Yin Tang Hall of Impression, Seal Hall, Seal Mark

What does Yin Tang do?

Yin Tang is an extra point with no channel of its own, so its recorded effects come from documented clinical use rather than from channel theory — and the use documented most consistently is calming. It is turned to for anxiety, agitation and disturbed sleep, and secondarily for the nose and the forehead, the two structures it lies between.

• Calms the spirit and settles the mind — its defining and most frequent documented use, in restlessness, anxiety, emotional agitation and insomnia. Modern practice reaches for Yin Tang before almost any other point on the face for this purpose.
• Settles fright and convulsion — recorded for fright, agitation and infantile convulsion; the older sources describe this in terms of quieting internal wind.
• Opens the nose — nasal obstruction, nasal discharge and nosebleed, in rhinitis and sinusitis. It sits directly above the root of the nose.
• Eases frontal headache — pain across the forehead and between the brows, and the sensation of head heaviness or fogginess; dizziness is also recorded.
• Benefits the eyes and the local forehead region — as a local point for the glabella and the medial ends of the brows.

Framing note: Yin Tang belongs to no channel, so it has no "channel action". Descriptions that give it an organ-level mechanism are extrapolations, not documented properties of the point.

Source: Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 565); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 242); Sacred Lotus sources & references; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is Yin Tang used for?

Yin Tang is used above all for anxiety, agitation and insomnia, and then for nasal congestion and frontal headache. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are headache, head heaviness, nosebleed, nasal discharge, infantile convulsion, frontal headache and insomnia; the reference literature sets them out as follows.

• Insomnia and disturbed sleep
• Anxiety, restlessness and emotional agitation
• Frontal headache and pain between the eyebrows
• Heaviness or fogginess of the head
• Dizziness
• Nasal congestion and blocked nose
• Runny nose and nasal discharge (rhinitis, sinusitis)
• Nosebleed (epistaxis)
• Infantile convulsion and fright
• Eye problems and eye strain in the local region

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 565); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 242).

How is Yin Tang used in practice?

Yin Tang is one of the most widely used points in modern practice for insomnia, anxiety and emotional agitation. It lies at the glabella — the flat area between the eyebrows, at the midpoint between their inner ends — which makes it easy to locate, easy to reach and unusually well suited to acupressure as well as to needling. Its visibility and accessibility are part of why it appears so often in nursing and perioperative research.

Which points is Yin Tang combined with?

• With Shen Men (HT-07) and San Yin Jiao (SP-06) — the standard combination for insomnia, pairing the calming forehead point with the spirit-calming point of the Heart channel and the great yin-nourishing point of the leg.
• With Bai Hui (DU-20) — the common head pairing for anxiety, low mood and mental restlessness; the two are frequently reported together in insomnia and anxiety protocols.
• With Ying Xiang (LI-20) and He Gu (LI-04) — the standard trio for rhinitis and nasal congestion: the point above the nose, the point beside the nostril and the distal point for the face.
• With Zan Zhu (BL-02) — the adjacent point at the inner end of the eyebrow, added for frontal headache and sinus pain across the brow.
• With Tai Chong (LIV-03) — where irritability and tension dominate the picture.
• With Tai Yang — the other well-known facial extra point, joining the calming forehead point to the temple pain point in headache treatment.

Where does Yin Tang sit among the extra points?

Of the head-and-neck extra points held in Sacred Lotus sources & references, Yin Tang and Tai Yang are the two best known. They divide the work of the front of the head between them: Yin Tang for the mind, the forehead and the nose; Tai Yang for one-sided head pain and the eye. An Mian, behind the ear, is the third point commonly added when sleep is the presenting complaint.

Source: Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 565); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 242); Sacred Lotus sources & references; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is Yin Tang located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 565): At the glabella, at the midpoint between the medial extremities of the eyebrows.

How is Yin Tang needled?

Reference texts record that the skin over Yin Tang is pinched up between the fingers of one hand and the needle inserted transversely — downwards or laterally — to a depth of 0.3 to 0.5 cun. The point lies on bone with almost no soft tissue beneath it, which is why insertion is recorded as transverse rather than perpendicular. These figures are neutral reference facts recorded as the textbooks state them, not instructions; needling is carried out only by a qualified, licensed practitioner.

