Not on a child’s head.
顱息 Luxi
“Skull Rest” · TH19
Hand Shaoyang · 19 of 23
Where. Behind the ear, two thirds of the way up the ear’s back curve from the hollow behind the earlobe.
For. Headache; ringing ears.
Press. Feather-light fingertip touch, about a minute each side.
Caution. Not on a child’s head.
顱息，在耳後間青絡脈按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Luxi Sits Behind the Ear
The dataset locates Luxi on the head, behind the ear, at the junction of the upper and middle thirds of the line that follows the rim of the ear between Jiaosun (TH20) and Yifeng (TH17). Every clause of that sentence is touchable. Jiaosun sits directly above the tip of the ear, inside the hairline; the classic way to find it is to fold the ear forward and let its apex mark the spot. Yifeng rests much lower, in the soft hollow behind the earlobe, between the jaw and the bony lump behind the ear. Between them runs a curved line tracing the ear’s outer rim — the helix — up the back of the ear. Divide that curve into three equal stretches, and Luxi stands where the topmost stretch meets the middle one: about one third of the way down from Jiaosun, level with the upper part of the ear itself.
The ground beneath the fingertip is friendlier than most of what this channel climbs. Behind the ear, skin and a thin layer of soft tissue lie close over the temporal bone, and the point hides in the hairline, usually under a fringe of hair. Bone announces itself plainly under a fingertip here — there is no deep corridor to wander into, which is exactly why light touch works so well for locating it. The hair asks only for patience: part it gently rather than pressing through it, and remember that freshly washed, still-damp strands cling and blur the landmarks. Dry hair, a mirror, and unhurried fingers make the whole search easier.
The neighbours turn the location into a small ladder. At the top stands Jiaosun, directly over the folded-forward ear apex. Below Luxi, at the junction of the middle and lower thirds of the same curve, sits Chimai (TH18), noticeably closer to the earlobe. At the bottom, Yifeng marks the hollow behind the lobe. Walking the four stations in order — apex, upper-middle junction, middle-lower junction, lobe-hollow — turns a vague search into simple bookkeeping, and comparing the two sides keeps it honest, since ears rarely sit at perfectly identical heights.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit upright, shoulders easy, jaw loose — a mirror helps but is not required. With your right hand, fold your left ear gently forward and note where its apex points; that height belongs to Jiaosun. Release the ear. Now lay your left index finger just behind the ear and trace the rim of the helix downward along the back of the ear toward the lobe, feeling the curve bend away from the skull. Imagine that traced line split into three equal lengths, and rest the pad of your index or middle finger at the end of the first length — one third of the way down from the apex height, behind the upper ear. Let it settle there. Swap hands and repeat the whole sequence on the other side.
Two quiet confirmations help before any real pressure begins. First, compare sides with feather-light touches: many people notice a faint, dull awareness at the true site and little sensation half a finger-width away. Second, check the neighbours: sliding a fingertip-width further down the curve should bring you toward Chimai’s territory, and gliding upward toward the apex should pass into Jiaosun’s. If you seem to jump straight from apex to lobe, you are probably following the wrong line — hug the rim of the ear itself rather than the flatter patch of scalp behind it. Hair parted, movements slow, and the search resolves itself.
Three slips account for nearly every lost search. Landing too low drops you level with the middle of the ear — Chimai’s ground. Creeping too high carries you above the apex toward Jiaosun. Drifting inward abandons the ear’s rim entirely and wanders onto open scalp, where the curve-line no longer means anything. Whenever doubt arises, fold the ear forward once more, release it, and retrace the rim from the top, counting the thirds slowly. The point has not moved; only the map in your head has folded.
Reading the Name: Skull Rest
The name is a two-character miniature. Lu 顱 means cranium — the bony vault that houses the brain; the character belongs to a family built on the head radical 頁, which stamps characters for things of the skull and face. Xi 息 means rest, repose, or quiet breath — the same character that closes the word for rest, 休息, and lives inside the word for breath-as-vitality, 氣息. Joined, Luxi reads as Skull Rest: the place where the cranium finds repose. It ranks among the gentlest images on this channel of gates and ravines — after the long climb from the ring finger, the tradition set aside a station named simply for stillness.
