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Liuzhuang Xiangfa · Liuzhuang's Methods of Physiognomy
Upper Volume
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1. Assessing Rank Before Birth
This speaks of the fetus in the womb. A male is said to embrace the mother, a female to turn its back to her. A position above or below is called a short-lived fetus; to the left or right, a long-lived one. A noble fetus moves and then rests evenly, and is naturally free of harmful illness. A lowly fetus moves much within the abdomen, and its mother is often ill.
Master Guangjian says: With a male fetus the mother's qi is sufficient and her spirit usually clear; when the mother's fetal qi is insufficient, her spirit is often confused. A woman whose ordinary voice is clear will, on conceiving, bear a fortunate son; one whose ordinary voice is turbid will bear a lonely and suffering child.
The text says: White lips often indicate difficult childbirth. At delivery, a wish for quiet is linked with great wealth. A lowly fetus moves chaotically; for a long-lived child the mother must be at ease, while for a short-lived child she is often ill. The mother of a long-lived child has a red Seal Hall; that of a short-lived child has white lips. For a noble child the mother has radiant vitality; for a lowly child her spirit is scattered.
Translation note: These are historical physiognomic assertions, not factual ways to determine fetal sex, health, lifespan, character or human worth from appearance. The translation preserves the supplied text's claims and discloses damaged wording rather than treating them as verified predictions.
2. Distinguishing Male and Female in the Womb
A male fetus is said to move evenly and rest. Beneath both of the mother's eyes the color is white and lustrous, the nose tip bright and the Seal Hall moist. For a female fetus the area above the eyes is blue-green and dark; this is also said to indicate difficult childbirth.
3. Determining the Day of Delivery
Red in the Seal Hall indicates a Bing or Ding day; flourishing Fire is said to mean a boy. Yellow at the nose tip indicates a Wu or Ji day; flourishing Earth is said to mean a boy. Brightness at the mouth corners, the Water Star, indicates a Ren or Wu day; flourishing Water is said to mean a girl. Brightness of both cheekbones indicates a Jia or Yi day; flourishing Wood is said to mean a boy. Brightness in the source's “lun lower storehouse” indicates a Geng or Xin day; flourishing Metal is said to mean a girl and difficult childbirth, while a boy is said to present no impediment.
If the whole face is dark and its color has not opened, a few days remain. Only when some region becomes bright does the text permit an imminent delivery to be predicted. Brightness followed again by darkness is declared a certain sign of death. At childbirth, look at the woman's right palm: red in the Qian Palace is said to mean a noble son; red in the Kan Palace, a wealthy son who is easy to rear. The palm center is the Bright Hall. Red and moist there is said to mean a fortunate, long-lived boy; blue-green, a descendant who ruins the family. Further blue-green darkness is said to mean difficult childbirth. These are the preceding rules for reading a woman in labor.
Note: The Ren–Wu day pair and the unclear “lun lower storehouse” follow this source. They have not been silently replaced with a different stem pair or anatomical location.
4. The Newborn Is Said to Reveal a Whole Life
For a newborn child, red-black coloring is called excellent, white coloring a sign of early death. A white film over the body, slippery like paste, is attributed by the text to frequent intercourse around delivery and is said to foretell sores and much illness.
Six signs are called easy to rear:
1. A boy whose hair reaches evenly to the brows: easy to rear, with much fortune and advantage.
2. A broad head: easy to rear, with great rank.
3. Breathing through the nostrils and sleeping with the mouth shut: easy to rear.
4. A high nose and red, thick lips: easy to rear.
5. Spirit in the eyes and a high, ringing cry: easy to rear.
6. A large, wrinkled, dark scrotum with cord-like markings: easy to rear.
Twenty-one items are then placed under “difficult to rear”:
1. A tight scalp is assigned “opening at three”; a large face without a nose bridge, “opening at one.”
2. A nose bridge that does not rise: death by one year.
3. Pupils like black beans: not completing the first year.
4. Round eyes like a chicken's: the outcome known within one year.
5. Soft, limp ears: not completing three years.
6. No heels: difficulty passing a second spring.
7. A loud voice with a small abdomen: the first year not assured.
8. Heavy flesh like mud with little bone: death at three.
9. No thigh at the thigh passage: difficulty passing one spring.
10. Lips thin as paper: death at one.
11. No root behind the ears: not completing three springs. The small raised bone behind the ears is also called Jade Pillow and Root of Longevity. The quoted book says, “Without the Jade Pillow, one dies before speaking,” which the author takes as agreement.
12. The obscure opening about Assistant and Supporter bones gives only two sevens, fourteen years. Its parenthesis places the bone by the hairline, coming out from the ear toward the Heavenly Division, and says that without it death at fourteen is certain.
13. Much flesh and soft bones: not completing one year.
14. A large head and thin neck: not completing one year.
15. Both eyes without spirit: no more than three springs.
16. Eyes seeming full of tears: only two years.
17. A pointed, thin head: peril at five.
18. A large abdomen but small belly: ending at three. The text glosses this as “having no belly.”
19. Yellow, bunched hair: death at two.
20. No eyebrows and early teeth: death at three. Its parenthesis also says that teeth arising within a year make rearing easy, teeth after a year mean great rank, teeth at five or six months portend death, and lower teeth first mean great intelligence but harm to the mother.
21. A child is desired to have a level crown, straight and firm ears, a high voice with sufficient qi, and a bright spirit: only then is rearing easy. The cited book says a dim spirit and dark qi mark a poor man.
The general conclusion is that a child should have a high, clear, ringing voice, bright and firm: this is called excellent and linked with either rank or wealth. These are the rules for the first hundred days after birth.
Note: The “opening” wording, the Assistant/Supporter passage, the abdomen/belly distinction and the conflicting tooth claims are irregular as supplied. The last of the purported twenty-one unfavorable items actually gives favorable traits. Their inconsistencies have not been repaired.
5. Reading a Life from the First Three Days
This concerns a newborn, whose originally received qi is said to be especially revealing. The opening says that later crying and rearing may make the assessment harder, and therefore speaks of the first three days. Red, thick lips are said to mean rank, and firm ears likewise. Three or four cries in succession without changing breath are linked with great wealth and rank. A cry that grows louder by itself and has strength is linked with aptitude for military affairs. Eyes that turn to look are linked with rank. Thin lips are not called excellent. A pale child able to move its head is called capable. A weak cry is said to mean an unfavorable life.
Note: The opening sentence about later crying and rearing is rough in the supplied text; its uncertainty is not converted into an additional definite rule.
6. At Three, Assessing Life to Eighty
This refers to a three-year-old no longer taking milk. Look at the Five Offices, Six Storehouses, Three Divisions and bone structure to assess temperament, wisdom and folly. A child with warm bones is called vigorous; abundant spirit is said to mean little illness through life. Sleeping with the mouth shut and speaking without showing the teeth are called signs of fortune and longevity into old age. The popular saying that age three determines old age is said to have a basis in physiognomy.
For a child of three or four, sweat should be fragrant, the voice clear, brows black and hair fine and black; yellow, fine hair is not called excellent. Low ears are said to allow scarcely any accomplishment and, often through a horn-like growth, to indicate stupidity and low standing. Broadly, reading a child calls for clear spirit, bright blood, harmonious qi and firm bones. A child's bones should be hard, an adult's soft. Skin belongs to Earth, hence “skin-Earth.” Skin is the minister and bone the ruler; the minister should assist the ruler. Thin skin with high bones is said to mean death in youth; thick skin with little bone, likewise. The text concludes that any one of these five defects means either poverty or early death, without clearly identifying five distinct defects in that closing list.
7. Physiognomy Has Rules and Must Not Be Spoken Carelessly
Remember the methods of judgment given later, and then follow the regions in the old books; the author claims this will leave no error. One beautiful feature must not by itself be called favorable, nor one ugly feature inauspicious. Physiognomy has methods of multiplication, division, addition and subtraction.
8. Reading Childhood Before the Bones Have Fully Formed
This argues that children must be examined. First look for an upright, well-aligned body and a proud, expansive bearing; these are linked with great accomplishment. Thickness is linked with longevity, thinness with little fortune. A pared-down Heaven region is linked with punishment and injury; a pared-down Earth region, with poverty and low standing. Yellow pupils are linked with foolishness and idleness, a small nose with great ruin, a slanted, pointed head with failure to become useful, and low, turned-out ears with impoverished thoughts and obstructed aspirations. Scattered spirit is often associated with becoming a monk or Daoist. Low ears are declared a sign of poverty; scattered spirit is also linked with frenzy and sexual excess.
Although children's bones have not fully formed, their Five Offices and Six Storehouses have. The author therefore requires careful examination by these principles: which office is good and which region is not. Through a whole life the head is treated as primary. An unfavorable Heavenly Court is said to make life unfavorable and prevent accomplishment. To say that matters will improve only after passing that region is dismissed as careless talk. The head has twenty-four qi and twenty-four bones, each with a name that must be examined closely. The later Hundred Questions of Yongle are offered for detailed study.
9. Infants and Older Children Require Different Readings
The same inference must not be applied to all. At three years a child is classed here as an infant: read spirit and qi, not the Five Offices. Around twelve, the child is read through the Five Offices, Six Storehouses and Three Divisions.
10. Infant Girls and Young Girls Have a Separate Reading
The text reads infant girls differently from boys. It disapproves of a high Heavenly Court, prominent cheekbones, a loud voice, large eyes, heavy brows and an impatient nature. Taken together, these are said to harm the mother, mean few siblings and ruin the family. At ten the child is called a young girl. A high voice, high and large cheekbones and an uneven forehead are disapproved of; the quoted book says they “kill three husbands.” It adds that a woman with a husband's voice is said to marry three times.
For reading women, harmony, moistness and bright coloring are called excellent. Four tooth traits are disapproved of: white, pointed and fine, yellow and large, or sparse and widely spaced. Broadly, a noble man is said not to have lowly ears, and a noble woman not to have lowly teeth. A man's unfavorable ears are called Metal and Wood flowering: many accomplishments yet much low standing, much learning yet little completion. A woman's white, pointed teeth are linked with sexual excess and few children, and called unfavorable.
