聽會 Tinghui
“Where Hearing Gathers” · GB2
Foot Shaoyang · 2 of 44
Where. In front of the small notch below the ear flap, in the hollow that opens when the mouth opens.
For. Ringing ears; toothache; an aching face.
Press. Mouth slightly open, gentle fingertip pressure, about a minute.
聽會，在耳前陷者中，張口得之按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Tinghui Sits in Front of the Ear
The dataset locates this point with three landmarks: on the face, anterior to the intertragic notch, behind the condyloid process of the mandible, where a depression appears when the mouth is opened. Unpacked, that reads as follows. The tragus is the small flap of cartilage guarding the ear canal; just above the earlobe sits a second, lesser bump called the antitragus; the shallow dip between the two is the intertragic notch. Anterior simply means a step forward of that notch, toward the cheek. The condyloid process is the rounded knob capping the lower-jaw bone — rest a fingertip just ahead of the ear and swing the jaw open and shut to feel it glide. The point occupies the narrow seam behind that knob: the sliver of territory between moving bone and ear.
What lies beneath the fingertip deserves a gentle manner. Facial skin is thin and densely wired with nerve endings, so even feather-light contact registers brightly here — sharper and more talkative than the deep dull ache typical of muscle-belly points elsewhere. Directly underfoot sits the working half of the jaw joint: the knob is the head of the mandible riding in its socket, and every bite, yawn, and word sends it sliding. When the jaw drops, the head travels forward and slightly down, vacating its socket and uncovering the very hollow the dataset describes. Because the joint is in near-constant service, it resents being leaned on — one more reason this neighbourhood rewards patience and light hands over any show of force.
The wider map explains the point’s company. The gallbladder channel makes its first landfall at Tongziliao (GB1), beside the outer corner of the eye, and classical texts describe it bending toward the ear before winding across the side of the head — a zigzag itinerary that continues down the flank of the body to the fourth toe, through forty-four named stations in all. Tinghui stands early on that route, its second stop, gathered at the ear’s doorstep. Farther up the same stretch in front of the ear waits a companion, Shangguan (GB3), seated in the depression on the upper border of the cheekbone arch. Five-phase teaching assigns the channel to wood, with the liver channel standing as its paired counterpart.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Work with a mirror and good light. First find the tragus, then the smaller antitragus bump just above the earlobe, and settle attention on the shallow dip between the two — the intertragic notch. Rest the pad of your index finger just forward of that notch, onto the cheek side. Press feather-light and you will feel a firm, mobile ridge beneath: the condyloid process. Now open the mouth slowly. The ridge glides forward under your finger, and behind it a soft hollow opens up. Settle the fingertip into that hollow, holding level with the notch, and you have arrived. Repeat the search on the other side, giving each ear its own unhurried confirmation.
A few confirmations earn their keep before any real pressure begins. Open and close the mouth once or twice more: the true site announces itself as the hollow that swells and empties with the jaw, while the cartilage at the notch stays inert. Compare sides — most people notice a faint, dull awareness at the genuine spot and little sensation a hair’s breadth away. Keep the lips barely parted as you settle in, so the hollow remains to sit in. Warm hands help, and so does an easy jaw: clenching hides the landmark entirely, because a tensed joint holds its head forward against your finger.
The slips are predictable and easily corrected. Pressing on the notch itself lands on ear cartilage — a step too far back. Climbing upward onto the cheekbone arch strays into Shangguan’s territory above. And searching with the mouth clamped shut finds nothing, because the socket stays occupied and no hollow exists until the jaw drops. Chewing while pressing annoys the joint and blurs every landmark. Whenever orientation dissolves, return to the tragus, find the notch again, and walk the sequence forward slowly — the geography always forgives a fresh start.
Reading the Name: Where Hearing Gathers
The two characters carry the whole design. Ting 聽 means to hear, to listen — the ear doing its work. Hui 會 means to meet, to gather, to converge — the verb of rivers joining and people assembling. Read together, Tinghui names the place where hearing converges: the meeting-ground of sound. Face-point names along the channels tend to do functional work — gates, valleys, courtyards, and storehouses are scattered elsewhere — and this one marks the threshold where scattered noise becomes attended hearing. Classical teaching treated the ground before the ear as hearing’s own sitting-place, and the name preserves that judgement.
Siting explains the honour. The point stands immediately beside the entrance of the ear itself, closer to the instrument of hearing than almost any other station on its channel. In the traditional frame, channel qi running close to the surface here was understood to serve the ear directly — which is why the old literature groups so many ear complaints under this small cluster of points. Several yang channels thread the neighbourhood of the ear, and classical texts describe the region as thickly populated with stations attending to the senses of the head, with Tinghui among the most frequently named whenever hearing was the subject.
Pinyin renders the name Tīnghuì: ting carries a flat, high first tone, held steady like a level note; hui falls through a crisp fourth tone. The graphs 聽會 are compact enough to take in at a glance. As with the gates and courtyards elsewhere along the channels, the metaphor performs labour rather than decoration: a meeting hall for sound, not a way-station that sound merely passes through. The name doubles as advice — when hearing wants company, come here.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: tinnitus, deafness, discharge of pus from the ear, toothache, deviation of the mouth and eye, facial pain, and lockjaw. The ear trio comes first and dominates. Tinnitus names the ringing, buzzing, or hissing heard without any outside source. Deafness in the old records spans the whole slope of dimmed hearing, from muffling to severe loss. Discharge of pus from the ear corresponds to what older literature catalogued as the suppurating-ear complaint. Framed as tradition rather than promise, classical practice traditionally gathered these complaints here for the plainest of reasons: the point sits at the ear’s doorstep. One modern boundary belongs beside them at once — an ear that is actively discharging, especially with pain or fever, belongs with a clinician before any self-care discussion begins.
