顴髎 Quanliao
“Cheekbone Hollow” · SI18
Hand Taiyang · 18 of 19 · crossing-point
Where. Straight below the outer corner of the eye, in the dip under the cheekbone.
For. Facial pain, toothache, twitching eyelids.
Press. Gentle finger pad, small circles, one minute each side.
顴髎二穴，在面頄骨下廉，兌骨端陷中按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Quanliao Sits on the Face
The dataset places Quanliao on the face, directly below the outer canthus of the eye, in the depression on the lower border of the zygomatic bone. Translated into everyday language: the outer canthus is simply the outer corner of the eye, the point where upper and lower lids meet toward the temple; the zygomatic bone is the cheekbone, the firm arch that props up the middle of the face and runs back from beside the nose toward the ear; and its lower border is the bottom edge of that arch. Put the three together and the address reads plainly: start directly beneath the outer corner of the eye, drop down the face until your fingertip meets the hard edge of the cheekbone, and feel along that edge for the small hollow just underneath it.
It is worth pausing over how exposed and finely built this address is. The middle of the face carries almost no padding: skin lies close over thin facial muscles, beneath them rises the smooth plate of the cheekbone itself, and the orbit of the eye waits only a short distance above. Everything about the site invites a light hand. The tissue answers the gentlest intention, while pressing hard buys nothing but soreness in a place everyone can see — and so close to the eye, force is never part of sensible practice. Face points reward patience over power; one set beneath the eye’s own corner rewards patience most of all.
The point is symmetrical: one on each side of the face, mirrored across the midline. Locating them as a pair helps accuracy, because the two sides should feel alike, and any obvious difference usually means a fingertip has drifted. Notice too what the dataset does not say: it offers no distance figures at all, because none are needed. Outer corner of the eye, bony edge, hollow beneath — the landmarks are unmistakable once felt, which makes Quanliao one of the more forgiving points to find anywhere on the face.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Begin with clean hands and, if helpful, a well-lit mirror, seated comfortably with elbows supported so the hands stay steady. Look straight ahead and find the outer corner of one eye — the place where the upper and lower lids meet toward the temple, not the lashes and not the brow. From that corner, walk your fingertip straight down the face, keeping to the same vertical line. Within a thumb-width or so you will meet the firm edge of the cheekbone; slide onto its underside and search the shallow groove that runs just below the bony rim. Where the hollow feels most distinct directly under the eye corner, you have arrived.
A few confirmations help before any real pressing begins. Touch feather-light first and compare sides: many people notice a faint dull awareness or mild tenderness right in the hollow and almost nothing a finger-width away. Open and close the mouth slowly and feel the tissue shift subtly over the bone — that glide confirms the fingertip rests where muscle slides on bone rather than floating on soft cheek fat. Then let the fingertip stay still for several slow breaths and simply learn the terrain: hard bony rim above, springy hollow below, and the quiet blinking of the eye just overhead. If everything feels uniformly soft, the finger has drifted inward or downward off the bone; climb back up to the cheekbone edge and begin again.
The classic slips are predictable. Some people press too high, onto the bony rim itself or toward the delicate orbital margin, which is uncomfortable and pointless. Others drop too far, landing in the soft cheek below where no hollow waits against the finger. And a surprising number drift inward toward the middle of the cheek, losing the vertical line from the eye corner. The correction is always the same sequence: find the outer corner of the eye, descend straight down, meet the bony edge, then settle into the hollow just beneath it. Mirror work makes verification easy — the fingertip should sit visibly below the outer eye corner, tucked under the rim of the cheekbone.
Reading the Name: Cheekbone Hollow
The name describes the address in two strokes of meaning. Quan 顴 means cheekbone — the character is written with the head radical 頁 and names the arch that holds up the middle of the face; in everyday Chinese, quangu 顴骨 is simply the ordinary word for cheekbone. Liao 髎 is an older, bookish character denoting a hollow or foramen near bone — a seam or pore where something deep communicates with the surface. Several other point names across the channels close with this same character, and it always points to one thing: a small door in the bone. Together, Quanliao reads as the Cheekbone Hollow, and the fit with the location could hardly be tighter — a named dip under a named bone.
