Liuzhuang Xiangfa · Liuzhuang's Methods of Physiognomy

Analysis of Complexion

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1. Seeking Profit For profit examine Seal Hall, favoring bright yellow within, not outside. Red and white favor water routes, red and yellow land routes. Empty-handed abroad, color should be outside rather than within. Visiting a noble person for wealth rejects red and favors yellow-white, all at Seal Hall. Nearness to powerful people also uses Dragon Palace and Tear Hall; blue-green there discourages the request. Buying goods favors dark color, selling bright. Wealth from land requires bright Earth Storehouses, entrusting profit to others a bright Brow Rhino. Changing plans for wealth requires flourishing color in the source's encounter/move wording. Bright, moist Three Lights mean wealth from Heaven. The parenthesis names two Heavenly Storehouses, Greater Yang and Yin, Seal Hall and nose tip, ending with an incomplete eyes/insufficiency phrase. Note: The Three Lights definition is not a consistent three-part list in this source; missing regions are not supplied. 2. Seeking Recognition School admission requires yellow, moist brightness at Life Gate, both ears, Seal Hall and Mountain Root, rejecting red, scarlet, black and blue-green. Examination success requires bright brows, white ear rims and yellow-white Life Gate, Three Yang, Year and Longevity; one unbright place makes selection difficult. In spring, purple within brows and at Three Yang is the response; blue-green and yellow are unfavorable. Minor advancement uses Four Storehouses, with red and yellow joyful and purple especially good. Clerks require a bright red palm center and also Four Storehouses. For all prospects, great or small, the book requires red, yellow or white moistness at Seal Hall, Official Stipend and Traveling Horse. Dark obstruction, scarlet and blue-green are unfavorable. 3. Departure and Travel Travel uses Traveling Horse and Borderlands, requiring bright yellow there in all seasons before departure. Blue-green, dark and white discourage it. No scarlet means the Horse is not moving, scarlet that it moves; then movement, not staying, brings wealth qi. Remaining instead means illness and disputes: the Horse should not be trapped, motion generates wealth. The following clause calls one's own qi Traveling Horse. While assessing other palaces, a moving Horse determines promotion or demotion; an unmoving one means neither. Appended Favorable and Unfavorable Directions Heavy blue-green instead gains greatly toward the southeast; northwest brings disaster. Red arising alone and heavily is read as scarlet, favoring northeast, the Water/Wood region, to turn adversity favorable. South, flourishing Fire/Earth, brings disaster. Heavy scarlet darkness may escape by going north or far away. Yellow generally suits plans, especially southern regions or Fire/Earth months, not flourishing Water. Hence winter yellow at the mouth is rejected: Earth restraining Water reverses fortune to harm. White flourishes in the north, dies in the east, dislikes south and favors northwest. The official-rank clause says seventh and above, then below second, third and fourth without a clear boundary. A bright Seal Hall, Traveling Horse or Ear Gate brings a favorable encounter and welcome news. A dark tip, scarlet Life Palace and the dark border/Kan/Seal cluster mean retirement and loss of office. Purple qi between brows brings imperial grace. Below seventh rank, darkness is not rejected if storehouses open and Life Gate is red and moist, promising a distinguished encounter. Blue-green in Four Storehouses brings immediate retirement, scarlet Life Palace disputes, bright moist Wells and Stoves ample wealth and stipend and lasting office. Note: The own-qi/Horse wording, official-rank boundary and border/Kan/Seal cluster are damaged as supplied. These are historical rules, not present travel or career guidance. 4. Official Lawsuits Disputes mostly arise through scarlet; blue-green radiance is said to govern affairs. A dark forehead often brings imprisonment, a bright Lower Court a rescuing star. Appearing before an official rejects scarlet at Year, Longevity, Wells and Stoves, and blue-green Borderlands; any one means punishment and injury. Blue-green forehead corners mean prison, white Lower Storehouse a welcome outcome before officials. Blue-green, dark, black and scarlet are unfavorable, yellow and white joyful. Radiant eyes mean victory, dispersed eyes and withered spirit loss. In general, scarlet brings grave prison disaster; in long litigation, one bright Four Storehouse disperses it, while blue-green Borderlands mean entangling disputes and bodily harm. 5. Marriage A maiden's face lustrous as jade promises wishes fulfilled that year; purple Life Palace rank; a naturally bright nose tip a noble husband. Purple arising at Seal Hall at marriage means prospering husband, producing children, fortune and longevity. Bright moistness alone is middling, neither prospering husband nor benefiting children. White over the whole face is a ruinous color, marriage then bringing harm. Qi and color at the appointed wedding are said to determine lifelong standing. The final dark-obstruction clause gives the unclear wording “three sentences before matching a husband.” Note: The final three-sentence phrase is not silently converted into a number of days or years. 