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Liuzhuang Xiangfa · Liuzhuang's Methods of Physiognomy
Five Phases and Complexion
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1. Forms and the Five Phases
People live between Heaven and Earth without going beyond the Five Phases. Their qi receives yin and yang and cannot escape generation and restraint. Heaven has Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth; people Heart, Liver, Spleen, Lung and Kidney. Heart Fire, Liver Wood, Spleen Earth, Lung Metal and Kidney Water are the roots; ears, eyes, mouth and nose the shoots; qi and color their transformations.
To know disaster and fortune, understand the mechanism of change; to recognize favorable and adverse outcomes, examine generation and restraint. Red, scarlet and purple belong to Fire and are Heart shoots; blue-green to Wood and Liver, yellow Earth and Spleen, white Metal and Lung, black Water and Kidney. Colors arise through joy, anger, grief and pleasure, through wine and sexual indulgence, and through the source's Wood-channel strength-and-weakness wording. A color in a palace corresponds to a matter. Within or without, interior or exterior, large or small, slanted or upright, things differ in countless ways. The author makes the Five Colors primary for judgment within one face and says effort without the method is wasted.
Qi and color are divided into two: qi and color. Color is within. Floating radiance outside is called light, not qi; slippery color is called a dot, not floating radiance. Only qi and color are favored, not floating light.
An explanation described as worth ten thousand gold gives the face a hundred regions. A compressed clause concerns the smaller account, Four Seasons, Twelve Palaces, named places, a face-chart, palaces exchanging and favorable or adverse outcomes when periods pass. Stellar regions add another hundred and twenty; large and small regions together have two hundred and forty-four methods. Each palace has detailed rules and formulas. They require close attention, are denied to the foolish or those merely seeking fame and gain, and are reserved for someone understanding astronomy above and yin–yang below. Later recipients must not confuse the identifications.
Note: The Wood-channel phrase, smaller-account/chart clause and slippery-color/dot distinction are irregular as supplied. The hundred, hundred-and-twenty and two-hundred-and-forty-four counts are retained without inventing missing regions to reconcile them.
2. Qi and Color Through the Four Seasons
The song says:
In spring take blue-green at the Three Yang;
In summer seek within the Seal Hall.
In autumn observe Year and Longevity;
In winter floating white light at the chin.
This is called the ancient method. Spring brings forth things, so blue-green is favored above Three Yang. Summer Fire flourishes, favoring red and purple at Mountain Root and Seal Hall. Autumn Metal flourishes, favoring yellow and white at the Earth Star. Winter Water flourishes, so examine the chin. The Wood Star should be bright. This is only a general account and may not respond; the twelve months, Four Storehouses, Four Oblique and Four Upright positions must also govern. Storehouses are Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei; Upright positions Zi, Wu, Mao and You; Oblique positions Yin, Shen, Si and Hai. For a particular undertaking examine its palace, then study the detailed methods later.
Qi and color are the shoots of the five zang and six fu, divided into blue-green, yellow, black, purple, scarlet and white. Blue-green issues from the Liver channel, mostly at Three Yang, Sleeping Silkworms and Fish Tail. These are its palaces. In spring it can instead bring a little benefit. At Heavenly Court or Seal Hall it means death in seven days; nose tip death within a year; Year and Longevity hidden disease; both ears hardship and family ruin; mouth corners or chin life ending within a month; Borderlands implication in official imprisonment. The own-palace clause says only “no more than three, much worry.” Wherever it appears it should be bright, never dark or obstructed; darkness and obstruction are inauspicious.
Yellow belongs to the Earth Star, with Seal Hall its original position. It is the strength of Spleen Earth and mostly manifests at Seal Hall and Earth Star. The book links red and yellow over the face with household prosperity, blue-green and yellow at the nose with unexpected wealth. Fine manifestation is said not to mislead important affairs. Red and yellow particularly favor Earth Star and are otherwise disapproved of. Yellow at Seal Hall may be suitable, but red responding with it is needed; without that response it is unfavorable.
Around thirty, Metal and Wood forms are said to gain wealth from red and yellow Seal Hall color. Beyond four nines, thirty-six, Water and Earth forms instead suffer great ruin from the same. Yellow at the Border City is not readily promised longevity; at mouth corners it is declared death without survival. Outside its own regions, this color diminishes life, so successful plans cannot be promised. Yellow in the third, sixth, ninth and twelfth months, manifesting in its own palace, may promise profit. Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei are Earth palaces: Chen favors blue-green and yellow, Xu white and yellow, Wei red and yellow, Chou white and dark yellow.
Note: The own-palace three/worry clause lacks a clear unit or completion. The varying seasonal and regional qualifications are retained, including the contrast between floating white light in the song and the earlier general rejection of floating radiance.
3. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter
Scarlet is said to be a transformation of red produced by fierce, scorching brightness. It mostly appears at nose tip, Year and Longevity, seldom elsewhere. In summer only Year and Longevity are especially disapproved of: scarlet there means disputes, disaster and illness, while the nose tip and other regions are not rejected. In spring, autumn and winter, scarlet in any palace means disaster. Scarlet is outside the skin, red and purple within. The lighter outcome is disputes, the heavier death. Fire and Earth forms are said to escape half the harm, Metal and Wood strongly reject it. The Water clause first says red-scarlet is not rejected, then rejects scarlet as disaster.
Purple differs greatly from scarlet. It issues from the Heart channel as a transformation of red and mostly appears at Seal Hall, Three Yin, Three Yang and Heavenly Court. It is called a color of wealth and joy. Marriage and children particularly require it for completion; without it neither is readily promised. Wherever it manifests, the corresponding matter gains greatly. Above or below the Water Star alone it is disapproved of and means great fright and disputes.
Red is the Heart channel's proper color and means wealth. It mostly appears at Seal Hall, cheekbones and nose tip, rarely elsewhere. It should be bright and moist, a fleck, grain or thread, like beans or rice, preferably forming three, four, five or seven. One large obstructed patch is disapproved of. With inner and outer response it is called a wealth-producing color, especially suited to spring and summer, not autumn and winter.
Black is Water color, issuing from the Kidney channel, and means calamity wherever it appears. In a Fire form, however, brightness is linked with advancement. Black dots are Bladder color and mean death within three sevens, twenty-one days. A sick person showing white is said to survive; black opening and yellow arriving mean death. In an elderly sick person, yellow at mouth corners is strongly disapproved of, black not rejected, and white appearing means death.
Much white radiance on Wood and Earth faces is called highly inauspicious. White at the regions generally is disapproved of, except a winter chin. In other months it is unfavorable. Dots or threads in a region mean filial mourning clothes; dispersed color is less serious. Bean-sized dots or threads like newly hatched silkworms are mentioned; dispersion removes the objection.
Dark color is rising turbidity, spreading across the face without distinguishing the five zang, inside and outside unclear and no palace boundaries. A quoted saying assigns dark color nine years of severe hardship, frustrated affairs and obstacles. Much scarlet makes darkness, much blue-green and yellow likewise. The next clause says opening comes only after three years.
Obstructed color is attributed to Heaven's turbid qi, disharmonious skin-Earth and unregulated five zang. The Earth-form sentence has an uncertain negative, but still requires moist obstruction; darkness is not favorable. One obstruction is said to take nine years to open, a whole face of it lifelong poverty. The old saying calls clouded spirit and obstructed qi a poor man's condition. Another method says old people should not be bright, young people not dark, while obstructed color need not matter.
Note: The Water-form red/scarlet contradiction, different statements about white in sick and old people, three- and nine-year wording and damaged Earth-form negative remain as supplied. No uniform rule is invented to remove the distinctions.
4. Accounts by Month
First month, Yin Palace
Examine Tiger Ear, Returning, Wine Order and Wine Pool. Clear, white, bright and moist is proper color, preferably dots or patches. Dark obstruction and lack of brightness mean an unfavorable month. The verse calls Yin color white, obstructed and clear, linking it with accumulated wealth and repeated joys. Red requires guarding against great low standing, yellow loss, black official punishment.
Second month, Mao Palace
Examine level with the eye corners, not reaching the cheekbone edges, the Life Gate, Sleeping Silkworms below the eyes and the two Mountain Peaks, above, below, left and right. Blue-green is favored, outside manifestation disapproved of, a single inner patch preferred to dots. The passage then says this month alone, when things arise, favors an outer patch. Black, darkness, yellow and scarlet are rejected, red and purple not rejected. The verse favors blue-green at Mao, joins bright Fire, red and yellow with naturally arising joy, then declares scarlet or yellow at the Eastern Peak boundary a disaster star that month.
Third month, Chen Palace
Examine Heavenly Storehouse, Fortune Star, Traveling Horse, Hanging Court, Heaven's Gate and Outskirts, at the right brow tail. Moist dark-yellow color is favored, white-bright and black rejected; a little red is excellent. The verse seeks yellow at Heavenly Storehouse and responding red for flourishing glory, white for punishment, injury and mourning. Its final line gives the irregular wording that stipend and fortune themselves have calamity.
Fourth month, Si Palace
Examine Colored Clouds, Taishu and Tiger Bone, upward to Yuebei and downward to Three Yin. Red, purple and radiance are favored. Fire should flourish, not weaken, hence bright red is required. Dark obstruction means disaster and illness, black death, blue-green punishment and injury, yellow loss, white mourning. The verse favors red in flourishing Si Fire, says blue-green invasion incurs punishment, and joins black arriving with five mornings, dark obstruction and death. It calls for guarding against disaster, ruin and harm to kin.
Fifth month, Wu Palace
Examine Colored Clouds, upward to mouth corners without reaching Three Yang, connecting with the left side beside the Seal Hall. Red and purple are favored; yellow unfavorable, slight blue-green loss, slight white unfavorable and slight black peril. Purple, red and scarlet are called Fire's proper colors. Water is most feared, with black, white, blue-green and dark colors rejected in the following clause. Another saying favors flourishing Fire in the fifth-month Seal Hall, hence summer examination of the source's Seal/Hanging wording. The verse again calls for red, praises purple and red, calls scarlet middling, and says dark, blue-green or white means either household ruin or punishment.
