Yu Yao Fish Spine, Fish Waist

What does Yu Yao do?

Yu Yao is an extra point in the middle of the eyebrow, belonging to no channel, so it carries no channel-theory actions — everything below is drawn from documented clinical use rather than from channel mechanics. In that documented use it does two things: it treats disorders of the eye and eyelid, and it relieves pain above the eye. It is a local point, and its whole scope lies within a few centimetres of where it sits.

• Treats disorders of the eye and eyelid — twitching of the eyelid, drooping of the upper lid (ptosis), redness, swelling and pain of the eye, and clouding of the cornea. This is its principal recorded territory.
• Relieves supraorbital and frontal pain — pain in the brow ridge and forehead, including the frontal headache felt directly above the eye. It lies over the supraorbital nerve, which is the anatomical reason the reference texts give this indication such prominence.
• Serves as a local point in facial paralysis — where the forehead and eyebrow are involved and the eye will not close fully, Yu Yao is one of a group of local face points rather than the sole point. It is among the points a review of randomised trials found consistently selected for peripheral facial paralysis (PMID 19222110).
• Used for visual disturbance and eye strain — blurred or dim vision and tired eyes are recorded, and Yu Yao appears among the orbital points used in modern eye-care protocols.

A note on the language. Older descriptions of Yu Yao say it "clears" redness, swelling and pain of the eye. "Clearing" is heat-language borrowed from channel theory, and Yu Yao is on no channel — it has no five-shu, yuan, luo, xi-cleft, back-shu or front-mu classification, so there is no channel or organ for it to clear heat from. What is documented is the clinical result: the local complaint at the eye eases. The points that genuinely carry heat-clearing for red, swollen, painful eyes in channel terms are LIV-02 Xing Jian, the Ying-Spring and Fire point of the Liver channel and the classic choice for Liver fire rising to the eyes, and LIV-03 Tai Chong, its Source point — both held in Sacred Lotus sources & references. Yu Yao is the local point used alongside them, not a substitute for them.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing action and use record, reframed as described; LIV-02 and LIV-03 records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 566); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 243); Li Y et al., Am J Chin Med 2009;37(1):35-43, PMID 19222110; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is Yu Yao used for?

Yu Yao is used almost entirely for conditions of the eye and eyelid and for pain in the brow above the eye. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are pain in the supraorbital region, twitching of the eyelids, ptosis, cloudiness of the cornea, and redness, swelling and pain of the eyes; the wider reference literature sets the list out as follows. These describe traditional use, not proven treatment.

• Pain in the supraorbital region (the brow ridge)
• Frontal headache
• Twitching of the eyelids
• Ptosis (drooping of the upper eyelid)
• Redness, swelling and pain of the eyes
• Cloudiness of the cornea
• Blurred or dim vision, and eye strain
• Lacrimation on exposure to wind
• Facial paralysis affecting the forehead and eyebrow, with incomplete closure of the eye

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 566); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 243).

How is Yu Yao used in practice?

Yu Yao lies in the middle of the eyebrow, in the small dip directly above the centre of the pupil when the eye looks straight ahead. That pupil line is how it is found, and it is the same vertical line used to locate several other points of the face. Yu Yao is a shallow point over the brow ridge, and it is one of the most used local points of the upper face.

Which points is Yu Yao combined with?

• With BL-02 Zan Zhu — the point at the inner end of the same eyebrow, and Yu Yao's closest partner. The two are frequently joined by a single needle threaded along the brow. A randomised trial in sixty-four patients with facial neuritis used exactly this joining technique from BL-02 to Yu Yao, together with BL-62 Shen Mai and a group of other local face points, for incomplete closure of the eyelid (PMID 32959557).
• With GB-14 Yang Bai — the point one cun above the eyebrow on the same pupil line. Yang Bai and Yu Yao sit directly above one another and are the standard pair for the forehead and eyebrow in facial paralysis and for frontal and supraorbital pain.
• With ST-02 Si Bai and BL-01 Jing Ming — the points below and at the inner corner of the eye, added to Yu Yao for a drooping eyelid and for eye disorders, so that the orbit is surrounded.
• With SJ-23 Si Zhu Kong — at the outer end of the eyebrow, completing the brow line with BL-02 at the inner end and Yu Yao between them.
• With Tai Yang — the extra point at the temple, held here, added for headache felt around and behind the eye.
• With LI-04 He Gu — the standard distal point for complaints of the face and head, added to most local facial prescriptions.

Where does Yu Yao sit among the eye-region points?

Sacred Lotus sources & references hold a full set of points around the orbit, and it is worth knowing which does what. BL-01 Jing Ming and the extra point Qiu Hou are the deep points inside the orbital rim, needled against the bony wall and reserved for serious disorders of vision — by far the most hazardous points of the region. BL-02 Zan Zhu, Yu Yao and SJ-23 Si Zhu Kong form the brow line, inner, middle and outer. GB-14 Yang Bai sits above the brow and ST-02 Si Bai below the eye. Tai Yang is at the temple, outside the orbit altogether. Yu Yao is the most straightforward of the group and the one weighted most specifically toward the eyelid.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing use record and the cross-referenced eye-region point records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 566); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 243); PubMed PMID 32959557; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is Yu Yao located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 566): In the center of the eyebrow, in the depression directly above the pupil.

How is Yu Yao needled in the textbooks?

