Never press firmly on the pulse at the temple.
耳和髎 Erheliao
“Ear Harmony Crevice” · TH22
Hand Shaoyang · 22 of 23
Where. In front of the top of the ear, at the back edge of the temple hairline, just behind the pulse you feel there.
For. Headache; ringing ears; a swollen cheek.
Press. A light fingertip touch, about a minute each side.
Caution. Never press firmly on the pulse at the temple.
和髎二穴，在耳前兌髮下橫動脈，手少陽脈氣所發按 · Press with me
Six slow breaths
About a minute. Press as you breathe out, ease as you breathe in.
鄰 · Neighbouring leaves
Where Erheliao Sits at the Temple Hairline
The dataset places Erheliao on the side of the head, at the posterior border of the temple hairline, anterior to the root of the ear, on the posterior side of the superficial temporal artery. Every phrase earns its keep. The side of the head means the temple region, the curved wall between eye and ear. The posterior border of the temple hairline locates the point along the line where scalp hair gives way to bare skin, on its rearward edge. Anterior to the root of the ear places it in front of the spot where the ear cartilage joins the head. Notice what is absent: unlike many recorded locations, this one offers no counted distances at all — no cun from this landmark or that. The tradition hands you a map made entirely of touchable features, which suits this crowded corner of the head, where every structure sits close to every other.
The last landmark deserves a pause, because it is a blood vessel. The superficial temporal artery is the vessel many people can feel beating just in front of the upper ear, and sometimes see pulsing at the temple during exercise or stress. It runs upward through the temple region, close beneath the skin, carrying the pulse you may have noticed while laying your head sideways on a pillow. The recorded location puts Erheliao immediately behind that vessel — on its scalp-facing side. This geography shapes everything about safe practice here: a living pipeline runs close beneath the skin of the search area, so the fingers that explore it should move like readers tracing print, never like thumbs kneading dough. Finding the beat is genuinely helpful — it is the most reliable landmark in the neighbourhood — but the aim is always to rest beside it, lightly, not upon it.
The company the point keeps helps orientation. The san jiao channel, in the classical account, begins at the ring finger, climbs the outer arm, crosses the shoulder, and arrives at last at the temple side of the head — and Erheliao is the twenty-second station on that journey. Just below it, still in front of the ear, sits Ermen (TH21), whose recorded location lies anterior to the ear at the level of the jaw joint. Ahead, the line follows the hairline forward to finish at Sizhukong (TH23), in the depression at the outer end of the eyebrow. The channel’s name, san jiao, refers traditionally to three regions of the trunk treated as one coordinated system. Knowing the route turns an isolated dot into a station on a road: if your finger rests somewhere along the hairline between the ear and the eyebrow-end, you are standing in the right neighbourhood.
A Self-Palpation Walkthrough
Sit comfortably upright and let the shoulders drop, then work on one side at a time. First find the root of the ear: trace the firm curve of ear cartilage up and back until it merges into the head. From there, slide your fingertip forward into the strip of skin between the ear and the temple hairline. Now search gently with two or three fingertip pads for the faint, quick beat of the superficial temporal artery — most people find it without difficulty a little above and in front of the ear root. Once you hold that beat under a resting pad, ease the pad slightly backward, toward the hair, until it rests just off the pulse. Settle it there at the rearward edge of the temple hairline: that quiet patch of skin behind the vessel is where Erheliao lives.
A few confirmations help before any pressing begins. Keep the touch feather-light and compare sides: many people register a faint, dull awareness at the true point and little sensation a thumb-width away. If hair covers the area, part it rather than pressing through it — the landmarks need bare skin to speak. Breathe slowly and let the jaw hang loose, because clenching tightens the muscles that cross this region and blurs the picture. The pulse itself should remain comfortably perceptible under or beside your fingertip; if pressure dims it, you are leaning too hard, so lighten until it returns. When both sides have been located, glance at symmetry: the points should sit at mirror-image heights relative to each ear and hairline, and a noticeable mismatch usually means one search drifted too far up into the scalp or too far down toward the earlobe.
