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Sanming Tonghui · A Comprehensive Account of the Three Destinies
On Temperament and Appearance
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Rank and low status are observed through the Eight Characters, temperament responds to the five phases. Goodness, evil, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust are governed by the heart; joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, love, aversion, and desire arise from nature. Eastern Zhen Wood, called Azure Dragon and named Bending and Straightening, governs benevolence among the Five Constant Virtues. Its color is blue-green, taste sour, nature upright, and feeling harmonious. At Flourishing and Vigorous it indicates universal love and compassion, kind gentleness, benefiting things and people, concern for orphans and widows, straightforward simplicity and loftiness, generosity in public action or withdrawal. Appearance is refined, frame long, hands and feet delicate, mouth pointed, hair fine, face blue-green and pale, and speech elevated: abundant Wood's many benevolences. At Rest and Imprisonment it indicates thin tallness, little hair, obstinate partiality, jealousy, and unkindness: declining Wood's scant feeling. At Death and Extinction, brows and eyes are irregular, disposition stingy and mean, flesh dry, neck long with protruding throat, gait and sitting unstable and body slanting. Fire adds red to complexion, Earth yellow, Metal white, Water black. Infer the other four phases similarly. Fire belongs to south, named Blazing Upward, governing propriety. Its color is red, taste bitter, nature quick, and disposition reverent. Flourishing and Vigorous indicates courteous, careful yielding, respect, humility and harmony, imposing dignity, simplicity and honor. Face is pointed above and broad below, head small, legs long, brow center narrow, eyebrows thick, nose tip exposed, ears small. Spirit flashes and speech is rapid; temperament is dry but not malicious, intelligent and active. Excess gives a scorched voice, red face, shaking knees, and love of movement. Deficiency gives yellow thinness and sharp angles, guile, jealous malice, absurd speech, and beginnings without endings. Earth belongs to center, named Sowing and Reaping, governing trust. Its color is yellow, taste sweet, nature weighty, and feeling substantial. Flourishing and Vigorous indicates words and deeds matching, sincere loyalty and filial duty, respect for spirits and Buddhas, and no breach or deception of trust. Back is rounded, waist broad, nose large, mouth square, eyebrows clear, eyes refined, face full and yellow. Capacity is generous and affairs handled methodically. Excess gives stubborn antiquated simplicity, clumsiness, and lack of understanding. Deficiency gives anxious, obstructed complexion, slanted face, low nose, heavy turbid voice, incomprehension, cruelty and perversity, failure to win others' affection, inverted conduct and broken trust, stinginess and reckless action. Metal belongs to west, named Following Transformation, governing righteousness. Its color is white, taste pungent, nature hard, and feeling fierce. Flourishing and Vigorous indicates heroic courage, generous Wealth for righteousness, knowledge of integrity and shame, and discernment of disgrace and evil. Bones and flesh correspond, body is healthy and spirit clear, face square and fair, eyebrows high, eyes deep, nose straight, ears red, voice clear, will firm and decisive. Excess gives reckless courage without strategy, greed, and unkindness. Deficiency gives stinginess, greedy cruelty, setbacks and forgetfulness, much deliberation but little decision, harsh inward malice, fondness for sex and killing, and small thin stature. Water belongs to north, named Moistening Downward, governing wisdom. Its color is black, taste salty, nature intelligent, and feeling good. Flourishing and Vigorous indicates deep mechanisms, abundant resourcefulness, superior learning, and limitless guile; a dark shining face and clear, harmonious speech. Excess gives restless disputes, drifting, and sexual greed. Deficiency gives short stature, repeated reversals, unstable temperament, timidity, and no strategy. Though analogies of the phases, these truly connect with human affairs in the author's account. Compare these phase temperaments with auspicious and harmful symbolic spirits in the chart. Generally Birth and Flourishing give tallness, Death and Extinction shortness. Killing arriving overrides this and should be judged from Killing. With conquest, judge from the conquered phase. Also take Nayin of day and hour, whether conquered, and the spirits' energized or energy-less arrival, to determine form and temperament; the author claims no failure. Another account infers character only from the day/hour original phases, not Nayin. A fitting configuration at Birth and Flourishing indicates naturally clear understanding, not resisting events, action matching opportunity, loud speech, a damaged opening phrase with generosity, decisiveness, fairness without suspicion, courage in difficulty, lifelong freedom from stinginess, generous unselfish giving, luxurious ease and joy, affection and righteousness, but requires guarding against a bad end. A noble configuration at Death and Extinction indicates unsociability, deep mechanisms and concealed intent, much suspicion and jealousy, action constrained by etiquette, cautious conduct, groomed appearance, constant self-restraint, and no reckless undertaking, with a risk of secret plotting. A lowly chart at Birth and Flourishing indicates unstable nature, no self-restraint, disregard of danger and death, contentiousness, reliance on strength to oppress weakness, closeness to bad associates, neglect of household business, and ultimately no good end. At Death and Extinction it indicates sexual perversity, calculated falseness, shrinking obstinacy, ornamented behavior, fine words, boastful display, indecision, little right and much wrong, and no independent standing. Master Zai's Key Formulas says: “Lofty ambition and far capacity arise from Water's deep source; firm trust and benevolence from Earth forming mountains; compassionate, quick generosity from Wood forming Jia and Yi; quick, clear discernment from Fire answering Bing and Ding; high reputation and weighty righteousness from Metal returning to Geng and Xin.” In balance, proper nature remains; excess or decline changes temperament. Water declining gives dimness and shamelessness; weak Earth closed obstinacy and little usefulness; Wood in obstructed ground excessive softness and disorderly management; undeveloped Fire petty disputation, harmfulness, and indecision; shallow Metal righteousness begun but not completed. Obtaining or losing ground, excess and deficiency, can all make harm. Huzhongzi says: “Cunning words arise when birth hour meets Six Empties. Their residence is the False-Speech Spirit. People obtaining it love invention and decoration and pile empty words.” Those meeting it must, in the source's claim, be cunning, harm elders and close kin, drift abroad, and make much empty noise in undertakings.
Translator's note: All five virtue/color/taste/temperament/appearance groups, excess and deficiency conditions, alternative phase-versus-Nayin methods, noble/lowly and flourishing/declining distinctions, and the Six Empties ending are retained. The damaged opening phrase is not reconstructed. These are historical physiognomic and moral assertions, including the author's claim of unfailing verification, not independently established relations between appearance, character, or birth data.
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