GB-04 (Han Yan) Forehead Fullness

What does GB-04 Han Yan do?

GB-04 eliminates wind and clears heat, and it activates the channel and alleviates pain. It is the first of the four points on the quartered temporal line, and it carries much the longest indication list of them.

• Eliminates wind and clears heat
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain

It is a Meeting Point of the Gallbladder, San Jiao and Stomach channels — three pathways. Its neighbours GB-05 and GB-06 carry four, adding the Large Intestine, and GB-07 carries two. The temple is where the yang channels of the head converge, and these classifications record it point by point.

Its actions are near-identical to its neighbours’, and the page says so. Comparing our records, GB-05 and GB-06 carry these same two actions word for word as each other; GB-04 differs from them only in saying eliminates where they say expels. GB-07 alone breaks the pattern, recording wind but not heat, and naming the mouth and jaw. Four consecutive points on one line with almost one action list between them — disclosed rather than differentiated, as this library does across the BL-03 to BL-09 scalp run and at BL-31 and BL-34 on the sacrum.

On the name. “Han Yan” is rendered in our data as Forehead Fullness. Han carries the sense of containing or holding, and yan of pressing down or satiety — the readings offered vary, and our record does not settle the sense. Other renderings circulate; this page does not choose between them.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action and translation records; the GB-05, GB-06 and GB-07 action and category records compared word for word against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is GB-04 Han Yan used for?

GB-04 is used for migraine, vertigo, tinnitus, pain at the outer corner of the eye, toothache, convulsions and epilepsy. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — seven entries.

• Migraine
• Vertigo
• Tinnitus
• Pain in the outer canthus (the outer corner of the eye)
• Toothache
• Convulsion
• Epilepsy

This is much the longest list on the temporal run. Counted across our records: GB-04 seven, GB-05 three, GB-06 four, GB-07 five. And GB-04 is the only one of the four recording vertigo, tinnitus, convulsion or epilepsy — what the four share is migraine and outer-canthus pain, and everything beyond that is GB-04’s own. Where one point in an otherwise uniform run carries substantially more, this library counts and says so rather than leaving the impression they are interchangeable.

An honest note, and several entries need one.

• EPILEPSY REQUIRES MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS AND PRESCRIBED MANAGEMENT, and a first seizure, a prolonged seizure, or a seizure in a child is a MEDICAL EMERGENCY. This record documents a classical indication and makes no claim that acupuncture treats epilepsy or seizures.
• Migraine deserves proper medical diagnosis and management. A sudden severe headache unlike any before, or one with fever, neck stiffness, weakness, confusion or visual loss, is a MEDICAL EMERGENCY.
• Sudden vertigo with headache, double vision, weakness or slurred speech is a MEDICAL EMERGENCY. A red or painful eye requires assessment — some causes are sight-threatening. New or one-sided tinnitus requires assessment. Toothache with facial swelling and fever is a medical emergency.

And a caution the region demands though our record does not mention it. Temporal pain with scalp tenderness in an adult over about fifty — especially with jaw ache on chewing, or any visual change — can indicate giant cell arteritis, which threatens sight and is a medical emergency. These points sit directly over the temporal artery’s territory, which is why it is stated on every page of this run.

Why the outer eye corner, from the temple. The Gallbladder channel begins at GB-01 Tong Zi Liao, at the outer canthus, and runs from there around the temple. A point recorded for pain at the outer corner of the eye, a short distance from where its own channel starts, is the channel’s own logic.

How it is combined. With ST-08 Tou Wei above — the upper anchor of the line it sits on — and GB-05 below. With Tai Yang, the extra point at the temple, and GB-20 Feng Chi for the head. With LI-04 He Gu distally. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record, with the GB-04 to GB-07 lists counted and compared; the GB-01, GB-05, GB-06, GB-20, LI-04, ST-08 and Tai Yang records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is GB-04 Han Yan located?

GB-04 is in the temple within the hairline, one quarter of the way along the line from ST-08 Tou Wei down to GB-07 Qu Bin.