6. Wife and Concubine Jian Gate and Fish Tail form the Wife/Concubine Palace, wife left, concubine right. Red, yellow, bright moistness at Wife Palace brings much wealth from the wife near the appointed time. Black means completion followed by ruin, darkness difficult and laborious completion. Color should be outside. Taking a concubine uses a bright, moist right Fish Tail, bright yellow emerging from darkness and purple at the Seal, promising beauty and capability. Darkness growing within brightness means wife strong and concubine weak, brightness within darkness concubine stronger than wife. A persistently dark Jian Gate means children by a secondary partner. Newly opening color is here said to harm a beautiful concubine. Marriage to wife or concubine favors red, purple and scarlet at Life Palace for completion. Note: The newly-opening-color harm clause remains as supplied, despite differing favorable-opening statements elsewhere. 7. Illness of Parents Parents are read at Sun and Moon corners. Heavy darkness brightening means death, lighter darkness brightening recovery. White like snow dots means death; smoky black injury and loss to the father. Red, moist qi is joined with disaster passing in ten days. A flourishing Sun corner but blue-green, dark Moon corner means the mother gravely ill. White and scarlet mean harm; little red and much purple her safety. Bright, moist, unobstructed color means no maternal illness. Note: These are the source's historical prognoses, including its opposing outcomes for light and heavy darkness. 8. Illness of Siblings Much scarlet within brows, white like millet and yellow like the source's white-musk comparison mean harm to siblings. One point of white light in the Earth of the nose tip means mourning for a brother. Dark color within side-whiskers likewise means sibling injury. Note: White musk is retained as the supplied comparison, not replaced with another substance. 9. Illness of Wife or Concubine Blue-green darkness is said not to mean death, nor moist white; red and purple recovery. Scarlet brings harm, bone-like white death. Black arising at Sleeping Silkworm means bereavement. Wife is read left, concubine right; the text insists on this. The quoted rule places the structural region at Fish Tail, qi and color at Sleeping Silkworm. Even white at Jian Gate, without black Sleeping Silkworms, is declared not to harm wife or concubine. 10. Illness of Sons and Daughters Sons are left, daughters right. Black Sleeping Silkworm means death, but bright moistness there no harm. Withering means death, black-yellow death, heavy blue-green survival. White arising at Three Yang and Three Yin means harm to children. Sleeping Silkworm is here also called Jian Gate: brightness is declared not to harm children, added darkness at Jian Gate certain harm. Note: The differing Sleeping Silkworm/Jian Gate identifications remain as supplied. 11. Illness of Servants Dark Traveling Horse and obstructed Servants Palace are said to lose them all; if not through death and mourning, they flee elsewhere. 12. Flourishing Livestock Livestock positions are not the usual central regions but Borderland and Border City, examined at the palaces' edges. Yellow and white naturally flourish, blue-green and black often scatter them, purple yields wealth through separation. Manifestation in a palace corresponds to an animal, through the twelve Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao and subsequent palaces. Chen alone rejects white, Zi yellow. These positions are beside the palace divisions, not directly on them. 13. A Settled Dwelling Examine Travel, Heavenly Storehouse and Earth Storehouse. Scarlet warns of fire, white petty people, black damage, the yellow-path wording obstruction. Bright red alone is favored for a settled dwelling. Note: The yellow-path phrase remains as supplied, without an added direction or map. 14. Outer Gate and Household Yellow at Mountain Root means a favorable household; purple and red at Seal Hall safety for home and occupants. Scarlet darkness at Wells and Stoves unsettles the household, scarlet at Dragon Palace and Four Storehouses brings fire and theft. Examine each palace, using earlier methods for