“If you can cultivate an aura of wealth and nobility, you carry with you the finest Feng Shui for gathering fortune and attracting luck.” — Master Chi
It happens to be a day off, so I’m setting aside the heavier topics and talking about something interesting and genuinely valuable: “how to cultivate good face reading (面相).” Don’t underestimate it — having good 面相 can give you enormous natural advantages in career, business, and marriage.
Why do some people naturally have a kind, approachable face that draws others in? There’s real logic to it, and real value.
First, we need to be clear: 面 (face) and 相 (aura/bearing) are two entirely different things. 面 refers to your facial features and their arrangement — the natural physical presentation of your body. 相, on the other hand, refers to your expressions, eyes, and bearing — the instinctive outflow of your inner spirit.
Generally speaking, I don’t push people to make drastic changes to their 面. Ordinary people lack the aesthetic and physiognomy knowledge needed, which makes it easy to chase beauty in one feature while completely disrupting overall harmony. That harmony is something heaven gave you — once disturbed, the result looks jarring. That’s exactly why the “internet celebrity face” (网红脸) that swept through culture five or six years ago looked acceptable feature by feature, but assembled together it was uncanny and cheap — the infamous “snake spirit face.”
The problem was irresponsible cosmetic surgeons chasing profit, who loved pitching full-face packages as their marketing strategy with total disregard for the uncertainty and error that comes with restructuring someone’s facial architecture. Multiple high-frequency procedures mean one area hasn’t healed before the next is altered based on flawed parameters. The result? Fake. Cheap. Artificial. Strange. Ugly.
Of course, if you just want minor refinements, or to use makeup to enhance your look — that’s perfectly fine.
But here’s what I want to tell you: the world doesn’t scrutinize your 面 as harshly as you think. An ordinary person with average looks can absolutely cover up the weaknesses of their 面 through good diet and exercise, building up their bearing and presence from the inside.
My real focus is 相.
Generally speaking, anyone who has moved through society, seen all kinds of people, and navigated murky waters has some natural ability to read 相 — even without ever formally studying Chinese metaphysics (玄学) or face reading (面相学).
Because your life experience gradually condenses into instinct. It tells you what noble 相 looks like and what base 相 looks like. You may not be able to list the traits one by one, but place someone in front of you and you know instantly what you’re dealing with.
Let’s start with what I call base 相 (贱相) — the minefield you especially want to avoid.
A person’s base 相 shows up most strongly in the zone from forehead to mouth — and these signals tend to be strikingly consistent, each one betraying the others. Think about what “base” actually means: it means someone grew up under enormous pressure, ground down daily by material and spiritual hardship, living with the psychological torment of not knowing what tomorrow holds.
A child raised in that environment will naturally develop that expression — mouth slightly open, brow tightly furrowed, eyes laser-focused. The nose alone can’t handle the oxygen demand, so they breathe through their mouth. The brow can’t relax because the mind is never at rest. The eyes are always scanning because the situation is always dire. This expression cannot be suppressed — it is humanity’s most genuine instinctive response to sustained pressure.
The result: someone may have perfectly decent features, but the moment pressure arrives, their true nature surfaces — leaving others with an inexplicable sense of tension and unease.
You can search online for a child known as “Fish-Killing Boy” (杀鱼弟). Despite being only seven or eight years old, he wore the deep, bitter expression of a weathered adult. He didn’t choose this — a life of grinding labor had stamped the marks of poverty and hardship permanently onto his face.
When I first saw that news story, I was struck: how does a child so young produce an expression so complex and haunted?
This is why so many people are surprised that I can roughly gauge someone’s family background before even looking at their destiny chart (格局). There’s no secret to it. Your 相 cannot lie. If you grew up in a cramped, anxious, suppressed environment, your 相 will be shaped and distorted by it.
Don’t believe me? Look at the children who come out of affluent families in prosperous areas. Not 100%, but overwhelmingly — open, relaxed faces and easy bearing. Boys with their big, guileless, confident smiles. Girls with that soft, effortless, casually warm energy. Every face written with the ease of someone who has never lain awake worrying about survival — the composure and nobility that comes from simply being allowed to be yourself.
This kind of face — and I don’t mean “noble” in a superficial way — carries genuine, tangible value.
A lot of people don’t understand this, because most people unconsciously believe that face reading doesn’t mean much, or is worthless altogether. “You just have to work hard, right?” That’s the thinking of someone who has never had any real brush with wealth. It’s naive, and frankly, laughable.
Here’s a simple example: given two equally capable candidates, one with noble 相 and one with base 相 — who do you choose as your partner? I’ll tell you: not just you, but any boss, noble benefactor (贵人, Gui Ren), or ideal match will choose the noble 相 person every single time. That’s just reality.
Why? Because 相 arises from the heart (相由心生).
A person whose 相 is noble tells you they never lacked for money growing up, that they’re unlikely to sell you out over petty gain, and that they were raised with their parents’ dignified and cultivated influence.
Base 相 is the opposite. When that person furrows their brow, you sense a scheme forming. When their eyes narrow, you feel a shift in loyalty. 相由心生 — this is no deception.
Of course, noble 相 produces its share of scoundrels, and base 相 its share of decent people. But proportionally, the scoundrel rate from noble 相 is far, far lower. Go look at the cases and news stories over the past few decades that became notorious for poverty-driven circumstances — you’ll find the people involved share a strikingly similar expression: brow locked tight, perpetual sighing, a face creased with conflict and worry. It naturally triggers rejection from those around them.
This is why when I’m analyzing someone’s destiny framework (格局) and fortune cycle (运势), I consistently advise people to work on certain habitual expressions. This small detail is genuinely more powerful than grinding away at any single skill. Far more efficient.
Without straying too far — just look at Brother Baiqiang (the actor Wang Baoqiang). Compare a photo of him from twelve years ago to today, and especially look at his two children. Where is any trace of the energy he once had?
Among women, whether it’s the naturally aristocratic Zhang Xiaohui, or those who built success from scratch through their own effort — the more successful they become, the more relaxed and natural they grow, and the more often you see that contented, bright smile.
Men are no different. Noble 相 radiates outward; base 相 turns inward. Never become someone who shrinks into themselves — that path almost always leads to poor fortune (运势).
It’s the weekend, and I don’t want to go too deep into destiny frameworks and life philosophy today. But I do have one piece of advice worth ten thousand gold:
When facing uncertainty, start by looking in a mirror. Smooth out that furrowed brow. Then breathe deeply through your nose — draw in the fresh air, and slowly exhale all the turbid energy out. Then deliberately smile at yourself, and gently shake your head.
After doing that — don’t you feel like there’s no problem in this world that can truly stop you? If yes, that’s exactly right. In that moment, your face carries the composed, unshakeable nobility of someone who has truly arrived — along with the courage and force of will to meet whatever comes.