Note: These gendered moral and marital judgments belong to the historical source. The fourfold tooth list is compressed and not consistently separated in the supplied wording.
11. First Examine the Three Peaks Formed Before Birth
The forehead is the Southern Peak, the chin region the Northern Peak, the right cheekbone the Western Peak, the left the Eastern Peak, and the nose the Central Peak: these are the Five Peaks. The three spoken of first are forehead, nose and chin, the face's Three Divisions. They are already formed at birth, whereas the cheekbones are not yet fully formed. In children these three peaks should above all be centered, upright and not collapsed.
A high Southern Peak is said to mean much fortune, few disasters and easy rearing. A high Central Peak is linked with great achievement and easy rearing. A square, rounded and full Northern Peak is linked with great wealth. High Heaven is said to govern rank and thick Earth wealth. If one peak fails to form, rearing is said to be difficult and growth unlikely; even if the child grows up, it is called a ruinous descendant. A low upper peak is said to harm the parents; a sunken middle peak, to ruin ancestral foundations; a pared lower peak, to mean lifelong poverty. These are called deficient configurations.
12. Next Examine the Five Offices, Which May Change Later
A child's facial appearance must not be taken as final proof. Regions will change later, making rank and low standing hard to read. The text instead favors examining four things: spirit, color, qi and flesh.
13. Do Not Fix a Judgment; Continue Observing
Do not call something good merely because it is beautiful, or harmful merely because it is ugly. There are still exceptional features within it; one principle cannot settle every inference. Examine the voice more closely, then the Five Offices and Six Storehouses. Even if none seems favorable, there may still be one redeeming feature linked with rank or wealth. Conversely, a whole face of favorable signs with one breaking feature is said to be unfavorable.
14. The Immortals' Transmission Requires a Discerning Eye
A discerning eye means clear sight, familiarity with the books, careful attention and fine effort. Examine the whole body from top to bottom, including red marks, spots, body hair, head hair, moles and injuries; the author claims that this leaves no error.
15. Present Conditions Cannot Be Read Entirely by Ancient Books
These two lines concern the Yi method of physiognomy. Patriarch Mayi is said to have taught Elder Chen in a stone chamber. Chen then accumulated hidden virtue by saving people's lives, relieving lesser hardships and recommending the good as worthy. The author asks whether knowing misfortune and fortune in this way is not hidden merit. Later, Patriarch Lü, Bodhidharma, Guiguzi, Tang Ju and other earlier worthies are said to have supplied seventy-three schools of physiognomy, each with differing accounts. People of the Song later compiled the Human Physiognomy Collection.
The general statement is that the myriad forms cannot escape generation and restraint. Though principles differ, the body's signs have a secret transmission. The author describes his own time as Heaven's course moving south in a Lower-Cycle Jiazi period. People are no longer like those of antiquity, with vigorous qi, strong bodies, abundant spirit and thick flesh. Many now are thin, pared, withered and dry, yet among them are people of great wealth and rank. Because people are now constitutionally weaker, the old standards of thickness and thinness do not fit without qualification.
Old Master Liuzhuang says that vulgar readers waste their minds because they do not know the rules. He therefore uses yellow paper and a “pearl brush” to set down this state of mind and establish a book for transmission, broadening its circulation.
Note: The names and historical transmission are the source's own account. “Yi method,” the damaged explanation of present-day weakness, and the brush word are uncertain as supplied; the last writes the graph for pearl rather than silently supplying another graph.
16. A Level Crown, Heavy Brows and Loose Skin in Children
A child with a small head is said not to reach adulthood, and a pointed head not to become useful; a level crown is therefore treated as primary. Clear, fine brows are said to lack longevity. Adults should have light brows, children heavy ones. Loose skin is declared a sign of easy rearing; tight skin an impatient nature and difficult rearing, with scarcely one survivor in ten.
17. A Young Girl's Hair and Ears Are Linked with Her Future Husband
A young girl here means one of thirteen or fourteen. The most favored features are black hair, straight ears and elegant eyes. The quoted book says that phoenix shoulders, a phoenix neck and phoenix eyes make a woman fit to marry a king. It mentions a long body and eyes one cun large. The author objects that contemporary faces are only three and a half cun wide: how could their eyes be one cun? Fine, long eyes concealing elegance are what he calls excellent.
Rounded shoulders, followed by the source's unclear wording about thickness, are linked with rank; so is a long neck. A short neck with long hair is said to mean three husbands; turned-out ears and a square forehead, four marriages. Broadly, fine brows, long eyes, a rounded nose tip and a level forehead are called excellent.
Note: The historical cun is not converted into a modern measure. The word between rounded shoulders and thickness is irregular in the supplied text.
18. A Male Form Is Set at Sixteen, a Female Form at Fourteen
The text says that a male's whole bodily form is established at sixteen and a woman's menstrual “water” has arrived at fourteen. If by then skin and blood lack moistness and spirit and qi do not flourish, it predicts low standing. A face shiny like oil is linked with sexual disorder. In general, neither excess nor deficiency is wanted; balance and harmony are called excellent.
A man's form is likewise established at sixteen and should show neither excess nor deficiency. Fat flesh, little radiance, stagnant blood and declining spirit are especially disapproved of and linked with early death. Abundant spirit, vigorous qi, firm flesh and upright bones are called the marks of a person who will establish himself.
19. Rank and Low Standing Are Read Through the Five Phases
The Five Phases are Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. They must not be disproportionate, one large and another small, or fail to match, combine and encompass one another. The left ear is the Metal Star, the right ear the Wood Star, the forehead the Fire Star, the mouth the Water Star and the nose the Earth Star.
A high forehead and turned-out ears are called Fire restraining Metal, with parents and family wealth coming to nothing. A large mouth and pointed forehead are called Water restraining Fire, with suffering upon reaching fifteen. A large mouth, clear eyes and high forehead are linked with lofty wisdom and great rank. A large nose and small mouth are called Earth restraining Water, with departure from home at thirty-three or thirty-four. One restraint among the phases is called unfavorable; one generating relation, highly favorable.
The Five Offices are: brows, the Office Protecting Longevity; eyes, the Inspecting Office; nose, the Judging Office; ears, the Office Collecting Sound; mouth, the Office of Receipts and Disbursements.
The Six Storehouses are the two Heavenly Storehouses above, the two cheekbone regions in the middle, and the two Earth Storehouses below. Three Divisions properly placed, Six Storehouses proportioned and Five Offices all upright are linked with great wealth and rank. Heavenly Storehouses without Earth Storehouses mean early glory and late ruin; Earth Storehouses without Heavenly Storehouses, early hardship and late glory. Cheekbones without either set of storehouses are also called unfavorable and linked with great solitude. The text then gives “Great Leap” and a list: first Zixi, second Yuebei, third Luo, fourth Ji, fifth the Sun and sixth the Moon.
Note: The final name and celestial list are abrupt in this source; no missing explanation is invented.
20. Flourishing, Withering, Gain and Loss
Few people can possess all four in completeness; each has its account. High Heaven, thick Earth, an upright Earth Star and open cheekbone regions form a pattern of flourishing and gain. A pared Heavenly Court, bright Sun and Moon and elegant brows need not mean wholly favorable youth: ancestral foundations are small, and improvement comes only along the course after thirty.
The quoted book says that high Heaven with thin Earth brings early advancement but makes middle-age accomplishment difficult. An upright center and high cheekbones can establish an estate in middle age. A nose like a suspended gallbladder is linked with prosperity built from nothing. Low cheekbones and a low nose are linked with hardship and poverty into old age.
21. Wealth, Rank, Poverty and Low Standing
For wealth the body must unfold. Wealth comes through the unfolding of spirit; wealth comes through the unfolding of the body. The following compressed wording says that without unfolding wealth does not come to spirit, and without its coming wealth is hard to develop. When judging through spirit, a thin person is read as a Wood form. Wood with spirit is said to prosper financially; Wood without spirit to suffer damage to lifespan.
In the upper type, wealth develops without the body growing. In the middle type, body and wealth develop together. In the lower type, the body scarcely develops and wealth is not seen. If the whole body is turbid like Earth and its flesh not firm, more flesh does not bring wealth. Flesh that grows should be firm; bone and flesh should match. Much flesh with little bone is said to make four nines, thirty-six years, uncertain. A thick body, firm flesh, upright bones and strong spirit are called signs of great wealth.
Rank and wealth are fundamentally different. Refined concentration is favored. Clarity should be clear throughout, without a single turbid feature. This is only a general account of bodily patterns; the Five Offices, Six Storehouses and Twelve Palaces must still be examined.
Note: The repeated, compressed opening about the unfolding of wealth, body and spirit is retained rather than rewritten as a more coherent rule.
22. Longevity, Early Death, Gain and Loss
Each of these four has its own account. Longevity is linked with firm bones, solid flesh and moist blood. In old age the especially favored signs are long brow hairs, ear hairs, longevity spots and concealed markings on the pillow bone, together with wrinkled, hard, dark and firm features. Blue-green, dark lips in old age are linked with death from hunger; dark ears, death within three years; dry, withered ears, death within two. In youth, dry and dark ears mean great poverty and ruin; in middle age, withered ears mean no favorable course until brightness and moistness return. Black ears in old age are linked with death, so Metal and Wood must remain bright. Dry, dark neck skin is linked with great hardship. The scalp becoming dry in old age is declared a certain sign of death. Yellow radiance at the mouth corners and darkness circling the lips are mentioned; blue-green is declared a death sign.
Long brow hairs arising after forty are linked with support from others; after fifty is also called favorable. They must point downward to avoid harm through punishment and restraint; pointing upward is linked with solitude. Facial spots arising after sixty should be dark and bright, indicating great fortune and longevity; arising before fifty is linked with death. New hair in old age is disapproved of and linked with harm to the wife and loss of children. For longevity the scalp is again treated as primary.
What is said of early death? A human being receives the concentrated brilliance of Sun and Moon and draws the refined qi of Heaven and Earth. Damage to any part produces a short-lived configuration. A drooping head in youth is called the Heavenly Pillar leaning and is linked with death. Sun and Moon without light means small eyes without radiance and a life not reaching beyond thirty. A large head, pointed crown and dry skin are assigned four nines, thirty-six years. The quoted book attributes Yan Hui's short life to scattered spirit and floating radiance, and Taigong's reaching eighty to ears like frost and snow.
