Reading people (identifying by the Five Elements)

Reading people: those involved in the story (the Self line included) are referred to the Five Elements and the Six Spirits together, so as to know their appearance and character, and from that to find a suitable way of behaving in each situation.

A general description of a person

When we speak of reading people, it is understood by default that this is a general description of a person. Why not go deeper into detail? One has to understand that we are not moving within one or two cases but within an almost unlimited number of situations, so these identifications are the most general ones, true in most cases of human beings. The parts that go further into detail are the more governed by the limits of the case; that is where the harm lies, as it easily leads us to judge wrongly, turning A into B, so that the handling of people is no longer right, which causes mistakes and danger. It is like fighting an enemy: if the enemy comes from the west and we guard only the east, defeat is certain.

And most important of all, this frame holds only within the matter being spoken of, not for everything in life. Life is not one single field; plenty of people, ourselves included, are one way with this matter and another way with that. So when this frame is spoken of, it is understood by default that we are speaking of the matter we are concerned with, and it does not hold for another matter. As with someone who breathes fire outside and is still mild with their wife at home.

Reading people through the Five Elements

So where does identifying a person lie? It lies here. First, reading people through the Five Elements:

• Fire: a quick, hasty person with a hot temper, of middling build, who keeps proper manners and behaves well with those around them. If Fire is Weak there will surely be an illness of Fire, that is, of the heart and the blood pressure, such as high blood pressure, or a fast heartbeat, or palpitations, or heat within the body
• Metal: a person with fair skin, or a bright face — note here that it is "or" and not "and", though of course sometimes both are present — conservative, firm, and keeping their word in what concerns the event referred to. If Metal is Weak, the person also suffers from illnesses of the lungs, or from a lack of iron or zinc in the body causing related complaints such as anaemia…
• Wood: a person mild on the outside, up in the clouds, good-natured but apt to fall into idle talk, so one should be careful about what is said with people like this. If Wood is Weak, the person is prone to illnesses of the liver, the bones, the joints, the tendons, the muscles and the peripheral nervous system, such as difficulty in walking, or headaches….
• Water: an intelligent or a skilful person, who adapts easily to their surroundings within the field being spoken of. If Water is Weak, the person is prone to illnesses of the kidneys, the blood and the fluids of the body
• Earth: a person of solid build on the outside, not quick, inclined to like helping others, and finding it hard to keep up with fast-moving situations. If Earth is Weak, the person is prone to illnesses of digestion and to disorders of metabolism in the body, from which tumours also arise..

Combining the Five Elements and the Six Spirits

After that comes the combination of the element with the Six Spirits.

See also

• Principles of reading a hexagram — the main entry
• Reading space (the position of the lines), Inner and outer trigram
• Six Spirits, Five Elements
• Career, Destiny reading