The classic slips are few and worth naming. The commonest is pressing squarely on the beat instead of settling behind it — easy to locate, uncomfortable to press, and unnecessary besides. The second is hunting too high: the hairline curves back over the temple, and it is tempting to wander deep into scalp hair chasing it, when the recorded position keeps to the hairline’s rearward edge above the ear root. The third is confusing Erheliao with its lower neighbour Ermen, which waits farther down, tucked in front of the ear itself. Hold to the pads-only rule throughout: no probing with fingernails, no massage devices, nothing that concentrates force into a point. If everything feels ambiguous, release, take three slow breaths, and begin again from the ear root — the sequence is short enough to repeat calmly as many times as needed.
Reading the Name: Ear Harmony Crevice
The characters tell a compact story. Er 耳 means ear — an ancient pictograph whose earliest forms sketch the organ itself — and it reads today with the dipping-rising third tone: ěr. He 和 carries the sense of harmony, blending, things fitting together pleasantly; pronounced hé, it takes the rising second tone. Liao 髎 names a hollow or crevice in bone — the old anatomical vocabulary for those soft gaps and seams where hard architecture meets softer passage; it is spoken liáo on the rising second tone. Joined, the name describes a bone-hollow by the ear where harmony gathers: Erheliao, the Ear Harmony Crevice.
Harmony is a generous word in Chinese thought, and its placement beside the ear invites a traditional reading. Classical texts describe the side of the head as thoroughfare country — the ear region is depicted as a crossing point for several channel pathways travelling to and from the face and the head. Within that picture the san jiao channel sweeps up the outer arm to finish at the temple, and this point stands near the top of its climb, where the line rounds the ear. Naming a point for harmony at such a junction evokes the old image of tuning: strands arriving from everywhere, meeting at one quiet seam, and being brought into agreement. The name reads less like a promise than a portrait of what the tradition imagined happening there.
Said aloud, the name is Erheliao, written in hanzi as 耳和髎, and the three characters reward a moment of looking. The crevice suffix links this point into a family: across the body, points called liao mark soft hollows against bone — at the face, the sacrum, the hip — places where a fingertip settles into a seam rather than onto a plane. Here the seam belongs to the meeting of ear, hairline, and temple bone. As with gates, pools, and valleys elsewhere on the channels, the metaphor does practical work: it tells you what terrain to expect under the finger, and it explains why the old authors bothered naming this unassuming patch of skin at all.
Traditional Indications, Explained
The recorded indications read: headache, tinnitus, lockjaw, swelling of the cheek, deviation of the mouth, and convulsions. Take them in their traditional setting. Headache at the temple and side of the head was naturally approached along the channel that crosses that very territory, and classical practice reached for points along the route when such pain visited. Tinnitus, in the traditional frame, was understood as disturbance in the clear flow reaching the ear — qi and blood failing to arrive quietly — so points near the ear were gathered into the response. Framed as tradition rather than promise, these are the situations in which the old literature lists Erheliao among the points consulted, not outcomes promised for touching it.
The middle group — lockjaw, swelling of the cheek, deviation of the mouth — belongs to the classical catalogue of face-and-jaw complaints for which points around the ear and cheek were customarily consulted. Lockjaw meant difficulty opening the jaw; swelling of the cheek covered the visible puffiness the old records described; deviation of the mouth referred to the pulling of the features toward one side, grouped by classical authors among stroke-related and facial-paralysis patterns. Convulsions stand apart: they belong to the historical emergency category, and their presence on the list tells us how the ancients filed this point amid grave illness, not anything a self-massage routine could or should attempt. Modern readers should meet all of these as documentary history — the map of an older medicine’s thinking.