Reference record only — this documents what the standard texts state, not instruction for a reader. This is a point beside the eye, and the safety notes below are the part of this record that matters most. The reference texts record transverse (subcutaneous) insertion along the line of the eyebrow, directed either medially or laterally, of 0.5 to 1 cun at Yu Yao. Shallow oblique or transverse insertion downward toward the eyelid is also recorded, at a lesser depth. Pricking to bleed is recorded as a separate technique for acute redness and swelling of the eye.

• Angle documented: transverse and subcutaneous along the brow, medially or laterally. Deep perpendicular insertion directed into the orbit is not a documented approach at this point — the texts describe the needle running under the skin along the brow ridge, not toward the eye.
• Depth documented: approximately 0.5–1 cun transversely; the point overlies the supraorbital ridge, so bone limits depth directly beneath it.
• Moxibustion: not applied at this point in the standard references, as at the other points immediately around the eye.

Safety reference. Yu Yao is a periorbital point and is treated as such. The supraorbital nerve, artery and vein pass through or beside the supraorbital notch directly beneath it, which is why the point is tender, why a sharp radiating sensation is commonly reported, and why bruising and periorbital haematoma are the events most often documented here — a bruise at the brow spreads visibly into the eyelid. The references record firm pressure with a sterile swab after withdrawal as the ordinary precaution. The orbit itself lies immediately below and behind the ridge; the transverse angle the texts specify is what keeps the needle away from it. The region as a whole is one where the deeper points, BL-01 Jing Ming and Qiu Hou, are strictly practitioner-only procedures needled slowly against the bony orbital wall without lifting, thrusting or rotation. Standard clean-needle practice applies. Acupuncture near the eye is performed only by qualified, licensed practitioners; this record documents the literature and is not a technique guide.

Source: Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 566); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 243); Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record and safety note).

What does the name Yu Yao mean?

Yu Yao means "Fish Waist" — yu, a fish, and yao, the waist or lower back; our record also carries the reading "Fish Spine". The image is the eyebrow itself: a curved eyebrow tapering at both ends and thickest in the middle looks like a fish lying on its side, and the point sits at the fish's waist, the widest part of the body midway along. It is one of the more purely descriptive of the extra-point names — it tells you where the point is and nothing about what it does.

Is Yu Yao a channel point?

No. Yu Yao is an extra point — in the modern extra-point numbering, EX-HN4 (older texts write M-HN-6). 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, and our record accordingly shows no channel, no point categories and no element. That is why its actions are framed here as documented uses, and why any claim that Yu Yao "clears heat from" or "regulates" a named channel or organ should be treated with caution — no channel runs through it. Its two immediate neighbours on the same eyebrow, BL-02 Zan Zhu at the inner end and SJ-23 Si Zhu Kong at the outer, are channel points; Yu Yao sits between them without belonging to either channel, which is a small oddity of the brow worth noticing.

Is there research on Yu Yao?

No trial isolates Yu Yao as a single point, and we will not present the literature as though one did. It appears in three kinds of study, all of which test protocols containing it:

• Facial paralysis, protocol review. A review that analysed the treatments used in thirty-three higher-quality randomised controlled trials of peripheral facial paralysis, drawn from Chinese and English databases, listed Yu Yao (EX-HN4) among the points most consistently selected, alongside ST-04, ST-07, ST-06, REN-24, LI-20, SI-18, SJ-17, GB-14, ST-02, GB-20, DU-26 and LI-04 (Am J Chin Med 2009;37(1):35-43, PMID 19222110). That is evidence Yu Yao is consistently chosen for this condition, not evidence of its independent effect.
• Facial neuritis, randomised trial. Sixty-four patients with facial neuritis were randomised to a needling protocol whose defining feature was penetrating needling from BL-02 through to Yu Yao on the affected side, combined with BL-62 and a group of other local face points, against a prednisone control; the outcome measured was closure of the eyelid (Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2020;45(9):735-9, PMID 32959557). Yu Yao is named in the intervention itself rather than buried in a long point list, which makes this the most point-relevant trial available — but it remains a multi-point protocol at a single centre.
• Eye protocols in children. A randomised trial in 170 pre-myopic children aged 6–12 applied transcutaneous electrical stimulation, not needling, at six orbital points — BL-02, Yu Yao, SJ-23, Tai Yang, ST-02 and BL-01 — against a sham device (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(2):173-8, PMID 39943758). Yu Yao is one of six points and the stimulation is not acupuncture, so the trial says nothing about this point on its own.

For a local extra point of this kind, that is the honest state of the evidence: consistent selection by clinicians, no isolated test. A short accurate account is better than a padded one.

How does Yu Yao differ from the points near it?

BL-02 Zan Zhu lies at the inner end of the same eyebrow, in the notch where the brow begins, and is the Bladder-channel point of the brow — reached for in frontal headache and lacrimation, and the point Yu Yao is most often threaded to. SJ-23 Si Zhu Kong is at the outer end of the brow and is weighted toward one-sided headache and twitching of the eyelid from the lateral side. GB-14 Yang Bai is directly above Yu Yao, one cun up on the forehead, and is the forehead point proper rather than a brow point. BL-01 Jing Ming at the inner corner of the eye and the extra point Qiu Hou at the lower orbital rim are the deep vision points and are in a different safety class entirely. Readers looking for the calming point between the eyebrows want Yin Tang, at the glabella, not Yu Yao.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, extra-point status and the cross-referenced point records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 566); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 243); PubMed PMID 19222110, 32959557, 39943758, each checked as active and not retracted; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.