A traditional reading follows the head itself. Classical teaching gathered the yang channels densely across the head and face, and the strip behind the ear carried traffic between the neck and the temple, so names along it often speak of settling what stirs. Luxi’s neighbour just below, Chimai, pairs a character for convulsive movement with one for vessel — and classical accounts tied observations at this very stretch of behind-the-ear skin to restless, feverish little patients. Against that backdrop, a station named Rest reads less as decoration and more as intent: a post assigned the office of calming. Such is the grammar of the old names — architecture and weather, gates and resting places — each recording how a region was regarded.
Pinyin renders it Lúxī. The lu carries the second tone, the rising voice of a question asked aloud; the xi rides the first tone, high and flat and held — the sound of something settling after the rise. Say the name and the meaning rehearses itself: lift, then rest. The hanzi are compact enough to learn at a glance, and like so many point names the phrase rewards a moment spent reading it rightly: know what the characters say, and you already understand why the tradition placed a calming station here and how it asked to be approached — quietly.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: headache, deafness, tinnitus, infantile convulsions, vomiting, and panting breath with inability to lie down. The first three fit the geography neatly. The san jiao channel climbs from the ring finger up the outer arm, crosses the shoulder, rises the side of the neck, and wraps behind the ear toward the temple, so points along this stretch stood ready whenever the head’s side or the ears complained. Headache in the old records meant largely the one-sided sort reaching toward temple and ear; deafness and tinnitus covered a spectrum of muffled and ringing hearing, understood traditionally as qi and blood failing to travel their channel and nourish the ears.
The last three indications deserve honest translation, because none of them is a home-care matter. Infantile convulsions named fits and spasms in small children — a presentation classical physicians met often and took gravely; today a convulsion in a child is an emergency met with immediate medical help, never a pressure routine. Vomiting in these lists was a symptom category of many causes, and persistent vomiting now belongs with a clinician. Panting breath with inability to lie down describes breathlessness so severe that lying flat becomes impossible — a frightening picture in any century, and always a reason for prompt medical assessment. The record preserves why such entries clustered here; it offers no licence to meet them alone.
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 at all, reviews suggest effects are modest and context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. Hold the tradition as heritage; hold the boundaries as iron. On a page devoted to a point whose own record says do not needle, the second holding is the whole game.
Self-Care Acupressure at Home
With the point confirmed by the walkthrough, settle in: seated, spine tall but unforced. Part the hair over the spot with one hand and rest the pads of the index and middle fingers of the other upon it. Begin with contact alone for several slow breaths — no pressure yet, just presence. Then add small, slow circles, letting the skin glide over the bone beneath; the sensation to seek is pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharper. A comfortable home rhythm is about one minute per side, once or twice daily, matched where possible to long, unhurried exhales, then swapped so both sides receive the same courtesy.
Quality matters more than duration everywhere in this practice, and nowhere more than on the thin tissue over bone behind the ear. Warm your hands first — chilled fingertips make scalps flinch. Choose a quiet corner over a screen, because the session doubles as a pause: eyes soft, jaw released, inhale through the nose, and let the small circles ride the exhale out. People who keep such routines tend to anchor them to existing habits — after morning washing, beside an afternoon tea — because consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask for.
Treat the exercise as ninety seconds of attended quiet rather than a treatment with a goal. Across weeks you may notice the area feels less tender to the touch, that a midday pause leaves the jaw and temples a little looser, or simply that you spent a moment caring for a part of the body rarely thanked. All of that fits the honest scope of self-acupressure. Escalation does not: if curiosity pushes toward harder or longer pressure to force some outcome, answer it with gentleness or close the day’s practice. The point will be behind the ear tomorrow, exactly where the map says.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This point carries a firmer written warning than almost any neighbour on the channel, and it deserves to open every conversation about it. The licensed dataset cautions — as recorded in classical literature — do not needle. Whatever blend of anatomy and accumulated experience produced that instruction, the tradition preserved it deliberately and professional practice respects the record. For readers of a wellness page the relevance is indirect but clarifying: if classical sources declined to send needles here, this page certainly declines to suggest anything bolder than a fingertip. Self-care stays strictly on the surface — and strictly gentle — or it does not happen at all.