The text gives these further predictions:
- No nose bridge: after three nines, twenty-seven.
- Eyes like mud: returning in death at twenty-five.
- Brows like a shut-in chicken: four nines, thirty-six, uncertain.
- Luo, Ji and Yuebei overlapping: life cut short at thirty.
- Luo, Ji, Sun and Moon crossing and increasing: around thirty, the obscure phrase “enter longevity as a monk”; otherwise early death.
- A small body and a voice that does not ring: death after thirty.
- A fat body with unsettled qi: death after forty.
- Exposed eyes and no nose bridge: killing or injury at thirty-eight.
- Hair yellow like grass and coarse qi: stupidity and idleness, punishment as a convict, and violent death after thirty.
- Blood-disaster radiance affecting the body: return to the dark at four nines, thirty-six.
- Long hair and eyes without spirit: “return to spring” within four nines, thirty-six.
- A small head, long hair and scattered traces, or long hair on a narrow head: an uncertain lifespan.
- Hair growing to the ears and beard region: death.
- Curls like a conch: injury.
Gain means a sign of an encounter appearing in someone long trapped in hardship. If the nose tip suddenly brightens, and the Seal Hall, the Life Palace, opens, the text speaks of “three encounters” and “gaining a younger brother.” If both eyes suddenly gain spirit, it predicts an important encounter with a noble person. A voice becoming resonant is said to bring a gain. With favorable regions held back only by unopened color, spirit becoming sufficient is linked with aspirations soaring ten thousand miles. Blood color long without brightness means obstruction; once it brightens, the obstruction is said to retreat and both principal and profit can grow.
Loss means entering a failing course. The author says forewarning can avert half of it. Favorable qi and color are linked with advancement and obtaining wealth; deficient regions beyond that are said to bring loss. Clear brows and eyes with a sunken Root require guarding against loss after forty. A high Heavenly Court governs the course of father and elder brothers; if brows and eyes are unfavorable, around thirty the text predicts punishment, loss of position and family ruin. If the other stars are favorable but the Wood Star unfavorable and the storehouses pared down, it speaks of damage to the Fire heart before six nines, fifty-four. A person prosperous through life may become impoverished on reaching the Child Cavern period because the Sleeping Silkworm region is dark and the lips blue-green. Lack of grain in old age is attributed to hardness growing beneath the tongue root; the closing phrase describes a transverse hardness at the obscure “gu bottom.”
Note: Predictions are translated as historical assertions. “Shut-in chicken,” the monk phrase, “return to spring,” “three encounters/gaining a younger brother,” and the final tongue wording are irregular as supplied. No missing chart, corrected graph or definite outcome is inserted to resolve them.
23. A Person Corresponds to Heaven and Earth
Heaven is a great heaven, a person a small heaven. Heaven has Sun and Moon, a person two eyes; Heaven has four seasons, a person four waterways; Heaven has metal and stone, a person sinews and bones; Heaven has mountains, a person the Five Offices. Heaven has Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth; the person has heart, Spleen, Lung, fu and Kidney as the Five Phases, in the supplied list.
Broadly, the round head images Heaven, square feet Earth, hair and body hair forests, voice thunder, and Five Peaks mountains and rivers. Heaven has wind, cloud, thunder and lightning; a person joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure. Heaven has unexpected winds and clouds; a person fortune and disaster that may change between morning and evening. Heaven should be high, Earth thick, forests elegant, Sun and Moon bright, thunder resonant, waterways flowing, mountains lofty, metal and stone firm, and skin-Earth thick and strong. If any one of these fails, the text denies a configuration of wealth and longevity.
Note: The organ list actually gives fu in one position. A different organ is not silently substituted.
24. Judging Through the Four Seasons
The Heart belongs to Fire, issuing dry qi and red color, mostly in the Seal Hall. The Spleen belongs to Earth, with dark qi and yellow color, mostly at the Earth Star. The Lung belongs to Metal, with white color and blue-green qi, mostly at the Four Storehouses; Metal therefore travels through the four limbs. The Kidney belongs to Water, with turbid qi and black color, mostly at the two Dark Walls and Earth Storehouses. Each has its region.
For example, the Seal Hall occupies a Fire position; darkness there is read as Water restraining Fire. The author insists on speaking through the Five Phases. The Earth Star belongs to Earth; blue-green there is read as Wood restraining Earth and declared a sign of immediate death.
25. Distinguishing Success and Failure in the Peaks and Offices
The forehead is the Southern Peak, the two cheekbones the Eastern and Western Peaks, the Earth Star the Central Peak and the chin the Northern Peak. If one peak is not high, the pattern is not complete and is not called noble. If Heaven and Earth do not face one another and the storehouses are sunken and pared, cheekbones alone are not favorable. The quoted book says high cheekbones mean great rank only when the other four peaks attend them.
The present book states that cheekbones standing alone on a face mean land not kept, children dying and harm to the wife: a highly unfavorable configuration. If only the Earth Star is high and full while the rest of the face is pared down, this is a lone peak towering alone. Wife and children are said to be uncertain, and the configuration is called solitary.
26. The Five Stars
First, ears are the Office Collecting Sound; second, brows the Office Protecting Longevity; third, eyes the Inspecting Office; fourth, nose the Judging Office; fifth, mouth the Office of Receipts and Disbursements. The cited Da Jing Guang Jian says one complete office brings ten years of rank, one bright storehouse ten years of wealth and rank, and all five complete offices lifelong wealth and rank.
Ears should have bright color, stand high above the brows, possess complete rims and contours, lie close to the flesh, be substantial and thick, and have broad Life Gates: then the hearing office is complete.
Brows should be broad, clear and long, divide to both sides into the temples, or resemble a newly drawn crescent, with full heads and tails: then the longevity office is complete.
Eyes should hold their quality within rather than expose it, distinguish black and white clearly, have upright pupils and radiance that reaches others, or be fine, long phoenix eyes concealing elegance: then the inspecting office is complete.
The nose should have a bright, straight bridge and pillar, connect above to the Mountain Root and a bright, moist Seal Hall, and below to high, full Year and Longevity regions. The text then says it should not rise. The nose-tip storehouses should rise like a suspended gallbladder, the nose resemble a simple tube, and the flesh show bright yellow color: then the judging office is complete.
The mouth should resemble a cornered bow, large when open and small when shut, with upper and lower lips matching the teeth and the four directions: then the receiving and disbursing office is complete.
Note: The nose passage's inconsistent “should not rise” clause is retained rather than supplied with a missing object.
27. Ears: the Office Collecting Sound
Color white as jade is linked with holding three offices while young. Ears close to the flesh, hanging toward the brows and red and moist are linked with abundant property. Straight like arrow feathers is linked with loneliness and poverty. A Life Gate too narrow to admit a finger is linked with short life, shallow ambition and ignorance. Turned-out, thin rings and dark, broken pouches are declared empty. Fine hairs growing within the openings are linked with a long natural lifespan; thick, large ears with red lobes, with very high rank. An aged, tottering appearance is assigned an end at eighty. The parenthesis describes an old person with drooping face, bent back and steps that do not advance.
28. Brows: the Office Protecting Longevity
Dense and heavy, lingering, or thin and bunched brows are linked with solitude and unfavorable relations with brothers. Fine bones rising high are linked with courage but also craftiness, and denied true elegance. Brows curved like the moon are linked with literary brilliance and distinction. A broad Seal Hall with brows dividing into the temples is linked with the rank of ministers. Upright hairs are linked with killing qi, rigid spirit, violent temper and little reflection. Joined, yellow, thin brows mean toil and wandering, ending in death away from home. Crosswise and upright growth is said to harm wife and children. Whorled brows bring an obscure phrase about “whose spear and banner beneath.” Brows pressing on the eyes and joined without a break are said to bring loss when their period arrives, particularly after thirty.
Note: The opening contrasts and the spear/banner clause are damaged or compressed in this source; no missing prediction is invented.
29. Eyes: the Inspecting Office
Floating radiance in both eyes and fiery opposing rims are linked with a killer or thief fond of treacherous schemes. Pupils like dots of lacquer are linked with intelligence. Large eyes are associated with studying arts and occupations. The text advises against associating with someone who looks upward and calls sideways looking treacherous. Chicken, snake and rat eyes are linked with either sexual excess or theft; triangular eyes with concealed malice.
30. Nose: the Judging Office
A small nose is linked with greed. A high but slanted and defective nose is linked with sexual dissipation. A short nose is not readily promised glory and prosperity. Extreme elevation and exposure are most feared. A suspended-gallbladder shape is said to make a court official. A transverse line over Year and Longevity is linked with family ruin and hardship on the road. A broken Mountain Root means fields and gardens not kept and wife and children dying first.
31. Mouth: the Office of Receipts and Disbursements
A short, cramped mouth, raised lips, blue-green color, exposed teeth and crooked alignment are linked with suffering among close kin. A broad but misaligned mouth is called false and deceitful; a pointed, thin one, a mouth of disputes. Purple contained within the lips is linked with a stipend of a thousand measures. The text next speaks obscurely of the upper and lower lips “carrying” and many lines, linking them with wrongdoing and few descendants. Frequent choking while eating is linked with adversity. Failure to close the mouth in sleep is said to leak primal qi and shorten life. Drooping corners are linked with being continually deceived.
Note: The clause about lips “carrying” is incomplete as supplied.
32. Ears as the Metal and Wood Stars
Metal and Wood should form a pair, with rims and contours; the Wind Gates should admit a finger, and the ears stand straight, facing upward toward Luo and Ji. This is linked with wealth, rank and glory. Metal and Wood flowering is said to mean lifelong poverty. Flying rims and turned-out contours bring toil. Even if such a person holds office, the text says he remains insignificant and unknown.
33. Mouth as the Water Star
A mouth shaped like the character for “four,” red like pearls, with fine corners resembling an upturned bow, is said to mark a clever literary scholar who passes the examinations young and enjoys glory in old age. Without fine form or corners, it is called a beggar's mouth. Crookedness and restless movement are linked with disputes, treachery and deceit.
