Guxiang — Reading the Bones骨相篇
人曰命難知。命甚易知。知之何用？用之骨體。人命稟於天，則有表候以知體。察表候以知命，猶察斗斛以知容矣。表候者，骨法之謂也。傳言黃帝龍顏，顓頊戴午，帝嚳駢齒，堯眉八采，舜目重瞳，禹耳三漏，湯臂再肘，文王四乳，武王望陽，周公背僂，皋陶馬口，孔子反羽。斯十二聖者，皆在帝王之位，或輔主憂世，世所共聞，儒所共說，在經傳者較著可信。若夫短書俗記、竹帛胤文，非儒者所見，眾多非一。蒼頡四目，為黃帝史。晉公子重耳仳脅，為諸侯霸。蘇秦骨鼻，為六國相。張儀仳脅，亦相秦、魏。項羽重瞳，云虞舜之後。與高祖分王天下。
People say that destiny is hard to know. Destiny is very easy to know. By what is it known? It is known by the bones and the body. Man's destiny is received from Heaven, and so there are outward signs, and by the body it can be known. To look at the outward signs and know the destiny is like looking at the dou and the hu measures and knowing how much they hold. The outward signs are what is called the law of the bones.
Tradition says that the Yellow Emperor had a dragon's face, that Zhuanxu bore the character wu (午) on his brow, that Emperor Ku had teeth joined in a row, that Yao's eyebrows had eight colors, that Shun's eyes had double pupils, that Yu's ears had three openings, that Tang's arms had two elbows each, that King Wen had four nipples, that King Wu's eyes looked upward, that the Duke of Zhou had a bent back, that Gao Yao had the mouth of a horse, and that Confucius had a head like an upturned roof. These twelve sages were all in the seat of emperors and kings, or aided their lords and grieved for the age. The world has heard of them together and the scholars speak of them together, and being in the Classics and the Commentaries these things are plain and worthy of belief.
As for short writings and common records, the writings that run on over bamboo and silk, they are not what the scholars look at, yet they are many and not one. Cang Jie had four eyes and became the recorder of the Yellow Emperor. Chong'er, prince of Jin, had ribs joined together and became the leader of the feudal lords. Su Qin had a high nose bone and became minister of the six states. Zhang Yi had ribs joined together and was also minister of Qin and of Wei. Xiang Yu had double pupils, and it was said that he was a descendant of Shun of Yu, and he divided the world with Gaozu and ruled as king.
陳平貧而飲食之足，貌體佼好，而眾人怪之，曰：「平何食而肥？」及韓信為滕公所鑒，免於質，亦以面狀有異。面狀肥佼，亦一相也。高祖隆准、龍顏、美須，左股有七十二黑子。單父呂公善相，見高祖狀貌，奇之，因以其女妻高祖，呂后是也，卒生孝惠（王）〔帝〕、魯元公主。高祖為泗上亭長，當去歸之田，與呂后及兩子居田。有一老公過，請飲，因相呂后曰：「夫人，天下貴人也。」令相兩子，見孝惠曰：「夫人所以貴者，乃此男也。」相魯元，曰：「皆貴。」老公去，高祖從外來，呂后言於高祖。高祖追及老公，止使自相。老公曰：「鄉者夫人嬰兒相皆似君，君相不可言也。」後高祖得天下，如老公言。推此以況，一室之人，皆有富貴之相矣。
Chen Ping was poor and had not enough to eat, yet his face and body were fair and well made, and everyone thought it strange and said, "What does Ping eat, that he is so fat?" When Han Xin was noticed by the Duke of Teng and escaped death, that too was because there was something uncommon in the look of his face. A face full and fair is also a sign.
Gaozu had a high nose bridge, a dragon's face, and a fine beard, and on his left thigh were seventy-two black moles. Lord Lü of Shanfu was good at reading faces. When he saw the look of Gaozu he thought it rare, and so he gave him his daughter to wife. She is Empress Lü, and in the end she bore Emperor Xiaohui and the Princess of Luyuan (魯元).
When Gaozu was headman of Sishang, he took leave and went back to the fields, and he was in the fields with Empress Lü and their two children. An old man passed by and asked for a drink. Then he read the face of Empress Lü and said, "Madam, you are a noble person of the world." She had him read the faces of her two children. Seeing Xiaohui he said, "What will make you noble, madam, is this boy." He read the face of Luyuan and said, "Both are noble." The old man went away. Gaozu came in from outside, and Empress Lü told him of it. Gaozu ran after the old man, caught him up, stopped him, and had him read his own face. The old man said, "Just now the faces of your wife and your children were all like yours. Your own face is more than words can say." Afterward Gaozu won the world, as the old man had said. Reasoning from this by likeness, the people of that one house all had the signs of wealth and rank.
