Fortune telling means fortune telling.

How long has fortune-telling been circulating in China?

origin

Fortune-telling is a method to predict the law of life movement by using the idea of "harmony between man and nature" in China traditional culture. The year, month, day and hour of birth are arranged in eight characters according to heavenly stems and earthly branches (called "eight characters"), and then the fate of people is calculated by using the five elements of the main branch to judge their good or bad luck. According to the Voice of China News Night [2], fortune-telling began in the pre-Qin period. When the ancient Egyptians used papyrus to take notes and the Babylonians used clay tablets to make books, the ancients in China cut bamboo into sticks, thinned them, polished them, roasted them on the fire, and wrote the most vivid historical facts on bamboo slips, which were handed down to future generations.

According to legend, it began in the Tang Dynasty with Li, a famous guiguzi. Tang Hanyu's "Epitaph of Li Jun, the Imperial Commissioner in the Temple": "Li Jun's name is empty, and the five elements are the deepest in the book. It is based on a person's date of birth, and it is better for the other person to die than for the king. It is not conducive to considering the improvement of life span, and it must be in its first year. " But the traditional fortune-telling ways and methods are really not perfect. The four-column sun law and the moon law belong to a complete model of four-column prediction. To learn fortune telling, you must master these complete skills so as not to take detours. We should treat fortune telling with a scientific attitude, believing rather than superstitious.

Fortune-telling is also called "Zi Ping Ming Xue", "Zi Shuping", "Four-Pillar Xue Ming" and "Birthday". Numerology, commonly known as fortune-telling, is a science that takes heavenly stems and earthly branches, the representative of a person's birth date, as the horoscope, takes the Book of Changes as the theoretical basis, and uses the restraint of Yin and Yang and the five elements as the means to predict a person's good or bad life. It is a theory of blending philosophy and natural science, and it is an important category of Zhouyi prediction. In ancient times, fortune-telling usually used personal information, such as the lines of face and hands, the eight characters of birth, the strokes of names and other collocation skills to predict or judge good or bad luck and seek guidance, also known as guessing boxing fortune-telling. For thousands of years, through people's continuous development and improvement, a relatively complete theoretical system has been formed, which has been deeply rooted in people's hearts and lasted for a long time, showing strong vitality. Also take the life palace, fetus, Universiade, Universiade, fleeting time, and cooperate with the five elements of old age and moon order to restrain blame. There were Xu Juyi in the Five Dynasties, Dasheng Xu in the Yuan Dynasty, Liu Bowen in the Ming Dynasty, Shen Xiaozhan, Chen Su 'an, Wei Qianli, Yuan Shushan and Ren Tieqiao in the Qing Dynasty. There are also the blind eight-character theory, the secret of blind quick fortune telling, the secret of golden mouth and iron broken fortune telling, and so on.

evolutionary process

The ancients were obsessed with divination and fortune-telling because the Book of Rites: The Book of Changes said,' A gentleman starts with caution, and the difference is a million miles. The ancients believed that small changes would have a great impact on the future. According to Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals, there was a border town in Chu called Beiliang. At that time, girls in the border town of Wu were picking mulberry leaves on the border. While playing games, Miss Wu accidentally stepped on Miss Beiliang. The low beam people took the injured girl to blame the Wu people. The people of Wu were rude, and the people of Beiliang were very angry, so they killed Wu and left. Wu people went to Beiliang for revenge and killed the whole family of Beiliang people. The doctor in Beiliang Shoucheng was furious and sent troops to fight back against the Wu people, killing all the local Wu people, old and young. Wu Wang Yi was very angry after hearing this. He invaded Chu border town, captured Iraq and left. As a result, there has been a large-scale conflict between Wu Chu. From playing games and hurting my feet, to the outbreak of a large-scale war between the two countries, and then to Wu Jun's invasion of Du Ying, there is an invisible death force in a series of evolution, which irretrievably pushes the incident to an uncontrollable situation step by step. Therefore, the ancients took bad luck and prosperity seriously, because small things can change the fate of the future. The ancients thought that women wore purple ice silver inlaid with blue velvet crystal ornaments, and men wore red bamboo stone ornaments, and added "hidden mustard seeds to dye the spring and autumn" on the binder. In this way, we can pray for opportunities to bring happiness to life and seal bad luck.

