Close to the eye: press on bone only, never on the eye.
四白 Sibai
“Four Whites” · ST2
Foot Yangming · 2 of 45
Where. Looking straight ahead, below the pupil, in the small dip on the cheekbone just under the rim of the eye socket.
For. Red, itchy eyes, twitching eyelids, face pain.
Press. Gentle fingertip pressure on the bone, about a minute.
Caution. Close to the eye: press on bone only, never on the eye.
四白，在目下一寸按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Sibai Sits on the Cheek
The dataset places Sibai on the face, with the eyes looking straight ahead, directly below the pupil, in the depression of the infraorbital foramen. Each phrase carries weight. Looking straight ahead matters because the pupil travels with the gaze — glance upward or sideways and the reference point moves with it, so the address only holds when the eyes rest level and relaxed. Directly below the pupil sets the vertical line: a plumb drop from the dark centre of each eye onto the cheek beneath. And the infraorbital foramen names the destination: infraorbital means simply below the orbit, the bony socket that cradles the eye, and a foramen is a small natural opening through bone. Where that opening reaches the surface, the record says, this point lives.
What lies under the fingertip deserves respect. Here the face wears almost no padding: skin, a little soft tissue, and thin muscle lie over the plate of the upper jaw, and through that plate runs the small opening the location names. Such openings conduct tiny vessels and nerves between deeper structures and the surface, which is one reason the surrounding tissue feels alive under the lightest touch. The skin near the eye is among the finest on the body, richly supplied, and quick to show any mark — a fact that helps explain the caution this point carries in the licensed record. Nothing about the site asks for force. Everything about it rewards patience, a soft pad of a finger, and the smallest of intentions.
Like most facial points, Sibai comes as a mirrored pair, one on each cheek, and locating them together keeps the search honest: the two depressions should feel alike, and any obvious mismatch usually means a fingertip has drifted. Above each spot rises the bony rim of the eye socket; below spreads the smoother breadth of the cheek. The point also holds rank in its channel: the Stomach meridian, classical maps teach, begins up here on the face and runs down the front of the body all the way to the second toe, and Sibai stands as its second recorded station out of forty-five. High on that long road, it overlooks territory no other stretch of the channel passes.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Begin with freshly washed hands, a well-lit mirror, and a comfortable seat with elbows supported, so the arms stay steady without effort. Look straight ahead at your own eyes and let the gaze settle level — neither squinting nor lifting the chin — because the whole location hangs on that calm, neutral stare. Find the dark centre of one pupil and hold it in mind. Now rest a fingertip pad lightly on the cheek directly beneath it and glide downward in small steps, listening through the finger: smooth skin first, then a subtle change, a shallow softening where the surface dips. That gentle depression on the upper cheek, level with the pupil of a level gaze, is the spot the record describes.
A few quiet confirmations help before any pressing begins. Compare sides with the same feather-light touch: many people notice a faint dull awareness or mild tenderness right on the spot, and little sensation a finger-width away. Map the neighborhood with the fingertip — above, the firmer ledge of the orbital rim; below and outward, the broad, even plane of the cheek; on the spot itself, a slight give. If your finger lands on hard ledge, it has climbed too high toward the socket; ease down until the bone recedes and softness gathers. If it slides toward the flank of the nose, it has wandered inward; return to the plumb line under the pupil and start again.
The classic slips are predictable, and they cluster around the eye — which is exactly why they matter. Some people search while glancing sideways or downward, dragging the reference point away from its anchor. Others creep too high, working along the lower eyelid or against the socket rim, territory this practice never needs. Still others accept the first tender place anywhere on the cheek as the answer. The correction is always the same unhurried sequence: level the gaze, find the centre of the pupil, travel straight down onto the cheek, and settle into the first genuine dip. Keep the fingertip pad — never a nail, never a tip — and keep it always on the cheek, never on the eyelid, never near the eye itself. The mirror settles any remaining doubt.
Reading the Name: Four Whites
The name is arithmetic turned poetry. Si 四 means four, the plainest of numbers; bai 白 means white, and in everyday Chinese the same character names the white of the eye itself. Together they read as Four Whites. Classical commentators offered several explanations for the figure, and the tradition preserves them as commentary rather than decree. One traditional reading imagines the regions around the eye — counted as four — recovering a bright, clear whiteness when this point did its work; another takes the four simply as completeness, the whole of the eye’s surroundings gathered into a single number. Both readings share one intuition: here was a place associated with clarity returning to clouded territory.