The practical rules follow from that posture. Use finger pads only — never knuckles, elbows, or tools. Keep every touch feather-light; the tissue here is thin, and the goal is contact, not force. Skip the point entirely over broken, irritated, or eruptive skin, over fresh scars, and during a feverish illness. Stop at once on sharp, electric, or radiating sensation, and do not try again that day. Pregnant readers, and anyone living with a seizure disorder, a neurological condition, or ongoing ear trouble, should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice. Children deserve special mention: never experiment on a child’s head, and given the convulsion associations this point’s record carries, any convulsion in a child calls for emergency care immediately — not acupressure.
And the rule above all rules 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 severe headache, sudden or progressive hearing change, ringing that will not settle, dizziness, repeated vomiting, breathlessness, any convulsion, or anything that frightens you. Persistent symptoms belong with a licensed practitioner, physician or East Asian medicine provider as the complaint suggests. Skull Rest earns its name best when it is treated as the old name implies: a quiet station met quietly, with the serious business of health left to those trained for it.
Luxi — Skull Rest — sits behind the upper ear, where the ear’s outer rim climbs toward the hairline. Classical practice reached for it when headache or ringing ears troubled someone, and its record carries a firm instruction: classical literature says do not needle here. This guide walks through finding it by touch and pressing it gently, with the boundaries held firmly in view.
Cautions from the classical sources
- Not to be needled, per the classical texts.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Luxi without memorising measurements?
- Use the ear itself as the map. Fold the ear forward to mark the apex height, release it, then trace the rim of the ear — the helix — down the back of the ear toward the lobe. Split that traced curve into three equal stretches and rest your fingertip where the first meets the second, behind the upper ear. No measuring system is required; the proportional language of the classical location simply encodes the same landmark sequence.
- Classical literature says this point should not be needled — is pressing it safe?
- The recorded caution addresses professional needling, a technique this page reports rather than teaches, and home acupressure operates in different territory altogether: skin-level fingertip contact, far short of any procedure. Even so, this page keeps its posture conservative — feather-light touch only, no tools, short sessions, and immediate stopping on any sharp sensation. If you prefer maximum caution, simple light palpation and quiet contact carry nearly everything a wellness practice has to offer here.
- What did classical practice use Luxi for?
- The traditional record lists headache, deafness, tinnitus, infantile convulsions, vomiting, and panting breath with inability to lie down. The head-side and ear entries follow the channel’s path behind the ear toward the temple; the graver entries reflect the disease world of another era. These are frameworks for understanding old practice, documented for context — not evidence-backed treatment claims, and not invitations to self-treat serious symptoms.
- Why does a point behind the ear belong to the san jiao channel?
- Classical channel theory draws the pathway beginning at the ring finger, climbing the outer arm, crossing the shoulder, rising the side of the neck, and wrapping behind the ear before finishing near the outer eyebrow. The behind-the-ear points form the route’s summit stretch. Pairing matters too: the san jiao channel is classically paired with the pericardium channel, and the two together shaped the tradition’s reasoning about heat, the ears, and the head’s side.
- When should I see a doctor instead of pressing on?
- Whenever the body raises a proper flag. Sudden severe headache, sudden or worsening hearing change, persistent ringing or dizziness, repeated vomiting, breathlessness, any convulsion — especially in a child — and anything that frightens you all call for prompt professional assessment, not longer self-care experiments. Daily acupressure and clinical medicine serve different moments; knowing which door to walk through is itself a health skill, and on this point the door to choose is usually the clinic’s.
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 TH19 Luxi — location, actions, and caution 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/th19/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/th19/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/th19/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "TH19",
"name": {
"en": "Luxi",
"gloss": "Skull Rest",
"zh-Hant": "顱息",
"zh-Hans": "颅息"
},
"channel": {
"id": "TH",
"order": 19,
"of": 23
},
"location": {
"text": "Behind the ear, two thirds of the way up the ear’s back curve from the hollow behind the earlobe."
},
"for": [
"headache",
"ringing ears"
],
"press": {
"text": "Feather-light fingertip touch, about a minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [
"Not on a child’s head."
],
"source": "Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing, book 3",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/th19",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-24"
}