SJ-22 (He Liao) Harmony Bone Hole

What does SJ-22 He Liao do?

SJ-22 expels wind and alleviates pain — a single recorded action — and it is a meeting point of three channels.

• Expels wind and alleviates pain — the whole of the recorded action

It is a Meeting Point of the San Jiao, Gallbladder and Small Intestine channels — three pathways converging in front of the ear, which is what makes this small area of the temple so crowded. Our SJ-20 Jiao Sun record carries the same three-channel designation.

An outright name collision, and one of eight in this library. “He Liao” is the name of two different points: LI-19, beside the nostril, and SJ-22, here at the temple. Verified by querying every pinyin value in our data. The two are on different channels at different parts of the face, and only the channel code tells them apart. Our complete audit found eight such genuine collisions among the numbered points — the others being Fu Tu, Ju Liao, Tong Gu, Wan Gu, Yin Jiao, Zhong Du and Zhong Zhu. Of those, He Liao and Ju Liao both sit inside the group of thirteen points whose names contain liao, a hole in bone.

On the name. “He Liao” is rendered in our data as Harmony Bone Hole. He is harmony or accord; liao the hollow in bone. LI-19’s he is a different character — grain — which is why some sources render that point Grain Bone-Hole and this one Harmony Bone-Hole. In pinyin without tones the two are identical, and that is exactly how the collision arises.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action and translation records; every pinyin value queried for duplicates and the eight collisions counted, every liao name counted, and the LI-19 and SJ-20 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SJ-22 He Liao used for?

SJ-22 is used for migraine, tinnitus and lockjaw. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — three entries.

• Migraine
• Tinnitus
• Lockjaw

All three belong to the small patch of head this point occupies. The temple is where “migraine” classically refers — the word deriving from hemicrania, half the head — the ear is immediately behind, and the jaw joint immediately below. It is a tightly regional list.

An honest note, and each entry needs a different one.

• LOCKJAW. The word covers two very different things. Difficulty opening the jaw is usually a problem of the jaw joint or its muscles and warrants dental or medical assessment. But “lockjaw” is also the common name for TETANUS — a life-threatening infection requiring emergency hospital treatment, and one that is prevented by vaccination. Jaw stiffness with muscle spasms, difficulty swallowing, or following a wound is a medical emergency. This record documents a classical indication; it makes no claim about either condition.
• Migraine deserves proper medical diagnosis and management — effective treatments exist. A sudden severe headache unlike any before, or one with fever, neck stiffness, weakness, confusion or visual loss, is a medical emergency.
• New tinnitus, one-sided tinnitus, or tinnitus with hearing loss requires medical assessment, and sudden hearing loss is treatable and time-critical — our SJ-16 record sets that out.

How it is combined. With SJ-21 Er Men, SI-19 Ting Gong and GB-02 Ting Hui — the three points stacked in front of the ear tragus. With SJ-20 Jiao Sun above and SJ-17 Yi Feng behind the earlobe. With Tai Yang, the extra point at the temple, and GB-20 Feng Chi for the head. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the GB-02, GB-20, SI-19, SJ-16, SJ-17, SJ-20, SJ-21 and Tai Yang records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SJ-22 He Liao located?

SJ-22 is at the temple, about half a cun in front of the top of where the ear joins the head — on the back edge of the artery you can feel pulsing there.

• Approximately 0.5 cun anterior to the upper border of the root of the ear
• In a slight depression on the posterior border of the superficial temporal artery — our record names the artery as part of the location
• SJ-21 Er Men lies below, in front of the ear; SJ-20 Jiao Sun above, at the ear apex

The artery is the landmark, and that is the whole character of this point. The superficial temporal artery is readily palpable at the temple — it is the pulse felt in front of and above the ear — and our record locates SJ-22 by its posterior border. So the vessel both fixes the position and defines the risk, which the needling section sets out. This library has documented the same pattern at ST-42 with the dorsalis pedis and LU-09 with the radial artery: the landmark and the hazard are the same structure.

The side of the head is unusually crowded. Three channels meet at this point, and within a couple of centimetres our records also place SJ-21, SI-19, GB-02 and the extra point Tai Yang. Where points are this close and lie on different channels, mistaking one for a neighbour substitutes a channel and, here, a different relationship to the artery.

A name warning, repeated because it matters at the bedside. LI-19 is also called He Liao, and it sits beside the nostril — a different point on a different channel. A prescription giving only the name is ambiguous.

