Also called: Bagua palm map · Eight trigram palaces · Nine palaces of the palm · Qian Kan Gen Zhen Xun Li Kun Dui · 掌中八卦 · Ming Tang · 明堂

Where on the hand: The whole palm, divided into eight zones around the rim with a ninth in the centre. Reading round the hand: Xun (巽) at the Jupiter mount under the index; Li (離) at the Saturn mount; Kun (坤) over the Apollo and Mercury mounts; Dui (兌) at Upper Mars on the percussion; Qian (乾) at the Mount of Luna; Kan (坎) at the base of the palm above the wrist; Gen (艮) at the Mount of Venus; Zhen (震) at Lower Mars beside the thumb; and Ming Tang (明堂), the 'bright hall', in the hollow at the centre.

What it looks like: Not a mark but a map — the same eight trigram positions used in Chinese geomancy, laid over the palm so that every line, mark and mound can be given an address in terms of the trigram it falls in.

This is the Chinese equivalent of the Western mount system and of the Indian nine-fold parvat map, and it is the framework almost all classical Chinese palm signs are described in. Each palace governs a department of life and a set of relatives, so a mark is read first by which palace it falls in and only then by its own shape. A palace that is full, well-coloured and free of stray lines is 'prosperous'; one that is hollow, dark or crossed by chaotic lines is 'broken'.

Read with care: Correction: 坤 is classically 福德，為母 (blessing and the mother), not 'marriage, children and longevity'; 子息 (children) belongs with 兌. The rest of the nine-palace mapping checks out against Chinese sources and is the 後天八卦 laid on the palm.