34. Forehead as the Fire Star
A broad, square and level Fire Star Palace, lustrous and without lines, with fresh qi and color, is praised. Three forehead lines in the pattern of a river character are linked with passing examinations young and becoming a high minister. A pointed, narrow Fire Star is assigned an ordinary station. Confused lines crossing vertically and horizontally are linked with conviction and imprisonment. Two red vessels invading Sun and Moon are said to bring death by weapons or law in another region.
35. Nose as the Earth Star
An upright Earth Star like a simple tube, with large openings, is linked with the Three Dukes. The Orchid Terrace and Court Commandant should correspond to one another; then the person's reputation is said to reach the emperor's hearing. A slanted Earth Star is linked with suffering; a pointed, pared nose tip with lonely poverty. Seen from the side, a hooked curve like a hawk's beak is attributed a malicious heart that harms others.
36. Purple Qi
A moist, square Purple Qi Palace, arching toward the sovereign, is called worthy and good. Corresponding Orchid Terrace and Court Commandant are linked with official glory and flourishing Sun and Moon. A narrow, pointed Purple Qi Palace, small and short, without cheeks and with few guests, is linked with a lack of substantial learning from childhood and a life of waste beyond telling.
37. Second, the Yuebei Luminary
The Mountain Root is also called the Bei Luminary. Yuebei should be high rather than low, with clear radiance like colored glass. In office it is said to mark a loyal minister and also to bring a worthy wife and good children. A narrow, small Yuebei, constricted within and pointed, is linked with repeated ruin. The text denies it high official glory or stipend, and predicts unsuccessful learning and hardship in youth.
38. Third Luo and Fourth Ji
Luo and Ji should be elegant and long, clearly defined, close to the flesh and corresponding with the Three Yang. Such a face is linked not only with proper official rank but also with manifest righteous speech known in all directions. Sparse, bunched Luo and Ji with sharply raised bones are linked with impatience and connected misfortunes. The final lines compare their form with drooping willow and mention brothers and whorled markings, but their exact connection is unclear.
Note: The supplied ending about willow, brothers and whorls is compressed and irregular; no definite additional prediction is invented.
39. Fifth, the Sun; Sixth, the Luminary
The eyes are Sun and Moon, like the great solar light. Their spirit and radiance should be equally strong. If the person does not become the ruling court's chief minister, the text still promises high talent and the role of a supporting pillar. Slanted, short Sun and Moon with red vessels crossing the pupils, exposed isolation and no spirit are called misplacement of yin and yang and linked with death by the blade. Withered darkness persisting for years is said to mean an ill end.
Note: The heading writes “luminary” as its sixth name, while the body expressly speaks of Sun and Moon. The heading has not been silently replaced.
40. Men's Rank Through Spirit, Women's Glory Through Blood and Qi
For men the text treats essence and spirit as primary, for women blood and qi as sustaining life. Men are said to generate the body through essence, women to nourish life through blood. Exhausted male essence is linked with death; exhausted female blood with misfortune.
Where can a man's essence be observed? Heaven has Sun and Moon as its concentrated brilliance; a person has the two eyes as essence and spirit. Spirit is the shoot of essence: strong essence gives clear spirit, clear spirit elegant eyes. A man's eyes should therefore be black with radiance reaching others. Lacquer-like pupils are linked with lifelong prosperity; sufficient spirit and settled qi with founding a household from nothing. Thus spirit and essence are primary for men.
Where is a woman's blood tested? Blood is within the skin, color outside it. Sufficient blood inside is said to produce brightness outside. Blood within and color without are root and shoot: roots yield shoots, blood yields color. Both should be present. Color without moistness is unfavorable, like a root without a shoot. Bright color without blood inside is like a shoot without a root and is linked with sexual excess. Moist blood without outward brilliance is linked with early death; blood radiance and floating color with sexual excess; dark color and dry, pale lip skin with early death. Unmoistened blood is also said to mean no children and low standing.
Hair is the surplus of blood. Bunched, thin, yellow or short hair is disapproved of. Blue-black hair is linked with rank, long hair with worthiness. The quoted verse calls a blue-black-haired woman noble and glorious, long moist hair a sign of children and wealth, and short, thin, whorled hair a sign of poverty, harm to the husband and death of children. Men should have clear eyes, women thick hair.
Further verses and judgments follow. Skin without radiance means blood without brilliance. High cheekbones, a pared forehead, round eyes, a pointed mouth, tapering buttocks and an exposed chest are said to mean seven marriages within thirty years. A back sunken into a hollow is disapproved of in women, whose back is assigned fortune and virtue. A protruding chest is linked with disputes; yellow pupils, a red face and exposed, raised lips with lack of filial and moral worth and with ruin.
A woman's long eyes concealing radiance, fragrant skin and moist flesh are called good and worthy. Clear, harmonious, moist color and a jade-like oval face are linked with sons who attend the sovereign. The author asks why choosing a wife should mean choosing beauty. Broad shoulders and a narrow back are attributed venom like a centipede. A high nose, phoenix eyes and brows curving toward the forehead are linked with sons attending the sage ruler. The parenthesis describes the curve like a conch whorl, flat below, and calls the matching of these features exceptional. Finally, coarse qi in a woman giving birth to a girl is called unfavorable and assigned low standing.
Note: The moral, reproductive and social classifications here are the source's assertions, not facts established by the described features.
41. Liuzhuang's Qian–Kun Rhapsody Presented to Yongle: On Women
The image says: The way of Qian forms the male, the way of Kun the female. Yin and yang differ, hardness and softness have their forms; men's and women's physiognomy therefore differ. For a woman's form, softness is the foundation, hardness its shape, clarity noble and turbidity lowly. An upright Seal Hall is said to assist a worthy husband, bring fortune and establish the household. Elegant eyes concealing spirit are linked with noble sons. The verse evokes walking beneath the moon of the ninth autumn, a suspended-gallbladder nose and cloud-like hair and temples surrounding a golden crown.
Cheekbones high in isolation are said to harm children and husband and indicate impatience. Yellow pupils and reddish hair are assigned marriage at thirty. Raised, cold-looking shoulders are linked with poverty in youth. Heaped gold and jade are attributed to a broad, open Men Gui region; brocade and hidden pearls to a round, squarely aligned face. Broadly, high cheekbones are denied glory, a pared forehead rank; a Metal-shaped or sunken face is linked with keeping the women's chamber alone. Bright color is linked with bearing heroes. Blood gathered at the Seal Hall is said to produce an examination graduate; palms constantly red, a son who becomes a minister. Clear features and elegant appearance are linked with remaining within the household as a widow—the source writes “frost woman.” Moist blood and red color, by contrast, are said to make chastity hard to guarantee. Phoenix eyes, round cheeks and an upright forehead are assigned the highest rank of titled lady. Sunken Heaven, pared Earth and crosswise cheekbones are assigned extreme low standing.
The historical examples are given as follows. Consort Yang's attraction to beauty is attributed to deep, exposed eye radiance. Lady Xie's talent is attributed to harmonious blood and clear moistness. Lüzhu's fall before the tower is lamented as the result of a sunken Seal Hall. Wu Zeni's encounter with Gaozong is attributed to a round face and pearl-like lips. Guiying's breaking the Heavenly Gate is associated with a rounded waist four feet around at sixteen. Zhaojun's death after going north among foreign peoples is attributed to a small mouth, dark forehead and pointed teeth. Lady Wu's bearing two heroes is attributed to a pellet-like form concealed deep in her navel. Maichen's wife's failure to see her husband ennobled is attributed to a broad mouth, harsh voice and thin waist. A woman becoming a general is explained through large eyes and crosswise brows.
Marriage that prospers the husband and brings children is linked with a bright nose tip, red lips and moist Seal Hall. Half a life without marriage is linked with dark color, a harsh voice and thick waist. Lifelong fortune, stipend and glory are linked with floating radiance and flourishing color. A pair of good eyes is linked with natural intelligence; two bow-shaped brows with a worthy spouse. Fingers like spring bamboo shoots, fragrant skin and moist flesh are linked with marrying a lord or king. Floating radiance, declining facial skin and sparse whiskers are assigned sexual excess and low standing. A voice like music, with lingering resonance to its close, is linked with wealth and rank. The obscure line about a grave lower appearance and much gentleness and refinement is said to ensure the husband's glory.
The author asks when a poor man's wife ever had moist blood and lustrous radiance. A rich household's wife is described with a deep navel, thick abdomen, broad arms and large belly; he asks how she could lack children. Thin lips and dry skin are linked with disputes morning and evening. Dark nipples and a deep navel are said to bring noble sons; small nipples and a shallow navel, ordinary and incapable sons.
In conclusion, floating blood-color radiance is said to harm children and cause loss of the husband. A dark nose tip, many Seal Hall lines, large eyes and high cheekbones are linked with taking the husband's authority, losing children and harming the husband. Coarse bones and hard flesh are declared certain signs of loss and destruction involving the husband. A capable household helper should have red lips and elegant eyes. Shaking the head and waving the hands, with a light body and heavy feet, is assigned low conduct. Harmonious, moist speech is praised as sufficient indication of managing the household and ordering its interior.
Note: These are the rhapsody's historical attributions and judgments. The supplied names Wu Zeni, the Men Gui term, the “frost woman” graph and the line about lower appearance are retained or disclosed, without silently replacing them with a corrected edition. Its measurement is not converted into modern units.
42. The Head Leads the Six Yang and Corresponds to Heaven
The crown is Jingyang, the Heavenly Storehouse Taiyang, the rear of the head Houyang, the Heavenly Spirit region Lingyang—the text says women lack this office—and the left and right eye corners Huayang. These are called the Six Yang. There are also twenty-four bones, each named, corresponding to the twenty-four qi. The head therefore governs the whole body and must not be deficient. Any one of slanting, sinking, crookedness, thinness or paring is called a broken configuration. Above all it should be level and round. Bones rising into completed corners are linked with usefulness. If one of the Six Yang fails to form, the text likewise declines to accept the configuration.