• In the temporal region, within the hairline
• One quarter of the distance between ST-08 Tou Wei and GB-07 Qu Bin
• GB-05 Xuan Lu sits at one half and GB-06 Xuan Li at three quarters of the same span

Three points quartering one line — the most systematic proportional arrangement in this library. Nothing is measured in cun; the span between two findable points is simply divided. The method is self-correcting: the fractions hold whatever the size of the head, where a chain of separate measurements accumulates error at every step. Our GB-16 record sets out the four construction types this library has documented on the head and why this one is among the more reliable.

And the line’s lower anchor traces back to the ear. Our GB-07 record locates that point level with and one finger-breadth in front of SJ-20 Jiao Sun — and SJ-20 is found by folding the ear forward, a landmark the reader creates. So GB-04’s position ultimately rests on the ear rather than on the hairline, which is exactly the advantage: hair hides surface landmarks, and the ear does not move. One ear-fold fixes six points across two channels, GB-04 among them.

A caution about hair. This point lies within the hairline where landmarks are hidden and the temporal region is easily misjudged by eye. The proportional method is what makes it findable regardless.

On the name. “Han Yan” — Forehead Fullness in our record, with other readings in circulation. As noted above, this page does not settle it.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including the one-quarter construction; the GB-05, GB-06, GB-07, GB-16, ST-08 and SJ-20 records queried and the full chain verified against our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 424): In the temporal region, within the hairline, one quarter of the distance between Touwei ST-8 and Qubin GB-7.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 210): Within the hairline of the temporal region, at the junction of the upper 1/4 and lower 3/4 of the distance between Touwei (ST-8) and Qubin (GB-7).

How is GB-04 Han Yan needled?

Our own record states SUBCUTANEOUS insertion — the needle laid along under the skin — to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle and depth as recorded: subcutaneous (transverse), 0.3–0.5 inch — identical at GB-05, GB-06 and GB-07, and identical again to every other scalp point in this library, on the Bladder channel and the Governing Vessel alike.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the temporalis muscle and its fascia lie beneath thin scalp; the superficial temporal artery and vein and the auriculotemporal nerve ascend through the region; the temporal bone lies beneath, and it is the thinnest part of the skull.

Why subcutaneous, and why that is the whole safety story. There is muscle and then bone beneath the scalp, so a transverse needle is what the anatomy permits rather than a stylistic choice. This is a low-hazard point in that specific sense: no cavity within reach, no organ, no major vessel at the point itself. The scalp bleeds readily — a nuisance rather than a danger.

The arterial caution in this region belongs to a different point. Our SJ-22 He Liao record, at the front edge of the temple, opens with “avoid puncturing the artery” and gives only 0.1–0.3 inch, because the superficial temporal artery is the structure its own location uses. GB-04’s record carries none — nine points in this library do, counted by query — and this page does not import one. The vessel’s presence in the region is stated because it is true.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at GB-04 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the head. No case report naming GB-04 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the GB-05, GB-06 and GB-07 recorded insertions compared; every needling record queried and the nine arterial cautions counted, with SJ-22's attributed to that point), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on GB-04, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates GB-04. Where the point appears it is one component of a headache protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Migraine has a substantial acupuncture literature, built on multi-point protocols around GB-20, Tai Yang, LI-04 and SJ-05 — not this point. And “scalp acupuncture” is a distinct modern system with its own zones and trials, not the same thing as the classical channel points on the head. Neither literature is claimed here.

What this page can state with confidence. GB-04 sits at one quarter of a line divided into quarters by GB-04, GB-05 and GB-06 — a self-correcting method that holds whatever the size of the head, and one that ultimately rests on the ear rather than the hairline. It is a meeting point of three channels. And it carries much the longest indication list of the four points on the temporal run — seven entries against three, four and five — and is the only one of them recording vertigo, tinnitus, convulsion or epilepsy. Counted, not estimated.

The epilepsy and giant-cell-arteritis warnings are the operative content. A seizure in a child is an emergency; and temporal pain with scalp tenderness in an adult over about fifty can threaten sight.

A note on searching for it. “GB 4”, “G 4” and “Hanyan” searches return protocol trials and a large volume of unrelated material — “Hanyan” matches personal names and place names. Note too that the English rendering of this point varies between sources. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (category, action, indication and location records; the GB-04 to GB-07 lists counted and compared, and the quartered-line chain verified back to SJ-20, against our own data).