Face Regions
Lower Court
Court
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Origin 1465 to 1620
The Lower Court, or xia ting, is the third of the three courts, running from beneath the nose down to the chin, and takes in the philtrum, the mouth and the jaw. Mian xiang reads it as the record of later life, roughly from fifty onward, and of home, children and material security, sometimes called the Earthly Court, di ge, to match the Heavenly Court at the top of the face. A full, well rounded chin within this court is read as a sign of stability and comfort in old age, while a narrow or receding one is read as a caution about later years. As with the rest of mian xiang, this is a traditional interpretive practice within a living tradition, not a finding of medical science.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period Origin PeriodExamined by Xing Wang as part of the general apparatus of Chinese physiognomy, xiangshu, in Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644) China, an apparatus she traces to a tradition credited to the tenth century Taoist Chen Tuan. 2 Attributed Author / CompilerThe division of the face into three courts belongs to the general apparatus of Chinese physiognomy, xiangshu, examined in Xing Wang's history of body divination in Ming China. That apparatus descends from a tradition credited to the tenth century Taoist Chen Tuan, traditionally said to carry forward the teaching of the legendary Hemp Robed Master whose name is also given to an older manual, the Ma Yi Shen Xiang, and it survives in its fullest compiled form as the Shenxiang quanbian, dated to the Ming dynasty. 2 Origin of the NameAlso called the Earthly Court, di ge, pairing with the Heavenly Court at the top of the face within the same three court scheme, san ting, that maps the face's height onto the whole span of a life. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryLargely abandoned as a comparative category 2 Learn More
The Earthly Court Answering the Heavenly One
Where the Upper Court is also called the Heavenly Court, tian ting, the Lower Court carries the paired name Earthly Court, di ge, and the two names together reveal a cosmological structure sitting underneath the system's plainer division into hairline, nose and chin. Chinese cosmology has long organized the world around a triad of heaven, human and earth, tian ren di, heaven above, earth below and the human person mediating between them, and mapping that same triad onto the vertical span of a single face, sky at the hairline and ground at the chin, with the human years of the Middle Court in between, is a deliberate borrowing of a much older cosmological pattern into the specific work of physiognomy rather than an incidental naming choice.
The Lower Court itself, running from beneath the nose to the chin, is read as the record of a life's later stretch, roughly fifty onward, and of home, children and the material security a life has managed to accumulate by its end. A full, well rounded chin here completes the reading the Heavenly Court began at the top of the face, so the two named courts bracket the whole vertical reading the way heaven and earth bracket the cosmology the system borrows its names from, with the Middle Court's human years of active effort filling the span between them.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
One of the Three Courts (santing), the horizontal division of the face read for early, middle and late life fortune in Chinese physiognomy.
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