Position within the channel deepens the story. Classical channel theory draws the Small Intestine pathway beginning on the little finger and climbing the arm, shoulder, and neck to the face, where its closing points line the cheek before the channel ends just in front of the ear — Quanliao stands second from the end of that nineteen-point journey. The catalogue also records it as a crossing-point: classical accounts describe other channel lines converging here, and the pairing most often named is the triple burner pathway, whose own facial route passes through the same neighbourhood. Two pathways meeting on the cheekbone gave the tradition ample reason to attend to this small hollow.
Pinyin writes the name Quánliáo, and both syllables rise on the second tone — quan and liao alike carry the rising contour that English speakers associate with a questioning lilt. In older anatomical speech, quan names the cheekbone and liao its joint-space hollow. The hanzi pair 顴髎 takes a moment longer to memorise than most, yet the meaning repays the effort: among all the evocative names on the body — gates, valleys, courtyards, storehouses — this one is the plainest surveyor’s mark, telling you exactly where you stand. The name is a location instruction wearing a poem’s clothes.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: facial paralysis with deviation of the mouth and eye, twitching of the eyelids, red swollen eyes, toothache, facial pain, swelling of the cheek, and trigeminal neuralgia. Read as tradition rather than promise, the list sketches a coherent portrait centered on the face. First come the deviations and tremors: the mouth and eye pulling to one side, and the lids fluttering without consent. Classical texts describe such states as wind — the tradition’s image for a sudden, restless influence — settling into the channels of the face, and a point seated squarely on the cheekbone belonged naturally to those discussions.
Next come heat and pain pictures. Red swollen eyes described, in the old records, eyes that looked inflamed and felt tight and painful — a state tradition read as heat flaring in the head, to be met at points along the facial channels. Toothache, facial pain, and swelling of the cheek round out the group as further expressions, in traditional reading, of qi and blood failing to move freely around the cheekbone. Listed last is the condition modern catalogues call trigeminal neuralgia — severe, lightning-like pain along one side of the face. Its presence shows how seriously the classical literature took this small hollow as a gathering place for facial complaints. These are historical frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context rather than prescription.
It bears repeating plainly: these are the traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered for cultural and historical understanding. They are not claims that pressing this point treats any condition, and nothing here replaces assessment by a qualified clinician. Where modern research touches self-applied pressure on the face at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. Hold the tradition lightly, and hold the safety rules firmly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With both points located, settle in: seated, elbows supported on a table, shoulders released, hands freshly washed — the fingertips will work close to the eye, so cleanliness is part of the technique. Rest a fingertip pad, never a nail or knuckle, in one hollow; begin with contact alone for a few breaths, then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the bone edge beneath rather than grinding against it. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or gentle warmth, never sharpness. A common home rhythm is one to two minutes per side, once or twice daily, paired with slow breathing and a soft gaze so the eye stays at ease. Repeat on the other side and keep the sessions matched.
Quality matters far more than intensity here. Light, patient, regular contact fits the wellness register this page practises; hard grinding pressure only leaves the cheek sore and teaches nothing, and jabbing anywhere near the eye is simply out of bounds. Many people fold the practice into moments the day already provides — washing the face in the morning, a mid-afternoon pause, the wind-down before bed — because consistency, not force, is what self-care traditions actually ask for. Treat any urge to escalate pressure as a signal to pause: on the face, gentler and shorter is always the better bargain.
Treat the exercise as a minute of attention rather than a treatment session. Notice what changes across days: perhaps the cheek feels less tight while you press, perhaps the jaw unclenches a little, perhaps nothing shifts except that you spent a quiet minute caring for your own face. Every one of those outcomes fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — pressing harder, longer, or probing toward the orbit to force a result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness or stop for the day.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This point’s licensed record opens with a clear instruction, and it deserves top billing. The dataset cautions: do not apply moxibustion, as recorded in classical literature. Moxibustion — the traditional warming of points with burning mugwort — belongs to professional practice in any case, but here the classical literature itself draws the line, and the dataset repeats it without elaborating the reasoning. For home self-care the translation is simple: this is a touch-only point. Leave every heat device, warm-compress ritual, and warming balm out of the program at this location, and let gentle fingertip contact carry the whole practice.
