The Marks of Wisdom and What They Mean

As we age our face changes. We get wrinkles and lines, dark spots and shadings. And though we tend to resent them, these signs of experience are good because they are recording our chronological passages of life. They are visual proof that we have been feeling the emotions of our experiences, struggling through our difficult times and learning the lessons of life. We can celebrate them as marks of wisdom that come with age.

Most markings appear on an area of the face that represents the age that the emotional experience first occurred.

The Face Represents a Chronological Map of Experiences:

- left ear rim - conception to early childhood
- right ear rim - mid childhood to adolescence
- hairline to eyebrows - adolescence through the 20s
- eyebrow area - early 30s
- eye area - mid to late 30s
- nose - 40s
- mouth area - 50s
- chin - 60s
- jaw - 70s and beyond

Facial lines and markings generally appear first on the forehead and work their way down to the bottom of the chin over the years. Take a close look at your own face, at your parents’, your children’s, siblings’, friends’ and co-workers’ faces and see if their marks of passage correspond with their ages.

Using Mien Shiang we read the face by interpreting the appearance of the lines and marks. We look for placement, size, shape, depth, color and shading of each line and marking. Lines between the eyes usually appear in the early to mid 30s and are frequently the first lines we notice on our own faces as well as on others. In Mien Shiang we call this area the Seat of the Stamp, or Yin Tong, and issues with father or the dominant parental figure are marked here.

Yin Tong Markings

- a single, vertical line can mean that one has difficulty getting or staying appropriately angry.

- a single, but stronger and deeper, vertical line indicates estrangement from father

- 2 vertical lines means one tends to anger easily

- 3 or more vertical lines suggest the ability to stand up for oneself and use anger appropriately.

- horizontal lines also represent separation from father, or son, or one’s own yang (male) side, as well as women who were never allowed to get angry

- a dark mark, or discoloration, indicates that one is backing off from their power.

The mouth is another area we tend to notice. Though the predominant
lines and markings generally appear in one’s 50s, they often occur as early as one’s 20s. Pursing the lips creates lots of tiny lines cutting into the lips, both top and bottom. Those lines show all the hurts that have been held on to, that have never been forgotten. They belong to the person who has ‘done all the right things’ but hasn’t been ‘rewarded’ for her ‘goodness.’

There are so many, many more lines that appear on the face that reveal our experiences or tendencies. Like the Grief Line than runs down the center or the cheek, or the Fa Ling Lines that show whether or not we are on our Golden Path. The telling lines around the eyes that warn us of an inclination for unfaithfulness, or reveal the pain of unshed tears. As you notice the lines and markings on your own face, as well as on others’, remember . . .

- the right side of the face presents the outer, public self, and that it represents the mother’s influence

- the left side of the face presents the inner, private self, and that it represents the father’s influence.

And remember the significant characteristic and trait that belong to each facial feature. Now look in the mirror and combine what Mien Shian has taught you, so far, about each side of the face, each of the 12 major facial features, and the different lines and markings and their placements. Does Mien Shian help piece together the puzzle of who you really are?

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