the six kin. Blue-green or scarlet at Mountain Root and Sleeping Silkworm harms younger household members; bright Seal Hall, Wells and Stoves mean harmony and peace in the whole home. 15. One's Own Illness The illness method examines Year, Longevity, Three Yang, Three Yin, Life Gate, Life Palace and nose tip. All scarlet mean grave illness and disaster. White at Year, Longevity and Three Yang means abdominal adversity, scarlet radiance at Year and Longevity pus and blood, bright Seal Hall with dark Year and Longevity Lower Origin disease. These colors are said only to mean illness, with recovery when they open. A sick person without dark-black Heavenly Storehouse or chin and without yellow mouth corners is declared not to die; arrival of the following colors instead means certain death. With qi and color neither bright nor dark, a dry skin furrow means death. Blue-green lips and a black tongue like purple liver are assigned nine deaths in ten illnesses. A sick person's pale lips and bright Earth Storehouses are welcomed as bringing a rescuing remedy. Among the arising colors, scarlet or black darkness at the throat means death, with morning manifestation responding by evening and evening by morning. Bright palm blood alone permits rescue to be discussed. Note: These are historical prognostic assertions, including the nine-in-ten claim, not validated clinical statistics or diagnostic criteria. 16. Illness in Children Children's bones are unformed, so qi and color alone are primary. First examine Life Gate and lips: both blue-green mean bereavement within five days, both yellow death within three. Black philtrum is denied survival, scarlet Seal Hall relief from disaster. Scarlet Heavenly Storehouse is unfavorable, yellow chin declared certain death, dispersed eye radiance with blue-green/black lips immediate death. Signs of survival are white Life Gate and philtrum, yellow Seal Hall, scarlet retreating from Heavenly Storehouse. White lips are assigned survival in ten days. For the ma/dou eruption wording, examine ear rim, tail and lobe, favoring brightness over black darkness. Scarlet at the head is denied complete survival. In dou-rash, scarlet scalp or neck skin is assigned eight or nine deaths in ten. The raised place before Life Gate is called Wind Tablet and Exploring Mouth. A common saying calls the ear empty and therefore without a region. Note: The source's ma/dou and dou-rash words are not assigned an unsupported specific modern diagnosis. All times and mortality claims remain the historical text's assertions. 17. Gardens, Bamboo and Water White at Forest-Tombs and Outskirts is said to bring great profit from planting bamboo and mulberry. 18. Graves and Fengshui Fengshui is examined at Forest-Tombs, Middle Court and hairline edges. Elegance, even hairline roots with radiance, brightness and white lustre mean excellent fengshui. Yellow light means harm to the owner. A clear/turbid manifestation calls for repair; white color means elegant fengshui. Note: The supplied clear/turbid wording is retained rather than silently replacing clear with a different color. 19. Ponds and Fine Fish White radiance opening at Upper Storehouse favors making a pond and raising fish. 20. Acquiring Property Acquiring a house requires yellow radiance and purple at both Mountain Root and Travel for completion. Scarlet or dark lines bring disputes and are unfavorable; even completion makes provision for descendants difficult. 21. Construction and Repair Examine left and right Forests and Wells and Stoves. Yellow and scarlet at these four places permit ground-breaking and construction. Bright moistness is favorable, blue-green darkness not. White Lower Storehouse at commencement means loss of household members. 22. Buying Objects Furniture and miscellaneous purchases favor bright Wells and Stoves. Dark scarlet Wealth Palace means purchases bringing ruin through official affairs. A dark nose tip with bright Stove Gate, however, is said to suit buying objects. 23. Pregnancy and Delivery Near delivery, four requirements are given: red-purple Life Gate, radiant eyes, white light at the ears, and a clear, ringing voice. These are said to bring an easy birth, a joyful mother and benefit to reaching adulthood. Four objections follow: dark Life Palace and Heavenly Court; much blue-green facial light with veiled, dark ears; blue-green lips and dark mouth corners; hoarse voice and eyes without radiance. Any one means childbirth peril, often with a daughter. On the delivery day examine the Bright Hall of the right palm, taking red, moist blood at the center as primary. Red blood with the source's like-water wording means immediate birth of a boy; white/blue-green blood color a girl and dark peril. Heavy presence of both colors means difficult birth and loss. Heavy yellow light preserves mother, not child; white preserves child; blue-green darkness or blue-green/yellow makes preserving both uncertain. These are called essential methods not to be lightly disclosed, lest revealing Heaven's mechanism shorten life. Note: These are historical fetal-sex and obstetric predictions, not validated tests. The like-water wording is irregular and not supplied with a modern physiological meaning. 