Sixth month, Wei Palace
Examine color at the end of Heavenly Storehouse. Fire declines and Earth flourishes, favoring purple and yellow, not other colors. The source's gold-purple/full-yellow wording is assigned fulfilled wishes within eighteen days, official promotion, Earth success, trading profit and personal flourishing. Purple alone is difficult, as is yellow alone. Blue-green, dark and white are harmful, scarlet not rejected, black most objectionable. The verse joins the month's declining Fire with yellow light and purple qi as wealth, blue-green darkness with obstruction, and weak Fire meeting Metal with disaster.
Seventh month, Shen Palace
It connects with Sleeping Silkworms below Three Yang and the Life Gate. White, bright and moist mean wealth and joy; dark obstruction is rejected, red and scarlet great disaster. Black is disapproved of, while yellow-white and bright yellow are called excellent. The first ten days are described as transition, the last ten withdrawal. Shen Metal governs, requiring strong qi and fresh, bright color for a favorable result. The verse calls for strength, brightness, moistness and yellow; black, dark, scarlet and blue-green mean obstruction, an official losing office and common people calamity.
Eighth month, You Palace
Examine the left cheekbone, the Eastern Peak, above and below, said to share the first month's regions. Black, dark, blue-green, red and scarlet are rejected; bright, moist yellow alone is praised. Fire withdraws, Metal forms and human qi arises, so scarlet is questioned. The entire face, not just this palace, should be yellow-white and bright. One side red or scarlet means disputes, blue-green darkness disaster. The verse favors brightness in autumn Metal and warns of disaster and punishment with dark obstruction, requiring yellow brightness over the whole face.
Ninth month, Xu Palace
Examine the right Earth Storehouse, below Returning, the source's lü/green position, storehouse and cheeks. Red and yellow mean great wealth and joy; black, blue-green, scarlet and dark great disaster. Yellow should be outside and red within, never the reverse. The verse calls for bright yellow in flourishing Xu Earth and red light within as obtaining the Fire Star. Scarlet and red both outside mean exhausted wealth and a false alarm.
Tenth month, Hai Palace
Examine Yan Hall, Borderlands, level with mouth corners, Earth Storehouse and chin. White means wealth, scarlet disaster, yellow illness and death; black and blue-green are also rejected. The mouth is Water Star and should not be dark or obstructed. Hai is Water's position and especially rejects yellow. One black dot at Bank Pool alone is excellent. White must be bright and moist; scattered individual dots and grains are highly unfavorable. The verse requires bright qi, moist radiance and clear spirit, then assigns one yellow light and one white point either grave illness or official punishment.
Eleventh month, Zi Palace
Its position is the same as Hai. White is favored, black not rejected; red, yellow, spots, scarlet and darkness are rejected. The source says “after One Yang,” and calls this clear Water's proper position, hence no objection to black. Ink-like or pearl-like forms, however, mean death. The verse begins “Second Yang, Zi position,” requires the palace boundaries to be distinguished, rejects yellow, scarlet and dark, and gives pearl-like or ink-like color an unfinished lifespan.
Twelfth month, Chou Palace
It too is at the lower storehouse. Blue-green, dark and yellow are favored, obstructed black rejected. Excess scarlet and black form obstruction, so the true region must be recognized. Zi and Chou alone adjoin and must not be confused: their colors differ. The concluding comparison favors white over black at Zi, black over white at Chou. The verse calls for yellow in the Five Storehouses, says white radiance intrudes, and ends with an unclear moving/returning-scarlet-like-smoke phrase and punishment within three sevens.
Note: These are historical calendar months, not substituted Gregorian months. All named regions and verse qualifications are retained without inventing a chart. The second month's inner/outer-patch statements, One/Second Yang wording, and different black/white rules within the Zi/Chou descriptions remain distinct. The sixth-month gold-purple/Earth-success clause and final verse are irregular as supplied.
5. General Account
East should not be dark, west not blue-green, south not white, north not red. Storehouses above favor red and yellow, those below blue-green and dark. This is called a general account that always responds. East favors blue-green, south scarlet, west brightness, north white: these are called fixed principles whose reversal brings calamity. Detailed questions and explanations follow for the seasons. White means ruin, blue-green disease, black great disaster; blood like fire alone is promised satisfactory stipend and wealth. This too is called a general account.
The concluding verse says the subtle method needs only a few lines, learning without a teacher is wasted effort, and one who recognizes its hidden principle laughs at traveling practitioners selling their arts.
1. General Account of Palm Qi and Color
The palm favors strong blood as flourishing, weak blood as disaster. The old book calls a palm like bursting fire and nails like scarlet blood a hand of great wealth; white like jade and bright like silver a hand of great rank. Dark nails damage official position, a dim palm removes reputation and profit, bright color brings advancement in rank, moist color peace through four seasons. A noble hand is bright within and without, a military commander's blood radiance striking the eye.
