GB-10 (Fu Bai) Floating White

What does GB-10 Fu Bai do?

GB-10 clears the head and benefits the neck region, and it activates the channel and alleviates pain. It sits behind the ear, a third of the way along the curve from GB-09 to GB-12.

• Clears the head and benefits the neck region
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain

It is a Meeting Point of the Gallbladder and Bladder channels — a designation shared by its neighbours GB-08, GB-09 and GB-12, while GB-11 between them meets four channels. The region behind and above the ear is where the Bladder channel’s descent and the Gallbladder channel’s course run close together, and these classifications record it.

This is the third divide-the-span construction found in our data. Our records place points by dividing a measured span, rather than in cun, in three separate places on the head — and all three were confirmed by query:

• SJ-18 and SJ-19 — one third and two thirds of a curved line from SJ-17 to SJ-20
• GB-04, GB-05 and GB-06 — one quarter, one half and three quarters of the line from ST-08 to GB-07
• GB-10 and GB-11 — one third, and slightly more than two thirds, of a curved line from GB-09 to GB-12 (this run)

Seven points in all, placed as fractions rather than measurements. The method is self-correcting whatever the size of the head, where a chain of separate cun measurements accumulates error.

On the name. “Fu Bai” means Floating White. Fu, floating or superficial, is the same character as in BL-38 Fu Xi (Superficial Cleft); bai is white. The readings offered for the whiteness vary, and our data does not settle it — so this record does not choose between them.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action, location and translation records; the GB-04 to GB-12, SJ-17 to SJ-20, ST-08 and BL-38 records queried and the three divide-the-span constructions compared against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is GB-10 Fu Bai used for?

GB-10 is used for headache, tinnitus and deafness. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — three entries.

• Headache
• Tinnitus
• Deafness

Three entries, all regional, and the page will not stretch them. Comparing this short run behind the ear: GB-11 carries these three plus pain in the ears and specifies head and neck pain; GB-09 carries headache, epilepsy, gum swelling and convulsion; GB-12 the longest list of the four, adding insomnia, cheek swelling, retroauricular pain, facial deviation and toothache. GB-10 has the shortest. Where a record is short this library states its limits plainly rather than filling the space.

An honest note. SUDDEN HEARING LOSS IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY — hearing lost over hours or days, usually in one ear, is treatable and time-critical within days, and needs same-day or next-day assessment. New or one-sided tinnitus requires assessment. Sudden severe headache, or headache with fever and neck stiffness, requires urgent assessment. And because this point sits over the mastoid region: pain, redness or swelling of the bone behind the ear, especially with fever or earache, needs urgent care — that is how mastoiditis presents. This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With GB-09 Tian Chong and GB-12 Wan Gu, the two anchors of the curved line it sits on. With GB-11 Tou Qiao Yin between it and GB-12. With SJ-17 Yi Feng behind the earlobe and SJ-20 Jiao Sun at the ear apex. With GB-20 Feng Chi below at the occiput. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record, compared against the GB-09, GB-11 and GB-12 records; the GB-20, SJ-17 and SJ-20 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is GB-10 Fu Bai located?

GB-10 is behind the ear, within the hairline, one third of the way along a curved line from GB-09 above the ear down to GB-12 behind the mastoid.

• One third of the distance along a curved line from GB-09 Tian Chong to GB-12 Wan Gu
• The line runs within the hairline, roughly parallel to the rim of the ear — our record specifies both
• GB-11 Tou Qiao Yin sits at slightly more than two thirds of the same line

Our record describes the shape of the line as well as the fraction, and that matters. It specifies a curved line running parallel to the rim of the ear — not a straight line between two points, which would cut across the ear itself. The same distinction our SJ-18 record draws for the curve on the other side of the same ear. Where a construction depends on the path as much as the endpoints, the path is part of the location.

Note the unusually hedged fraction at the neighbour. GB-10 is at one third; our GB-11 record says “slightly greater than two thirds” — a qualified fraction, which is rare in our location data and is retained rather than rounded. It means the two points are not evenly spaced along the curve, and a reader who assumes clean thirds will place GB-11 slightly low.

Both anchors are real, but one carries a name collision. GB-12 Wan Gu sits in the definite hollow behind and below the mastoid process — and “Wan Gu” is also the name of SI-04, on the ulnar border of the hand. Verified by querying every pinyin value in our data; it is one of eight genuine name collisions in this library. A description reading “a third of the way to Wan Gu” is unambiguous only with the channel code.

On the name. “Fu Bai” — Floating White.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including the curve description and the one-third construction; every pinyin value queried for duplicates, and the GB-09, GB-11, GB-12, SI-04 and SJ-18 records checked, against our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 428): Posterior to the ear, along a curved line drawn from Tianchong GB-9 to Wangu GB-12 running within the hairline and more or less parallel to the line of the rim of the ear, in a depression about one third of the distance between Tianchong GB-9 and Wangu GB-12.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 211): Posterior and superior to the mastoid process, at the junction of the middle third and upper third of the curve line connecting Tianchong (GB-9) and Wangu (GB-12).

How is GB-10 Fu Bai 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 — the same insertion our records give at GB-08, GB-09 and GB-11. GB-12, at the end of the line, is recorded oblique instead.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable. Note that GB-09 alone in this run omits it — our records state moxibustion at GB-08, GB-10, GB-11 and GB-12 and not at GB-09. Whether that is a genuine distinction or an omission cannot be determined from our data, and nothing is asserted either way.
• Regional anatomy: thin scalp overlies the auricular muscles and the temporal bone; the posterior auricular artery and vein and the lesser occipital nerve run behind the ear; the mastoid process and its air cells lie below and behind.

Why subcutaneous, and why that is the safety story. There is bone immediately 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, which is a nuisance rather than a danger.

The boundary below is the one that matters in this region. Our GB-20 Feng Chi and DU-16 Feng Fu records carry explicit cautions because those points sit in the soft hollow below the occipital bone, where nothing stops a needle and the brainstem lies deep. GB-10 is on bone, above that boundary. Neither caution is imported, and neither is GB-10’s safety exported downward to points where it does not hold — the same two-way statement our BL-09 record makes.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at GB-10 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the head. No case report naming GB-10 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the recorded insertions and moxibustion statements across GB-08 to GB-12 compared; the BL-09, DU-16 and GB-20 records queried and their cautions attributed to those points), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on GB-10, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates GB-10. 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. It is one of the less-used points on the channel.

The neighbour with the literature is GB-20 Feng Chi, below at the occiput, which appears in most headache and neck protocols. Evidence about GB-20 is evidence about GB-20. A caution specific to the region also applies: “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.

What this page can state with confidence. GB-10 sits at one third of a curved line from GB-09 to GB-12 — the third divide-the-span construction found in our data, after the SJ-18/SJ-19 thirds and the GB-04/05/06 quarters. Our record specifies the shape of that line, parallel to the ear’s rim, which is part of the location and not decoration. It has the shortest indication list of the four points on this run. And its lower anchor, GB-12, shares its name outright with SI-04 on the hand — one of eight collisions documented in our reference notes.

The mastoid caution bears repeating, because this point sits over that bone: pain, redness or swelling behind the ear with fever or earache needs urgent care.

A note on searching for it. “GB 10”, “G 10” and “Fubai” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material matched on transliteration. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and needling records; the three divide-the-span constructions compared, the GB-08 to GB-12 records counted, and every pinyin value audited for duplicates, against our own data).