Chinese physiognomy can be seen as an elaborate personality test. These techniques date back centuries, and they do not require the person to actually say or do anything. Physiognomy is a process that endeavors to reveal a lot about a person by the features that define their face. However, this is far from the only thing Chinese face reading endeavors to accomplish. It is believed by some that physiognomy has the capacity to reveal aspects of your personality unknown even to you, your past experiences, and even what the future might hold for you.
Even for those who not believe that Chinese physiognomy is legitimate, there is a wealth of fascinating information to be found by simply looking over this concept.
Understanding Chinese Physiognomy
As mentioned before, physiognomy is a concept that dates back a number of centuries. The earliest known description of these techniques is generally given to Mr. Guiguzi, a scholar whose work dates back to the years between 481 and 221 B.C. The origins of Chinese physiognomy is believed to have come from Daoist philosophies.
To the Chinese, the techniques associated with face reading was designed to do more than simply function as a means of telling the future. They were key instruments in assisting with diagnoses and treatments. Even in the present, it can be used to create a mental/physical profile of an individual, in order to determine the best course of action for treating whatever is bothering them.
Within physiognomy, there are a number of different ways in which a practitioner can assess a patient. Three quarters, eight trigrams, and one-hundred-and-eight spots, looking at shapes, considering colors, or even examining moles and wrinkles are all methods popular within Chinese physiognomy. While it is possible for someone to use one particular technique to create mental/physical portrait of the patient, a true master of this face reading art will combine a variety of techniques, in order to create the most compelling, definitive profile of the individual possible.
One particularly popular example is known as the Twelve Houses Method. This breaks down the face into a variety of houses. These houses include fortune, parents, career, travel, life, siblings, assets, marriage, children, health, wealth, and popularity. Each section of the face corresponds to one of these houses. As you can probably imagine, combining all of these houses will serve to create a fairly strong indication of a person’s past experiences, their present condition, and what they might expect from the future.