For offices great and small, examine the palm center's qi and color. Seeking wealth or joy uses Eight Trigram positions, favoring bright yellow and rejecting obstruction. This is the old practice of viewing hands and feet for riches and rank. A bright white hand rejects dark obstruction; a dark, obstructed white hand welcomes brightness. A bean-like dot in the Bright Hall means flourishing household and wealth. Dispersed white radiance means separation and household ruin. Yellow with purple brings joy and wealth, obstructed blue-green and black illness and loss.
Scarlet is favored at the palm center, not within nails; bright moistness on the hand back. White radiance at nails and the source's middle-finger wording, glossed as fingers, means flourishing literature and high talent. Obstructed color over the hand backs means difficulty in literature and writing. Broadly, bright blood is excellent, obstructed blood disastrous.
Note: The nail/middle-finger phrase is compressed; no missing examination site is invented.
2. Discussion of Qi and Color
Qi is the surplus of spirit, and spirit running through it is excellent. The roots of qi and color should be safely concealed and strong, first coming to face and eyes, then within the limbs. Sufficient qi takes a month to issue as color; color manifesting outside permits fortune and misfortune to be judged. Qi without color does not respond, color without qi is ineffective. Color without qi is dispersed light and ultimately insufficient; qi without color is concealed and must await manifestation. Qi without color is preferred to color without qi. Only both matching make judgment accurate.
Qi issues from the dantian, or Spleen, an unnamed zang, Kidney or Bladder. Issuing in one palace alone is neither lasting nor firm. The whole face must be robust before fortune is promised. Color is viewed palace by palace, qi throughout the body above and below. Color concerns a month or year, qi's manifestation can bring ten years of fortune. Harmonious, bright qi, fullness of the eyes and a solid abdomen, subtle as pearls and jade, are promised advancement; inner dimness difficulty obtaining wealth. Qi not even half strong limits bright color's prosperity to one year. Strong qi with unopened color still means half a year's hardship.
Obstructed qi means lifelong hardship. The next dark-qi/fa-year-adversity clause is damaged. Clouded spirit is attributed to qi failing to increase and makes longevity doubtful. Insufficient qi accomplishes nothing. White, obstructed qi calls for holding one's position until red moistness allows passage. Black, obstructed qi diminishes lifespan and brings great ruin and poverty within years. Dark qi means an official retiring, uncertain longevity in the old, illness and daily decline in the young. Sufficient qi and strong spirit bring fortune. Qi generates color, color determines flourishing and decline. Disharmonious qi makes color disharmonious; an unsolid root cannot sustain its shoot. The allotted course of qi is said to determine a whole life: this is what people mean by its rising and falling.
Qi is the Five Colors' inner manifestation and requires harmony, moistness and adequate blood. Clear spirit, sufficient qi and fresh brightness bring fortune and stipend into old age. Turbid qi and withered spirit fix death's time; dark decline and no brightness are assigned lifelong folly and low standing, with no promised month or year of peaceful residence.
Color is the shoot of all things and the auspicious manifestation of the five zang and six fu. It should have subtle radiance and distinct color, not slippery confusion, floating light, oiliness or turbidity. Flourishing moistness is favored, a smoky veil rejected. Joyful color is purple or clear and lustrous; adverse color black or withered. Black should be bright and appears suitably only in midwinter. White at the chin must be moist. Early autumn favors Fire color at the two Mountains; summer Si and Wu with bright yellow promise glory. Blue-green suits mid-spring alone; before and after, observe red, yellow and purple like pearl dots. Dispersed black, white and scarlet are said to escape disaster.
Before color issues, the matter has not arrived; after it issues the matter is near. Plum-blossom dots and the source's giant-deer patches are excellent, as are silk threads and millet grains. Observe sequence and timing: timely, harmonious plans proceed, missing the season brings cold obstruction and difficulty. Wood forms favor their proper color, and small manifestations need not be rejected. Generative relations are useful, restraining positions mean punishment and injury.
For first and second ranks examine Storehouse and Seal; third and fourth nose tip and ear rims. Administrators of the people use six positions, wealthy magnates two Mountains. Mobilizing troops requires Tang Tally and State Seal; commanders cheekbones and Three Yang; battle the pupils and eyes; frontier officers of merit neck, throat, lips and tongue. These are called essential distinctions. Traders and ordinary people require close examination of Twelve Palaces by month, weighing each region's strength and depth. Red, though associated with rank, is not automatically favorable, nor black and white automatically inauspicious. Countless transformations require flexible methods.
For a minor post through one path, examine Life Palace and Lower Storehouse; gate clerks and runners the palm center. Autumn examination candidates require both earlobes, Life Gate, Year and Longevity yellow or purple, with bright, flourishing Luo, Ji and Three Yang. One dark place makes achievement uncertain. In spring examinations, examine Assistant and Supporter, then Life Gate: red or purple in these three brings recognition. Radiant pupils and spirit through the eye whites promise examination success; purple crossing both brows a green official robe. An unclear entering-companionship clause gives small attainment at Year and Longevity; the next words direct attention to Life Palace.