類同氣鈞，性體法相固自相似。異氣殊類，亦兩相遇。富貴之男娶得富貴之妻，女亦得富貴之男。夫二相不鈞而相遇，則有立死；若未相適，有豫亡之禍也。
Where the kind is the same and the breath is even, the nature, the body, and the signs of the bones are of themselves alike. Where the breath differs and the kind differs, the two may still meet. A rich and noble man takes a rich and noble wife, and a woman too gets a rich and noble man. When two signs are uneven and yet meet, there is death on the spot; and if they have not yet come together, there is the misfortune of dying beforehand.
王莽姑正君許嫁，至期當行時，夫輒死。如此者再，乃獻之趙王，趙王未取，又薨。清河南宮大有與正君父稚君善者遇，相君曰：「貴為天下母。」是時，宣帝世，元帝為太子，稚君乃因魏郡都尉納之太子，太子幸之，生子君上。宣帝崩，太子立，正君為皇后，君上為太子。元帝崩，太子立，是為成帝，正君為皇太后，竟為天下母，夫正君之相當為天下母，而前所許二家及趙王為無天下父之相，故未行而二夫死，趙王薨。是則二夫、趙王無帝王大命，而正君不當與三家相遇之驗也。丞相黃次公故為陽夏游徼，與善相者同車俱行，見一婦人年十七八，相者指之曰：「此婦人當大富貴，為封侯者夫人。」次公止車，審視之，相者曰：「今此婦人不富貴，卜書不用也。」次公問之，乃其旁里人巫家子也，即娶以為妻。其後，次公果大富貴，位至丞相，封為列侯。夫次公富貴，婦人當配之，故果相遇，遂俱富貴。使次公命賤，不得婦人為偶，不宜為夫婦之時，則有二夫、趙王之禍。夫舉家皆富貴之命，然後乃任富貴之事。骨法形體，有不應者，擇必別離死亡，不得久享介福。故富貴之家，役使奴僮，育養牛馬，必有與眾不同者矣。僮奴則有不死亡之相，牛馬則有數字乳之性，田則有種孽速熟之谷，商則有居善疾售之貨。是故知命之人，見富貴於貧賤，睹貧賤於富貴。
Zhengjun, the aunt of Wang Mang, was promised in marriage, and each time the day came for her to go, the husband died. This happened twice, and so she was offered to the King of Zhao, and before the King of Zhao took her he too died. Dayou of Nangong in Qinghe was on good terms with Zhijun, the father of Zhengjun. He read Zhengjun's face and said, "She will be noble, the mother of the world." This was in the time of Emperor Xuan, and Emperor Yuan was then crown prince. Zhijun therefore sent her in to the crown prince through the commandant of Wei commandery, and the crown prince favored her, and she bore a son, Junshang. Emperor Xuan died and the crown prince ascended the throne, and Zhengjun became empress and Junshang crown prince. Emperor Yuan died and the crown prince ascended the throne, and this was Emperor Cheng, and Zhengjun became empress dowager and in the end was the mother of the world. Now the signs of Zhengjun were those of one who must be the mother of the world, while the two houses she had been promised to before, and the King of Zhao, had not the signs of a father of the world. Therefore the two husbands died before she could go, and the King of Zhao died. This is the proof that the two husbands and the King of Zhao had not the great destiny of an emperor, and that Zhengjun was not to meet with those three houses.
The prime minister Huang Cigong was once a patrol officer of Yangjia. He was riding in one carriage with a man who was good at reading faces, and they saw a woman of seventeen or eighteen. The reader pointed at her and said, "This woman will be greatly rich and noble. She will be the wife of a man enfeoffed as a marquis." Cigong stopped the carriage and looked at her closely. The reader said, "If this woman does not become rich and noble, then the books of divination are of no use." Cigong asked about her. She was the daughter of a shaman's house in the village nearby, and he took her at once as his wife. Afterward Cigong did indeed become greatly rich and noble. His office reached prime minister, and he was enfeoffed as a full marquis. Since Cigong was to be rich and noble, the woman was to be his match, and so they did meet, and both became rich and noble. Had the destiny of Cigong been low, he could not have got that woman for a mate; and if it had not been their time to be husband and wife, there would have been the misfortune of the two husbands and the King of Zhao.