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 context-dependent, and evidence specific to any single point remains thin. The safety side matters more here than usual, because several listed indications are themselves warning signs in modern terms. A sudden severe headache, a mouth or face newly pulled to one side, weakness or numbness, trouble speaking, a seizure, or new ringing in one ear alongside muffled hearing — each calls for urgent medical assessment, promptly, not a pressure session. Persistent lesser versions — nagging temple headaches, ongoing tinnitus, a jaw that clicks or catches — belong with a licensed practitioner for proper evaluation.
Gentle Acupressure at Home
With the point found by the walkthrough above, settle in: seated, spine easy, shoulders heavy, jaw unclenched. Rest the pads of the index and middle fingers — never the tips, never a knuckle — on the spot just behind the temporal beat. Begin with contact alone for a few slow breaths, then add small, unhurried circles, letting the skin travel over the tissue beneath rather than dragging against it. Aim the effort at a pleasant dullness or mild warmth, never sharpness, and coordinate the rhythm with the exhale so each circle rides the breath out. A workable home rhythm is one to three minutes per side, once or twice daily. Swap hands, repeat on the other side, and keep the sessions symmetrical — the head notices imbalance more readily than the limbs do.
Quality outranks duration here more than almost anywhere. This is delicate, well-travelled ground — vessel, nerve, and joint all pass nearby — so light, patient, regular touch fits, while force teaches nothing and risks bruising. Warm your hands first if they run cold, because chilled muscle guards. Choose a quiet corner over a screen and treat the minutes as a genuine pause: eyes soft, breath long, attention resting at one small point beside the ear. People who keep such routines do best anchoring them to something already in the day — morning washing, an afternoon break — since consistency, not intensity, is what self-care traditions actually ask. Two unhurried minutes daily, kept, outweigh ten heroic minutes twice a month.
Hold honest expectations. Across weeks of gentle practice you may notice the area feels less guarded, the ritual itself becomes a valued pocket of calm, or simply that you know your own head better. Any of these fits the true scope of self-acupressure. What does not fit is escalation: pressing harder, lingering longer, adding tools, or moving the practice onto the pulse itself to chase a stronger effect. Curiosity that pulls that way should be answered with gentleness — or with stopping for the day. This point rewards regularity and lightness, and it forgives neither grinding force nor impatient digging. When in doubt, do less; the tradition this page draws on never asked for more.
Cautions and Safe Practice
This point carries an explicit caution, and it deserves first position here. The licensed dataset records that moxibustion is not to be applied at this site, noting that the instruction comes down from classical literature. However the old authors weighed their reasons, the note tells us this spot was historically treated differently from everyday points — deliberate heat stimulation was set aside. For home practice the translation is simple: keep every heat-based tool away from the area. No moxa devices or warming gadgets aimed at the temple, no heated massagers, no hot-water bottles propped against the ear while you doze. Self-care at Erheliao is touch only — cool, dry, light fingertip contact — and anything beyond that belongs to trained professionals, not home routines.
Respect for the vessel shapes the rest. Never apply firm or sustained pressure directly on the temporal beat; never use massage guns, rollers, gua-sha edges, or knuckles anywhere in the temple region; keep fingernails out of the search entirely. Skip the practice altogether over broken or irritated skin, after recent injury or surgery around the ear or temple, during a feverish illness, and while any acute symptom is active. Sharp, electric, or radiating sensation means stop at once and do not retry that day. Pregnant readers, and anyone living with vascular conditions, bleeding disorders, or a history of facial pain syndromes, should consult a qualified practitioner before adding any new point practice at all.
And the wider rule stands over everything: this page is educational, and acupressure is self-care, not diagnosis or therapy. Seek urgent medical care — not a pressure routine — for a sudden severe or worst-ever headache, new facial droop or one-sided weakness, slurred speech, a seizure, new tinnitus with dizziness or hearing change, or a jaw that locks after injury. Persistent headaches, lasting tinnitus, or recurring jaw trouble deserve proper evaluation by a licensed clinician, whether medical or East Asian medical as suits the complaint. The harmony in this point’s name is a lovely image; the safest harmony it offers most people is between curiosity and caution — touch lightly, stop early, and hand anything persistent to a professional.