The nine occupations and medical arts are joined with a round nose tip and smooth ear rims. Artisans may be unmatched and famous in capital and provinces. For servants and maids, bright upper and moist lower storehouses mean establishing the household and prospering the master. A monk need not reject arising black darkness; a Daoist rejects turbid obstruction over Fire, favoring clear Metal and Water. For soldiers, a flower or bloom means morning wine and evening meat, one white brightness a household overturned. A courtesan's peach-blossom color is examined for continued favor from high ministers; responsive blood without floating light promises a good husband.
Do not call qi and color easy to read. A damaged travel sentence mentions Jiangnan, twenty-five women and differing splendid colors. Each kind needs its own account and observation. Comparisons follow with oil on colored glass, painted pictures and vermilion despite apparent red moistness. Without inner qi responding and outer color arriving, a merely slippery, weak manifestation is assigned a runner or soldier, or a courtesan. Unclear color also brings punishment and ruin: an office-holder loses his post, farmers and common people suffer. When “slippery jade” arrives, disaster is said not to be far.
Verse:
Fresh-looking color spreads one sheet of radiance,
Red like fierce flame, white like frost.
Without formed dots or patches it is empty color:
Affairs fail and disaster follows.
Floating light differs from weakness and has a separate account. White like powder, shining over the whole face, is called floating light. It marks a household-ruining son: loss in youth, toil in old age, criminal punishment for a gentleman, sexual desire in women, uncertain children, shortened life, destroyed wealth and extreme distress. A household-managing son with it must become poor. It is not praised as beautiful color but called the root of calamity, with countless objections and nothing acceptable.
Verse:
Floating light within color has long been known;
Punishment, injury and ruin are countless.
The young return to the springs at three nines, twenty-seven;
The old face entangling toil and hardship.
When the Five Colors change, red is described as mostly outside the skin but within the membrane, neither dispersed nor glaring, subtly concealed, lustrous, firm and lasting. Its dots divide periods, its threads should be bright and moist. It signifies joy, stipend, fortune, wealth and connected patches; dispersion prevents formation. The next words call patches and dots unfavorable and ineffective. Purple likewise is outside the skin and within the membrane, described as heavy red becoming purple. Strong, large patches and readily visible bright color are called red. It should still be deeply concealed, not conspicuous; complete concealment is also unfavorable. Both excess and deficiency fail to respond.
Dispersal and confusion are denied true purple. Heavy, confused red or purple appearing outside the membrane, not forming dots but a dim connected patch, is read as scarlet. Hence scarlet is mostly outside, red and purple mostly inside. Scarlet and purple must be distinguished. Red and purple issue from the Heart channel and become scarlet through dryness and violence. Its force is greatest, form strongest; in any season and palace it means grave calamity. It may pass one or two palaces and link three, four, five or six, with serious harm: household ruin when lighter, injury to life when heavier. Purple-black within scarlet makes obstructed color and danger; blue-green or yellow within scarlet mixed flowers, escaping half the harm.
Black belongs to Water and issues from the Kidney channel. Bright, widely dispersed black is acceptable only at the winter chin; elsewhere it is illness. At Heavenly Court it means death, as does heavy unopened indigo-like color; brightness escapes. White mostly arises at the chin. A damaged not-issuing/Heavenly-Court-patch clause calls it bright and open, acceptable in winter. Concealed within the membrane, distinctly radiant and forming dots or patches, it means mourning clothes; the palace determines which person is harmed.
Yellow comes through transformations of the Five Colors, mostly at Earth Star, Heavenly Court and Inner Storehouse. Brightness means wealth, pearl forms and blocks are excellent. Dark obstruction, dispersion and confusion are read as unfavorable obstruction. At Water Star, before thirty means grave illness, after thirty death. Its appearance in old people is called the governing color, followed by a question of survival. The text then says black point by point means death, calling it Bladder-produced color and again asking how life could remain. Blue-green arises from worried bowels, followed by an unclear sprinkled/heavy-point phrase. Palm skin is thick and its qi and color hard to discern quickly, so the author says these methods are required.
For ages over forty through sixty use this method; over sixty through eighty, do not. Seek natural brightness and moistness. In old people do not read the entire qi/color scheme, only skin-Earth: moist lives, withered dies. This is said not to concern heavy color.
The concluding verses call for distinguishing blue-green, yellow, scarlet and white, examining Heavenly Storehouse attentively to obtain the divine mechanism, and discerning all Five Colors before judging fortune and disaster. They give Yin and Mao clarity, the supplied yi/Wu periods dispersion, and You and Shen dimness.
Note: All health, lifespan and social classifications are historical source assertions. The damaged qi/adversity, profession and travel clauses, giant-deer/slippery-jade expressions, skin/membrane descriptions, unfavorable-patch clause, white-color wording and final yi-period graph remain disclosed. No missing profession, calendar period or diagnosis is reconstructed.
