ST-02 (Si Bai) Four Whites

What does ST-02 Si Bai do?

ST-02 has a single recorded action — it eliminates wind, clears heat and benefits the eyes — and it sits directly over the infraorbital foramen, where a nerve emerges through the cheekbone. That anatomical fact explains both what the point is used for and why our own record cautions against deep needling.

• Eliminates wind, clears heat and benefits the eyes — the whole of the recorded action

Why the eye and the face together. The Stomach channel begins at ST-01 directly below the eye and runs down the face through ST-02 and ST-03 before reaching the jaw. Points on that first stretch carry eye and facial indications because that is where the channel is, and ST-02’s position at the infraorbital foramen puts it precisely where the infraorbital nerve supplies sensation to the lower eyelid, cheek and upper lip.

Its place among the eye points. This library distinguishes two classes, and the distinction matters: BL-01 Jing Ming, ST-01 Cheng Qi and Qiu Hou are the deep-orbit points, where the needle passes into the orbit beside the eyeball; BL-02 Zan Zhu, Yu Yao, GB-14 Yang Bai, SJ-23 Si Zhu Kong and ST-02 are the lighter periorbital class, on the bony rim rather than inside it. ST-02 belongs to the second group, and the deep-orbit considerations are not imported here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action and location records; the periorbital point classes queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is ST-02 Si Bai used for?

ST-02 is used for red, painful or itching eyes, for facial paralysis, for twitching eyelids and for facial pain. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Redness, pain and itching of the eye
• Facial paralysis
• Twitching of the eyelids
• Pain in the face

Facial pain is the indication that most repays the anatomy. ST-02 sits at the infraorbital foramen, and the infraorbital nerve is a branch of the maxillary division of the trigeminal — the nerve whose second division is involved in trigeminal neuralgia affecting the cheek. A point named in classical texts for facial pain sitting exactly on the emergence of that nerve is a correspondence worth noting, and it is stated here as a correspondence rather than a mechanism.

An honest note. Facial paralysis and persistent facial pain both require medical assessment — their causes range from self-limiting to serious. This record describes classical use and is not a suggestion that diagnosis be delayed. The same framing is applied on ST-07, SI-19 and SJ-17 in this library.

How it is combined. With ST-01 Cheng Qi directly above it, and ST-04 Di Cang and ST-06 Jia Che below for facial paralysis — our ST-06 record documents the classical through-needling between ST-04 and ST-06. With BL-02 Zan Zhu, Yu Yao and SJ-23 around the eye. With Qian Zheng, the extra point for facial deviation. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; ST-01, ST-04, ST-06, BL-02, Yu Yao, SJ-23 and Qian Zheng queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is ST-02 Si Bai located?

ST-02 is one cun directly below the pupil, in the small depression at the infraorbital foramen — located with the eyes looking straight ahead. The eyes-forward instruction is part of the location: with the gaze shifted, the pupil is no longer a reliable vertical reference.

• 1 cun below the pupil, eyes looking directly forwards
• At the infraorbital foramen — a genuine palpable depression in the cheekbone
• ST-01 Cheng Qi lies directly above it, between the eyeball and the orbital rim

This point has a real landmark, which is unusual on the face. Most facial points are located by proportional measurement from the pupil, the hairline or the corner of the mouth. ST-02 sits in a foramen — an actual hole in the bone — which can be felt. That makes it more reliably located than its neighbours, and it also explains the depth caution: a foramen is a passage for a nerve, and a needle directed into it is directed at that nerve.

On the name. “Si Bai” means Four Whites. The reading usually offered is that the point clears the vision so that brightness is seen in all four directions — a functional name pointing at the eye indication, like GB-37 Guang Ming (Bright Light) on the lower leg.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including the eyes-forward requirement; ST-01's position and GB-37's name queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 131): With the eyes looking directly forwards, this point is located 1 cun directly below the pupil, in the depression at the infraorbital foramen.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 145): Directly below the pupil, in the depression at the infraorbital foramen.

How is ST-02 Si Bai needled?

The standard texts record perpendicular insertion to roughly 0.2–0.3 inch — and our own record adds explicitly that IT IS NOT ADVISABLE TO PUNCTURE DEEPLY. That caution is reproduced here as it stands. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.2–0.3 inch — among the shallowest recorded depths on the face.
• Our own record states: it is not advisable to puncture deeply. Few points in this library carry a depth prohibition of their own; where one exists it is retained verbatim rather than paraphrased. Our GB-03 record carries a comparable one.
• Moxibustion: our record does not state it as applicable here, and none is asserted.
• Regional anatomy: the infraorbital foramen lies directly beneath, transmitting the infraorbital nerve, artery and vein — branches of the maxillary division of the trigeminal nerve and of the maxillary artery. The orbit and its contents lie above and behind the orbital rim.

Why the prohibition exists. A needle directed into a foramen is directed into a bony canal containing a nerve and vessels, with the orbital floor immediately above it. The recorded depth of two to three tenths of an inch keeps the needle in the soft tissue over the foramen rather than in it.

What is NOT claimed. ST-02 belongs to the lighter periorbital class, not the deep-orbit class. Our ST-01 record states that no study has measured depth at ST-01 and cites figures belonging to Qiu Hou and BL-01, each labelled as such; our BL-01 record notes that the only systematic review of severe periocular events named ST-01, Yu Yao and GB-01 as the injury sites. No study measuring a safe depth at ST-02 could be located, no figure is borrowed, and no case is attributed to this point.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record including the deep-puncture caution, retained verbatim; the ST-01 and BL-01 findings queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on ST-02, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates ST-02. Where the point appears it is one component of a facial-paralysis or eye protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Facial paralysis is where that caveat matters most on this channel. It has one of the larger acupuncture trial literatures, and the facial Stomach points appear in most of those protocols. Our ST-06 record cites a data-mining analysis of 1,695 studies in which ST-04 and GB-14 emerged as a top point pair at every stage — prescribing-frequency evidence, which describes what practitioners choose rather than what any single point does.

What this page can state with confidence. The anatomy, and what follows from it: ST-02 sits at the infraorbital foramen; the infraorbital nerve is a trigeminal branch supplying the cheek; our own record carries an explicit depth prohibition; and the point belongs to the lighter periorbital class rather than the deep-orbit one. All four are checkable, and together they tell a reader more that is useful than a research section could.

A note on searching for it. “ST 2” and “Sibai” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material matched on the code or on a surname — Sibai is a personal name. This library has discarded comparable matches throughout. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification, location and indication records; ST-06's data-mining finding and the periorbital classes queried from our own data).