Only when a whole household has the destiny of wealth and rank does it then take up the business of wealth and rank. If in the law of the bones and in the body there is one who does not answer to it, he must be parted and sent away, or die, and he cannot long enjoy the great blessing. Therefore in a rich and noble house the slaves and servants it employs and the oxen and horses it rears must have something unlike the common run. The servants and slaves have the signs of not dying, the oxen and horses have the nature of bearing young often, the fields have grain that sprouts and ripens quickly, and the trade has goods that are held and sell quickly. Therefore the man who knows destiny sees wealth and rank in the poor and lowly, and sees poverty and lowliness in the rich and noble.
案骨節之法，察皮膚之理，以審人之性命，無不應者。趙簡子使姑布子卿相諸子，莫吉，至翟婢之子無恤，而以為貴。無恤最賢，又有貴相，簡子後廢太子而立無恤，卒為諸侯，襄子是矣。相工相黥布當先刑而乃王，後竟被刑乃封王。衛青父鄭季與楊信公主家僮衛媼通，生青，在建章宮時，鉗徒相之，曰：「貴至封侯。」青曰：「人奴之道，得不笞罵足矣！安敢望封侯？」其後青為軍吏，戰數有功，超封增官，遂為大將軍，封為萬戶侯。周亞夫未封侯之時，許負相之，曰：「君後三歲而入將相，持國秉，貴重矣，於人臣無兩。其後九歲而君餓死。」亞夫笑曰：「臣之兄已代侯矣，有如父卒子當代，亞夫何說侯乎？然既巳貴，如負言，又何說餓死？指示我！」許負指其口，有縱理入口，曰：「此餓死法也。」居三歲，其兄絳侯勝有罪，文帝擇絳侯子賢者，推亞夫，乃封條侯，續絳侯後。文帝之後六年，匈奴入邊，乃以亞夫為將軍。至景帝之時，亞夫為丞相，後以疾免。其子為亞夫買工官尚方甲盾五百被可以為葬者，取庸苦之，不與錢。庸知其盜買官器，怨而上告其子。景帝下吏責問，因之食五日，嘔血而死。當鄧通之幸文帝也，貴在公卿之上，賞賜億萬，與上齊體。相工相之曰：「當貧賤餓死。」
Look into the law of the bones and joints, look into the grain of the skin, and weigh by them a man's nature and destiny, and there is nothing that does not answer. Zhao Jianzi had Gubu Ziqing read the faces of his sons, and none was of good omen; but when he came to Wuxu, the son of a slave woman of Di, he called him noble. Wuxu was the worthiest and had noble signs as well, and Jianzi afterward put aside the heir and set up Wuxu, who in the end became a feudal lord. This was Xiangzi. A face reader read Qing Bu and said that he would first suffer punishment and then be king, and afterward he did suffer punishment and then was enfeoffed as king.
Zheng Ji, the father of Wei Qing, had dealings with Wei Ao, a bondmaid in the house of the Princess of Yangxin, and she bore Qing. When he was at the Jianzhang Palace, a convict in an iron collar read his face and said, "You will be noble enough to be enfeoffed as a marquis." Qing said, "For one who is another's slave, it is enough not to be whipped and cursed. How should I dare hope to be made a marquis?" Afterward Qing became an officer of the army and won merit in battle again and again. He was enfeoffed out of turn and raised in office, and at last he became general in chief and was enfeoffed as a marquis of ten thousand households.
Before Zhou Yafu was enfeoffed as a marquis, Xu Fu read his face and said, "Three years from now you will come to the offices of general and minister and hold the power of the state. You will be noble and weighty, with no equal among subjects. Nine years after that you will starve to death." Yafu laughed and said, "My elder brother has already succeeded to the marquisate, and when a father dies the son should succeed him. How should Yafu be spoken of as a marquis? And if I am to be noble already, as you say, how then do you speak of starving to death? Point it out to me!" Xu Fu pointed at his mouth, where a line ran up and down into it, and said, "This is the mark of starving to death." Three years later his elder brother Sheng, the marquis of Jiang, was guilty of an offense, and Emperor Wen chose the worthiest among the sons of the marquis of Jiang. Yafu was put forward, and he was enfeoffed as marquis of Tiao and carried on the line of the marquis of Jiang. In the sixth year of the later reign of Emperor Wen the Xiongnu came within the border, and Yafu was made general. In the time of Emperor Jing, Yafu became prime minister, and afterward he was relieved of office for illness. His son bought for Yafu five hundred sets of armor and shields from the imperial workshop, to serve for his burial. He worked the hired men hard and gave them no money. The hired men learned that he had bought the goods of the government in secret, and in their resentment they denounced the son. Emperor Jing handed the matter to the officers to be questioned, and because of this Yafu did not eat for five days, vomited blood, and died.
