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Mayi Shenxiang · The Mayi Art of Physiognomy
Facial Regions, Annual Cycles and Periods
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Song of the General Chart of Thirteen Regions
1. Heaven's Center faces Heaven's Peak; the Inner Office continues along the left side. High Breadth, Chiyang and Military Arsenal are together; Army Gate, Auxiliary Corner and Borderland complete the row.
2. Heavenly Court joins Sun Corner; Dragon Horn, Heavenly Office and the Fang-Xin-Mu sequence follow. Upper Tomb, Four Killings and Battle Hall connect; Traveling Horse and Hanging Court distinguish favorable from adverse.
3. Sikong lies before the forehead corners; Senior Minister and Lesser Office connect. Friendship, Middle Way and the forehead junction are favored; the heavy-brow/Forest wording concerns sages and worthies.
4. Upright Center is at the forehead-corner head; Tiger Horn, Ox Horn and Auxiliary Bone extend along it. Dark Horn, Axe Cutting and Canopy follow; seek Fortune Hall, Colored Clouds and Outskirts.
5. Seal Hall is within Interlocking; Left Sun, Silkworm Chamber and Forest rise. Wine Cup and Quiet Lodge face Bin Gate; Robbery Road, Lane Road and Blue-Green Road form the tail.
6. Mountain Root faces Greater Yang; Middle Yang, Lesser Yang and Outer Yang follow. Fish Tail, Jian Gate and Spirit Radiance connect; Storehouse Well, Great Gate and Dark Warrior are concealed.
7. At Year, Husband Seat joins; Eldest Son, Middle Son and Youngest Son follow. Golden Cabinet, Forbidden Chamber and Thieves are together; Roaming Army, Book Above and Jade Hall-Yan close the line.
8. At Longevity, Armor Cabinet adjoins Returning Hall on the frontal face. Paternal and maternal aunts, sisters and good brothers follow; Sister's Son, Life Gate and School Hall form foundations.
9. Nose tip aligns with Orchid Terrace; Decree Lines, Stove and palace rooms flourish. Imperial Attendant, Garden Storehouse and Rear Pavilion connect; Gatekeeper and Soldiers are to be remembered with Yinsui.
10. Philtrum faces the Well region; Beneath the Tent, Small Kitchen and Inner Pavilion attach. Lesser Messengers, Servants and Courtesan Hall are before it; Infant Gate, Erudite Officer and Suspended Wall Road follow.
11. Water Star faces Pavilion Gate; Northern Neighbor, Narrow Alley and Thoroughfare extend. Guest House, Binglan and Family Storehouse follow; Traveling Merchants and Sheng Gate, the Gate of Life, lodge at Mountain Top.
12. Receiving Fluids settles Ancestral Residence; Grandson's Residence, Outer Court and Forest Garden follow. Lower Tomb, Estates and Wine Pool lie above; Outer Enclosure, Huang-Jin and Roads are beside them.
13. Chin follows Lower House; Servants, Grinding Mill, pits and trenches bring peril. Earth Storehouse, Bank Pool and Goose and Duck follow; Great Sea, Boats and Carriages end with the words “no worry or doubt.”
Translation note: The book presents a historical physiognomic system. Its claims about health, lifespan, fetal sex, character, social rank and human worth are not validated determinations from appearance. All thirteen supplied rows and their names are retained; uncertain forms including Chiyang, Fang-Xin-Mu, Bin Gate, Jade Hall-Yan, Yinsui, Binglan and Huang-Jin remain identifiable as supplied rather than assigned an invented anatomical chart.
Song of Regions for the Annual Course of Qi
To recognize the annual course, the text reads men from the left and women from the right. The sequence is:
- One and two: Heavenly Rim, the opening years. Three and four continue to Heavenly City.
- Five, six and seven: Heavenly Contour and hanging lobe. Eight and nine: the upper Heavenly Rim.
- Ten and eleven: Human Rim. Flying rims and reversed contours are said necessarily to harm through restraint.
- Twelve, thirteen and fourteen: Earth Rim facing the mouth, with longevity and peace.
- Fifteen: Fire Star at the central forehead. Sixteen: Heaven's Center, its bone pattern formed.
- Seventeen and eighteen: Sun and Moon corners. Nineteen: Heavenly Court.
- Auxiliary Corners are assigned twenty-two and twenty-three; the next line again assigns twenty-two to Sikong.
- Twenty-three and twenty-four: Border City. Twenty-five: Upright Center.
- Twenty-six: Mounds. Twenty-seven: Graves. Twenty-eight: level Seal Hall.