The face adds its own housekeeping rules. Skin here is thin and always on display, so work with clean hands and skip the point entirely over cuts, pimples, sunburn, eczema patches, or any broken or irritated skin; the same courtesy applies after recent facial or dental procedures until healing is settled. If contact lenses or eye irritation leave the area tender, postpone the session. Stop at once on sharp, electric, or radiating sensation — on this part of the face such signals deserve particular respect. Anyone who is pregnant, or living with a facial skin condition, recent facial surgery, or active dental treatment, should ask a qualified practitioner before adding new point practice.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Seek urgent medical assessment — never a pressure routine — for sudden facial drooping, one-sided weakness, numbness, or slurred speech, since these call for emergency evaluation without delay. Arrange prompt clinical review for facial asymmetry developing over days, worsening or recurring facial pain, a painful red eye or any change in vision, and toothache that persists, each of which belongs with the appropriate professional. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner — Western medicine or East Asian medicine, whichever suits the complaint. Knowing when to walk past the hollow to a clinic is the wiser half of wellness.
Quanliao, the Cheekbone Hollow, rests in a shallow dip just beneath the cheekbone, directly under the outer corner of the eye. Classical practice reached for it when the mouth pulled askew, the eyelids fluttered, or the face ached. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it gently and safely.
Cautions from the classical sources
- No moxibustion, per the classical texts.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Quanliao without any measuring?
- Use the eye corner as your plumb line. Look straight ahead, find where the upper and lower lids meet toward the temple on one side, then walk straight down the face until your fingertip meets the firm rim of the cheekbone. Slide just under that rim into the small hollow directly below the eye corner. That dip — bony edge above, hollow beneath, outer eye corner overhead — is the spot the dataset describes, no tape measure required.
- Is pressing on the cheekbone safe?
- Light fingertip contact on intact skin is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, and this location is easy to reach without force. The main disciplines are hygiene and restraint: clean hands, pads rather than nails, nothing over broken or irritated skin, and nothing approaching the eyeball itself. Sharp or spreading discomfort means stop immediately. The dataset’s own caution also removes heat therapies from consideration at this point.
- What did classical practice use Quanliao for?
- The traditional record lists facial paralysis with deviation of the mouth and eye, twitching of the eyelids, red swollen eyes, toothache, facial pain, swelling of the cheek, and trigeminal neuralgia — a portfolio gathered almost entirely on the face. Classical texts framed the deviations as wind settling into the facial channels and the pains as stagnation around the cheekbone. Those are traditional frameworks, documented for cultural context, not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does a Small Intestine channel point sit on the face?
- Classical channel theory draws the Small Intestine pathway climbing from the little finger up the arm, shoulder, and neck to the face, where its final points cross the cheek before the channel ends just in front of the ear — Quanliao is the eighteenth of its nineteen points, standing second from the end. Classical accounts also describe the triple burner pathway meeting here, which is why the catalogue records this as a crossing-point. End-of-channel and meeting-point roles together made the cheekbone a natural focus of traditional facial practice.
- When does facial pain need a clinician instead of acupressure?
- Whenever it is new, worsening, or joined by anything unusual. Sudden facial drooping, one-sided weakness, numbness, or slurred speech requires emergency assessment immediately. Pain recurring in lightning-like jabs, swelling that will not settle, a painful red eye or changed vision, and toothache lasting beyond a day or two each deserve their proper professional — dentist, doctor, or eye specialist. Gentle self-care can accompany recovery; it cannot substitute for diagnosis.
Sources
- 01aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for SI18 Quanliao — location, point class, actions, and caution record.
- 02WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region (2008), World Health Organization — nomenclature conventions.
- 03A Manual of Acupuncture, Peter Deadman, Mazin Al-Khafaji and Kevin Baker — point-name tradition, crossing-point theory, and channel context.
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/si18/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/si18/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/si18/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "SI18",
"name": {
"en": "Quanliao",
"gloss": "Cheekbone Hollow",
"zh-Hant": "顴髎",
"zh-Hans": "颧髎"
},
"channel": {
"id": "SI",
"order": 18,
"of": 19
},
"location": {
"text": "Straight below the outer corner of the eye, in the dip under the cheekbone."
},
"for": [
"facial pain",
"toothache",
"twitching eyelids"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle finger pad, small circles, one minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Tongren Shuxue Zhenjiu Tujing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/si18",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}