Yi Ming Shielding Brightness

What does Yi Ming do?

Yi Ming is an extra point — it belongs to no channel, so it carries no channel-theory actions, and everything set out below comes from documented clinical use rather than from channel mechanics. In that documented use it is an eye point that happens to sit behind the ear: it is one of the small group of points recorded for disorders of vision that are located nowhere near the eye. Its name says so — "shielding brightness", the brightness being sight.

• Used for disorders of vision — the defining documented use. The reference literature records it for blurred or failing vision, optic atrophy, short and long sight, night blindness and early lens opacity. It is the reason the point was recorded and named.
• Used for disorders of the ear — tinnitus and reduced hearing, following from its position in the hollow behind the ear. It appears as a main point in published work on tinnitus of cervical origin (PMID 27352493).
• Used for dizziness and headache — the local uses of a point in this region, recorded alongside the ear indications.
• Recorded for insomnia — the reference literature lists it, and this is where Yi Ming overlaps with its neighbour An Mian. The overlap is real, and the distinction between the two is set out in the notes below.
• Amenable to pressure as well as needling — the point sits in a hollow a person can reach on themselves, and pressure at it is described in the reference literature.

A correction worth stating plainly. Yi Ming is sometimes described as "calming the Shen" or "clearing the head". Those are theory phrases belonging to the channel and organ system, and Yi Ming is on no channel — it is not a Heart-channel point, and it carries no five-shu, yuan, luo, back-shu or front-mu classification. Our own earlier record carried "calms the Shen (spirit)" and it has been removed. The point that genuinely carries that function is HT-07 Shen Men, the Source point of the Heart channel and the classical point for settling the spirit; among the extra points it is An Mian, a few centimetres away in the same strip of skin, that is actually named and recorded for sleep. What the sources document for Yi Ming is a clinical result in the eyes and ears, not a mechanism acting on the spirit.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing action and indication record, corrected as described; HT-07, An Mian and SJ-17 records); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244); PubMed PMID 27352493; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is Yi Ming used for?

Yi Ming is used first and foremost for the eyes. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are eye diseases, tinnitus and insomnia; the wider reference literature sets them out as follows.

• Blurred, dim or failing vision
• Optic atrophy
• Short sight (myopia) and long sight (hyperopia)
• Night blindness
• Early-stage lens opacity (cataract)
• Redness, soreness and tiredness of the eyes
• Tinnitus
• Reduced hearing
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Insomnia
• Parotitis, recorded in some sources as a local use

Where it sits among the eye points. Most of the points used for the eyes are around the eye itself — BL-01 Jing Ming at the inner corner, BL-02 Zan Zhu at the inner end of the eyebrow, Yu Yao in the middle of the eyebrow, SJ-23 Si Zhu Kong at its outer end, GB-01 Tong Zi Liao at the outer corner, ST-01 Cheng Qi and ST-02 Si Bai below it, Tai Yang at the temple and Qiu Hou at the lower rim of the orbit. All are held in Sacred Lotus sources & references. Yi Ming and GB-37 Guang Ming ("Bright Light", on the lower leg) are the two that act from a distance, and the two whose names both promise light.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record; BL-01, BL-02, SJ-23, GB-01, GB-37, ST-01, ST-02, Yu Yao, Tai Yang and Qiu Hou records); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

How is Yi Ming used in practice?

Yi Ming lies behind the ear, one cun back from Yi Feng (SJ-17) — the notch immediately behind the earlobe — on the line running back towards Feng Chi (GB-20) at the base of the skull. Sacred Lotus sources & references record that location, and it is the standard one. It is a modern point, developed from observed clinical effect rather than derived from channel theory, and it is used on both sides. In practice it is a supporting point in an eye prescription rather than a prescription in itself: local points around the eye do the near work, and Yi Ming is added behind the ear.

Which points is Yi Ming combined with?

