Zhu Jianping 朱建平

Zhu Jianping was a man of Pei State. He excelled at the art of physiognomy, and among the common people his readings proved true more than once or twice. When Cao Cao became Duke of Wei he heard of him and summoned him to be a Gentleman. Records, Wei 29 §38

When Cao Pi was General of the Five Offices, at a gathering of more than thirty guests Cao Pi asked about his own lifespan and also had him read the faces of all the guests. Zhu Jianping told Cao Pi that he would live to eighty but would face a minor misfortune at forty and should take good care. He told Xiahou Wei that at forty-nine he would rise to the rank of provincial governor but would face a misfortune, and that if he got past it he would live to seventy and attain the rank of a chief minister. He told Ying Qu that at sixty-two he would rise to the post of changbo but would face a misfortune, and that a year before it he alone would see a white dog that those beside him could not see. He told Cao Biao that he would hold a fief as a vassal prince but would meet misfortune through arms at fifty-seven, and should guard well against it. Records, Wei 29 §38–39

Xun You and Zhong Yao of Yingchuan were close friends, and when Xun You died first, leaving a young son, Zhong Yao looked after his household and wished to marry off Xun You's concubine. In a letter to someone, Zhong Yao wrote that when he and Gongda (Xun You) had once had Zhu Jianping read their faces, Zhu Jianping had said, 'Lord Xun is young, but he will entrust his affairs after his death to Lord Zhong.' At the time Zhong Yao had joked, 'Then I shall only have to marry off your A Wu,' and since Xun You had died early, the joke had come true; Zhong Yao said that even Tang Ju or Xu Fu could not have surpassed the marvel of Zhu Jianping. Records, Wei 29 §40–41

In the 7th year of Huangchu (226), when Cao Pi, at forty, fell gravely ill, he said to those around him, 'When Jianping said eighty, he was counting days and nights separately. I am finished,' and soon afterwards he died. Xiahou Wei, who had become Inspector of Yan Province, fell ill in the first ten days of the 12th month of his forty-ninth year; remembering Zhu Jianping's words, he was sure he would die and had his testament and funeral arrangements prepared. When his illness eased in the last ten days of the month, he invited his chief officials to a drinking party late on the afternoon of the last day of the month and said that when the cock crowed the next day he would be fifty and would have passed Zhu Jianping's warning; but after he sent his guests home, his illness flared up at nightfall and he died at midnight. Records, Wei 29 §42–43

Ying Qu, at sixty-one, became Palace Attendant, and while on duty in the palace he suddenly saw a white dog, but when he asked the others, no one had seen it. He then often gathered people together and hurried out into the countryside to make excursions and hold feasts for his own pleasure, and he died at sixty-three, a year past the appointed time. Cao Biao was enfeoffed as Prince of Chu, and at fifty-seven, implicated in a plot with Wang Ling, he was ordered to take his own life. Records, Wei 29 §43–44

Chen Shou said that none of these things Zhu Jianping foretold failed to come about as he said, but that since they could not all be recorded in detail, he set down only a few. Only his readings of Wang Chang (王昶), Minister of Works, Cheng Xi, General Who Conquers the North, and Wang Su, Central Commander of the Army, were said to have gone wrong. At sixty-two Wang Su fell critically ill, and the physicians all thought he would not recover; when his wife asked for his last words, he said, 'Jianping read my face and said I would live past seventy and rise to the Three Excellencies, and none of that has happened yet, so what is there to worry about?', but in the end he died. Records, Wei 29 §44

Zhu Jianping was also good at judging horses. When Cao Pi was about to go out and a horse was brought in from outside, Zhu Jianping saw it on the way and said, 'By the look of this horse, it will die today.' When Cao Pi was about to mount it, the horse, disliking the fragrance on his clothes, shied and bit Cao Pi's knee, and Cao Pi, in a great rage, had it killed on the spot. Zhu Jianping died in the Huangchu era. Records, Wei 29 §45

The biography of Zhou Xuan in the same volume records that eight or nine out of ten of Zhou Xuan's dream interpretations came true, so that people of the time compared them with Zhu Jianping's physiognomy. In his assessment Chen Shou called Hua Tuo's medicine and diagnosis, Du Kui's music, Zhu Jianping's physiognomy, Zhou Xuan's dream interpretation and Guan Lu's divination truly all profound and singular skills, extraordinary and unrivalled arts, and said that he preserved these records here to broaden knowledge of strange matters, just as Sima Qian had written the biographies of Bian Que, Cang Gong and the diviners. Records, Wei 29 §54 · 86