24. Asking About a Child's Birth Examine Jian Gate for white, dark or black to determine the wife's outcome. A wife's pregnancy is left, a concubine's right. Then examine Sleeping Silkworm: red or purple means a boy, as do red cheekbones, red tip and red Seal Hall; yellow Sleeping Silkworm means a girl. Earlier rules assign a date to a color. The book links flourishing Fire at Three Yang with boys on Jia, Yi, Bing and Ding; much blue-green at Three Yin with girls on Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui. Dark, miserable Jian Gate with blue-green Sleeping Silkworm means childbirth peril for the wife. Spots at nose tip and Fish Tail are linked with seeing a child and harm to wife and father. Note: The final father word remains as supplied rather than being silently changed to husband. 25. Entering a Government Office For entering official premises examine Stove Gate. A nose tip white like Water color favors seeing a noble person; bright cheekbones bring the noble person's pleasure and may establish an estate. Ears with the unclear deer/veiled wording, a blue-green dark tip and unbright Borderlands disfavor entering the official gate. 26. Building Vessels Examine Boats and Carriages beside Lower Storehouse. Repeated lines there mean lifelong wealth from water. Scarlet means fire disaster; bright white and yellow profit through water. Bright scarlet Wells and Stoves and bright Boats and Carriages favor shipbuilding. 27. Crossing the Ocean Officials and common people alike examine Receiving Fluids. Black there means only a false alarm. The white clause mentions crossing and fright from water beasts. Yellow forbids the journey, as does indigo-like blue-green. The account then favors bright, moist white radiance at Receiving Fluids for convenience and profit. The old book links deep lines there with fear of being cast into waves, visible blue-green sinews with lifelong avoidance of deep lake waters. Note: The white/crossing clause is incomplete. All outcomes and prohibitions are historical source claims, not current water-safety guidance. 28. Fields and Crops Scarlet Heavenly Storehouse means flooding, yellow Lower Storehouse drought. Dark Four Storehouses are instead not rejected; bright moistness there means a great harvest. Scarlet Wells and Stoves mean no crop from the land. Without purple Mountain Root, field crops are not to be expected. For further harvesting examine Mountain Root, autumn harvest Wells and Stoves, mixed grains Three Yang. 29. Dividing the Household The colors of dividing residence signal rise or ruin. Joyful color over the face and purple Life Gate favor continuing to cook together, not obstructed color. Dark Three Yang and storehouses often mean treacherous schemes. Brothers living separately are attributed to dark obstruction in brows. Fresh color over the face is linked with three generations prospering the fields together. Bright, moist brows promise wealth after division; dark brows poverty. Scarlet means disputes, yellow loss of wealth, white great disadvantage. 30. Keeping Existing Arrangements Brightness within darkness favors keeping the old. Four conditions likewise favor it: blue-green/black Three Yang, scarlet stirring, a red nose tip, and white arising at the chin. Unopened qi and color also favor remaining. Even one or two bright, moist places do not justify acting lightly. 31. Making Changes Changes use Heavenly Storehouse and Travel. The opening calls red, yellow and white there unfavorable, scarlet, black and white not good. Bright color favors change, as do red Three Yang, bright Life Gate, little yellow and much red. The account then repeats examining Heavenly Storehouse as Travel, rejecting scarlet, black and white but calling red, yellow and white greatly auspicious. Note: The opposing judgments on red/yellow/white remain as supplied; a missing negation is not inserted. 32. Contributions for Official Recognition Contributions toward recognition use Heavenly Storehouse, Official Stipend and Life Palace. All must be distinct before proceeding. One unclear place means the contribution will not complete the desired result. 33. Promotion For officials' promotion, blue-green and yellow running through the nose, red beside Life Palace and purple penetrating brows are declared signs of high advancement. 