Before yin and Shang dynasties

In the primitive clan society before Shang Dynasty, due to the extremely low and backward level of productivity and the extremely simple and poor means of production and life, every clan member could only survive in the primitive clan group. Everyone lives at the same level, and there is no rich-poor phenomenon beyond the life level of clan groups. Limited by the modernization of civilization at that time, nature has infinite power and mysterious invincible power in people's eyes. The relationship between man and nature is as helpless as an animal to obey its power. Wind, rain, thunder and lightning, earthquakes, floods and sick animals in nature may devour human life at any time. "

The ancestors of the Chinese nation are more conscious of their own destiny, which is due to the great development of social productive forces, the great savings of material wealth seized by human beings from nature, and the emergence of nobles beyond the life level of clan groups. That is, after history entered the slave society. Before that, the "destiny" in people's minds did not refer to personal wealth and dignity. Teacher Yu, a famous numerologist, reminds you that calculating numerology is a very serious matter. Don't trust the numerology criticism of some network software. But specifically refers to the restriction of nature on human beings. In their view, their own life and death and everything on the earth are completely dominated by the mysterious "God", so the "God" is supreme. Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the most reliable unearthed cultural relic, strongly proves this point.

Criticize the eight-character teacher-severe

The ancestors of businessmen were born after swallowing bird eggs. The ancestors of Zhou people were conceived in the footsteps of the "Emperor of Heaven". Although this is an absurd legend, it contains the common spiritual belief of our ancestors, that is, their ancestors are all descendants of the "God of Heaven". Not only the origin of clan is the will of God, but also the laws and regulations of human society are decided by God. The personnel arrangement of post setting from the emperor to the official depends on this supreme God, who dominates people's life and death, good or bad. In fact, this supreme "Emperor of Heaven" refers to the son of heaven on earth. This concept of "destiny is determined by heaven" is actually the ideological reflection of theocracy of the ruling class. The feudal system in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties was based on the strict patriarchal system of hereditary eldest son and private son enfeoffment. Economically, the state-owned well site system is implemented. In order to consolidate this system, they also implemented a strict wait-and-see system. People's wealth, wealth, dignity and so on are all determined by the will of the "God in heaven", which is lifelong and eternal. As long as you respect heaven and life and don't overstep the rules, you will be lucky and smooth; And if you can't go against the sky, you have only yourself to blame.

the Spring and Autumn Period

The bold exploration of human destiny and the establishment of the theory of yin-yang and five elements were in the Spring and Autumn Period. In the history of China, from the Spring and Autumn Period to the establishment of the Han Dynasty, it was a period of great turmoil and great division, and the country's economic system and political system had undergone fundamental changes. The destruction of Jing Tian system directly shook the patriarchal feudal system based on blood relationship in politics. Especially the liberation of serfs, ordinary people became landlords, and even businessmen participated in the political affairs of the country by virtue of their power; In order to expand their power and compete for hegemony, the vassals of the enfeoffment countries vigorously recruited talents outside the patriarchal clan system, even people with slave backgrounds. For example, Ning Qi, who was poor enough to be a cattle driver, was worshipped as Shangqing by Qi Huangong, and Bai Xixi, who was poor, was worshipped as an equal by Qin, which opened the atmosphere that ordinary people could also be senior officials. "Into the Warring States period, lobbying Fan Sui, Cai Ze, Su Qin, yi cheung, etc. Step by step; In this movement, Sun Bin, Bai Qi, Le Yi and Lian Po contributed greatly. , will be white. "(The Twenty-second History of Zhao Yi Zagreb, Volume 2). As for social changes, it is common for some nobles to fall from the upper class to the lower class. These drastic changes in political and personnel systems, especially the ups and downs of personal destiny, and the preliminary grasp of the laws of astronomical movement and the development and progress of natural science, have found that there is no necessary connection between "astronomical phenomena" and personnel, which can not help but lead to such a question: Since the wealth of people is stipulated by "destiny" and will never change, why do dozens of bloody monarchs closest to the son of heaven fall to the ground? And the poor can go out and enter the stage? This is undoubtedly a blow to the "destiny theory" that has long been supreme in people's minds. It will inevitably lead to a crisis of people's belief in the theory of destiny. Reflected in literature, there are many poems that curse the theory of destiny: "God is rigid and the people are dying, otherwise, it is not far from worry." Nanshan, Xiaoya Street, Shijing