Analysis of Qi and Color
1. There are two hundred and forty-four qi/color methods; this is called one introductory method. The Five Colors' responding dates are explained as follows. Outer blue-green responds to Jia and Yi, inner blue-green to the supplied yi/Mao pair. Bright, moist white responds to Ren, Gui, Hai and Zi; bright yellow accompanying it to Shen and You. The source's hao/fine-hair color responds within the seventh month, black qi within a month. Yellow responds to Wu and the supplied yi word, obstructed yellow to Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei. Red responds to Bing and Ding, purple to the supplied yi/Wu days of flourishing Fire. Lighter scarlet responds on Fire-flourishing days, heavy scarlet Water-flourishing days.
Formula Labeled Leaving the River
Heavy Water color may go south, heavy Fire north; blue-green east, white west. Heavy scarlet may escape a thousand li away, heavy black must keep to its own place through the calamity; yellow coming south gains benefit. For departure examine Traveling Horse: bright yellow promises wealth, dark obstruction fear along the route, black or scarlet invading life danger. Dark Traveling Horse and Life Gate disallow departure. A bright Life Gate and opened Seal Hall are said to remove fear of campaigning. A dark Lower Storehouse calls for guarding against petty people's words; moist Heavenly Storehouse brings help from a noble person. Wealth and joy on the road require bright Borderlands.
2. Black around Taiyang defeats Physician Lu's rescue; blue-green covering mouth corners defeats Bian Que's treatment. These ancient rules require clear examination. Black around Taiyang means black arising at Heavenly Storehouse. Ink-blooming black means death, as does crow-like color forming dots; dispersed color means survival. Blue-green over mouth corners is rejected in spring and summer, not autumn and winter; patches rejected, dispersion not. Brightness with the source's unclear adding-word comparison and obstruction like mud are rejected. One point of white light within is said to prevent death.
Note: The yi graphs in the date pairs, hao/fine-hair color, river-departure label and adding-word comparison are retained rather than silently replaced with conventional calendar or color terms. These are historical rules, not current health or travel guidance.
3–4. Forehead Corners and Central Regions
3. Heavenly Breadth and forehead corners. The source announces twenty-six facial items in total. At Sun and Moon corners and before the Ear Gates, blue-green, dark and submerged obstruction are rejected. The old book says yellow qi from High Breadth means promotion within ten days, blue-green reaching Life Gate diminished lifespan within half a year. Sun and Moon corners connect with Heavenly Breadth and favor bright yellow, rejecting blue-green darkness.
4. Seal Hall, Year, Longevity and nose tip especially reject scarlet, dark and blue-green. Seal Hall must be bright and moist in all seasons; Year, Longevity and nose tip dislike scarlet and blue-green. Darkness means separation and household ruin. Blue-green at Year and Longevity means repeated illness, scarlet bloodshed adversity, obstruction hidden illness. Bright, moist Seal Hall opens the way; scarlet darkness there ruins office and household. Seal Hall is Life Palace, Year and Longevity the Illness-and-Peril Palace, nose tip Wealth Palace. These three govern life and its foundation and are examined first.
5–6. Changing Color and Mixed Flowers
5. Qi and color alternating bright and dark, shining and opening, are not favorable signs. They should have one color; the explanation then says not to be bright or change. Even newly obtained brightness need not mean fortune, lest what follows be disaster. A dark color only just opening must not immediately be called favorable.
6. All Five Colors together are called Mixed Flowers. Two or three colors are preferred, still judged by generation, support and restraint. A little red with spring color is not rejected; a little yellow gains brilliance and benefit from red. Generation is favorable, restraint inauspicious. All five erupting confusedly over the whole face make Mixed Flowers. Without establishing an undertaking the person does not gain wealth; once starting one, ruin follows. The quotation says blue-green/yellow do not reject scarlet/white, then links their spreading across the whole face with household ruin and separation.
Note: The first explanation's rejection of brightness and the final quotation's compressed color relations are retained without harmonizing them with other brightness rules.
11–12. Youthful Color in Old Age and Obstructed Study
11. Tender, youthful color in the old harms wife and children and means toil. After fifty such tenderness is disapproved of. The account of youthful floating light and ruin has already been given; around twenty floating light is likewise disapproved of.
12. Dark rims, contours and Life Gate, and blue-green Dark Pearls at brow tails, are said to forbid seeking fame or profit. Ears are the Outer School Hall and should be fresh and bright, not dark or obstructed. Difficult literature and writing accompany blue-green brow corners and unopened Life Gate, leaving only a poor scholar. The earlier book says ears whiter than the face bring fame at court and outside it. Darkened rims scatter literature and empty writing, and are denied learning.
15–16. Concealed Color and Insufficient Spirit
15. The heading describes inner color suffused with blood, a misty exterior and passing one spring. Its explanation says sufficient inner qi with unopened outer color must wait a year: blood becoming sufficient and qi robust will naturally open it, making inside and outside bright and bringing fortune and stipend.
