What Is Gwansang? — What It Looks At

Gwansang (觀相, face reading) is a long-standing East Asian practice of reading a person's character by looking at their face. The Ma Yi Xiang Fa (麻衣相法, the Hemp-Robed Master's Art of Physiognomy), compiled during China's Song and Ming dynasties, forms its backbone, and the Ming-dynasty Liu Zhuang Xiang Fa (柳莊相法) filled in the details.

Let's start with the most important thing. Gwansang isn't about judging who's better- or worse-looking. There's no ranking of one face as better than another anywhere in this track. And it isn't about predicting a fixed fate either — This whole track is reference and entertainment content: learning what people in the past tried to read in a face, and turning that same eye back on yourself for a look.

Gwansang looks at the face as three layers. golsang (骨相, bone structure) is your inborn bone structure and contours, so it barely changes. gisaek (氣色, complexion) is today's complexion and color, so it shifts daily with your condition. And finally, simsang (心相, the face shaped by the mind) is a mindset that has settled into your expression over time, so it actually does change over time.

That's why there's an old saying: "gwansang bulyeo simsang" (觀相不如心相) — meaning gwansang can't compete with simsang. In other words, the mindset you've lived with leaves a bigger mark on your face than the bones you were born with. The final chapter of this track is exactly that story.

Here's the order we'll learn in. First, you'll get the big picture that divides up the whole face (the Three Zones, Five Peaks, Four Rivers, Twelve Palaces, and face shapes). Then you'll look at each part one by one (forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, chin). Finally, we'll close with complexion and simsang, and bring together your picked features into one Overview.

Oh, one more thing — this track doesn't take any photos. In each chapter, you look in the mirror and choose for yourself, so your picks build up one by one into a single picture by the end.

One thing to flag up front: classical texts tended to describe things with men as the default. This track doesn't apply different interpretations by gender — we'll go over what that old practice looked like later on.