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Mayi Shenxiang · The Mayi Art of Physiognomy
Lips, Tongue and Teeth
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On the Lips
Lips are the mouth's ramparts and the tongue's gateway. Opening and closing, they are where glory and disgrace are bound. They should therefore be thick, not thin; edged, not contracted. Red like cinnabar means rank and wealth; blue-green like indigo disaster and early death; dim blackness illness, suffering and an adverse death; radiant purple happiness, food and clothing. White and full lips attract a ranked wife; yellow and red a ranked son. Cold and contracted means early death; thin and weak poverty and low station.
A long upper lip harms the father first; a long lower lip the mother first. A white upper lip means deceitful speech; a white lower lip poverty, cold and obstruction. Both thick mean loyalty and trust; both thin reckless speech and inferior conduct. Upper and lower failing to cover each other mean poverty and theft; both proportionate upright speech. Dragon lips mean wealth and rank; sheep lips poverty and low station. Pointed, contracted lips mean death in poverty; drooping lips solitude and cold. Patterned lines mean many descendants; no patterns an isolated nature. Thus lips like a cockscomb mean poverty and cold into old age. Long lips and short teeth mean long life without dying. Lips growing irregularly mean words are hard to settle.
Note: These appearance-based claims about family, character, health and lifespan are the historical text's assertions.
On the Tongue
The tongue's way is inwardly to issue commands with the Cinnabar Origin and outwardly to act as bell and clapper with the named Weighty Mechanism. Generating numinous fluid, it is spirit's dwelling; secretly transmitting intentions, it is the heart's boat and oar. It is thus the pivot of nature and life, entrusted with a lifetime's gains and losses. Hence one judges its uprightness or slant and guards against reckless movement.
Its form should be keen, upright and straight. Length and largeness are of the highest form. Narrow and long means deceitful and thieving; blunt and short rebellious and obstructed; large and thin much reckless error; pointed and small greed. Reaching the nose brings position among marquises and kings. Firm like a palm means stipend as minister or chief minister. Red like a pearl means rank; black like lacquer low station; scarlet or blood-like color stipend; ash-white poverty. Straight lines mean office as minister or director; longitudinal lines learning or appointment in halls and palaces in this copy's wording. Encircling patterns mean highest rank. Leaf-like and filling the mouth means wealth. Cotton-like lines mean going in and out of court departments. Dark moles mean false conversation. A tongue emerging like a snake means poisonous harm; a broken tongue like digging in the supplied wording means obstruction.
Tongue arriving before speech means fondness for reckless talk; emerging beyond the lips before words means much sexual license. A large tongue and small mouth cannot complete speech; a small tongue and large mouth make speech light and quick. Small and short means a poor man; small and long auspicious flourishing in office. The named Tongue Storehouse crossing blades means ranked qi reaching the clouds. A tongue without patterned lines means an ordinary person. Generally, it should be red, not white; scarlet, not black; square in form and deep in its configuration.
Text note: Cinnabar Origin, Weighty Mechanism and Tongue Storehouse retain the supplied terms without inventing an anatomical chart. The learning/appointment and digging clauses are irregular. Straight and longitudinal line rules remain separately translated, as in this copy. These medical, character and status claims are historical.
On the Teeth
Teeth gather the essence of a hundred things, form the mouth's sharp blades, transform all things and nourish the Six Storehouses. They should therefore be large in rows and close, long and straight, numerous and white. Firm, secure, close and solid means long life; winding and piled growth guile and overbearing conduct; exposure sudden violent death; gaps poverty and meagerness; defects and shortness low station and folly; scorched dryness untimely death. Teeth unseen during speech mean wealth and rank. Teeth falling out in the prime of life shorten lifespan.
Thirty-eight teeth mean king or marquis; thirty-six minister or chief minister; thirty-four court officer or great wealth; thirty-two an ordinary person with wealth and longevity; thirty an ordinary person; twenty-eight a person of low station. Shining whiteness fulfills every plan; yellowness obstructs a thousand requests. Like white jade means wealth and rank; silver or tin pure distinction; pomegranate seeds fortune and stipend; sword blades longevity; rice grains, written with a stem graph, great longevity; mulberry fruit short life. Broad above and pointed below like rows of sawteeth means a coarse nature and eating meat; pointed above and broad below like arranged horns a mean nature and eating vegetables. Dragon teeth mean distinguished descendants; ox teeth glory enjoyed oneself; mouse teeth poverty and early death; dog teeth poison and harm.
Thus teeth like jade held within receive great fortune and stipend. Teeth like gleaming silver are linked with the supplied worthy/not-level phrase. White, close and long means office without disaster; black with gaps lifelong disasters under an irregular final graph. Straight and one cun long means rank so high it is hard to discuss. Irregular, uneven teeth mean deceit in heart and conduct.
Text note: All supplied tooth totals remain, without adjusting them to modern dental counts. The rice graph and final worthy/not-level and disaster expressions are irregular. These dietary, moral, status and lifespan claims express the historical text's system.
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