Erheliao — the Ear Harmony Crevice — sits where the temple hairline meets the ear, just behind the beat of the superficial temporal artery. Classical practice reached for it when headache, ringing ears, or a locked jaw troubled someone. This guide unpacks its location landmark by landmark and shows how to approach it with gentle fingertip care.
Cautions from the classical sources
- No moxibustion, per the classical texts.
Self-care limits
Frequently asked
- How do I find Erheliao without memorising anatomy?
- Use two landmarks only: the ear root and the pulse. Trace the ear cartilage to where it meets the head, step your fingertip slightly forward and upward into the hairline zone, then hunt gently for the faint beat of the temporal artery. Rest your pad just behind that beat, at the rearward edge of the temple hairline, and you have arrived. Every anatomical term in the formal location decodes to one of those touchable features.
- Is it safe to press near an artery?
- Light, surface-level fingertip contact is generally reasonable self-care for healthy adults, and the temporal vessel is among the easiest arteries to feel and therefore to respect. The rules that matter: settle beside the beat rather than on it, keep pressure at the level of pleasant dullness, avoid tools and sustained firm holds, and stop immediately on sharp or radiating sensation. Deep, pointed, or prolonged pressure over any artery is never part of home practice.
- Why does the record advise against moxibustion here?
- The dataset preserves a note from classical literature instructing that moxibustion not be applied at this point — a decision the old authors made for reasons their texts do not spell out in this entry. We repeat the caution as recorded rather than reinterpret it. For home purposes the practical takeaway is straightforward: this page recommends touch only, so heat tools stay outside the routine regardless.
- What did tradition use Erheliao for?
- The recorded list covers headache, tinnitus, lockjaw, swelling of the cheek, deviation of the mouth, and convulsions. These are entries from the historical record — the situations where classical practice considered the point — documented for cultural understanding, not evidence-backed treatment claims. Several of the listed conditions are modern warning signs in their sudden forms, which is why the safety guidance on this page leans conservative.
- Can pressing this point replace seeing a doctor about headaches or tinnitus?
- No. Self-acupressure is comfort practice, not assessment. New, severe, one-sided, or worsening symptoms need professional evaluation promptly, and persistent ones — recurring temple headache, ongoing ringing, a catching jaw — merit a proper clinical look as well. Treat the two as neighbours rather than substitutes: daily gentle care lives on your side of the door, and diagnosis and treatment live on the clinician’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, etymology, and channel context.
- 03aijiu-mpvue (MIT License) licensed dataset, entry for TH22 Erheliao — location, point class, 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/th22/leaf.json
- GET /zh-hant/points/th22/leaf.json
- GET /zh-cn/points/th22/leaf.json
- /llms.txt — the index of every leaf
- JSON-LD in the page: MedicalWebPage, MedicalEntity and FAQPage
{
"id": "TH22",
"name": {
"en": "Erheliao",
"gloss": "Ear Harmony Crevice",
"zh-Hant": "耳和髎",
"zh-Hans": "耳和髎"
},
"channel": {
"id": "TH",
"order": 22,
"of": 23
},
"location": {
"text": "In front of the top of the ear, at the back edge of the temple hairline, just behind the pulse you feel there."
},
"for": [
"headache",
"ringing ears",
"a swollen cheek"
],
"press": {
"text": "A light fingertip touch, about a minute each side.",
"seconds": 60,
"sides": "both"
},
"cautions": [
"Never press firmly on the pulse at the temple."
],
"source": "Tongren Shuxue Zhenjiu Tujing, middle book",
"url": "https://acupoints.com/en/points/th22",
"lastReviewed": "2026-08-25"
}