43. Eyes as Sun and Moon and the Body's Refined Qi
The eyes are the great lights, like Heaven's Sun and Moon, and should be bright and elegant. The body's foundation is placed in the two pupils: black and white distinct, radiance reaching others, pupils upright, neither raised nor lowered, neither crooked nor slanted nor furtive. Only then are they called useful.
The quoted book links an even, upright gaze with upright character and a balanced heart. Looking upward is linked with failure, downward with treachery, sideways with theft, floating radiance with sexual excess and exposed spirit with early death. Any one of these prevents acceptance of the configuration as that of a noble person.
44. Ears Enrich Spirit and Support the Face's Bearing
Ears are the Metal and Wood Stars and should be white. Clear Metal and elegant Wood are linked with examination success. Dark Metal and withered Wood are denied lifelong fortune. The age course begins at the ears at one and ends there at fourteen; they are also called the foundations of family estate. Low drooping, turned-out thinness, withered paring and crooked alignment are disapproved of.
The book's next compressed Metal/Wood line is followed by praise of red, level, open ears close to the flesh. Metal and Wood flowering are linked with a lifetime of empty reputation and empty profit. Rims dark like mud are called a sign of death; red in a child, illness. Brightness white like powder is linked with both fortune and longevity and favorable affairs. It asks whose child has ears invisible when seen from the front, and whence comes a person whose cheeks cannot be seen from the front.
Note: The short Metal/Wood phrase before the favorable colors is incomplete as supplied.
45. Brows Protect Longevity: Examine Their Height
Brows are Luo and Ji. High is preferred to low, long to short, clear to turbid. Dense, low, turbid and broken brows are said to deny familial affection through life. Scattered and bunched brows mean siblings treating one another as strangers. Brows extending beyond the eyes are said to mean five or six brothers. Elegant brows are above all desired.
The quoted sayings link examination success with a pair of eyes and advancement with two brows, and lack of position and authority with inelegant brows. Unfavorable brows are said to reveal ruin after thirty. Without long brow hairs in old age, a complete sixty-year cycle is not readily promised.
46. Nose as Beam, Pillar and Foundation of the Face
The nose is the face's foundation, connecting above to the Heavenly Court and below to the sea-mouth. It is also called Earth Star, Central Peak and Palace of Wealth. All things arise from Earth, hence its foundational place. Slanting and hooked curves, a broken Mountain Root, knotted Year and Longevity regions and an obstructed Turtle Gate are disapproved of. Any one is called a poverty configuration.
A raised Mountain Root, level and bright Year and Longevity regions, a full nose tip and the source's unclear “Gold Armor tang-complete” phrase are linked with lifelong abundance of wealth and stipend, rank and riches. The quoted book calls the nose the Wealth Star and assigns it the fortunes of middle age, from forty-one through fifty-one.
Note: The word accompanying complete Gold Armor is irregular here; no missing anatomical description is supplied.
47. Mouth as the Great Sea Receiving a Hundred Streams
The mouth is the Water Star, hence sea-mouth, receiving a hundred streams. Above it connects with the other four peaks—forehead, both cheekbones and nose—and below moistens the body. Red moistness, breadth, thickness, white teeth, aligned lips and upper and lower parts matching are linked with rank.
The quoted book links red lips and white teeth with ample stipend, and a thin, small, pointed or slanted mouth with little fortune. Beginning at sixty, this region governs ten years. Blue-green pupils and a broad mouth are linked with high literary achievement; dark eyes and a pointed mouth with poverty. A large face and small mouth are not praised as exceptional, nor a small face and large mouth as worthy of praise. A round face and broad mouth are affirmed.
48. Neck as the Hundred Paths: Length, Fineness and Roundness
The neck carries the Six Yang above and connects with the hundred valleys below, and must be examined. Ancient books read the throat but did not discuss the neck; the author asks how this bodily governor could lack a reading. For women a rounded, long neck is favored. Men differ: a thin man's neck should be long, a fat man's short. A thin man with a short neck is said not to escape the outcome around thirty; a fat man with a long neck is not assured of four nines, thirty-six years.
Four things are disapproved of: a prominent throat knot, floating sinews, exposed bones and moving qi. All are called poverty signs. A thin person with a throat knot is assigned hardship at home, a fat person death wandering elsewhere. The master's verse joins tight skin, floating flesh and a throat knot with the obscure “cart-like” half-life phrase and wandering in another region. Blood withered like frost is assigned an end of life around forty.
A round neck with thick skin and repeated lines is linked with intelligence and elegance. Support from the two back and shoulder regions is said to raise someone from a plain house to high office. A round head but thin neck is not readily promised longevity. Repeated neck lines, called neck bands, are linked with great lifelong longevity and freedom from misfortune.
Note: The cart-like line is irregular as supplied; the first age prediction leaves its adverse outcome unstated.
49. Back, Yin and Yang: Establishing Their Levels
A back sunken into a hollow and exposed chest bones are said to leave the household without grain for a second night. Broadly the back should be high, the chest level and the shoulders broad rather than raised; raised shoulders are called cold. The Guangjian Collection says the back has Three Jia and the abdomen Three Ren, promising abundant clothing and food, wealth, rank and glory. Its parenthetical explanations refer to the written characters for back and drooping.
The chest should be broad rather than narrow and small. Fine hairs there are disapproved of, though softness is conditionally accepted; a deep hollow is attributed a treacherous heart. A hollowed back is linked with no grain in old age. Water and Earth forms should have a high back, Wood a level back. The common saying prefers a good body and chest to a good face; the back governs the whole body. The quoted book says hollow yang and submerged yin share a course. It identifies the back as yin and chest as yang, then says yang must not be hollow and yin must not be exposed.
Note: The Three Jia/Three Ren explanations do not supply an actual diagram here; none has been invented.
50. Breasts as Roots and Shoots of Descendants
Breasts should not be small. The Metal, Wood, Water and Earth forms should have thick skin-Earth; thin skin is said to mean thin breasts. Round, firm nipples are linked with wealthy children; square, firm ones with noble children; damaged, small ones with difficulty establishing descendants. Pale, unraised breasts are not readily promised children. For women, dark and large breasts are called excellent: small means few children, large many. Square or round nipples mean wealth and rank in the children; pale, small, low or slanted ones difficulty with descendants. Dark, firm nipples with fine, attractive hairs are linked with noble sons, glorious grandchildren, fortune and longevity.
51. Navel and Abdomen: Enclosing the Organs and Opening Outside
Taisu says the navel is the narrow pass of the hundred vessels. It should be deep, the abdomen thick, the skin firm and bones upright. A higher navel is linked with wisdom, a lower one with folly; depth with fortune and stipend, shallowness with poverty. A broad, large navel is linked with fame over a thousand miles. A dark mole within it and a hanging abdomen are linked with court office. A small, level navel is assigned toil and low standing.
The master says a hanging abdomen and high navel naturally bring clothing and stipend; a high abdomen and downward-facing navel mean solitary poverty in old age. The abdomen should be smaller above and larger below, never the reverse. As the outer manifestation of the five zang it should be broad and large, not narrow and small. An upper position is linked with wisdom, a lower one with folly; the author says people fail to understand this principle.
For women, the navel is the child's root and the breasts its shoots. In pregnancy the text links a son in the abdomen with red-black navel coloring; a female in the womb with protrusion at three or four months. Protrusion at nine months is again said to promise a boy. Regardless of fatness or thinness, one fen of depth is assigned one child, half a cun five. A large navel is favored; a small one makes children uncertain, and even those born are said not to survive. A red navel means a son; the broken phrase “one jade belt black” is also followed by a prediction of a son. Fine hairs within the Gold Belt mean an elegant son; broad abdominal skin five sons. A small navel, slanted waist, small abdomen, thin skin and tight skin are said to leave little favorable in the reading and to mark a childless woman.
Note: Measurements remain historical units. The fetal-sex clauses and jade-belt phrase are irregular as supplied; no missing explanation is invented.
52. Buttocks and the Later Course of Rise and Decline
No buttocks in youth is linked with nothing accomplished, land not kept, ancestral property ruined and departure from the clan. In old age it means hardship and toil, loss of wife and children and wandering in the dusty world. A thin person without buttocks is said to learn much and accomplish little; a fat person without them to scrape pots and wash basins, without wife or children, solitary and poor. Buttocks should therefore be open, moist, broad and large rather than pointed and tapering.
The quoted book links a hollow chest and projecting buttocks with discord between father and son. In women it calls the same configuration fierce and harmful. An attached rule links a small waist, pointed buttocks and deep navel with servitude and solitary poverty; pale nipples added to this mean lifelong solitude. It says no noble woman has pointed buttocks.
For a dignified woman it prescribes: a broad rather than projecting chest; round rather than thin waist; dark rather than pale breasts; deep rather than shallow navel; black rather than yellow hair; fine rather than slippery flesh; rounded rather than raised brows; high rather than hollow back; round rather than pointed face; fine rather than round eyes. This is the general account; violating even one is said to deny the configuration of a good man's wife.
53. Thighs and Limbs as the Body's Foundation
The passage calls the rounded swellings around wrists and calves the thighs and supporting limbs, and treats them as the body's foundation. They must not lack their surrounding fullness. The quoted book calls absence of that fullness most inauspicious. Fat or thin, large or small, everyone should have it.
A child without thighs is assigned death at three sixes, eighteen; an adult, ordinary poverty and low standing; a woman, an unfavorable character; a thin person, ruin and flight elsewhere; a fat person, an uncertain later course. Women too must not lack this foundation.
Note: The opening's grouping of wrists, calves and the term for thighs/supporting limbs is retained as supplied.
54. Hands as the Body's Shoots: Many Accounts
To read the hand, first examine the Five Phases, then the Eight Trigrams. Palms differ in thickness, fingers in length, lines in depth and color in brightness or obstruction. Ruler and ministers should occupy their places, the phases match, the trigrams be settled, and the principal and the source's “solid” component be proportioned. Only the principal is permitted to strengthen the solid component, not the solid to overpower the principal. Lines should be fine, deep and formed, not shallow, confused, withered, dry, slanted, pared, defective or crooked.