- Twenty-nine and thirty: Forests. Thirty-one: Soaring Clouds.
- Thirty-two: yellow radiance and purple qi at the right forehead.
- Thirty-three: Dense Clouds. Thirty-four: bright Colored Clouds.
- Thirty-five: Greater Yang. Thirty-six: Greater Yin.
- Thirty-seven: Middle Yang. Thirty-eight: Middle Yin and free passage.
- Thirty-nine: Lesser Yang. Forty: Lesser Yin, followed by the few-brothers clause.
- Forty-one: Mountain Root. Forty-two: Quiet Lodge Palace. Forty-three: Radiance Hall.
- Forty-four: Year. Forty-five: Longevity. Forty-six and forty-seven: the two cheekbone palaces.
- Forty-eight: nose tip. Forty-nine: Orchid Terrace. Fifty: Court Commandant.
- Fifty-one: philtrum, with a line about people being startled.
- Fifty-two and fifty-three: Immortal Storehouses. Fifty-four: full Food Storehouse. Fifty-five: receiving grain from Stipend Storehouse.
- Fifty-six and fifty-seven: bright Decree Lines. Fifty-eight and fifty-nine: Tiger Ears.
- Sixty, the age named through the obedient ear: Water Star. Sixty-one: Receiving Fluids.
- Sixty-two and sixty-three: Earth Storehouses. Sixty-four: Bank Pool. Sixty-five: Goose and Duck.
- Sixty-six and sixty-seven: Golden Thread. Sixty-eight and sixty-nine: Returning.
- Seventy, named through bounds: Songgong. Seventy-one: chin.
- Seventy-two and seventy-three: Servants. Seventy-four and seventy-five: jawbones.
- Seventy-six and seventy-seven: Zi. Seventy-eight and seventy-nine: Chou, the plowing Ox.
- At Taigong's age plus one: Yin/Tiger. Eighty-two and eighty-three: Mao/Rabbit.
- Eighty-four and eighty-five: Chen/Dragon. Eighty-six and eighty-seven: the supplied yi/Snake position.
- Eighty-eight and eighty-nine: Wu/Horse, called light. Ninety and ninety-one: bright Wei/Sheep.
- Ninety-two and ninety-three: Monkey bearing fruit. Ninety-four and ninety-five: the Rooster heard.
- Ninety-six and ninety-seven: Dog barking at the moon. Ninety-eight and ninety-nine: the Pig in a buying-and-swallowing phrase.
Beyond a hundred, the chin's count turns upward to preserve long life. The face's cycle repeats; lines, the source's yin-markings word and defects bring serious misfortune. A damaged period/course-clash and bright/dark-nine clause joins further ruin with the dark realm. Restraining qi and color and broken bone and flesh bring solitude. Favorable regions and timely crystalline color, with Five Peaks and Four Waterways attending one another, instead permit soaring ten thousand li. The close calls these an immortal's marvelous formula, astonishing the world in conversation and laughter.
Note: The repeated twenty-two/twenty-three assignments, the absence of a clear twenty/twenty-one assignment, Taigong-plus-one wording, Songgong, the yi/Snake graph and damaged final clauses are retained. No conventional age chart is silently substituted.
Formula for the Course of Qi
Water form counts one, Metal three years;
Thick Earth is reckoned by four.
Fire takes five years to seek forward or reverse;
Wood form two years, without further doubt.
Combined Metal and Water follow above and below;
Water and Fire instead seek in reverse.
Earth starts its first period at the nose tip,
Repeating the cycle to determine safety and peril.
Note: These are the supplied period rules; no missing directional diagram is invented.
Song for Recognizing Periods
Eight, eighteen and twenty-eight:
Below to Mountain Root, above to hair.
The livelihood/absence phrase says both ends diminish;
At thirty, Seal Hall must not carry killing signs.
Thirty-two, forty-two and fifty-two:
Above and below Mountain Root, ending at the nose tip.
Grain Storehouse, Stipend and Horse must correspond;
Those who do not know must not point carelessly.
Fifty-three, sixty-three and seventy-three:
Arrange the face down to the chin.
Examine each for disaster and fortune;
Fire Star at a hundred, with Seal Hall added.
Upper and lower halves distinguish rank;
Storehouses, divided evenly, determine having or lacking.
The close calls this an immortal's true formula
And warns against carelessly teaching the ordinary.
Note: The livelihood clause and Fire-Star/Seal-Hall age ending are incomplete as supplied; a continuous age chart is not reconstructed.
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