下關 Xiaguan
“Lower Pass” · ST7
Foot Yangming · 7 of 45 · crossing-point
Where. In front of the ear, in the hollow under the cheekbone arch; it closes when you open the mouth.
For. Jaw pain, toothache, ringing ears.
Press. Gentle pressure with the mouth closed, about a minute each side.
下關，在客主人下，耳前動脈下空下廉，合口有孔，張口即閉按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Xiaguan Sits in Front of the Ear
The dataset places Xiaguan in front of the ear, in the depression formed between the zygomatic arch and the mandibular notch, and adds a delightful detail: the depression closes when the mouth is opened. Translated into everyday anatomy, the zygomatic arch is the cheekbone — the hard bony bridge running from the cheek’s prominence back toward the ear. The mandibular notch is a shallow concavity on the upper edge of the lower-jaw bone, just ahead of the rounded knob that forms the jaw joint. The hollow in question sits beneath the arch’s lower border, immediately in front of that knob — and it behaves like a little drawbridge. With the jaw relaxed and the mouth nearly closed, a fingertip rests in a soft depression; open the mouth and the knob glides forward under the finger, filling the space until the hollow vanishes.
What lies under the skin here deserves a gentle hand. The face carries almost no padding: skin lies close over the thin tissues of expression and chewing, and this particular neighborhood gathers the working end of the jaw — the capsule of the joint and the gathered fibers of the muscles that close the mouth all lie within a thumb’s breadth of the surface. The joint itself performs thousands of movements a day, in speaking, chewing, swallowing, and all the small clenches nobody notices. A site this busy and this superficial asks for patience rather than power, and rewards it: the landmarks are clear, the feedback immediate, and the least forceful touch is the one that learns the most.
The point is symmetrical — one on each side, mirrored across the midline — and locating the pair together improves accuracy. The two hollows should feel alike; any obvious difference usually means a fingertip has drifted upward onto the arch, backward onto the joint, or downward into the fuller flesh of the cheek. The open-and-close test protects against all three slips at once, which is why classical location texts treasured dynamic landmarks of this kind: the point announces itself by moving.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Begin with clean hands and a well-lit mirror, seated comfortably with elbows resting on a table so the arms stay steady. First find the tragus — the small flap of cartilage guarding the opening of the ear canal. Rest the pad of your index finger directly in front of it, then glide upward and backward until you feel the hard ridge of the cheekbone running under the skin. Walk your fingertip along that ridge toward the ear until you reach its earward end, then settle the pad just beneath the arch’s lowest border, immediately ahead of the ear — that is the neighborhood the dataset describes.
Now confirm the placement with movement. Slowly open and close the mouth a few times. With the jaw released and the lips barely parted, your fingertip should rest in a shallow hollow. As the mouth opens wider, feel the rounded knob of the jaw slide forward beneath the finger until the hollow disappears; close again and feel it quietly return. Repeat the sequence on the other side and compare: the two spots should behave identically. Many people notice a faint dull awareness or mild tenderness right there, particularly after long days of talking, concentration, or unconscious jaw clenching — a sensation worth noting gently, not chasing.
The classic slips are predictable. Some fingers climb onto the arch itself and find only bone, no hollow. Others drift backward onto the joint knob and receive an uncomfortably vivid lesson in how it grinds. A third group slides down and forward into the fuller bulge of the cheek — the territory of the neighboring point Jiache (ST6), a different address entirely. And some search with the mouth hanging wide open, hunting for a hollow that has already closed. The correction is always the same short sequence: close the mouth, find the arch, drop beneath its lower border, just in front of the ear.
Reading the Name: Lower Pass
The name reads plainly once the characters are known. Xia 下 means below or lower. Guan 關 means a pass or gate — a mountain barrier, a town gate, and by extension a hinge, the pivot on which a door swings. Together, Xiaguan is the Lower Pass. Chinese idiom still speaks of the yaguan — the tooth-gate — for the hinged jaw, and lockjaw is literally a gate that will not open; the jaw’s hinge sits precisely in this region, and the point stands at the lower approach to that great daily gate, tucked beneath the cheekbone arch. Names of this kind were never decoration: they told the student where the body kept its doors, and therefore where the tradition knocked.
