五行掌形
Five-element palm shapes (五行掌形)
At a glance
Eastern palmistry's first step reads the whole hand as Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water — the same thing Western practice sorts, in a different vocabulary.
What is the Five-element palm shapes (五行掌形)?
Before reading any line, Eastern palmistry takes **the shape of the whole hand** and assigns it to one of the five elements. Western practice also sorts hand shapes (into conical, square, spatulate, philosophical), so **the object of study is the same and the sorting vocabulary differs** — except that the East then lays the generating and controlling cycles over it, aiming to read hand shape, lines, and (when a birth chart is present) the given elemental balance within one frame. ⚠️ The finer divisions of the five palm shapes differ between texts, and a hand shape alone does not settle a person. Hands change with a life lived, so convention reads them as the grain of the present.
Frequently asked
- What does the Five-element palm shapes (五行掌形) mean in palmistry?
- Eastern palmistry's first step reads the whole hand as Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water — the same thing Western practice sorts, in a different vocabulary. Before reading any line, Eastern palmistry takes **the shape of the whole hand** and assigns it to one of the five elements. Western practice also sorts hand shapes (into conical, square, spatulate, philosophical), so **the object of study is the same and the sorting vocabulary differs** — except that the East then lays the generating and controlling cycles over it, aiming to read hand shape, lines, and (when a birth chart is present) the given elemental balance within one frame. ⚠️ The finer divisions of the five palm shapes differ between texts, and a hand shape alone does not settle a person. Hands change with a life lived, so convention reads them as the grain of the present.
More in this group
- Is palmistry Eastern or Western?
- The Three-Talent lines (三才紋)
- The eight trigram palaces of the palm (掌中八卦)
- Life Line
- Head Line
- Heart Line
- Fate Line
- Sun Line (Apollo Line)
- Mount of Venus
- Mount of Jupiter
- Mount of Saturn
- Mount of Apollo
- Mount of Mercury
- Mount of Mars
- Mount of the Moon (Luna)
- Palmistry (手相)
- Three major lines (三大線)
- Mounts (丘)
- Which hand to read (左右手)
See how the Five-element palm shapes (五行掌形) reads on your own palm.
Read my palm →Palmistry is a traditional reading of temperament, for reference only — it does not replace medical or legal judgment. Source: 중국 수상학(手相學) 통설 — 삼재문·장중팔괘(掌中八卦).