Nails are called the surplus of essence. Thick nails are linked with boldness, fine fingers with intelligence. Bright palms mean flourishing wealth and ample stipend; dark palms family ruin and empty finances. Flesh in the palm center represents ancestral foundations, flesh on its back a self-founded estate. Fine, moist flesh is favored. Broadly the palm should be soft and long, its “belly” bright and thick. Exposed bones, floating sinews, pared flesh, thin nails and slanted fingers are all called unfavorable.
The master, passing through a small lane, saw a hand pouring water from a window: its color clear as jade, radiance striking his eyes, fingers like spring bamboo shoots and blood red like pearls. He said such a man's hand would enter the Hanlin Academy and such a woman's hand would make her mother of the realm. The source then says Yongle selected this woman as a consort and she bore Zhengtong.
For both men and women, moist color, long fingers, fine lines and flesh on palm center and back are called excellent. A well-shaped line in the Li Palace is linked with entering Hanlin. A line rising from Qian to Li is called a Heaven-Piercing Line and linked with founding a household from nothing. A red, moist palm center is said to bring advancement within a few years. Confused lines mean little success in reputation and profit; shallow lines shallow ambition, deep lines deep ambition, confused lines a confused heart, and no lines a dry heart. Lines are favored. Long fingers, thick palms, deep lines, bright color and moist blood are linked with ministerial rank for a man and a titled lady's rank for a woman.
Note: The principal/solid wording and palm “belly” are retained as this text gives them. The Yongle/Zhengtong relationship is the anecdote as supplied, not a corrected historical genealogy.
55. Feet Carry the Body and Should Be Thick and Square
The round head images Heaven, square feet Earth. Heaven should be high, Earth thick. Flesh on the tops of the feet is linked with settled fortune and stipend; flesh in the soles with heaped gold and jade. Floating sinews on the foot tops are denied even half a coin saved. The middle toes should be long. A child without heels is said not to pass a first spring. Soft hair on the foot tops is linked with intelligence; hair on the toes with lifelong freedom from foot disorders. An adult without heels is assigned poverty and wandering.
56. Head Hair as Surplus Blood and the Forests
Hair is the surplus of blood. It should be moist and elegant, fine and long, soft and fragrant, not withered, yellow, dry or tangled. Like an inelegant forest, such hair is denied noble standing. In a Wood form it should not be dense and long, but clear and moist, never withered and yellow. Metal, Water, Fire and Earth forms should not have much hair: much hair means sparse wealth. Hair growing into Sun and Moon corners is linked with foolish idleness and harm to kin.
A woman's hair around four chi long is called excellent. Hair loss in youth is not readily promised children; black hair in old age a lifespan like the pine. Half-white, half-black hair is still linked with longevity. White hair in youth is said to mean loss of both parents; more on the left harms the father, more on the right the mother. The passage says not beyond fifteen, and specifies that this discussion concerns white hair arising at fifteen.
Note: The age wording is retained as supplied, and the historical hair-length unit is not converted.
57. Moles Like Mountain Peaks Should Be Raised
Raised marks are called moles, flat ones dots, yellow ones patches. Patches and dots on the face are disapproved of; the quoted book doubts longevity when a face has many. Facial moles are manifest, bodily moles hidden. Both should have fine hairs, like forests with vegetation. A mark on the back governs clothing and official attire, on the chest wisdom. The abdomen may bear black like ink or red like a pearl; firmness and height are linked with rank, middling level with lesser rank. Bright, moist color is favorable, darkness unfavorable.
58. Distinguishing Coarse Hair from Fine Hair
Coarse, hard growth is called hair and assigned low standing wherever it appears. Finer growth is called fine hair and is especially favored on legs and feet. Hair below the navel and at the rear passage is linked with lifelong freedom from genital disorders and fear of spirits. Fine chest hair is linked with impatience; fine back hair with lifelong toil. Fine hairs on the breasts—three are called good—are linked with noble sons. Much hair confused like grass is called a childless configuration. Fine hairs on fingers are also favorable. In general, fineness and softness are called excellent.
59. Bones as Metal and Stone: Firm and Upright
Bones should be firm and flesh solid. Bones are ruler, flesh minister. Much bone with little flesh is linked with poverty, much flesh with little bone with a shortened lifespan. Only proportioned bone and flesh are promised longevity and children. Hard bones in a woman are said to harm the husband; in a man to mean poverty. Dragon Bones should be fine and long; the next clause says Dragon Bones should be thick and upright, not floating. Exposed sinews, floating bones and crooked flesh form a short-lived configuration.
In summary, upright bones and firm flesh are linked with fortune and longevity. The quoted verse says upright bones, strong spirit and firm flesh bring ruler and minister into correspondence and continuous fortune; floating flesh and much outward qi bring punishment and an incomplete lifespan at four nines, thirty-six.
Note: Both differing Dragon Bone descriptions are retained; a different bone name is not silently inserted.
60. Flesh as Skin-Earth Should Be Solid and Full
Skin belongs to Earth. Earth must be thick and solid to nourish the myriad things. Flesh must be full and moist, its blood and qi flourishing. With thin skin over the body, the author asks how flourishing life could arise. Tight skin is linked with short life, loose skin with long life; a child with tight skin is denied longevity. A further verse disapproves above all of tight, coarse skin, denies such people establishment of a household, calls them lowly, foolish and wasteful, and predicts life's return before four nines, thirty-six.
61. The Channel, Also Called the Philtrum, Should Be Deep and Long
The philtrum is the channel and governs affairs at fifty-one. Depth and length are called excellent. Small above and large below means a channel flowing freely; large above and small below, obstruction. The face has the Jiang, He and channels as its Four Waterways, attended by the Five Peaks. They should therefore be deep, long, broad and large, not narrow, small, short or crooked. The source assigns Jiang to ears, Huai to nose, He to eyes and the Ditch to mouth. Shallowness is linked with late children.
The master says a level, filled philtrum makes children uncertain. He then says it may extend life to four nines, thirty-six. Yet this one region is only a minor way; despite such statements, the body's major regions must be examined in detail.
Note: The source's Ditch name in the waterway list and its differing statements about a filled philtrum are retained.
62. Facial Hair as the Outward Display of Dantian Qi
The upper regions on both sides are Lu, the lower chin region Dan, the philtrum Zi or moustache, and the Receiving Fluids region Xu or beard. These five named growing regions constitute the moustache and beard. The text permits Lu without Guan but not Guan without Lu; moustache without beard but not beard without moustache. All five matching is called excellent and noble.
Facial hair should be black like lacquer; red is favored over yellow. Mixed black, red and yellow is called highly unfavorable. Gold-red, cord-like hair with its heads and tails opening is called a golden beard bringing ten thousand in gold. A face white as powder and round as the moon with such a beard is a Silver Face and Golden Beard, assigned second-rank office. Sparseness and elegance are favored; hardness over softness, curves over straightness, clarity over turbidity. Beard joining side-whiskers and head hair should harmonize. Little head hair with much beard is denied wealth and called poor.
The quoted verse calls turbid, scorched-yellow facial hair most unfavorable and links a grassy swallowtail form with punishment and injury. Clear, light growth emerging from the flesh, sparse and elegant, is said to supply pillars for the royal house. Beard and side-whiskers that straighten in old age are called goat beard; open tails swallowtail. Both are linked with harm to sons and solitude in old age.
Note: Guan is not defined among the five opening hair names here; no missing facial region is invented.
63. Pillow Bones and Complete Fortune, Stipend and Longevity
At the rear of the head is the pillow bone, said to arise after “three eights.” Raised bones behind the ears are called pillow and Root of Longevity. A person must not lack them: a child without them is said to die once able to speak. The bone is behind the ear and is also said to be present as soon as the ear forms. The source names returning-pattern bone, pin-character bone, linked-pearl bone and protruding Three Mountains bone; all are linked with the rank of an enfeoffed lord.
Northerners with heads more than one chi large are said often to possess this bone. A smaller pin-character form is assigned third-rank office. The quoted verse favors paired over single pillow bones: growth unevenly on one side means short life, high growth at the rear a flourishing household. An ordinary pillow bone governs longevity; returning-pattern, upturned-moon, Three Mountains, pin-character and paired-pearl linked-ring forms are said to mean great rank. High, full and prominent growth is linked with continuous fortune.
Note: “Three eights” remains literal rather than being assigned an unsupported definite age. The source alternates between arising later and being present with the formed ear. Its named shapes are not accompanied here by complete diagrams.
64. Teeth as the Surplus of Bone and a Life's Livelihood
Teeth are the surplus of bone and should be aligned, thick and large. Upper teeth connect with the great yang as a yang channel; lower teeth with the lumbar region as a Kidney channel. Long teeth are therefore linked with longevity, sparse teeth with early death, short teeth with folly. White, even teeth like jade are said to receive Heaven's stipend; small, round, uneven teeth are assigned poverty. The two front teeth are the Great Gate: large and aligned means loyalty and filial conduct, small and slanted untrustworthiness.
Women should have yellow, large teeth. In men, thirty-four teeth mean rank, thirty-two fortune and longevity, thirty an ordinary course, and twenty-eight little longevity. Teeth are also called the Inner School Hall; only aligned, white, large and thick teeth are credited with learning.
65. Voice Corresponds to Thunder: Resonant and Clear
A noble voice should be clear, long, moist, harmonious and resonant, large at its beginning and small at its end; this is linked with wealth and rank. A Wood voice should be high, a Metal voice moist. Resonance should issue from the dantian, the throat be broad and the sound ringing and firm: this is called a beautiful voice. Another line gives Wood a high singing sound, Fire a scorched one, and harmonious, moist Metal sound abundant fortune.
In wealthy and noble people, voice is said to arise from the dantian, clear, long, high and ringing. The petty person's voice comes from the tongue tip, low and broken. A small body with a great voice is assigned the child of a rich, prominent family; a low voice and small body a family-ruining child. A woman's voice should be clear, a man's resonant. Voices like a cracked gong, barking dog or bleating sheep are all assigned poverty and low standing.