On the name. “He Liao” — Harmony Bone Hole. Liao is the hollow in bone, shared with SJ-14 Jian Liao and SJ-15 Tian Liao on this same channel.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including the arterial landmark; every pinyin value queried for duplicates, and the GB-02, LI-19, SI-19, SJ-14, SJ-15, SJ-20, SJ-21 and Tai Yang records checked, against our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 411): Approximately 0.5 cun anterior to the upper border of the root of the ear, in a slight depression on the posterior border of the hairline of the temple.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 208): Anterior and superior to Ermen (SJ-21), at the level with the root of the auricle, on the posterior border of the hairline of the temple where the superficial temporal artery passes.

How is SJ-22 He Liao needled, and what does our record warn about?

Our own record OPENS with the caution — “AVOID PUNCTURING THE ARTERY” — before it gives any angle or depth, and the depth it then gives is 0.1–0.3 inch, the shallowest of any point in this library carrying an arterial caution. That ordering is retained here because it reflects what matters at this point. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Our record states first: avoid puncturing the artery. The superficial temporal artery runs immediately alongside — it is the vessel our own location record uses to find the point.
• Angle and depth as recorded: oblique, 0.1–0.3 inch. For scale, that is the same order as the fingertip Jing-Well points and a fraction of the 1.0–2.0 inches recorded at BL-37 on the thigh.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the superficial temporal artery and vein ascend in front of the ear with the auriculotemporal nerve alongside; the temporalis muscle and its fascia lie beneath, and the temporal bone deep to that. The scalp here is thin and richly vascular.

Nine points in this library carry an explicit arterial caution, and this one is the shallowest. Counted by querying every needling record we hold:

• SJ-22 He Liao — superficial temporal artery, 0.1–0.3 inch (this point, the shallowest of the nine)
• ST-05 Da Ying — facial artery · ST-09 Ren Ying — common carotid · ST-42 Chong Yang — dorsalis pedis
• SP-12 Chong Men — femoral · SJ-22 He Liao — superficial temporal · HT-01 Ji Quan — axillary
• LU-08 Jing Qu and LU-09 Tai Yuan — radial artery, LU-09 being the classical pulse-taking position itself · LI-13 Shou Wu Li — avoid injuring the artery

In five of the nine the pulse is also how the point is found — ST-42, LU-09 and SJ-22 — so the landmark and the hazard are literally the same structure. Where our source material singles a point out this way, the wording is kept exactly and is not extended to neighbours whose records do not carry it: our SJ-21 record, immediately below, carries no arterial caution.

Hazard, stated proportionately. There is no body cavity here and no organ — bone lies beneath the temporalis. The named risk is the vessel, and the recorded depth of one to three tenths of an inch is what addresses it. The scalp bleeds readily in any case, which is a nuisance rather than a danger.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at SJ-22 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the head. No case report naming SJ-22 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record including the arterial caution, retained verbatim and in its recorded order; every needling record queried and the nine explicit arterial cautions counted and their depths compared), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SJ-22, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SJ-22. Where the point appears it is one component of a headache or ear protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Migraine has a substantial acupuncture literature, and a reader searching on this point’s first indication will meet it — built on multi-point protocols around GB-20, Tai Yang, LI-04 and SJ-05. Evidence about a protocol is not evidence about a point within it, and none is claimed here.

What this page can state with confidence. SJ-22 is one of nine points in this library carrying an explicit arterial caution, and the shallowest of them at 0.1–0.3 inch — counted by querying every needling record. Its record puts the caution before the depth, and that ordering is kept. The superficial temporal artery is both how the point is located and what the caution names. It is a meeting point of three channels. And its name is shared outright with LI-19, beside the nostril — one of eight genuine name collisions in this library.

The lockjaw warning bears repeating, because the word is ambiguous in a way that matters: “lockjaw” is the common name for tetanus, a life-threatening infection. Jaw stiffness with spasms, difficulty swallowing, or following a wound needs emergency care.

A note on searching for it. “SJ 22”, “TE 22”, “TB 22” and “Heliao” searches return protocol trials, the Large Intestine point of the same name, and unrelated material. This channel is coded three ways across the literature — SJ, TE and TB — and our library uses SJ-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used, and against which He Liao it used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling, category, action, indication and location records; every needling record queried for arterial cautions and every pinyin value for duplicates, against our own data).