The Classification and Origin of China's Divination
Shu Shu originated from ancient astronomy in China and was based on heavenly stems and earthly branches. Its content consciously or unconsciously conformed to and imitated the idea of Zhouyi. According to historical records and archaeology, Shu Shu's age is later than the Book of Changes. The representatives of "divination" under it are: the Great Liu Ren, four pillars and eight characters, the number of fights, iron plate divination, seven policies and four wonders, bird hunting, choosing a day and so on.
More "divination" has crossed these two main streams, such as Liu Yi, Taiyi, Daoism and Feng Shui.
China's divination is far more than the above categories. And some of the divination mentioned above is divided into many schools, just like the martial arts schools in China. There are too many forests to list. So far, only the book Zi Bu Shu Shu in Sikuquanshu has summarized some of them. Four pillars and eight characters, Wei Zi's number of fights and iron plate magic focus on predicting the overall fortune of a person's life.
Yi Xiang Shu, Yi Mei Hua, Great Liu Ren, Daoism and Liu Yi focus on real-time prediction, that is, measuring certain things and people in a targeted way.
Geomantic omen, called "geomancy" in ancient times, focuses on the calculation and site selection of buildings (houses in the sun) and tombs (houses in the dark).
Choosing a date is mainly used to find an auspicious time to start the operation of something during this time in order to obtain favorable processes and results. China is the birthplace of oriental culture, and its ideology and culture have exerted great influence on the East. China's divination is more complicated and profound than western divination, because of the differences in human ideology caused by eastern and western cultures.
According to the human consciousness on the earth, the East is cloudy, and its thoughts and behaviors are characterized by spirit, literary power, suppleness, curve, euphemism and tranquility. The west, on the other hand, has the nature of yang, and its thoughts and actions are manifested in matter, strength, firmness, straightness, straightness and movement. In sharp contrast with the East.
Regarding the difference between the two, for example, to study whether the pulp of a walnut is mature, the ancient methods in China usually do not destroy the shell, but judge it by observing the appearance, weight, color, grain, smell, knocking sound and so on (by experience). Westerners generally use scalpels, pliers, speculum and other instruments to destroy the shell and directly observe and judge the pulp. It is precisely because of this western thought that originated in ancient Greece that modern science originated in the West, not in the East.
Oriental thought pays attention to the study of the whole to obtain laws, which is macro-strategic and analogical, and studies the whole universe as a thing (black box theory). This kind of research has the characteristics of once and for all, and the laws obtained can describe anything in the universe (holographic theory). However, due to the differences between individuals, the laws obtained must have certain fuzziness.
The west pays attention to the study of individuals to obtain laws, which are microscopic tactics and digital, so the laws obtained for some things are quite accurate. But because there are too many kinds of things in the universe, the result will be a large number of laws of different kinds of things. When studying a certain kind of things, we must apply the laws of a certain kind of things, such as physics has physical laws and formulas, chemistry has chemical laws and formulas, and mathematics has mathematical laws and formulas. Therefore, mankind can never thoroughly study the universe by scientific methods. So that great western scientists often return to the overall research in the end. Einstein finally wanted to find the ultimate theoretical formula, and Newton focused on philosophy and theology in his later years.
The East is good at integration, while the West is good at division. If we combine eastern and western ideas, we can get twice the result with half the effort. For example, the wave-particle duality of physics, sine wave and square wave can be regarded as the totem of the whole western science because they conform to the Yijing thought. China was called warlock and alchemist in ancient times. Generally speaking, it is based on divination and reveals the past and future for people. Some can combine divination with French to avoid misfortune, such as Taoist spells such as Daoism, magic, Maoshan Daoism and Zhang Tianshi. In addition, the scenes described in the novel, such as Zhuge Liang taking advantage of the east wind and Jiang Ziya giving orders, also belong to this category. Read the text of Romance of the Three Kingdoms carefully, which contains many descriptions of divination.
Jiang Ziya, Guiguzi, Zhuge Liang, Liu Bowen, these characters do exist, but because they are so vivid in the novel, we won't delve into them.
According to official records, there were Wu Zixu, Wenzhong, Tao Zhugong, Confucius, Meng Xi, Jiao Yanshou, Jing Fang, Guan Ju, Shao Yong, Shao Yanhe and Chen Gongxian in ancient times, and Wei Qianli and Yuan Shushan in modern times, all of whom were fortune tellers.
People engaged in divination in China are mixed, with fewer dragons and more fish. And some of these "fish" are not proficient in learning arts, or have a little knowledge, or even have a glib tongue, and don't understand the techniques of the Book of Changes at all. They only cheat money by trying to figure out the words and psychological activities of the occupiers. As the saying goes, "it's hard for the questioner to speak without opening his mouth", and the occupier's "not opening his mouth" is their most taboo.
If readers need to know more about these people's deception skills, they can search and read Yao Ying, Ma Jun, Zafei and Abao's four "Four Secrets of Jianghu Formula" which are dedicated to trying to figure out the psychological activities of road-hoggers. Here, we should strongly despise such people. It is because of these people that people misunderstand divination today.
If you need to find a fortune teller in the society, the way to distinguish between true and false fortune tellers is usually that the fortune teller only tells the fortune teller the purpose of seeking money, and then listens to the fortune teller's answer. At this time, the fortune teller should not rush to answer the right and wrong questions, and wait until the fortune teller explains it for a period of time. If a fortune teller can tell other things besides what you want to know, such as past events, then his level should be trustworthy. False fortune tellers often cheat by such means as "platitudes", "men hugging women to scare them", "only talking about the future and not talking about the past", "most contemporaries have roughly the same experience" and "solving disasters". Remember to read the "Four Secrets of Jianghu Formula" carefully before you go to tell your fortune, so as not to be deceived.
In fact, there are real masters in society, but they are often not people who pursue fame and fortune, or people who don't make a living by divination, and they are generally not easy to meet.