw the channel zigzagging across the side of the head before it descends the body, so the territory behind the ear is crowded with addresses — Tianchong, Fubai, Touqiaoyin, and Wangu string down a single curved line. Points on a busy stretch were read as useful for whatever moved along the route, which is why ear, head, throat, and neck indications cluster here. It is map logic, not laboratory finding.
- Can acupressure at Fubai replace seeing a doctor about my headaches or tinnitus?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not diagnosis, and headaches or hearing changes carrying red flags — sudden severity, fever, neurological changes, rapidly worsening ringing or loss — need prompt professional assessment. Think of daily self-care and clinical medicine as different floors of one building: routine care downstairs, consultation upstairs when symptoms persist or escalate. Neither substitutes for the other.
Sources
- 01WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region (2008), World Health Organization — nomenclature conventions.
- 02A Manual of Acupuncture, Peter Deadman, Mazin Al-Khafaji and Kevin Baker — point-name tradition, the crossing-point category, and gallbladder-channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for GB10 Fubai — location, point class, actions, and indication record.
Last reviewed
牌記This leaf, for machines
Old books ended with a colophon saying who printed them. Every leaf here carries the same facts as structured data for agents and search, with no layout in the way.
- GET /en/points/gb10/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/gb10/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/gb10/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "GB10",
"name": {
"en": "Fubai",
"gloss": "Floating White",
"zh-Hant": "浮白",
"zh-Hans": "浮白"
},
"channel": {
"id": "GB",
"order": 10,
"of": 44
},
"location": {
"text": "Behind the ear, on the scalp just above and behind the bony knob behind the earlobe."
},
"for": [
"headache",
"ringing ears",
"a stiff neck"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle fingertip pressure on the scalp, about a minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/gb10",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}