What are the safety considerations at Yin Tang?

• The forehead bruises readily. Because the tissue is thin and vascular and the site is highly visible, local bruising is the commonly reported event; sources note pressure after withdrawal.
• Direction of insertion matters. The recorded technique directs the needle away from the eyes — inferiorly toward the nose or laterally along the brow line — and stays superficial beneath the skin.
• Acupressure is a documented alternative. Sustained finger pressure at this point has been used as the intervention in published trials, which is unusual among acupuncture points and reflects how superficial and accessible the site is.
• No thoracic, abdominal or deep-vessel hazard applies at this location; the risks here are local and cosmetic rather than structural.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 565); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 242).

What does the name Yin Tang mean?

Yin Tang means "Hall of Impression", also given as "Seal Hall" or "Seal Mark". The yin here is the character for a seal or stamp — the mark pressed onto a document — and refers to the flat area between the eyebrows where a mark would be placed. It is not the yin of yin and yang, and the two characters are different; the coincidence in romanisation misleads a great many readers. In Chinese physiognomy the same region is read as an indicator of a person's fortune and vitality, which is why the site carries so much cultural weight.

Is Yin Tang an extra point or a Governing vessel point?

Sacred Lotus holds Yin Tang as an extra point, and that classification stands — but the naming is genuinely contested in modern sources, and readers will meet it under other labels.

• EX-HN3 — the standard modern extra-point designation, and the one most Western texts use (older references write M-HN-3).
• GV 29 / Du-29 — several modern Chinese nomenclature systems reclassify Yin Tang onto the Governing vessel and number it GV 29. This designation appears in the recent research literature: a 2018 study of acupoint injection for allergic rhinitis names the point as "Yintang (GV 29)" throughout (PMID 29888576).
• Du-24.5 / GV-24.5 — an informal half-number used in some Western teaching because the point falls on the Governing vessel line between Shen Ting (DU-24) and Su Liao (DU-25), both of which we hold. It is a convenience label, not a formal designation.

We report these because a reader searching "GV 29" or "Du-24.5" is looking for this point. Our own identity and classification fields are unchanged: on this site Yin Tang remains an extra point.

Is there research on Yin Tang?

Yin Tang has a genuine point-specific research literature — small, but real, and larger than that of most extra points. Two strands are worth naming honestly:

• Acupressure for anxiety and distress. A randomised clinical trial in 70 patients undergoing coronary angiography applied 20 minutes of acupressure at Yin Tang (named in the title as the "third eye point", EX-HN 3) against standard care. Anxiety and stress scores fell and comfort rose significantly, with reductions in blood pressure, respiratory rate and heart rate; depression scores did not change. The trial was unblinded with no sham-pressure arm, so it cannot separate the point from touch and attention (Nadali J et al., Explore (NY) 2024;20(6):103021, PMID 38918120, DOI 10.1016/j.explore.2024.103021).
• Nasal allergy, in animals. An experimental study injected a drug solution at Ying Xiang (LI 20) and Yintang (GV 29) in a rat model of allergic rhinitis and reported reduced symptom scores alongside lower histamine H1 and H4 receptor expression in the nasal mucosa, with no effect at non-acupoint sites (PMID 29888576). This is mechanistic animal work with an injected drug, not evidence of needling in humans.

Beyond these, Yin Tang appears inside multi-point insomnia, anxiety and depression protocols. Those trials evaluate the protocol, not the point, and are not cited here as if they measured Yin Tang alone.

How does Yin Tang compare with nearby points?

Shen Ting (DU-24) lies directly above it at the front hairline and shares the calming role, but sits on the Governing vessel proper. Zan Zhu (BL-02) sits to either side at the inner end of the eyebrow and is the closer choice for brow and sinus pain. Su Liao (DU-25) lies below on the tip of the nose. For a calming point away from the head, Shen Men (HT-07) is the usual partner rather than a substitute.

Source: Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 565); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 242); PMID 38918120, DOI 10.1016/j.explore.2024.103021; PMID 29888576; Sacred Lotus sources & references; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.