When Deng Tong was in favor with Emperor Wen, he was noble above the high ministers, his gifts came to hundreds of millions, and he stood level with the emperor. A face reader read him and said, "He will be poor and lowly and will starve to death."
文帝崩，景帝立，通有盜鑄錢之罪，景帝考驗，通亡，寄死人家，之名一錢。韓太傅為諸生時，借相工五十錢，與之俱入璧雍之中，相璧雍弟子誰當貴者。相工指倪寬曰：「彼生當貴，秩至三公。」韓生謝遣相工，通刺倪寬，結膠漆之交，盡筋力之敬，徙舍從寬，深自附納之。寬嘗甚病，韓生養視如仆狀，恩深逾於骨肉。後名聞於天下。倪寬位至御史大夫，州郡丞旨召請，擢用舉在本朝，遂至太傅。夫鉗徒、許負及相鄧通、倪寬之工，可謂知命之工矣。故知命之工，察骨體之証，睹富貴貧賤，猶人見盤盂之器，知所設用也。善器必用貴人，惡器必施賤者；尊鼎不在陪廁之側，匏瓜不在殿堂之上，明矣。富貴之骨，不遇貧賤之苦；貧賤之相，不遭富貴之樂，亦猶此也。器之盛物，有斗石之量，猶人爵有高下之差也。器過其量，物溢棄遺；爵過其差，死亡不存。論命者如比之於器，以察骨體之法，則命在於身形定矣。
Emperor Wen died and Emperor Jing ascended the throne, and Tong was guilty of casting coin in secret. Emperor Jing looked into it, and Tong fled and died in the house of another, without a single coin to his name.
When the Grand Tutor Han was a student, he lent a face reader fifty cash and went into the Biyong hall with him, to read which of the students of the Biyong would become noble. The reader pointed at Ni Kuan and said, "That student will be noble. His office will reach the three highest offices." Han thanked the reader and sent him away, sent in his card to Ni Kuan, made with him a friendship close as glue and lacquer, and gave him the respect of all his sinew and strength. He moved his lodging to follow Kuan and attached himself deeply to him. Once Kuan was gravely ill, and Han nursed and watched him as a servant would, and his kindness was deeper than that of bone and flesh. Afterward his name was heard throughout the world. When the office of Ni Kuan reached censor in chief, the aides of the provinces and commanderies took his wish and called and invited Han, and raised him up and recommended him at court, and he came at last to be Grand Tutor.
The convict in the collar, and Xu Fu, and the readers who read Deng Tong and Ni Kuan may be called readers who know destiny. Therefore the reader who knows destiny looks at the proof of the bones and the body and sees wealth and rank or poverty and lowliness, as a man who sees a dish or a bowl knows what it is set out for. A good vessel is surely used by a noble man, and a poor vessel is surely given to a lowly one. The zun and the ding do not stand beside the privy, and the gourd does not lie in the hall. This is plain. Bones of wealth and rank do not meet the bitterness of poverty and lowliness, and signs of poverty and lowliness do not meet the joy of wealth and rank, and it is just like this. A vessel that holds things has its measure of a dou or a dan, as the ranks of men have their grades of high and low. When a vessel is filled past its measure the thing spills over and is thrown away, and when a rank is passed beyond its grade there is death and nothing left. If he who discusses destiny will liken it to a vessel in this way and look by the law of the bones and the body, then he will see that destiny is fixed in the body.
非徒富貴貧賤有骨體也，而操行清濁亦有法理。貴賤貧富，命也。操行清濁，性也。非徒命有骨法，性亦有骨法。唯知命有明相，莫知性有骨法，此見命之表証，不見性之符驗也。范蠡去越，自齊遺大夫種書曰：「飛鳥盡，良弓藏，狡兔死，走犬烹。越王為人長頸鳥喙，可與共患難，不可與共容樂。子何不去？」大夫種不能去，稱病不朝，賜劍而死。大梁人尉繚說秦始皇以并天下之計，始皇從其冊，與人亢禮，衣服飲食與之齊同。繚曰：「秦王為人，隆准長目，鷙膺豺聲，少恩，虎視狼心，居約易以下人，得志亦輕視人。我布衣也，然見我，常身自下我。誠使秦王須得志天下，皆為虜矣。不可與交游。」乃亡去。故范蠡、尉繚見性行之証，而以定處來事之實，實有其效，如其法相。
It is not only wealth and rank, poverty and lowliness that have their bones and body: the purity or muddiness of conduct too has its law and its reason. Noble and lowly, poor and rich, this is destiny. Purity or muddiness of conduct, this is nature. It is not only destiny that has the law of the bones; nature too has the law of the bones. Men know only that destiny has clear signs, and none knows that nature has the law of the bones. This is to see the outward proof of destiny and not to see the token of nature.