The fit between name and portfolio is easy to see. The recorded indications lean heavily toward the eye — redness, itching, cloudiness — and redness and murk are precisely the states the idea of whiteness answers: clear over cloudy, bright over inflamed. Position deepens the sense of it. The Stomach meridian is an earth-element channel whose classical associations gather around digestion, energy, and appetite, yet its mapped journey begins on the face, so its earliest points serve the face first. Classical maps draw long roads precisely so that distant stretches can be tended along the way; Sibai, standing second on that road, reads in the tradition as the channel’s steward for the territory around the eye.
Pinyin writes the name Sìbái. The first syllable, sì, carries the fourth tone — a short, firm fall, like setting something down; the second, bái, carries the second tone, which lifts from mid-level to high, the rising lilt of a question. Checked character by character against a dictionary, the tones hold: fourth on si, second on bai. The hanzi pair 四白 is spare enough to memorise at a glance. Where many channel points borrow architecture — gates, valleys, courtyards, storehouses — this one borrows a number and a colour, and the pairing turns out to be a compressed report: four regions, one wish, whiteness restored.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: itching and pain of red eyes, twitching of the eyelids, eye cloudiness, deviation of the mouth and eye, facial pain and spasm, headache, and dizziness. Framed as tradition rather than promise, the list opens with the eye group. Red, itching eyes were understood in classical terms as heat and restlessness gathering around the eye, and a point posted just below was a natural address from which to encourage settling. Cloudiness — dim, unclear sight — stood at the other end of the same story, clarity obscured rather than aggravated. Twitching lids the tradition read as a flutter of stirring, movement arising where stillness belonged, and again the point beneath the eye stood ready at hand.
The second group belongs to the face and head. Facial pain and spasm, headache, dizziness — these the old records approached through the channel map: pathways crossing the cheek made the cheek a junction worth serving, and points posted at the crossing entered discussions of pain and pulling in the surrounding territory. Deviation of the mouth and eye — the drawing of the features to one side — appears repeatedly in classical facial-point records, approached at exactly such junctions. One modern note belongs beside the history: genuine facial drooping is never a self-care matter. Its appearance in a traditional list is a fact about old literature, not an invitation to manage it at home; today it calls for prompt medical assessment, a rule the safety section takes up again.
It bears repeating plainly: these are the traditional uses recorded in a licensed dataset and classical literature, offered here for cultural and historical understanding. They are not claims that pressing this point treats any condition, and nothing in this guide replaces assessment by a qualified clinician. Where modern research touches self-applied acupressure 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 the point located by the walkthrough above, settle into position: seated, elbows resting, shoulders heavy, hands freshly washed — cleanliness matters doubly when fingers work near the eyes. Rest the pad of a finger on the spot, begin with contact alone for a few breaths, then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue beneath rather than dragging against it. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharpness, and never anything felt toward the eye itself. A common home rhythm is one to two minutes per side, once or twice daily, paired with slow breathing so each circle rides a calm exhale. Swap hands and repeat on the other side, keeping the two sessions matched.
Quality matters far more than duration, and nowhere more visibly than on the face, where everything done to excess announces itself the next morning. Light, patient, regular contact fits the wellness register this page practises; grinding or probing pressure buys soreness and teaches nothing, and beside the eye it courts exactly the shadowing this point’s record warns about. Many people anchor the practice to moments the day already provides — washing the face in the morning, an afternoon pause at a window, the wind-down before bed — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for. Anyone who wears contact lenses will find the whole exercise easier and calmer with the lenses out beforehand.
Treat the minutes as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Notice what changes across weeks: perhaps the area feels less guarded while you press, perhaps the pause itself becomes the benefit, perhaps nothing shifts except that you spent two quiet minutes 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 nearer the eye to force a result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness, or simply stop for the day. The point has waited centuries; it will keep.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This point’s licensed record opens with a warning worth reading twice: the dataset cautions practitioners that needling too deeply causes dark bruising around the eye. The geography behind it is plain. The tissues here are thin, small vessels run close by, and the loose fabric around the eye lets any seepage spread and show — hence the darkness the record describes. Professional training manages that risk with exact technique practiced well away from lay hands. Home self-care manages it differently and far more simply: by staying strictly on the surface, keeping pressure light, and treating the depression itself as a place for a fingertip to rest — never a place to press into or probe.
