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Review focus: face-reading, "Kan-Xiang", "Qi", chee, facial zones, chinese, ancient, principles, social status, life expectancy, influences
Asian Business Code Words Index NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine
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Face-reading is as old as humankind, and is a universal art that all of us practice virtually every day with varying degrees of skill. We all know and respond to facial expressions that indicate fear, anger, merriment, pleasure and other moods, and we know from experience that such facial characteristics as unusually large eyes or big noses have an important influence on our lives. But there is a great deal more to face-reading than these obvious signs. The face reveals facts not only about a person's mood, but also about his or her character, health, personality, sexual inclinations, popularity, ability to make money, social status and life expectancy. And just as one's face influences his or her life, life in turn changes our faces - for better or for worse. Face-reading is primarily based on the size, shape, position, quality and color of certain facial features. Before one can read these signs, however, there are other factors that must be taken into consideration - the most important of which is the strength of the vital power of the person whose face is to be read. Everyone is endowed with what might be called a "battery" that gives off a kind of energy that the Chinese call qi. The strength of this divine-like power varies greatly in individuals. In some people it is very feeble, and as a result they have dull eyes, dull faces and usually lead colorless lives. In others, this light may shine with startling brilliance, and such people tend to lead extraordinary lives. Ages ago Chinese astrologers, healers and scholars in other disciplines began cataloging facial characteristics and relating them to intelligence, ability, behavior in general, health, success, longevity, and so on. As long as 2,000 years ago kan-xiang (kahn-she-ahng) or face-reading had become both an art and a profession. The Chinese learned that there are three facial zones that send different messages and are closely related to one's age. These zones are the forehead, the middle of the face from the eyebrows down to and including the nose, and the mouth and chin. The top zone relates to intellect, the middle zone to diligence and perseverance, and the lower zone to health and compassion. During youth the forehead is the most important part of the face. In the middle age the middle part of the face predominates in its signals. The mouth and chin are the most important indicators during old age. Many of the messages sent by the face are obvious enough to just be common sense. Some are more esoteric. A person with a triangular face tends to be intellectual and a dreamer. A square face denotes an athletic or physical character. Round-faces people tend to be adaptable, practical and methodical. Women with round faces are usually gregarious and sociable. High, wide foreheads are indicative of intelligence. An older person with a high, wide forehead that has several well-defined parallel lines (wrinkles) is exceptionally intelligent, with a stable character. People with a single, vertical wrinkle between their eyebrows are usually very strong-willed, very stubborn. People with large ears, especially if they also have long, large earlobes, are generally very long-lived. People with wide mouths and full lips are more sensual than people with small mouths and thin lips. Interestingly, strong, straight eyebrows are very masculine, and when women make up their faces with such eyebrows they give a very mixed message to men. People with prominent, hooked noses are better at making money than those with small, straight noses, and so on. Altogether, there are more than 115 kan-xiang points observed and catalogued by the ancient Chinese - all of which are just as valid today, regardless of one's racial or ethnic background, as they were millennia ago. Chinese business people, government officials and others make regular use of face-reading in judging the people they deal with. Outsiders dealing with the Chinese would be wise to inform themselves of some of the key principles of kan-xiang
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Boye Lafayette de Mente is one of our regular monthly columnists at the 
| This month's column is excerpted from China's Cultural Code Words, by Boye Lafayette De Mente available from NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company |
© Boye Lafayette De Mente & the Asia Pacific Management Forum 1999
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