16. Sufficient qi and color without sufficient spirit cannot readily promise fortune. Qi and color are spirit's shoots; without robust spirit they do not issue, and even if advancement occurs long life is uncertain. Advancement in youth needs spirit, qi and color; flourishing in old age blood, skin, moistness, spirit, qi and color. Only completeness makes them useful. For old age, strong blood and harmonious, moist scalp permit prosperity; withered skin and weak blood mean death.
Note: The first heading's one-spring wording and its explanation's one-year wording remain distinct.
19–20. Bright Storehouses and the Five Stars' Proper Colors
19. Red bursting from both cheekbones and bright Four Storehouses mean household wealth increasing daily. This concerns qi and color: red, moist cheekbones with bright Heavenly and Earth Storehouses gradually increase sources of wealth. The cited song's cheekbones bursting like fire and eyes like stars is offered as the same great flourishing.
20. Five Stars obtaining their appropriate colors mean distinction upon the cloudward road. Ears are Metal and Wood Stars and should be bright, white and moist like jade. Forehead Fire Star should be red and moist; mouth Water Star white and bright, its lips red and clear; nose Earth Star yellow, lustrous, bright and moist. These are called the Five Stars obtaining their colors, promising flourishing qi and color and profit in both official achievement and trade.
47–49. Forests, Brows and Yin–Yang Regions
47. For Trees left and right, take Forests, favoring the source's seasonal-bright/bright-yellow wording. The hairline is examined; sinking or turbidity brings immediate disaster. These govern twenty-nine and thirty. Black there means worry and fright, darkness disapproves overland travel.
48. Both brows favor red, purple and bright white, not dots or pearls. Red and purple running within brows mean great authority, intense white brightness free passage. White dots or pearls mean mourning for a brother or the brother's wife. Their period runs from thirty-one through thirty-four, but Luo and Ji must remain bright throughout life, not only those four years. Civil and military officers' outcomes are determined here.
49. Lesser Yang is assigned thirty, Lesser Yin forty, Greater Yang thirty-five, Greater Yin thirty-six. Withered darkness alone is rejected, lustrous brightness favored. The text then calls these two places and ranks red/purple highest, lustrous radiance middling, bright white ordinary. Blue-green, black, dark and obstructed color ruin affairs, withering diminishes lifespan. This Dragon Palace particularly rejects withered darkness and favors red moistness.
Note: The seasonal word in item 47, the four named positions followed by two places, and their supplied ages are retained rather than corrected from another scheme.
50–51. Mountain Root, Sleeping Silkworms and Tear Hall
50. Yuebei and Purple Qi are identified as Mountain Root. Black, withering and powder-like white are feared. Forty-one and forty-two govern here. Blue-green, black and withering are rejected, white should be bright. Entry at forty-one begins the middle period and governs thirteen years.
51. Sleeping Silkworm and Tear Hall differ greatly. Below Sleeping Silkworm is Tear Hall, further below the Palaces of Hidden Virtue and Dragon, identified as Three Yang. A raised cord beneath each eye is Sleeping Silkworm, also Sons and Daughters Palace. It favors bright yellow; purple gives the source's unspecified sign concerning youth, black darkness a period of harm to children. Tear Hall is also called Yang Virtue Palace and belongs to the Kidney channel, so persistent blue-green there is neither harmful nor rejected. Sleeping Silkworm alone rejects black and blue-green.
Note: The source does not complete the purple/youth prediction; no specific birth or event is inserted.
52–53. Illness Palace and Cheekbone Colors
52. Year and Longevity, also Illness and Adversity, reject red, scarlet, blue-green and black, which mean disaster stars. Forty-four and forty-five govern. Bright moistness means no illness, those colors disaster; a patient's color must open before improvement is admitted.
53. Both cheekbones favor Fire color in youth, bright yellow in old age. Flesh corresponding to bone is called cheekbone and requires bright red. Flesh without bone is an empty position: bright red when young, blue-green darkness when old, is said to mean flourishing longevity. Youthful blood flourishes and should be bright; in old age blood is little and red brightness unavailable, so moist yellow is favored. The frontal face is said not to govern affairs, the rest of the whole body above and below to govern them.
Note: The old-age blue-green/dark clause and the final front-face distinction are retained as supplied, not harmonized with earlier color rules.
54–56. Nose Tip, Philtrum, Storehouses and Flying Serpent
54. Nose tip and paired Wells and Stoves need only brightness and moistness; other colors are disapproved of. Forty-eight, forty-nine and fifty govern. Red is unfavorable, blue-green and black mean death, scarlet dispersed wealth. Yellow must be bright; dark obstruction also brings disaster. Hence the Earth Star rejects Fire, Wood and Water as calamity.
55. Beside the philtrum are Decree Lines and the two Food and Stipend Storehouses. The source's deer/hao wording is rejected. Philtrum governs fifty-one, Immortal Storehouses fifty-two and fifty-three, Food Storehouse fifty-four, Stipend Storehouse fifty-five, Decree Lines fifty-six and fifty-seven. Beside the philtrum above the lips lie Immortal Storehouses, level with mouth corners; farther out Food and Stipend Storehouses, farther still Decree Lines. This is Water Star. It especially rejects deer/hao and favors brightness and moistness. White dots are also unfavorable. Yellow means illness in the old, no objection in the young, harm in middle age. At fifty-four, entering the storehouse begins the late period, governing thirteen years.
