Targeting the Readership for a Ming Publication: Comprehensiveness in the Compendium for the Expert Physiognomist

This is a peer-reviewed journal article in Asia Major, published by the Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica, and its documented, checkable contribution is a study of the Shenxiang quanbian, a mid Ming compendium scholars themselves acknowledge as the single most important Chinese reference work for body divination, citing a specific 1602 Newly Published Capital Edition rather than describing the work at second hand. This record states its own limit plainly: it is a single journal article rather than a full monograph, so a broader claim about Chinese physiognomy beyond what this specific article traces needs a more extensive dedicated source. Use it for the documented readership and textual context of this specific Ming compendium.