For home practice the rules follow directly. Use finger pads only, and keep them on the cheek — never on the eyeball, never on the eyelid margins, never up against the bony rim of the socket. Skip the point entirely during any active eye trouble — infection, inflammation, a stye, or days when the eye waters and burns — and over any broken, irritated, or newly treated skin, waiting until healing is complete or a clinician clears ordinary activity. Remove contact lenses before practising near the eyes. Stop at once on sharp, electric, or radiating sensation, and do not try again that day. Pregnant readers, and anyone living with an eye condition or recovering from facial surgery or injury, should 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 pressure routine — for sudden weakness or drooping of the face, new disturbance of vision, double vision, eye pain joined by changed sight, a twitching eyelid that persists or spreads, or facial pain that will not settle. These are the situations where hours matter and traditions must step aside. Persistent complaints belong with a licensed practitioner, medical or East Asian medical as suits the concern. The image of four whites brightening is a lovely inheritance; knowing when to leave the point alone and see a clinician is the wiser half of honouring it.
Sibai, Four Whites, sits on the upper cheek directly below the eye — the second point of the Stomach channel, which classical maps begin on the face before running down the front of the body to the second toe. Old practice reached for it when eyes reddened, itched, or clouded, and when the face pained or twitched. This guide covers finding it by touch and pressing it gently.
Cautions from the classical sources
- A needle placed too deep leaves dark bruising around the eye.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Sibai without knowing anything about cun?
- The dataset gives no distances for this point, and none are needed — the landmarks carry the whole address. Look straight ahead in a mirror with a relaxed, level gaze, find the centre of one pupil, then walk a fingertip straight down onto the cheek until the surface softens into a shallow depression. That dip, level with the pupil of a level stare, is the spot the record describes. Cun measurements simply encode the same landmark logic in proportional language, and here the landmarks suffice on their own.
- Is pressing a point so close to the eye actually safe?
- Gentle fingertip pressure held on the surface of the cheek is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, because it engages skin and superficial tissue far short of anything delicate. The recorded danger concerns deep professional techniques — the dataset warns that needling too deeply causes dark bruising around the eye — a category home acupressure never approaches. Keep the finger on the cheek, off the eyelid and the eye, work with clean hands on intact skin, and respect the stop signals: sharp or spreading sensation means finish immediately.
- What did classical practice use Sibai for?
- The traditional record lists itching and pain of red eyes, twitching of the eyelids, eye cloudiness, deviation of the mouth and eye, facial pain and spasm, headache, and dizziness. The name itself — Four Whites — mirrors the leading entries, since clarity returning to the region of the eye is exactly what the image celebrates. Those are traditional frameworks for understanding the body, documented for cultural context, not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does the Stomach channel have a point below the eye?
- Classical channel theory draws the Stomach pathway beginning on the face and running down the front of the body all the way to the second toe, with forty-five recorded stations. Because the road starts high, its earliest points serve the face — Sibai is the second of them. The same channel is an earth-element pathway classically associated with digestion, energy, and appetite, which puzzles newcomers until the map is seen whole: one long route, many territories, each point tending the ground beneath it.
- Can acupressure at Sibai replace seeing a doctor about my eyes or face?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not a diagnostic tool, and eyes especially forgive no delay: new vision changes, double vision, eye pain, sudden facial drooping, or a twitch that will not settle needs professional assessment promptly. Think of the two as different floors of the same building — daily self-care lives downstairs, and clinical medicine keeps the consulting room upstairs for when symptoms persist, worsen, or frighten you. Neither substitutes for the other.
Sources
- 01aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for ST2 Sibai — 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 and channel-course 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/st2/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/st2/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/st2/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "ST2",
"name": {
"en": "Sibai",
"gloss": "Four Whites",
"zh-Hant": "四白",
"zh-Hans": "四白"
},
"channel": {
"id": "ST",
"order": 2,
"of": 45
},
"location": {
"text": "Looking straight ahead, below the pupil, in the small dip on the cheekbone just under the rim of the eye socket."
},
"for": [
"red",
"itchy eyes",
"twitching eyelids",
"face pain"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle fingertip pressure on the bone, about a minute.",
"seconds": 60
},
"cautions": [
"Close to the eye: press on bone only, never on the eye."
],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/st2",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}