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Mayi Shenxiang · The Mayi Art of Physiognomy
Limbs and Hands
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On the Four Limbs
Hands and feet are called the Four Limbs, imaging the four seasons. Add the head and they are called the Five Bodily Parts, imaging the Five Phases. If the four seasons are out of harmony, the myriad beings suffer deficiency. If the Four Limbs are not upright, a lifetime suffers hardship. If the Five Phases are unfavorable, the myriad beings do not grow. If the Five Bodily Parts are not differentiated, a lifetime is lowly and poor.
Hands and feet also image a tree's trunk and branches. Many joints make what is called unusable timber. Hands and feet should be soft, smooth and clean, with sinews and bones unexposed: white as jade, smooth as moss, soft as cotton. These mark, the text says, a wealthy and ranked person. If hard, coarse and large, sinews tangled and bones clumsy, coarse as earth, hard as stone, curved as firewood, flesh like swelling, they are called those of poor and lowly people.
Note: These bodily and status associations are the historical source's claims.
On the Hands
Hands function to grasp and hold; their disposition concerns taking and giving. Fine, long hands mean a compassionate nature fond of giving; short, thick hands a mean nature fond of taking. Hands hanging below the knees mark outstanding worthies of the world. Hands not reaching below the waist mean lifelong poverty and low station. A small body with large hands means lifelong fortune and stipend; a large body with small hands lifelong pure poverty. Thin, cut-away hands mean poverty; upright, thick hands wealth. Coarse, hard hands mean low station; soft, fine hands pure poverty in this copy. Fragrant, warm hands mean pure distinction; foul, dirty hands turbidity.
Pointed, long fingers mean intelligence and excellence; short, blunt fingers folly and low station. Soft, close fingers accumulate savings; hard, widely spaced fingers bring ruin. Like spring bamboo shoots means pure rank; like broken mallets foolish obstinacy; like peeled scallions stipend; coarse as bamboo joints poverty and low station. Thin, hard fingers like chicken skin mean no wisdom and poverty; fists like pig trotters foolish dullness and low station. Hand bones soft as a cotton pouch mean utmost wealth and rank. Hand skin joined like a goose's foot means supreme honor and rank.
Long, thick palms mean rank; short, thin palms low station. Hard, round palms mean folly; soft, square palms wisdom. Raised all around and hollow in the center means wealth; thin flesh at the four peaks and a level center dispersed wealth. Radiant, moist palms mean wealth; dry palms poverty. Red like spurting blood means glorious rank; yellow like brushed-on earth utmost low station. Blue-green palms mean poverty and suffering; white palms cold and low station. A dark mole in the palm's center means wisdom and wealth; transverse patterns around the palm folly and poverty.
Verse:
A ranked person's ten fingers are soft as cotton;
Not only leisure, but blessings increase of themselves.
Damage and breakage are surely no cultivated person's form;
The source declares adversity and folly without hesitation.
Generally, hands should be soft and long; upper arms level and substantial; bones round and low; wrist joints small; finger joints fine. Dragon Bone, near the elbow, should be long; Tiger Bone, near the palm, short. Exposed, coarse bones, floating and scattered sinews, lines tight as pincers, flesh dry as if pared away are not a favorable form.
Formerly Wang Kezheng died, leaving no son—the source repeats that Kezheng had no son. His household performed Buddhist rites. His only daughter, a little over ten, held incense and lamp before the Buddha image. Chen Bo entered, then came out and told others: 'Although I did not see Miss Wang's face, I saw the hands with which she held the incense hearth; they are extremely ranked. If a man, the bearer would enter the Hanlin Academy from commoner status. If a woman, on marrying she would become a titled lady.'
Later, the person called Lord Chen E in this copy became a participant in governmental affairs and had no wife. Taizong said: 'Wang Kezheng belongs to a wealthy Jiangnan lineage. His one daughter is excellent and virtuous; you may take her as your match.' A damaged sentence follows concerning Taizong, discussion and remarriage. She was then taken as wife and, within a few days, invested as a commandery lady.
As for hands hanging below the knees, the source names Mr Liu with the Qibei wording: his height was seven chi and five cun, his lowered hands passed his knees, and his eyes could follow his own ears in this copy's expression. Paper-white hands mean rank; hands straight like bamboo shoots fortune and longevity; smooth as moss also fortune and longevity. Dragon long and Tiger short: upper arm to elbow is Dragon Bone, imaging the ruler, and should be long and large; elbow to wrist is Tiger Bone, imaging the minister, and should be short and small.
Another saying: disordered, intermingled hand lines should give fortune and stipend and freedom from disaster forever. Transverse patterns with longitudinal lines mean killing and harm beyond discussion; longitudinal patterns with transverse lines mean office as minister, duke or chief minister. The repeated hand/upturned-hand phrase says one travels far without packing provisions. An upturned form within the hand is hard to obtain. Three Ways on the hand—three rows upon the fingers are named Three Ways—mean employing servants. A damaged one-receiving-hand clause says the person must become a ma, written with the mother graph. Three folds communicating across all ten fingers mean endless wealth and food. Hands bent like a tiger mean poverty and cold to the bones.
A man's hands like a cotton pouch bring stipend and position as duke or king; the parenthesis names scholarly-or-ministerial forms and commoners and calls this blessed rank. A woman's cotton-pouch hands bring fortune, stipend and limitless wisdom. Unusually crosswise hand bones mean low station; Dragon swallowing Tiger must bring glory. Ten moist, cotton-soft fingers mean wisdom and understanding that astonish others. A damaged no-bone/ordered-side clause precedes poverty, cold and an uneven body. Tiger strong and Dragon further weak ends with looking alone toward glory and flourishing.
Text note: Soft, fine hands are explicitly called purely poor here; this is not silently harmonized with favorable softness elsewhere. The two transverse/longitudinal line orders remain distinct. The anecdote's Chen Bo, Lord Chen E, Taizong/remarriage sentence and Mr Liu/Qibei wording are irregular as supplied; historical identities are not guessed. The ear-following, upturned-hand, ma and no-bone clauses also remain qualified. These anatomical, moral, family, rank and fate claims are the historical source's assertions.
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