Classical naming gives this pass a companion. Another point answers to the name Shangguan — the Upper Pass — set along the upper border of the same arch, so the pair divides the cheekbone between them like two stations on a mountain road. The catalogue adds a further credential: Xiaguan is recorded as a crossing-point, and classical accounts describe more than one channel line gathering in this meeting-ground of jaw, cheek, and ear. That convergence goes far toward explaining why one small hollow carried so broad a portfolio of recorded uses, reaching from the teeth to the ear itself.
Pinyin writes the name Xiàguān, with a falling fourth tone on xia and a level first tone on guan. The hanzi pair 下關 memorises at a glance. Where storehouse names invite you to picture wealth gathered into one room, gate-and-pass names invite you to picture movement controlled at one narrow place — arrivals checked, departures released. Tradition treated this spot as exactly such a checkpoint, where the face’s busy thoroughfares narrow to pass the jaw. The image does explanatory work: it is why a point standing outside the ear could plausibly share a discussion of toothache in one breath and ear complaints in the next.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: temporomandibular arthritis, trigeminal neuralgia, toothache, deviation of the mouth and eye, deafness, tinnitus, discharge from the ear, and dizziness. Read as tradition rather than promise, the list sorts itself into three neighborhoods. First come the jaw and teeth: the old records describe stiffness and complaint at the jaw’s hinge and difficulty in chewing — states the modern name temporomandibular arthritis now labels — alongside toothache, which classical practice approached at points along the jaw. Trigeminal neuralgia, the sudden lightning-like facial pain that strikes along cheek and jaw, was likewise addressed at points where the facial channels cross, and this recorded crossing-point stood naturally in those discussions.
Second comes the face: deviation of the mouth and eye, the pulling of the features to one side described in classical records, traditionally approached where multiple channel lines meet — and a crossing-point at the corner of jaw and cheek belonged squarely in that company. Third come the ear complaints: deafness, ringing tinnitus, and discharge from the ear. Here the reasoning is almost topographical: the point stands at the ear’s very doorstep, and classical logic held that a point posted at a sense organ’s gate was a natural address for that organ’s disharmonies. Dizziness rounds out the list as a head-region concern, and classical teaching counted the head a favoured meeting ground of the body’s yang channels.
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 pressure at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. Anyone living with persistent facial pain, jaw symptoms, or changes in hearing deserves proper clinical eyes first; hold the tradition lightly, and hold the safety rules firmly.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With both points located by the walkthrough above, settle in: seated at a table, elbows supported, shoulders heavy, jaw deliberately soft. Curl your index and middle fingers together and rest the pads — never the tips — on the hollows. Begin with contact alone for a few slow breaths, then add small, gentle circles, letting the skin glide over the tissue beneath rather than grinding against the bone. Pressure should register as pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharpness. A common home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily, matched where possible to slow exhales; finish by giving the other side the same unhurried attention so the two sessions stay symmetrical.
This location rewards one particular piece of finesse: letting the jaw hang loose while you press. Most people carry a low, constant clench they never notice, and the moment of finding these hollows is a perfect prompt to release it — let the back teeth part a few millimeters, drop the shoulders, and feel the difference under your fingertips. Quality matters more than duration throughout: light, patient, regularly repeated contact fits the wellness register this page practises, while hard jabbing buys soreness beside a joint that already works overtime. Many people anchor the minute or two to an existing habit — morning washing, an afternoon step away from the screen — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for.
Treat the exercise as a small ceremony of attention rather than a treatment session. Across weeks you may notice the jaw feels less guarded, that you catch yourself clenching sooner, or simply that you spent ninety seconds attending to a part of the body that serves you silently all day. Every one of those outcomes fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation — pressing harder, longer, or probing the joint to force a result. When curiosity pulls that way, return to gentleness or simply stop for the day; the pass will still be there tomorrow.
Cautions and Safe Practice
The licensed record for this point is notably quiet: the dataset records no specific caution for Xiaguan. Beside neighbors whose files warn of deep structures, that silence is striking — but it is not an invitation to force. The rules at this site are written by the geography itself: minimal padding over a joint that never truly rests, and the opening of the ear within a fingertip’s reach. Gentle surface contact respects all of it; anything sharper disrespects it. Techniques that work below the skin belong to trained professional hands, and home practice keeps to the surface, where it has always been enough.
