The Chinese art of face reading, or kang xiang as it was originally known, has a very long history indeed. The ancient sages who formulated this practice are long forgotten, having lived more than two thousand years ago. Even so, they drew on the core beliefs of oriental philosophy to provide the basis for this fascinating study. Even though face reading originated in China, it does not apply only to oriental features. In fact, ethnic type is not important, because face reading's rules and interpretations can be applied to all racial groups equally.
In face reading, like Chinese astrology, feng shui, and oriental medicine, we find Chinese concepts that have become familiar, such as yang and yin and the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. In fact, face reading has a great deal in common with feng shui, because in this art, the human face is regarded as a landscape with five “mountains”—the brow, the nose, the two cheekbones, and the chin—each symbolically associated with one of the five elements. This facial landscape also possesses four “rivers”—the eyes, the nostrils, the ears, and the mouth. Each feature is a component in this landscape and each is interpreted accordingly.
One can find each year of life marked on the face. The traditions of Chinese face reading state that no less than ninety-two age positions are dotted around the face. Apart from these, there are also twelve “Palaces of Fortune,” which give information about specific issues such as partnerships, career, wealth, and health.
Even without this knowledge, we all routinely assess the personality of others by their faces. However, it is not usually the physical features of the face that we assess, but the transitory nature of the expressions. In Chinese face reading, it is the actual formation of the features, their balance, and their symmetry that are the important factors, as well as the overall shape of the face.
There are five basic face shapes, each associated with one of the five elements. As well as these, there are two variations known, respectively, by comparisons with a bucket and a volcano.
The shape of individual features has the greatest complexity. There are twenty-three basic shapes of eyes, twenty-three conformations of eyebrows, thirteen types of ears, thirteen basic nose profiles, and nine types of mouths. I describe each one in the pages of this book, as well as other features, such as the cheekbones, the width and height of the brow, the cheek lines, or fa ling, and the philtrum, or jen chung.
It is somewhat unfortunate that the ancient Chinese sages who formulated face reading were extremely sexist. However, although most of the traditions of this ancient art are concerned with the interpretation of masculine features, they can be applied to female faces too. While we are on the subject, throughout the book the pronouns “he” and “his” have been used. I assure you that this is not an indication of the author's sexist attitudes; it is simply a method to avoid the awkwardness of writing “he or she” or “his or her” repeatedly.
Every face has its own story to tell, and the art of kang xiang will show you how to read every feature, line, and wrinkle and discover aspects of the personalities of your family and friends that you never knew existed. After all, Chinese face reading literally demonstrates that one's features are an open book!