SJ-21 (Er Men) Ear Gate

What does SJ-21 Er Men do?

SJ-21 benefits the ears and clears heat — and its name says the first of those outright: Ear Gate.

• Benefits the ears — the action shared across this whole run, from SJ-17 to SJ-21
• Clears heat

Three points, three channels, one inch of skin. Directly in front of the ear our records place three points stacked vertically, each on a different channel:

• SJ-21 Er Men — Ear Gate, uppermost, on the San Jiao channel (this point)
• SI-19 Ting Gong — Auditory Palace, in the middle, on the Small Intestine channel
• GB-02 Ting Hui — Auditory Convergence, lowest, on the Gallbladder channel

All three are ear points, all three carry hearing indications, and they sit within about an inch of one another. They are commonly used together, and are also commonly confused — which is worth knowing before reading a prescription that names only one. Our SI-19 record documents the same cluster from its own position.

Where the run of ear points ends. The San Jiao channel approaches the ear from behind at SJ-17 Yi Feng, passes up behind it through SJ-18 and SJ-19, reaches the apex at SJ-20, and comes round in front to SJ-21 — then finishes at SJ-22 and SJ-23 at the temple and the eyebrow. Five consecutive points concerned with the ear is more than any other channel devotes to one organ.

On the name. “Er Men” — Ear Gate. Er is the ear; men a gate, the same character as in DU-04 Ming Men, BL-47 Hun Men and KI-21 You Men. It is one of the plainest names in the system: the point is the gate of the ear, and that is exactly where it sits.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; the GB-02, SI-19, SJ-17 to SJ-20, SJ-22, SJ-23, BL-47, DU-04 and KI-21 records queried and their positions compared against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is SJ-21 Er Men used for?

SJ-21 is used for tinnitus, deafness and discharge from the ear, and for toothache and stiffness of the lip. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Tinnitus
• Deafness
• Otorrhoea (discharge from the ear)
• Toothache
• Stiffness of the lip

Three ear entries and two mouth entries, and the anatomy explains both. The point sits in front of the ear canal and directly above the jaw joint — so ear and jaw indications on one point follow from position rather than from any channel argument. Our SJ-20 record is the only other point on this run whose action names the teeth, and it sits just above.

An honest note, and two entries need it stated plainly.

• DISCHARGE FROM THE EAR REQUIRES MEDICAL ASSESSMENT. It usually means infection, and it can mean a perforated eardrum or a cholesteatoma — conditions that damage hearing if untreated. Discharge with pain, fever, hearing loss, dizziness or facial weakness needs prompt care.
• SUDDEN HEARING LOSS IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Hearing lost over hours or days, usually in one ear, is treatable, and treatment given within the first days works far better than treatment given later. It needs same-day or next-day assessment. Our SJ-16 record sets out the same warning.

New or one-sided tinnitus requires assessment, and toothache with facial swelling and fever is a medical emergency. This record documents classical use only, and nothing here should delay any of that.

How it is combined. With SI-19 Ting Gong and GB-02 Ting Hui immediately below — the three-point stack in front of the tragus. With SJ-17 Yi Feng behind the earlobe, the channel’s principal ear point. With SJ-05 Wai Guan and SJ-03 Zhong Zhu distally on the same channel. With LI-04 He Gu for the teeth. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the GB-02, LI-04, SI-19, SJ-03, SJ-05, SJ-16, SJ-17 and SJ-20 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is SJ-21 Er Men located?

SJ-21 is in the hollow just in front of the small notch at the top of the ear’s front flap, a little above the jaw joint.

• Anterior to the supratragic notch — the dip above the tragus, the flap in front of the ear canal
• Slightly superior to the condyloid process of the mandible — the top of the jaw bone
• SI-19 lies immediately below and GB-02 below that; SJ-22 He Liao above and forward at the temple

Opening the mouth is what makes this area findable. The condyle of the mandible moves forward when the mouth opens, and a distinct hollow appears in front of the ear — which is why the classical descriptions of all three points in this stack specify the mouth open. Our own record locates SJ-21 relative to that condyle, so the same applies here.

Distinguishing the three, since they are within an inch. All three sit in front of the tragus in a vertical line: SJ-21 above the tragus notch, SI-19 level with the middle of the tragus, GB-02 below it. The differences are small, real, and easy to lose — and each belongs to a different channel, so mistaking one substitutes a channel as well as a position. This library flags the same crowding at the Pericardium wrist, on the fifth metatarsal and around the shoulder.

On the name. “Er Men” — Ear Gate. Positional and literal.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the GB-02, SI-19 and SJ-22 positions queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 410): In the depression anterior to the supratragic notch and slightly superior to the condyloid process of the mandible.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 208): In the depression anterior to the supratragic notch and behind the posterior border of the condyloid process of the mandible. The point is located with the mouth open.

How is SJ-21 Er Men needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable — and note that the recorded ANGLE differs from its neighbours’. 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: perpendicular, 0.3–0.5 inch.
• The angles change point by point around the ear, and our records draw the distinctions: SJ-18 subcutaneous, SJ-19 oblique, SJ-20 subcutaneous, SJ-21 perpendicular, SJ-22 oblique at 0.1–0.3 inch. That is four different recorded angles across five consecutive points, tracking what lies beneath each — bone under the scalp points, a hollow here.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the point lies over the space in front of the temporomandibular joint; the superficial temporal artery and vein and the auriculotemporal nerve ascend just behind and above; the parotid gland lies below and in front; the external acoustic meatus lies immediately behind.

Hazard, stated proportionately. There is no body cavity here and no organ within reach of the recorded depth. The structures worth knowing are the jaw joint immediately beneath and the superficial temporal vessels nearby. Our record carries no arterial caution — nine points in this library do, counted by query, and SJ-21 is not among them — but our SJ-22 record, a short distance above and forward, opens with “avoid puncturing the artery” and gives only 0.1–0.3 inch, because that point is located by the artery. The caution belongs there and is not exported here; the vessel’s presence in the region is stated because it is true.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at SJ-21 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the head. No case report naming SJ-21 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the recorded angles and depths of SJ-18 to SJ-22 compared; every needling record queried and the nine arterial cautions counted), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on SJ-21, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates SJ-21. Where the point appears it is one component of an ear protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point — and in this region that caveat is unusually strong, because the three points in front of the tragus are almost always needled together. A trial naming SJ-21 has in practice usually treated SJ-21, SI-19 and GB-02 as a group.

Tinnitus has an acupuncture literature, and a reader searching this point’s indications will meet it. Those trials use multi-point protocols around SJ-17, SJ-21, SI-19, GB-02 and distal points, and their results attach to the protocol. Nothing from that literature is claimed here.

What this page can state with confidence. SJ-21 is the uppermost of a three-point stack on three different channels within about an inch in front of the ear — SJ-21, SI-19, GB-02 — verified against our own location records. Its recorded angle is perpendicular, where four of its five neighbours around the ear are recorded subcutaneous or oblique; the angles track what lies beneath. And its indications split cleanly between the ear and the jaw, which its position over the temporomandibular joint accounts for.

The ear-discharge and sudden-deafness warnings are the operative content. Sudden hearing loss is treatable and time-critical — days matter.

A note on searching for it. “SJ 21”, “TE 21”, “TB 21” and “Ermen” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — “Ermen” matches personal and place names, and this channel is coded three ways across the literature: SJ, TE and TB. Our library uses SJ-. 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-point stack and the SJ-18 to SJ-22 angles compared against our own data).