34. Presenting Remonstrance Submitting a memorial uses the edge of Heavenly Storehouse and Traveling Horse. Blue-green, yellow and dark are unsuitable for the document, lest calamity follow. Bright red and purple alone give the source's thought-and-joy wording. Note: The final word is irregular and is not silently supplied with a different imperial-favor term. 35. Going on Campaign The neck skin's qi and color should not be scarlet, nor red threads rise over the throat. Dark Life Gate, blue-green Seal Hall and scarlet neck skin are major objections for a general. Moist Seal Hall and Life Gate are said to remove fear of campaigning. 36. Moving an Army Examine Traveling Horse, Borderland and Border City; the commander also Tang State Seal. Purple, red and moist color mean great advance, dark, obstructed and scarlet betrayal. Blue-green and scarlet together make movement unfavorable and are strongly said to prohibit it. 37. Making Friends Scarlet and excessively bright color both disfavor friendship. The Peach Garden oath is attributed to rosy-cloud color at brow heads and tails; Sun Bin and Pang Juan's great harm to blue-green and powder-like white within Luo and Ji. Those two colors within brows prompt warnings against malicious, cruel friends. The author calls this little known. 38. Visiting Courtesans Purple Jian Gate and peach-blossom color over the face are followed by an unclear courtesan-house/gaining-ke clause. Blue-green dark brow tails and floating light over the face mean household ruin through wine and sexual pursuits, with further disaster. Dark Life Gate added means emptying the purse completely. Pearl-like Year and Longevity are linked with illness through such visits. Note: The gaining-ke clause is incomplete; no definite financial or sexual outcome is invented. 39. Hunting Examine Forests and Border City. Blue-green and yellow deny great gain; scarlet darkness brings fright from strange beasts. Another method rejects entering deep forests when nails show white or the nose tip darkens. 40. Fishing Yellow light at Zi and Hai palaces or blue-green at the Mountains disapproves entering water. Bright, moist white Lower Storehouse instead favors deep waters and promises great profit. Note: These are historical source correspondences, not current outdoor or water-safety advice. 41. Messages Both brow tails are Document Palace and are examined for messages. A father asking after a son favors brightness, a son seeking his father's letter red; a wife's inquiry white, asking after a wife blood color, white or yellow. Stirring Document Palace means news arrives, no movement no communication. A summons of favor also uses brows. The next clause favors dark, obstructed tails for receiving news, not bright moistness, and gives an unclear appointed-glad-news phrase. Blood-yellow is used favorably, blue-green darkness disastrously, scarlet and purple also mean letters arriving. Note: The dark-versus-bright and appointed-news wording is retained without supplying a corrected condition. 42. Disputes Scarlet means disputes; the place where it stirs determines the matter. Life Palace, Year and Longevity especially reject it, Borderlands also; elsewhere the harm is lighter. 43. Seeking a Physician Life Palace with the source's yin-moist wording and scarlet ear rims promises a good rescuing remedy. Scarlet Wells and Stoves with blue-green Year and Longevity mean a deep illness difficult to treat. Note: Yin-moist is retained rather than silently changed to a different brightness word. These are historical prognoses. 44. Gathered Color Sufficient qi and color without brightness are gathered within; brightness within and without great gathering. Newly opened Four Storehouses are great gathering, harmonious blood and robust qi gathering. Sufficient palm color with insufficient facial color is also gathering, as is sufficient palm color with dark, obstructed face. The next clause calls darkness unfavorable for affairs and scarlet authoritative, classifying these as gathered color. Much promises prosperity within a year, little a season of prosperity: joy is said to be near. Note: The separate dark-color qualifications remain as supplied. 45. Dispersed Color Color without qi, radiance over the whole face and mixed flowers are dispersion. Darkness growing within brightness, moist face without palm qi, and dark face, ears and nose are likewise dispersion. All mean great ruin. 46. Repeated Changes Darkness returning to brightness is change toward joy, brightness returning to darkness toward worry. Such disorderly, shifting color is not beautiful even if a small part is favorable. Sudden change in a day is especially bad, change every three or four days also unfavorable, even to brightness. The root is unstable, hence changing colors come and go over the face. 47. Color for Movement Bright, moist, newly opened color favors action, not remaining. If heavy, however, action too is disfavored. 