56. Within Flying Serpent, red and purple mean fortune, white disaster. Examine qi and color deep in its lines, which all old people have. Strong blood with red and purple means fortune and longevity, blue-green and black illness and disaster. Read within the deep lines, not outside. Outside favors bright yellow and bright white; the ending says purple, black and white within the lines are all unobjectionable.
Note: Deer/hao is unclear in this source. The differing black/white judgments inside the Flying Serpent lines remain distinct rather than silently reconciled.
60–61. Earth Storehouses, Bank Pool and Golden Thread
60. Both sides of the chin are Earth Storehouses. A single white radiance makes the household flourish. Sixty-two and sixty-three govern. White alone is excellent there regardless of age; black darkness means disaster.
61. Bank Pool, Goose and Duck, and Golden Thread belong to Zi and Hai, occupying Water. White like pearls and jade is auspicious. The text names the Bank position without an age, then sixty-five at Goose and Duck, sixty-six and sixty-seven at Golden Thread. These Zi/Hai palaces favor white. There are two readings: color emerging like jade or pearls, colored and radiant, is excellent; white like withered bone means disaster and certain death.
Note: A missing Bank Pool age is not reconstructed from neighboring ages.
63–64. Song Hall, Later Regions and Color Correspondences
63. Song Hall in old age should be moist, not withered and dry; in youth Water black is disapproved of. It governs from seventy-one. Whatever the tongue can reach by licking is called Song Hall; what it cannot reach Zi and Hai palaces. Color should be moist, not withered.
64. Servants Palace at seventy-two and seventy-three has already been discussed; Zi/Chou at seventy-six and seventy-seven follow the earlier method. At jawbone sides, seventy-four and seventy-five, black is disapproved of and the fish-and-bird-bearing phrase is unclear. If the two positions connect and bright yellow appears, wealth comes by water. Dark Wine Pool, Life Gate and Dark Walls call for abstaining from sexual pursuits and wine. Blue-green Hanging Court and Outskirts are followed by a red-moist-road clause asking why one should fear a thousand-li journey. Blue-green with black obstruction and clear Year and Longevity are said not to promise life in the old. The source's yi Terraces require lively red; Six Storehouses especially reject blue-green qi. Matching qi and color permit a thousand li, lack of matching denies peace of mind.
Explanation:
Spring gives Azure Dragon its place, summer Vermilion Bird its office, autumn favors White Tiger manifesting, winter requires flourishing Dark Warrior. Gouchen occupying Wu Earth brings full wealth and stipend and smooth affairs. Flying Serpent manifesting in Four Storehouses adds glory to Sun and Moon. Bing/Ding color appearing at Li and reaching Kan brings a thousand zhong of stipend. Jia/Yi arising at Shen or You ruins fields and gardens and harms wife and children. Ren/Gui color appearing at Li harms the six kin.
One's own obstruction and daily mental toil are attributed to Vermilion Bird's disorder; repeated effort to Dark Warrior taking form. Worry, hardship, resentment and poverty are blamed on Azure Dragon crossing the whole face. Accumulated resources use Heavenly Storehouse. Gouchen and White Tiger at Gold Armor bring household abundance and groups of servants. Azure Dragon at Life Gate means separation, household ruin and persistent illness. One growing to a hundred, a hundred to a thousand, is attributed to Bing/Ding responding within the membrane; increasing household wealth and stipend to the source's Wu/Si pair rising in Three Yang.
Little Water color and heavy Metal are useful; weak Metal and heavy Earth can accomplish. Wealth color concealed at Three Yang accumulates resources; scattered color sends wealth away like surging water. Fame requires Fire color at Three Terraces, profit favors yellow at nose tip and Three Yang. Bright blood in a young woman soon fills chests with pearls and jade; flourishing blood in a woman benefits husband and children. A scholar with full Storehouses but Wood across the face is linked with the broken futile-study-window phrase. A trader with Wood flourishing at Heavenly Court toils vainly through rain, snow, wind and frost.
Children favor Fire color at both ears; generals the source's springwater arriving in pupils. Limbs showing blue-green darkness are followed by a Fire-color qualification promising boundless wealth and stipend. For lifespan, the source says there is no need for lips and mouth corners; for achievement Luo and Ji should be bright yellow. Wealth and stipend chiefly use nose tip, enterprises Four Storehouses and both cheekbones.
The author claims to distinguish the Five Forms' roots: first observe Five Colors, second spirit and blood, within and without, four kinds, then brightness at the Four Hanging Palace Courts. He declares the principle unfailing, generation and restraint transforming without limit.
Examples of Auspicious and Inauspicious Qi and Color.
Note: The fish/bird, road, yi-Terrace, Wu/Si, study-window, springwater and final four-kind/palace phrases are retained or disclosed without inventing missing diagrams or conventional replacements. The lifespan no-need wording remains affirmative as supplied. Historical li and zhong are unconverted.
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