Physiognomy: Interpreting Character by the Face and How it Relates to Feng Shui

There are many divination schools and styles out there. One is the art of Chinese face readings, or Chinese physiognomy. Whether you realize it or not, you use physiognomy in your everyday life. Whenever you look at a person's face and make a judgment about them, you're practicing the art of face reading. Taking a more careful look at faces, you can dissect a person's character traits in a way that relates to Feng Shui. Let's break down how it all works.

What Is Physiognomy?

Physiognomy is the art of face and body reading. Like with palm reading, you look at a person's face to tell where they've been in life, who they are as a person, and where they're headed. Chinese physiognomy is over 3,000 years old, dating back to a Taoist practice called Mien Shiang.

Mien Shiang

Face reading, or Mien Shiang, is the art of analyzing a person's face to figure out their personality type. Each personality type fits with one of the five Taoist elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, collectively known as Wu Xing. These five elements form the basis of how everything works in the universe, including our personalities. When one of these five elements is more predominant in our faces, it gives us a better idea of who we are as a person, based on what that element represents.

Wu Xing

Together, Wu Xing makes up the cycle of elements, phases, movements, and processes governing the universe. Each of these groups comes in fives, such as the five elements of our personality types. How these phenomena interact together, and their relationships to one another, are all part of physiognomy. You can read a person's face to tell how their facial features interact with each other, like how the space between someone's eyebrows determines how easygoing they are.

Using Physiognomy

Applying the rules and guidelines of physiognomy will help you get a good read of a person's face. When certain sections of your face are clearer than others, this points to a positive reading, while some scars and blemishes point to a negative reading. To be clear, you're not reading a person's facial expression. We can change our expressions at will, and so these don't dictate who we are as people. It's important to look at a person's facial features and to make a reading from there.

What Can Facial Features Tell About a Person?

Physiognomy has many guidelines to help you make informed readings. When looking at a person's face, focus on the separate parts of their facial features. Chinese face reading breaks these sections down into specific types and areas, each of which governs different aspects of our lives. Further, these have their own subsections, or Houses, that link to certain aspects of your life.

Heaven

The area from the forehead to the tops of your eyebrows makes up the Heaven section of your face. This defines the earliest parts of your life, starting from your childhood. Your parents, your upbringing, and the quality of your education all factor in here. Think of it as how you were when you came down from heaven once you were born, along with the formative years of your life as a newborn and a toddler. Having a clear Heaven section means that you had a positive upbringing. If you have scars or other imperfections in this area, then this points to a more turbulent childhood.

Heaven includes the six houses of fortune, parents, career, travel, life, and siblings.

Fortune

Fortune includes the two topmost sections of your forehead, next to your temples. For the best fortune, these areas should be smooth, round, and free of scars and other marks. A negative reading of the fortune area indicates bad health and problems with money. When problem areas develop here, you may have a bad streak on the horizon.

Parents

At the top of your forehead, just underneath your widow's peak if you have one, is where your parents come into play. Whether this area is clean or disfigured, it determines your relationship with your parents. This also factors into your upbringing, as having a bad relationship with your parents means you had an unpleasant time growing up.

Career

The centermost part of your forehead gives information about your career. Having a nice round, smooth forehead shows you have great success in your career. Conversely, having a scar or other blemishes directly in this area points to a more troubled career, with frequent job changes or periods of unemployment. Lines and wrinkles that develop here may signal impending worries for you in your work and career.

Travel

Underneath the area for fortune is the house of travel. Positive signs in this area show you will find many blessings while traveling. Impurities here suggest that you will face dangers or illness while traveling, so it's best if you stay in one place for most of your life. Should you spot any changes in these locations, rethink your next travel plans.

Life

The space right between your eyebrows defines your road in life. Those with more troubled lives will have scars, wrinkles, bumps, and other lines in this area. While we all have difficulties in our lives, a positive reading here suggests that the person has more ups than downs, and vice versa for negative readings. If you've had a bad time lately, but you notice that the space between your eyebrows seems clearer, then your life might take a turn for the better.

Siblings

Your eyebrows and the areas of skin right above them show your relationship with your siblings. This also includes other, non-romantic relationships, such as friendships and work relationships. Your hair exhibits much of your genetics, as this is something you always inherit directly from your parents. Those who have thin, short eyebrows are more emotionally unstable. Conversely, people with smoother, longer eyebrows have a better handle on their emotions.