Fan Li left Yue, and from Qi he sent a letter to the great officer Zhong, saying, "When the flying birds are gone, the good bow is put away; when the cunning hare is dead, the running dog is boiled. The King of Yue is a man with a long neck and a beak like a bird's. You may share hardship with him, but you may not share ease and joy. Why do you not leave?" The great officer Zhong could not leave. He pleaded illness and did not come to court, and a sword was sent him, and he died.
Wei Liao, a man of Daliang, spoke to the First Emperor of Qin of a plan to swallow up the world, and the First Emperor followed his plan and treated him with the courtesy of an equal, and made his clothes and his food the same as his own. Liao said, "The King of Qin is a man with a high nose bridge and long eyes, with the breast of a hawk and the voice of a jackal. He has little kindness. He looks with the eye of a tiger and has the heart of a wolf. In straits he humbles himself to others easily, and when he gets his will he makes light of them. I am a man in hemp clothes, and yet when he sees me he always lowers himself to me. If the King of Qin truly gets his will over the world, all will be his captives. He is not a man to keep company with." And then he fled away. So Fan Li and Wei Liao saw the proof of nature and conduct, and by it settled what the coming days would truly hold, and it did indeed have its effect, just as the signs of the law said.
由此言之，性命繫於形體明矣。以尺書所載，世所共見，准況古今，不聞者必眾多非一，皆有其實。
Speaking from this, it is plain that nature and destiny hang upon the body. Taking what the books record and what the world sees together, and weighing the old times against now, the cases not heard of must be many and not one, and all of them have their truth.
稟氣於天，立形於地，察在地之形，以知在天之命，莫不得其實也。有傳孔子相澹台子羽，唐舉占蔡澤不驗之文，此失之不審，何隱匿微妙之表也？
Breath is received from Heaven and the body is set up on the earth, and if a man looks at the body that is on the earth and by it knows the destiny that is in Heaven, there is no case whose truth he does not get. There are writings handed down saying that Confucius read the face of Dantai Ziyu and that Tang Ju divined for Cai Ze, and that these did not come true. This was a failure to look closely. How should the fine and subtle signs be hidden?
相或在內，或在外，或在形體，或在聲氣，察外者遺其內，在形體者亡其聲氣。孔子適鄭，與弟子相失，孔子獨立鄭東門。鄭人或問子貢曰：「東門有人，其頭似堯，其項若皋陶，肩類子產。然自腰以下，不及禹三寸，若喪家之狗。」子貢以告孔子，孔子欣然笑曰：「形狀未也。如喪家狗，然哉！然哉！」夫孔子之相，鄭人失其實。鄭人不明，法術淺也。孔子之失子羽，唐舉惑於蔡澤，猶鄭人相孔子，不能具見形狀之實也。以貌取人，失於子羽；以言取人，失於宰予也。
The signs are sometimes within and sometimes without, sometimes in the body and sometimes in the voice and the breath. He who looks at the outside misses the inside, and he who looks at the body loses the voice and the breath. Confucius went to Zheng and was parted from his disciples, and he stood alone at the east gate of Zheng. A man of Zheng asked Zigong, saying, "There is a man at the east gate. His head is like Yao's, his neck is like Gao Yao's, and his shoulders are like Zichan's. But from the waist down he falls three inches short of Yu, and he is like a dog in a house of mourning." Zigong told this to Confucius, and Confucius laughed gladly and said, "The look of my body, no. But like a dog in a house of mourning, that is so! That is so!" Now in reading Confucius the man of Zheng missed the truth. The man of Zheng was not clear, and his art of the law was shallow. The failure of Confucius with Ziyu, and the misleading of Tang Ju by Cai Ze, are like the man of Zheng reading Confucius: they could not see the whole truth of the look of the body. Taking a man by his face, he failed with Ziyu; taking a man by his words, he failed with Zaiyu.