The practical disciplines are short. Work with clean hands and intact skin only — skip the point over cuts, flaring acne, sunburn, or any irritated patch. Never press into the ear canal, and set the practice aside entirely during acute ear pain, especially when joined by fever or discharge, which call for prompt clinical review rather than pressing. Stop at once on sharp, electric, or spreading sensation; lightning-like facial pain in particular is a symptom to have assessed professionally, never one to press through. If locating or touching the point reproduces jaw pain, clicking, or a catching sensation, stop and let a qualified examiner meet the joint properly. Pregnant readers, and anyone living with a diagnosed jaw-joint disorder or recovering from dental or facial procedures, should ask 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 professional care — medical, dental, or East Asian medical as suits the complaint — for toothache joined by facial swelling or fever, facial pain that is severe, sudden, or worsening, any change in hearing, discharge from the ear, injury to the jaw, or a mouth that will not comfortably open or close. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner. The pass-and-gate imagery is charming, but the soundest gift this gateway offers most people is a kinder acquaintance with their own jaw, pressed lightly or not at all.
Xiaguan, the Lower Pass, waits in the small hollow directly in front of the ear, beneath the arch of the cheekbone — the doorway of the jaw joint. Classical practice reached for it when teeth, jaw, cheek, or ear raised a complaint. This guide walks through finding that hollow with the open-and-close test, and pressing it gently at home.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Xiaguan without learning any anatomy?
- Use the ear and the mouth as your whole map. Place a fingertip just in front of the small cartilage flap at the ear opening, slide upward and backward onto the hard cheekbone ridge, and walk to the earward end of that ridge. With your mouth nearly closed you should feel a soft hollow just beneath it — and when you open your mouth, the hollow fills and vanishes under your finger. That disappearing act is the point confirming itself; the dataset’s description ends with exactly this detail.
- Is pressing in front of the ear safe?
- Light fingertip contact on intact skin is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, and the open-and-close test means you always know exactly where you are. The main disciplines are restraint and hygiene: finger pads rather than tips, never into the ear canal, nothing over broken skin, and a full stop on sharp or spreading sensation. If pressing provokes jaw pain, clicking, or locking, take the hint and let a professional examine the joint.
- What did classical practice use Xiaguan for?
- The traditional record lists temporomandibular arthritis, trigeminal neuralgia, toothache, deviation of the mouth and eye, deafness, tinnitus, discharge from the ear, and dizziness. The catalogue also records it as a crossing-point, which classical commentary connects with the breadth of that portfolio — face, teeth, jaw, and ear all meet in one small hollow. Those are traditional frameworks for understanding the body, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims.
- Why does a Stomach channel point stand beside the ear?
- Classical channel theory draws the Stomach pathway beginning high on the face and running down the front of the body all the way to the second toe, so its earliest stations are exactly these facial ones — and Xiaguan, numbered seventh, sits among them. Classical accounts also describe other channel lines gathering in this neighborhood, which is why the catalogue flags it as a crossing-point. An early station at a busy junction made the spot a natural focus of traditional face-and-jaw practice.
- Can pressing Xiaguan replace seeing a dentist or doctor about jaw pain?
- No. Self-acupressure is a comfort practice, not a diagnostic tool. Jaw pain with swelling or fever, pain that is severe or worsening, clicking or locking that interferes with eating, any change in hearing, or a recent injury all deserve professional assessment promptly. Picture the two as different floors of one building: downstairs lives daily self-care, upstairs is the consulting room you visit when symptoms persist — and neither floor substitutes for the other.
Sources
- 01aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for ST7 Xiaguan — location, point class, and action 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/st7/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/st7/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/st7/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "ST7",
"name": {
"en": "Xiaguan",
"gloss": "Lower Pass",
"zh-Hant": "下關",
"zh-Hans": "下关"
},
"channel": {
"id": "ST",
"order": 7,
"of": 45
},
"location": {
"text": "In front of the ear, in the hollow under the cheekbone arch; it closes when you open the mouth."
},
"for": [
"jaw pain",
"toothache",
"ringing ears"
],
"press": {
"text": "Gentle pressure with the mouth closed, about a minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/st7",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}