• With BL-02 Zan Zhu — the pairing that appears in the published trial literature. A randomised trial in 110 patients with early age-related macular degeneration used exactly this two-point combination, needles retained thirty minutes, with a distinctive rotating manipulation, and reported greater improvement in eyesight and in macular measures than the same points needled conventionally (PMID 29354994).
• With BL-18 Gan Shu, BL-20 Pi Shu and BL-23 Shen Shu — the Back-shu points added in the same trial with a quick needling technique. In channel terms these are the organ points behind an eye treatment; Yi Ming supplies none of that itself, which is precisely why they are added.
• With BL-01 Jing Ming, Qiu Hou and Tai Yang — the local eye points, for failing vision and optic atrophy.
• With GB-37 Guang Ming — the distal Gall Bladder point on the lower leg, the classical "bright light" point for the eyes and the standard channel counterpart to a local eye prescription.
• With GB-20 Feng Chi and SJ-17 Yi Feng — its two locating neighbours, added for tinnitus, dizziness and headache. Published work on tinnitus attributed to the neck used GB-20, SI-17 Tian Rong, SJ-16 Tian You and Yi Ming as the main points (PMID 27352493).

How is Yi Ming different from An Mian and Yi Feng?

These three sit within a couple of finger-widths of each other behind the ear, and readers confuse them constantly. The clean way to hold them apart is by what each is for.

• SJ-17 Yi Feng — the front-most of the three, in the notch between the jaw and the mastoid bone, immediately behind the earlobe. It is a channel point on the San Jiao, and it is the ear and face point: deafness, tinnitus, earache, facial paralysis. It is also the one with the real anatomical caution, because the facial nerve leaves the skull directly beneath it.
• Yi Ming — one cun behind Yi Feng. An extra point, and the eye point of the three.
• An Mian — further back again, at the midpoint between Yi Feng and Feng Chi (GB-20). An extra point, and the sleep point; its name means "Peaceful Sleep".

So the order running backwards from the earlobe is Yi Feng, then Yi Ming, then An Mian — ear, then eye, then sleep. The two names beginning "Yi" are unrelated in meaning: yi in Yi Feng is a screen or shield against wind, yi in Yi Ming is a shielding or covering of brightness. A further complication is worth knowing: older texts describe two An Mian points, An Mian 1 and An Mian 2, sitting either side of Yi Ming, and some clinical literature refers to "the three An Mian points" as a group covering that whole strip. Modern practice has largely consolidated An Mian into a single point, which is the location our record carries.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and existing use record; SJ-17, An Mian, GB-20, BL-01, BL-02, BL-18, BL-20, BL-23, GB-37, Tai Yang and Qiu Hou records); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244); PubMed PMID 29354994, 27352493; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is Yi Ming located?

• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 244): 1 cun posterior to Yi Feng (SJ-17).

How is Yi Ming needled in the textbooks?

Reference record only — this describes what the standard texts document, not instruction for a reader. Sacred Lotus sources & references record perpendicular insertion of 0.5 to 1 cun at Yi Ming. Pressure at the point is also documented, and moxibustion is not a method the standard references apply here.

• Angle documented: perpendicular into the hollow behind the ear.
• Depth documented: approximately 0.5 to 1 cun.
• Manipulation documented: gentle. The published trial that used this point retained the needles for thirty minutes with a slow, small-amplitude rotating technique (PMID 29354994).
• Moxibustion: not recorded as a standard method at this point.
• Pressure: documented; the point is within reach of a person's own fingertips.

What are the safety considerations at Yi Ming?

Yi Ming lies over the mastoid region behind the ear, and the bone beneath it limits how deep a needle can travel — which is why the recorded depth range is short and why the point carries no cavity or organ hazard. Three things nonetheless bound it, and the third is the one that matters most.

• Superficial vessels and nerves. The region is supplied by the posterior auricular artery and vein and crossed by the great auricular and lesser occipital nerves, so local bruising, tenderness and a radiating sensation towards the ear are the events recorded there.
• It must not be confused with GB-20 Feng Chi. GB-20 sits further back and further in, over a soft gap below the occipital bone, where the reference literature records a real hazard from deep needling angled incorrectly towards the midline — which is why the documented angle at GB-20 is directed towards the opposite eye or eyebrow. Yi Ming sits well forward of that gap, over bone, and does not share it; but a needle placed too far back and medially is no longer at Yi Ming.
• It must not be confused with SJ-17 Yi Feng. This is the more important of the two confusions. The facial nerve leaves the skull through the stylomastoid foramen, which lies deep to Yi Feng, one cun forward of this point; deep or forceful needling there carries a documented risk of injuring it, and the parotid gland and, deeper and further forward, the carotid sheath occupy the same region. Yi Ming lies behind that territory, and the reference literature records no comparable hazard for it — but the two points are one cun apart, and the caution is worth carrying across.