The remaining four indications share the block. Toothache, facial pain, and lockjaw all live within a thumb’s breadth of the point — the jaw joint, the cheek, and the muscles of chewing crowd the same small stage, and classical texts describe branches of the channel wandering across the cheek, so local-point doctrine reached for Tinghui alongside its neighbours. Lockjaw meant limited, painful opening of the jaw; the old records folded together what today would be told apart — ordinary tension-tightness versus truly locked jaws needing urgent care. Deviation of the mouth and eye was the classical shorthand for sudden facial drooping, and it carries a firm modern footnote: sudden weakness of the face cannot be sorted out at home between a stroke and a nerve inflammation, so prompt medical assessment always comes first and tradition second.
It bears repeating plainly: these are traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered for cultural and historical understanding — not claims that pressing this point treats disease. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and heavily context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. Hold the tradition lightly and the safety rules firmly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
Settle in seated, jaw loose, lips barely parted so the hollow stays open. Rest the pad of the index or middle finger in the depression found by the walkthrough, and begin with contact alone for a few breaths. Then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue beneath rather than grinding against bone. Pressure should read as pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharpness. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, finishing with the other ear so both sides receive the same attention. If the jaw tires, pause — the point is not going anywhere.
Quality outweighs duration here more than at almost any other point. The face listens to lightness: a hard jab only wakes the jaw’s defences, tightening the very muscles a gentle practice hopes to soften. Sync the circles with slow exhales and the practice doubles as a breathing pause. Warm the hands first on cold days. People who keep the habit often anchor it to something existing — morning washing, an evening wind-down — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for.
Treat the exercise as a brief ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks, perhaps the area feels less guarded, perhaps the jaw hangs easier, perhaps nothing shifts except that you spent some quiet minutes attending to your own hearing. Every one of those outcomes fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation: when curiosity pushes toward harder, longer, deeper — return to gentleness, or stop for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
Honesty first: the licensed record lists no specific cautions for this point, and the echo above is empty for exactly that reason. An empty record is not an invitation to force — it is simply silence, and general prudence fills it. The face packs delicate structures close together, the jaw joint irritates readily, and the skin here is thin; every rule that governs facial self-care applies in full at Tinghui.
The practical rules follow from that picture. Keep contact light and strictly at the surface, and never lever a knuckle or tool into the hollow. Skip the point over broken or irritated skin, and pause entirely during active ear trouble — discharge, marked pain, or fever — which needs professional eyes before any pressing. After dental work or facial procedures, wait until ordinary activity has been cleared. A jaw that clicks painfully, grates, or refuses to open asks for assessment by a dentist or physician rather than firmer pressing. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and do not retry that day. Pregnant readers, and anyone managing chronic illness, do well to consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Seek prompt medical care — not a longer pressing session — for sudden drooping or weakness of the face, sudden change in hearing, discharge from the ear with fever or severe pain, severe unexplained headache, or a recent blow to the jaw. Persistent symptoms, of the ear or anywhere else, belong with a licensed practitioner, Western or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. The meeting-hall imagery is charming, but the safest gift Tinghui offers most visitors is a quieter, kinder acquaintance with their own jaw.
Tinghui, the Meeting of Hearing, is the second point on the gallbladder channel, tucked into the hollow in front of the ear that only appears when the mouth opens. Classical practice reached for it when the ears rang, when hearing dimmed, or when the face and jaw protested. This guide walks you to the spot by touch and shows how to press it gently at home.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Tinghui without learning any anatomy?
- Use the ear itself as the map. Find the small cartilage flap beside the ear canal, then the lesser bump just above the earlobe, then the shallow dip between them. Step your fingertip forward of that dip, feel the firm ridge of the jaw knob, open the mouth, and settle into the hollow that opens behind the ridge. The whole sequence takes less time to perform than to describe.
- Is pressing right beside the jaw joint actually safe?
- Gentle fingertip pressure held at the surface is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults. The joint tolerates light, still contact far better than force, and it dislikes being pressed while chewing. Respect the stop signals — sharp pain, electric sensation, discomfort that builds — and leave assessment of clicking, locking, or painful jaws to a professional.
- What did classical practice use Tinghui for?
- The traditional record centres on the ears — tinnitus, dimmed hearing, and discharging ears — then adds toothache, facial pain, lockjaw, and deviation of the mouth and eye. The logic is largely local: the point sits at the ear’s doorstep amid the joints and muscles of the face. These are documented traditional frameworks, not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why is the point located with the mouth open?
- Because the hollow only exists then. Opening the jaw slides the condyloid process forward out of its socket, vacating the space behind it; close the mouth and the knob rolls back, filling the hollow completely. The dataset’s phrasing — where a depression appears when the mouth is opened — is a live instruction, not background detail.
- My ears ring occasionally — can pressing here replace getting checked?
- No. Ringing that arrives with sudden hearing change, dizziness, or affects one side needs prompt professional assessment, and ringing that persists deserves one regardless. Treat the point as a comfort practice living downstairs, while clinical medicine keeps the consulting room upstairs for anything persistent, one-sided, or frightening. 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 and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for GB2 Tinghui — location, 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/gb2/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/gb2/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/gb2/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "GB2",
"name": {
"en": "Tinghui",
"gloss": "Where Hearing Gathers",
"zh-Hant": "聽會",
"zh-Hans": "听会"
},
"channel": {
"id": "GB",
"order": 2,
"of": 44
},
"location": {
"text": "In front of the small notch below the ear flap, in the hollow that opens when the mouth opens."
},
"for": [
"ringing ears",
"toothache",
"an aching face"
],
"press": {
"text": "Mouth slightly open, gentle fingertip pressure, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/gb2",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}