66. Scrotum and Jade Stem as Foundations of Life
The scrotum should be dark, its lines fine, and not hang downward. Warmth like fire is linked with noble sons, cold like ice with few children. Jade Stem is the account of the numinous turtle: the emperor's is called Jade Stem, an ordinary person's Turtle Head. The turtle should be small; pale firmness is linked with rank, largeness, length, darkness and weakness with low standing. Largeness is said to invite misfortune, smallness and elegance a worthy man. A small turtle is linked with a good wife and good children; a large one is called unfavorable.
67. The Rear Passage as the Back Gate of the Five Zang
The rear passage should be enclosed on both sides and not exposed. Exposure is linked with extreme poverty and early death. Hair is favored, its absence assigned low standing. Slow urination is favorable, fast urination linked with poverty. A fine, long stream is assigned rank in military office; a slanted one rank in civil office; a folded-belt form wealth and rank. The verse links no hair at the passage with poverty in old age, exposure in youth with punishment, and fine, deep concealment with nobility.
Note: The source's opening names two enclosing parts with the word for arms; the precise intended anatomy is not supplied.
68. Waist and the Kidney and Life Points
Ancient people are said to have had waists four chi broad; the author asks how people now could attain that, favoring breadth, straightness and firmness instead. A fat person's waist should be broad, a thin person's round and firm. The two waist-and-thigh regions are named Kidney and Life points. Flesh and thick skin there are linked with longevity; sunken points and withered skin with death. A slanted, fine, thin, broken or pared waist is generally called a poverty and early-death configuration. A woman's broad waist is linked with fortune; a fine or slanted one with few children and low standing. The quoted verse links scorched skin at Kidney and Life with a shortened lifespan, folded waist flesh with long years.
Note: The source's waist-and-thigh wording is retained rather than silently replaced with a different anatomical term. The historical width is not converted.
69. Legs and Knees as the Lower Division
Large knees and small legs form a crane configuration and are assigned low standing. Small knees without bone are linked with early death; a child with small knees is denied longevity. Sinews showing above the knees mean lifelong toil and travel; fine hair on the legs lifelong freedom from official punishment. Hard hair readily invites peril, softness is favored. Even with an otherwise favorable body, large knees and small legs are assigned folly and rejected as useful. The quoted sayings disapprove of exposed bones on large knees, favor round knees with large legs, link pillar-like round knees with never entering a court, and large legs with pointed knees with repeated lawsuits over half a life.
70. Stagnant, Turbid, Bright and Flourishing Blood
Blood lies within the skin. To know whether it is stagnant, turbid, bright or flourishing, examine the roots of qi and color. Only sufficient blood issues qi and color; flourishing blood makes them bright. A faint inward response is called bright; distinct inward color flourishing. Bright, flourishing blood in men and women is said to permit judgments of wealth, rank and lifespan. Dim darkness within is stagnation, outside turbidity, both assigned poverty. Blood white like powder means color without brilliance, and blood-color without brilliance lifelong hardship.
71. Dark, Yellow, Large and Small Patches
Patches and dots are disapproved of in thin people. A pale complexion with dark patches is linked with intelligence and sexual desire; a pale complexion with yellow patches with folly and low standing. Facial or bodily patches in a thin young person are linked with short life; patches in a fat person with longevity. Only the Earth form is said to suit patches; Metal, Wood, Water and Fire do not. Patches arising in old age mean longevity. Large marks are called patches, small ones dots. Both are strongly disapproved of in youth but are said not to matter in old age.
72. General Summary: Fragrance Fills the Courtyard
A broad forehead, moist ears, round head, square feet, bright Mountain Root, full chin, suspended-gallbladder nose, loose neck skin, square face and thick back are called a whole-body configuration of fortune and longevity. The master gathers together the body's repeatedly tested readings: hair, brows and eyes, ears, nose, lips, curved beard, crown, brain region, back, breasts, abdomen, navel, waist, legs, hands and feet, fine and coarse hair, moles, bones, voice, skin and blood, patches and dots, scrotum, Jade Stem, rear passage, philtrum and pillow bones.
There were originally thirty-six methods, yet here only thirty-three. Why, the text asks, have urination, hair and tongue been omitted? Master Yuan answers that he sees the lord serving as chief minister for forty-three years, assisting six sovereigns above and directing the hundred offices below. Fearing disclosure of Heaven's mechanism, he has concealed urination, side-whiskers and tongue. Lord Gao replies that he has studied physiognomy for forty years and knows that whiskers differ in depth, tongues in redness and whiteness, and urination in coarseness and fineness. His discernment is inadequate, so he asks for a rule to assess wisdom and folly and assign the greater or lesser weight of minor offices.
Master Yuan says side-whiskers enrich the face and reveal wisdom, folly and concealed virtue. The tongue is the shoot of the five grains and reveals the inner organs and disposition. It should be large, red or purple; smallness, blue-green, whiteness and pointedness are disapproved of and attributed to crafty, miserly people.
Hair should be black, clear, thick, even, moist and bright, never yellow, curled, confused or scorched; the latter are assigned low standing. Broadly, a gentleman is said not to have scorched whiskers, a petty person not a large tongue. Whiskers extending deeply beyond the Life Gate are linked with worthy virtue, qualified by sexual desire. Heavy whiskers and light head hair mean entering official service; heavy hair and light whiskers lifelong toil. Light whiskers and elegant brows bring the unclear “retained collar” phrase; few whiskers and full brows are doubted of lasting from beginning to end. Heavy whiskers with a beard are favorable, without one linked with prostitution. Lord Gao accepts the account and praises purple tongue and silk-like whiskers as the conditions for office; a pointed, pale, small tongue is linked with disputes, scorched hair and whiskers with lack of learning.
Urination like pearls is assigned the position of the Three Qi; a splashing-pearl form high learning and much glory.
The rhapsody says a person corresponds to Heaven, Earth and the Five Phases. Distinguish north, south, east and west, and establish bodily form and pattern. To know rank, first observe brows and eyes, next lips; to establish flourishing and decline, first form and spirit, then color. Spirit issues from form; the source next repeats color growing strong through color. These are said to reveal wealth and longevity. Floating blood and color obstructed on the face are assigned poverty and early death. Coarse, large qi is told not to struggle for fame; a hurried, short voice not to labor at the study window. Coarse bones and short fingers are assigned folly; little bone and floating flesh short life. Eyes seeming to contain stars are promised eventual fame; sparse brows and dark eyes lifelong hardship.
The obscure phrase about “entering yang” and passing examinations is followed by bright, moist Four Schools and Three Yang. Difficulty in study and blocked writing are paired with dark courtyard and border regions. Fine hairs at the Four Qiong regions are linked with high longevity; Three Points and exposed spirit with poverty and early death. Failure in reputation and profit is blamed on a pared Heavenly Court; strength emerging in old age on a full, raised chin.
Note: The supplied thirty-six/thirty-three comparison, some dialogue wording, “retained collar,” “Three Qi,” the repeated color clause, “entering yang” and “Four Qiong” are incomplete or unusual. The missing explanations and supposed three omitted methods have not been reconstructed.
1. Palace of Life
It lies between the brows, above the Mountain Root. Bright as a mirror means understanding in all learning. A level, full Mountain Root is linked with fortune and longevity; a high Earth Star with sources of wealth; clear eyes with both riches and rank. River-pattern forehead lines are linked with the Traveling Horse in one's destiny. A sunken Official Star means solitary hardship; crossing, joined brows low standing; confused lines departure from home and harm to the wife. A narrow forehead and withered brows are therefore called signs of lifelong poverty.
Verse:
Between the brows and eyes lies the Palace of Life;
Clear, bright, moist and clean, it promises learning.
Confused lines instead bring hardship and obstruction,
Exhausting the family's wealth and shaming the ancestors.
2. Palace of Wealth
The nose is the Wealth Star and occupies the Earth station. A cut-tube or suspended-gallbladder form means a thousand granaries and ten thousand chests. Upright prominence means lifelong wealth and rank; a centered, unslanted form abundant fortune and stipend. The small, pointed peak in the source's damaged clause means poverty into old age. Upturned openings mean no grain for a second night; empty Kitchen Chambers no household accumulation. One or two hairs within the nose are called Jindeng and disapproved of; more are called excellent.
Verse:
The Wealth Palace nose should be high and full;
Do not leave its two Kitchen Chambers empty.
Upturned exposure means no wealth or grain;
A chin attending it brings abundant grain and stipend.
Note: The first word in the small, pointed-peak clause is irregular as supplied.
3. Palace of Siblings
Siblings occupy the two brows, belonging to Luo and Ji. Brows longer than the eyes mean three or four brothers without harmful restraint. Elegant brows and a clear face are followed by a compressed promise of rank involving an elder brother. A new-moon form means lasting harmony and distinction. Short, coarse brows make common life among siblings difficult. Differing brows mean different surnames; joined, yellow, turbid brows death away from home; high heads and low tails discord between brothers.
Verse:
Brows for siblings should be soft, clear and raised;
Four or five brothers are said to grow strong.
Unequal corners mean different mothers;
Joined, yellow, turbid brows mean death elsewhere.
Note: The prose's different-surnames claim and verse's different-mothers claim remain distinct. The prose phrase concerning the elder brother is incomplete.
4. Palace of Fields and Houses
The eyes are fields and houses. Red vessels invading the pupils are especially disapproved of and linked with exhausting family wealth in youth. Displaced, sunken yin and yang mean no grain to store in old age. Lacquer-like pupils mean flourishing property throughout life; phoenix eyes and high brows tax estates across three prefectures and five counties. Darkness and exposed spirit mean dispersed wealth and a ruined household.
Verse:
The eyes govern the Palace of Fields and Houses;
Elegant and distinct, the pair should be alike.
If yin and yang are withered and exposed,
The parents' family wealth comes to nothing.
5. Palace of Sons and Daughters
Sons occupy the left, daughters the right, both beneath the eyes, called Tear Hall and Sleeping Silkworm. Level, full Three Yang mean flourishing fortune and stipend for sons and daughters. Faint Sleeping Silkworm forms mean children who eventually reach high rank. Deep Tear Halls mean no affinity with sons or daughters. Dark moles and slanting lines mean sending sons and daughters away. A mouth like blowing fire is linked with a woman keeping her chamber alone. A level, filled philtrum means children hard to obtain.
Verse:
For sons and daughters, Three Yang raise Sleeping Silkworms;
Clear radiance promises good sons.