We searched the indexed literature for a cadaveric or imaging study establishing a measured safe needling depth at this specific point and did not find one, so the depth figures above are recorded as the reference texts give them and are not presented as a validated safety threshold. Standard clean-needle practice applies. Acupuncture is performed by qualified, licensed practitioners; this record documents the literature and is not a technique guide.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record; SJ-17 and GB-20 records); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, SJ-17 (p. 408) and GB-20 (p. 442); PubMed PMID 29354994.

What does the name Yi Ming mean?

Yi Ming means "Shielding Brightness" — yi for a screen, shield or covering, ming for brightness or light. The brightness in question is sight, and the name records what the point is for: the screen that has come down over a person's vision. It belongs with the small group of point names built on ming as a metaphor for seeing, of which GB-37 Guang Ming ("Bright Light") on the lower leg is the other well known example. Our record carries no translation in its own translation field; "Shielding Brightness" is the rendering the reference literature gives, and it is the one used throughout this page.

Is Yi Ming a channel point?

No. Yi Ming is an extra point, and a comparatively modern one — it does not appear in the classical channel canon and is recorded in the modern extra-point literature under the code EX-HN 14: "extra point, head and neck, number 14". Extra points sit outside the fourteen channels: they were recorded for an observed clinical effect rather than derived from channel theory, so they carry no five-shu, yuan, luo, xi-cleft, back-shu or front-mu classification. That is why our record shows no channel and no point categories, and why the actions above are framed as documented uses. Any description of Yi Ming "nourishing the Liver blood to brighten the eyes" or "calming the spirit" should be treated with caution; those are statements about LIV-03 Tai Chong, BL-18 Gan Shu and HT-07 Shen Men, and no channel runs through Yi Ming.

Is there research on Yi Ming?

The honest answer is that point-specific evidence is thin. No published study we could locate has tested Yi Ming in isolation. What exists places it inside multi-point protocols, and the results describe those protocols rather than this point. Three are worth recording because the point is named explicitly in each.

• Early age-related macular degeneration. A randomised controlled trial allocated 110 patients (149 eyes) to a particular rotating needle technique or to conventional needling, both groups using BL-02 Zan Zhu and Yiming (EX-HN 14) retained for thirty minutes with the Back-shu points BL-18, BL-20 and BL-23 quick-needled, treated every other day for three months with three months' follow-up. Effective rates on the macular measure were 83.6 per cent against 63.2 per cent after treatment, favouring the technique group, with corresponding changes in visual acuity and in retinal layer thickness (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2017;37(12):1294–8, PMID 29354994). Note carefully what this compares: both arms received Yi Ming, so the trial tests a manipulation technique, not the point.
• Tinnitus of cervical origin. A clinical study in 95 patients compared acupuncture based on the sinew-channel approach — using tender points, GB-20 Feng Chi, SI-17 Tian Rong, SJ-16 Tian You and Yiming (EX-HN 14) as the main points — against conventional acupuncture around the ear and against oral betahistine (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2016;36(4), PMID 27352493). Again the point is one of several.
• Scalp needling of the cranial base region. A clinical discussion of scalp acupuncture at the cranial base zone for hard-to-treat eye disease covers this region of the head (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2018;38(10), PMID 30672243), and is noted here as context rather than as evidence for the point.

Set against the general evidence base for acupuncture in eye disease — which is itself weak, with few adequately blinded trials — the fair statement is that Yi Ming's standing rests on its name and on decades of empirical use, not on trials of the point. Where the eye literature is stronger is around the eye itself: a sham-controlled randomised trial of transcutaneous stimulation at six periocular points, Yu Yao among them, in 170 children at risk of short sight reported a lower incidence of myopia at follow-up than sham (20.0 against 34.7 per cent, PMID 39943758). That trial did not include Yi Ming.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, location and existing use record; HT-07, LIV-03, BL-18, GB-37, An Mian, SJ-17 and Yu Yao records); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244); PubMed PMID 29354994, 27352493, 30672243, 39943758 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.