THE HISTORY OF FACE READING

Traditional Chinese medicine was largely preventative. The aim was to try and predict the onset of a health problem long before it became serious. These traditional practitioners based their reputation on how long their patients lived and little they became ill.

To try and diagnose the onset of an illness several techniques where developed and some are still used today in treatments such as shiatsu, acupuncture and herbal medicine. Most common were face reading, pulse diagnosis, tongue diagnosis, acupressure point diagnosis, palmistry and observation of patients posture and behaviour.

Historically Face Reading, looked at each feature on the face and compares them in terms of their position on the face, their size, prominence and where applicable the underlying bone structure and colour or texture of the skin. Each part of the face related to particular organ and the emotions associated with that organ.

One of the early theoretical models used was the five elements. It is probable that the five elements began as part of a farmer’s almanac where each element relates to a different season. In addition the months and days were described in terms of these elements. The elements would then help the farmers know when to seed, plant and harvest.

In time these elements were applied to people and their characters and health. So someone might be seen as having more spring time, sunrise, wood energy and have more of the personality associated with the atmosphere of that time of year and day.

Similarly a person with too much hot summer, midday, fire energy might easily get stressed and find it harder to feel calm. Eventually this might contribute to heart problems.

TIME LINE

The first written work on Chinese Medicine is thought to be the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine which is dated to approximately 2600 B. C. These texts show that medical practitioners already had developed an in depth knowledge of chi energy, yin and yang and the five elements. In addition various forms of diagnosis were employed using the outer part of the body to read what was happening inside.

Later during the Confucius area face reading had become popular throughout China spreading to the nearby countries of Japan, India and Korea.

Face Reading also became popular in Europe under the name of physiognomy. In 1272 Michael Scott wrote his book De Hominis Physiognomia on the subject and more recently during the late 1700’s the Swiss pastor Johann Lavater wrote his opus on the art of Face Reading.

Meanwhile in Japan Nanboku Mizuno became famous throughout the land for his impressive skills in physiognomy. He was born about 1750 and later wrote an influential book called ‘Food Governs Destiny’.

More recently George Ohsawa inspired by Doctor Sagen Ishizuka during the early 1900’s founded a movement called macrobiotics. The central philosophy is that you can change your health primarily through your diet. Face reading was used to diagnose what kind of diet would be most successful for someone.

During the 1970’s Michio Kushi, one of George Ohawa’s students, refined and developed his impressive face reading skills to the point that thousands of people have sought his advice from all over the world.

Written by Simon Brown Face Reader and Face Reading Expert London UK. Author of The Secrets of Face Reading

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