48. Color for Remaining With obstructed, dark, scarlet or black color, remain and await opening; then action is favored. 49. Color for Completion Completing affairs, construction, plans, wealth and joy require bright ears, the source's unclear Seal-yue condition and bright nose tip. These are called joyful signs with divine effectiveness. Unbright ears, nose and Seal are decidedly not joyful. Note: The Seal-yue qualifier is incomplete and not silently replaced with a different favorable adjective. 50. Harmful Color Scarlet Year and Longevity warn of official punishment; dark Four Storehouses of harm on the road involving women. Scarlet Wells and Stoves warn of expenditure and loss, scarlet Forests fire, blue-green Seal Hall implication in others' troubles, mixed flowers over the face harm in travel, and black chin water peril. 51. Convenient Color Brightness within darkness, white at ears and nose tip, moist palm qi, radiant skin-blood and sufficient spirit in the eyes are said to make action convenient. 52. Obstructive Color Four Storehouses like mud, ears and tip like smoke, unopened Three Yang, a veiled face, fire-red face and oil-like brightness are all called colors of great poverty and ruin. 53. Days on Which Colors Are Disallowed Do not undertake affairs on a color's conflicting day. Scarlet rejects Bing and Ding; Fire days are unfavorable to Earth. Red rejects Ren/Gui Water days, black also Water days, yellow Jia/Yi, white Fire days, blue-green likewise Jia/Yi Wood days. The verse says failure to distinguish the Five Colors wastes effort, and ignorance of positions and directions makes even favorable color empty. 54. Five Major Objections A. Blue-green Heavenly Storehouse: do not depart. B. Scarlet Year and Longevity: do not appear before an official. C. Dark Seal Hall: do not begin construction. D. Dark Earth Storehouse: do not employ people. E. Much facial radiance: do not make friends, for fear of great harm; the parenthesis calls this peach-blossom color. The qi and color of the Five Punishments must be distinguished clearly. Weigh each palace and region and examine boundaries minutely, not generally, with care to a hair's breadth: error can become a thousand li. Spirit and qi are viewed across the whole body, color and light at the individual regions. Countless affairs each have their headings and cannot be inferred through one principle. 55. Forty-One Disapproved Conditions in Men The source calls these conditions signs of poverty. It supplies the following items: - Head: slanted and pared. - Head hair: coarse and heavy. - Brows: drooping tails. - Ears: flowering. - Pupils: exposed radiance. - Nose bridge: sunken and pared. - Year and Longevity: knots. - Nose tip: a pointed peak. - Chin: pointed. - Wells and Stoves: upturned. - Terrace and Commandant: pared. - Philtrum: lines. - Mouth: as if blowing. - Lower Storehouse: pared. - Neck: exposed bones. - Borderlands: hair. - Eyes: the pared-downward wording. - Voice: low and small. - Arms: pointed and small. - Hands: pared palms. - Fingers: short and slanted. - Teeth: sparse and small. - Steps: snake-like. - Voice: the low/tear wording. - Spirit: short and insufficient. - Color: oil-like. - Qi: coarse and turbid. - Flesh: empty and floating. - Flesh: coarse and hard. - Blood: obstructed and dark. - Head hair: flowering. - Navel: facing down. Note: The heading claims forty-one, but only thirty-two items are actually supplied. Both voice entries, both flesh entries and both hair entries remain. Missing items are not invented; the eye/paring and low/tear words remain irregular. 56. Twenty-Four Disapproved Conditions in Women The source calls these conditions signs of poverty and low standing: - Head: pointed and pared. - Hair: yellow and turbid. - Ears: reversed or repeatedly turned. - Brows: drooping tails. - Eyes: yellow radiance. - Nose: pointed and sunken. - Mouth: pointed and protruding. - Teeth: white and small. - Cheekbones: high and vertically prominent. - Mouth: pointed and slanted. - Neck: coarse and short. - Hair extending beyond Life Gate. - Back: sinking especially disapproved of. - Chest: elevation especially disapproved of. - Breasts: the incomplete white/not wording. - Navel: shallow and low. - Waist: slanted and crooked. - Legs: many exposed sinews. - Flesh: empty and floating. - Blood: scarlet and dark. - Bones: coarse and large. - Voice: great volume. - Face: as if upturned. - Color: floating light. Note: All twenty-four supplied items are retained. The breast item ends with an incomplete white/not phrase; a missing trait is not filled in. These are historical judgments, not validated assessments of character or worth.

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