How many kinds of fortune telling are there?
China ancient fortune-telling has a long history and various names. There are also many sayings about appellation and classification. In my spare time of nearly 20 years, I have summarized some skills I have seen and understood, and I have classified and summarized them for the reference of friends who like to study like this:
Generally speaking, after the Book of Changes (can be said to be after the Han Dynasty), according to the theoretical basis of the Book of Changes, various fortune-telling theories gradually emerged. After the publication of Yuan Haizi's Commentary in Song Dynasty, it can be said that fortune-telling has reached its peak so far.
From my point of view, I divide China's ancient fortune-telling theory into three categories:
The first category: telepathy. In other words, by drawing lots and shaking copper coins, modern students play "writing with pens", and some witches can predict the future by saying that they are possessed by immortals. The theoretical basis of this technology is that there are supernatural immortals in the universe, and people can achieve channeling through cultivation and predict the future and the past. In the world, people can be divided into epiphany, gradual enlightenment and ignorance. Those who can realize can become immortals, those who can gradually realize can become saints, and those who can't realize are ordinary laymen. And there are many famous works, such as Ling Qijing, Golden Strategy and Modern Six hexagrams.
The second category: star-gazing fortune telling. Such as stargazing, bone digging, fortune telling, word-breaking, feng shui and so on. The theoretical basis of this technique is that everything in the world is universally related, and all forms are the reflection of content. If you see stagnant water, you can judge that there will be fish underwater, and if you see clouds passing by, you can know that there will be rain. It is said that the appearance of human bones also reflects everything about themselves. There are many famous works in this field, such as Ma Yixiang written by Chen Tuan in the Song Dynasty, and there are many books on stargazing and geomantic omen.
The third category: the calculation of operands. For example, those who look at the eight characters, and those who use the methods of "Qimen", "Taiyi" and "Liu Ren" to calculate fate and good or ill luck. This technique mainly thinks that everything is represented by numbers and phases, and that everything in the world produced in different time and space positions has its own trajectory. For example, if a wheat seed is sown in different places at the same time, or in different places at the appointed time, it will have different growth rules. Therefore, people can judge their growth trend according to the time and place of birth. This kind of books are famous, such as Sanyuanhui, Numerology on Characters, Yuan Haizi's Review, and Didi Tiansui.
Fortune-telling has many specific terms, which are difficult for people who generally don't understand. Here are some basic terms that interested friends can learn about.
1 "eight characters" The so-called eight characters refer to the four groups of numbers recorded by heavenly stems and earthly branches, namely, the year, month, day and hour of birth. For example, a person born on September 1 day 19: 30, 2007 has eight characters: Ding Hai (year), Wu Shen (month), Ding You (day) and Geng Xu (hour). The eight characters have four branches, so they are commonly known as "eight characters".
2 lunar calendar and chronology. The lunar calendar is based on the chronology of dry branches, which means "heavenly stems", that is, the word 10. Refers to the earthly branch, that is, the word 12 is "Zi Chou Mao Yinchen has reached the noon of Shen You Xu Hai". Through the arrangement and combination of 10 rhizome and 12 Gandhi, 60 different groups of stems and branches can be combined, which becomes the saying "sixty jiazi". Because the chronology of the lunar calendar shows the relationship between the moon, the sun and the earth, a circular three-dimensional space-time coordinate network was formed in the 1960s. So a "eight-character" also marks a time and space point and its position.
3 gossip. Bagua refers to what Zhouyi says: doing, Kun, truth, smoking, reasoning, reading, root and meeting. It can be expressed in the form of eight images, which can represent everything and be used to calculate good or bad luck.
Four elements. The five elements are: gold, water, wood, fire and earth. They are, in turn, such as golden raw water, aquatic wood, wood fire, fire raw soil. Separated by grams, such as Jin Kemu, Muketu, Tuke water, fire and water soil.
Five fortune-telling methods widely circulated in society. In ancient times, there were many fortune-telling methods, such as four leaning methods (that is, reading eight characters), six hexagram methods (that is, shaking copper coins), drawing lots in temples, reading bones, etc., and there were also more complicated calculation methods, such as Wei Zi number, iron plate number, Taoist magic, Taiyi, Liu Ren, and some blind people used a relatively simple calculation method "One Palm Sutra". These forms of fortune-telling methods all have a set of theories and operational methods, but they all have common basic theoretical elements, but their respective emphases are not the same.
Here are some fortune-telling introductions.
For details, please refer to "China Ancient Fortune Telling", which is not introduced here.
I hope this helps.