If lines invade their positions,
The lifelong “old learning” phrase is said not to withstand it.
Note: The final verse line's old-learning wording is damaged; a definite replacement about descendants is not supplied.
6. Palace of Servants
Servants occupy the Gold Thread and chin region, connecting again with the Water Star. A round, full chin means attendants in groups. Corresponding Assistant and Supporter regions mean a hundred answers to one call. A mouth like the character for “four” means authority to gather people with a call and disperse them with a shout. Slanted storehouses mean favors repaid with resentment. A deeply sunken Servants Palace means little power to employ others.
Verse:
For servants the chin must be full;
The Water Star's two corners are separately considered.
If all three regions fail to respond,
Sunken breaks and line scars leave servants absent.
7. Palace of Wives and Concubines
Wives and concubines occupy the Fish Tail, called the Jian Gate. Radiance, moistness and no lines are said to ensure a wife complete in the Four Virtues. Fullness and levelness mean marrying a wife with chests full of wealth. Cheekbones invading Heaven mean obtaining stipend through the wife. A deeply sunken Jian Gate means repeatedly becoming a bridegroom; many Fish Tail lines require guarding against a wife's ill death. Darkness and slanting lines mean many children born of secondary partners.
Verse:
A bright, moist Jian Gate protects the wife's palace;
Chests full of wealth are seen from beginning to end.
If dark obscurity grows at that gate,
Slanting lines and obstruction mean children born outside the principal union.
8. Palace of Illness and Adversity
This palace occupies Year, Longevity and Mountain Root. A bright, moist Mountain Root means no illness; darkness continuing disasters and disease.
Verse:
The Mountain Root illness palace should rise level;
Life then has no disaster and misfortune does not arise.
If line scars and withered bones occur there,
Lifelong toil is said to accomplish little.
9. Palace of Travel and Relocation
It lies at the brow tails and is called Heavenly Storehouse. Raised fullness, abundance and brilliant color mean no worry; a moist, level region admiration into old age. A rising Traveling Horse means grand journeys in all directions. The source's low, sunken “forehead-fish” region means difficulty finding a residence in old age. A gap in a brow means ruining ancestral property and leaving the clan. Slanted, sunken Heaven and Earth bring the source's nine changes in old age and the obscure conclusion “move the gate, change the evening.”
Verse:
The Travel Palace lies at the Heavenly Storehouse;
Deep sinking means few settled residences.
If the Fish Tail responds in years to come,
It is said to mark an uncommon traveling official.
Note: The forehead-fish name and final evening word are retained as supplied rather than replaced with a different region or dwelling term.
10. Palace of Official Stipend
It occupies the Upright Center, joining the Li Palace above. Fuxi penetrating the crown is linked with never appearing before a court. A Traveling Horse facing home is followed by the unclear statement that lawsuits are “not supported” through life. Bright, moist, clear and clean coloring means distinction beyond the crowd. Stately forehead corners are said to allow a noble resolution even when lawsuits arise. Line scars, hollows and breaks invite unexpected troubles. Eyes like red carp are declared a sign of criminal punishment.
Verse:
Examine the glorious Official Stipend Palace carefully;
Mountain Root and storehouses must correspond.
If suddenly clear and bright, without scars or spots,
It promises enduring noble office.
Note: The source's lawsuit phrase is not silently replaced with an unambiguous favorable prediction.
11. Palace of Fortune and Virtue
It occupies Heavenly Storehouse and connects with the chin. Heaven and Earth matching means lifelong abundant fortune and stipend. A round head with narrow forehead means hardship in youth; large forehead with pointed head hardship returning in old age. High brows and raised ears can still bring personal glory; low brows and withered ears are denied fortune and virtue.
Verse:
Fortune and Virtue require round Heavenly Storehouse and chin;
Five Stars shining mean continuous fortune.
With deficiencies, pointedness and breaks,
Food and clothing remain incomplete through life.
12. Palace of Overall Appearance
Overall appearance is a general judgment: first observe the Five Peaks, then the Three Divisions. Peaks facing Heaven, equal divisions, and dignified walking and sitting that command respect are linked with wealth, rank and much glory. Crooked peaks and misaligned divisions mean lifelong poverty. The forehead governs the early period, the nose the middle, Water Star and chin the final period. A sunken part is judged inauspicious.
Verse:
Appearance requires upper and lower divisions in place;
The Three Divisions should be equal and generate one another.
If one region lacks proportionate matching,
The person is denied abundant, lofty fortune.
18. Eyes with Nighttime Radiance: First-Rank Office
The preceding are called eighteen upper noble configurations. Any one broken feature among them is said to prevent rank.
Note: In this current source record, only the final numbered case survives in the heading, followed by this conclusion. The other seventeen cases are not supplied and are not invented in English.
18. Arms Three Chi Long: Reaching a Frontier General's Post
The preceding are called eighteen middle noble configurations. They must not be damaged; even one failure to reach the standard is called unfavorable. The text then begins: “Seventy-six. Eighteen lower noble configurations: glory and rank through inherited office.”
Note: The current record supplies only the final middle-rank case in its heading, its conclusion and the following lower-rank introduction. Missing numbered cases are not reconstructed; the arm measurement remains a historical unit.
82. Women's Longevity and Early Death Differ
Men are read primarily through spirit, women through blood. Declining blood in a man is linked with much illness, flourishing blood with little. The author asks how a woman with thin and tight skin, pointed and pared form, declining blood, short qi and coarse spirit could live long. Abundant spirit, thick and loose skin, solid flesh and upright bones are called a woman's natural configuration of fortune and longevity.
Verse:
Blood declining, skin tight: life can be complete;
Thin, withered, dry skin leaves longevity insecure;
If skin is loose and, in the source's wording, contrary blood flourishes—
Note: The first verse line's affirmative “can be complete” conflicts with the surrounding account. The supplied verse stops after its third line; neither a negation nor a fourth line has been added.
84. Ten Harmful Configurations in Men
Any one of these is said to leave the children unable to attend the person's final rites: a configuration of hardship in old age.
Note: The current record names ten configurations in its heading but supplies none of their individual descriptions.
86. Hardship, Free Passage, Gain and Loss Through the Cycles
Hardship means unsettled Six Storehouses, unmatched Three Divisions and Five Phases failing to attain their places. Following a pattern that has lost its enclosure, with stars displaced and sunken, the position scarcely allows aspiration or distinction: it is called lifelong cold obstruction.
Free passage means something recoverable and usable. Regions had been unequal and qi and color unmatched, bringing years of hardship; suddenly one region becomes usable and qi and color open. The Son of Heaven is said to gain aspirations toward the blue clouds, ordinary people continuous beneficent favor.
Gain means that the earlier regions described were unfavorable but later ones favorable: arriving at the favorable part naturally brings gain.
Loss means favorable qi and color with unfavorable regions. The quoted book begins, “Qi and color determine the favorable and adverse outcomes of the year course”—
Note: The final quotation is unfinished in the supplied record.
87. Illness, Peril, Hardship and Glory Recur in the Body
Illness is simply disaster and disease and should be examined at the Palace of Illness and Adversity. Blue-green darkness there means only a minor illness; black-red color a disaster, not necessarily death. But mutually restraining qi and color in any of four regions—mouth, nose tip, Life Palace and ears—are declared certain death. Restraint means the Five Phases restraining one another and must be examined closely. A veil over the whole face, obstructed color in the Heavenly Court, or dark color in the Borderland are each said to bring great calamity.
88. Colors Attributed to Ancient People in Distress
Red clouds rising in the Borderland are linked with Tang Taizong's “gold camp” and a hundred days of the source's unclear bondage-and-release wording. Dark obscurity in the Seal Hall is linked with Guan Yunchang's alarm at losing his horse. At the nose tip the text gives the broken phrase “Mengtang Jun, night crossing, broad crossing.” A suddenly dark Jian Gate is linked with Liu Xuande's peril at Changpo. Cheekbones like fire are linked with Yang Liulang's loss of office and hardship at Chengchuan. Red borders at the Three Passes are linked with Yang Wenguang's three years of hardship at Liuzhou. A dark Seal Hall and blue-green cheekbones are linked with Wu Zixu going to Fanyang with a precious sword. Clouded ears and a dark forehead are linked with Han Wengong going through wind and snow to Chaoyang. Red rising at Taiyang is linked with Inspector Chen seeking Shenyang in the plum grove, which the source glosses as loss of his wife. Year and Longevity dark like mud are linked with Qi Xiaoren's lost ox.
The author says all these perils arose merely from unfavorable qi and color; once these open, glory can be assured. The underlying appearance was favorable, but unfavorable color imposed temporary hardship. Fresh brightness of color and harmonious, moist qi are said to permit soaring ten thousand miles without obstruction.
This concludes the book's accounts of the bodily form. Walking, sitting, lying, eating, speaking and laughing remain six methods outside the static body and are detailed afterward.
Note: Names, places and incidents follow this supplied text, including its damaged Taizong and Mengtang Jun phrases. They are reported source attributions, not independently corrected historical accounts.
89. Walking and Judgments of Wealth, Rank and Poverty
Walking should be upright and expansive, not slanted, crooked, bent or hunched. Steps should be smooth, head upright, waist straight and chest firm. A tilted body, shaking head, snake-like movement, sparrow steps, folded waist and slanted crown are all called unfavorable patterns.
Verse:
Walk with steps like flowing water;
Body upright, head in the source's pin form, body and neck balanced.
Head shaking and excessive steps instead
Exhaust fields and gardens and bring poverty in old age.
Note: The head's pin-form wording is irregular here; no missing shape diagram is supplied.
90. Sitting and Judgments of Wealth, Rank and Poverty
Sitting should be upright, dignified and serious, alike for men and women. Restless bodily motion, moving feet and a drooping head are disapproved of as deficient configurations. Sitting like a hill or mountain is linked with great rank. Rounded shoulders, an upright neck, a level body and unhurried rising and sitting are all called noble signs.
Verse:
Sit like a hill, settled and level;
Loyalty and filial conduct are linked with achievement.
Shaking the head and moving the feet
Are dismissed as foolish and lowly.
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