Human

From your eyebrows to the bottom of your nose, this makes up the Human section of your face. This determines the middle years of your life, typically including your young adult years. Having a clear Human section means you will be happy in life during these years, including your work and your relationships. Discolorations and other blemishes mean the opposite, with the person suffering from unhappiness in their work life and love life.

Human includes the five houses of assets, marriage, children, health, and wealth.

Assets

Your eyes are all about your assets, which in this case include your temperament and how smart you are. If you have clear, large pupils and the whites of your eyes are clear and pure, then you're an intelligent person. Someone who has thin, narrow eyes is impatient and intense. Someone who lacks intelligence has less clarity in their eyes, with their eyeballs set too far back in their skulls. You can tell a lot about a person's disposition by looking into their eyes.

Marriage

The corners of your eyes dictate your marriage life. Positive readings here show you have a happy marriage, and that things are going well with your partner. Those who have more visible signs of distress in this area have more worrisome marriages. If you have a happy marriage, but you develop lines and other changes in this area, this could point to brewing problems between you and your partner. Those growing issues could take a toll on your physical features, with the corners of your eyes being the first to change.

Children

The area just underneath your eyes, including your lower eyelids, is about children. How your children were conceived also factors into these readings, so these will include your love and sex life. Excess lines and moles here speak to a less successful sex life, issues conceiving or bearing children, or problems with your own child's upbringing. Bags underneath the eyes are a telltale sign of stress, though they can point to more specific problems with your children or the quality of your love life.

Health

The section of your nose right between your eyes gives a good insight into your overall health. If you don't have imperfections here, then you are in good health, and you can expect to lead a healthy life. Those who have a negative reading here should be more conscious of their health, as they may be sickly and prone to falling ill. Intensifying imperfections here could point to developing problems with your health, including some that you aren't yet aware of.

Wealth

The rest of your nose, from the bridge down to the tip, determines your wealth. You're likely to be wealthy if you have a straight, full nose. More deformed noses, or ones that are bony with less flesh, belong to those who are less successful with money. If you are well off, and you notice negative differences around your nose, be wary about changes with your wealth and money.

Earth

From the bottom of your nose to the bottom of your chin, this makes up the Earth section of your face. This area governs your older years in life. If this area of your face is untarnished, then you will have positive experiences in your old age, and a good relationship with your younger family members. Those who have the opposite tend to suffer from unhappiness in their later years.

Earth includes only the house of popularity.

Popularity

The entire lower third of your face points to your popularity. This includes your relationship with everyone other than your friends, family, and lovers, including how strangers feel about you. Those with rounder, plump faces are more likable and trustworthy, while those with sharper faces are more serious and difficult to get along with. How the public perceives you is important here.

How Does Physiognomy Relate to Feng Shui?

Feng Shui is the art of arranging your home for good luck and success. You find the best fortune through which pieces of furniture you choose for your home, what colors they are, and which direction they face. By working Feng Shui into our home's arrangement, we give our living space a certain character and energy. Feng Shui is also linked to the same Taoist teachings that guide physiognomy, so the two arts are closely related.

In the same way that your home can bring you good fortune, so can your facial features. What your features say about your spirit and personality can govern your path in life. When examining your house of fortune in the heaven section of your face, you're looking at what your forehead says about your luck and success in life. Similarly, when arranging your furniture according to Feng Shui guidelines, following the science gives your home a certain something. That certain something can bring you good fortune, whereas going against the guidelines can bring bad fortune instead.

Conclusion

Chinese face reading can be a fun and insightful way to track your path in life. How kind you are, how intelligent you are, and how successful you are can all be gleaned by reading your face. While applying the above guidelines to your own life, you may see yourself in a whole new light. Or perhaps you will find that you are more conscious about the things that happen to you, as your facial features can predict life events.

Though physiognomy can tell a lot about a person's face, including where they've been and where they're going, there are exceptions to the rule. Someone can look untrustworthy if the lower third of their face is long and narrow. However, this may not be so, since you must get to know the person better to find out the truth. Similarly, a person might have many lines along the corners of their eyes, which will point to an unhappy marriage. But that might not be the case, either.

Since there can be exceptions to the rules, avoid the temptation to jump to conclusions when reading a person's face. After all, there's much more to them beneath the surface, just waiting to be discovered.

​Featured photo via Pixabay