"If fate is against me, why should I be punished?" God in the sky is so arrogant, moody and eccentric.

Tell sb's fortune

If they are surly and arbitrarily bring disasters to people, and the rulers on the earth are so incompetent and dishonest, how can we win the trust of the people? Some people no longer believe in the invisible God. They put aside the idea that blood determines fate and began to seek the universal law of personal destiny from people themselves.

In many articles, Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals wrote, "In this life, people seek witches in temples, so their illness is getting worse." Ancient fortune tellers found that many people were ill and suffered disasters after their fortune telling. This is because fortune telling is spying on secrets, so you need to pay the corresponding price and be punished by God. Accord to that preface to divination, the method to alleviate and dissolve the disaster after fortune-telling is that women wear blue velvet crystal, orange stone or stone tablet amulet (stone tablet amulet is made of four kinds of "orange stone, sea of clouds stone, shadow stone and orange stone"). Any two of the above three pieces can be worn at the same time. Men can wear two of them: red bamboo stone, shadow stone and stone tablet amulet (stone tablet amulet is made of shadow stone and red bamboo stone).

Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25AD)

If the initial construction of the four pillars prediction theory in the Western Han Dynasty was summed up in a metaphysical way, then the establishment of Wang Chong's theory of great gods in the Eastern Han Dynasty has made China's numerology theory have a clear philosophical foundation.

Wang Chong inherited the materialistic viewpoint of predecessors and advocated the monism of qi. He believes that Qi is the origin of the world, and that "everything is born with vitality" (On Du Hengyan by Wang Chong). The root of the difference of things lies in the difference of internal qi, and "everything is born with qi, and everything is born with each other" (Wang Chong's On Wu Heng's Poems). This is a progressive materialistic view of nature. Wang Chong mechanically compared social personnel with the inevitability of nature. Although he is a great atheist, his innate spiritual theory forms mysticism. In his view, what determines the death, dignity, wealth and happiness of a life is the "natural qi" originally "in the mother's body". This "natural qi" has been formed when a person obtains life, just as the shape of vegetation depends on seeds, the power of birds depends on birds' eggs, and everything contained in a person's fate depends on the "natural qi" originally obtained. He believes that the length of human life depends on the thickness of the gas that the embryo is exposed to in the mother. "If a husband is generous, he will be strong, and if he is strong, he will be rich and live a long life." Weakness of spirit and wealth, short life, illness and short life. "(Wang Chong's On Balance and Life) This is doomed and unchangeable. Life is like this, so is fate. The so-called "life, rich and poor, also; "Generosity leads to prosperity, and frugality leads to waste." (Wang Chong's On Balance, Life and Righteousness) It does not depend on acquired factors such as talent, morality and stupidity, but on people's accidental innate qi. The natural gas is different in thickness, the internal gas is expensive and the internal gas is cheap. So everyone's fate is predestined by innate qi. "When the poor live, although they are rich, they are still involved in disasters." Life should be rich. Even if you are poor and humble, you will still be blessed and kind. "(Wang Chong's" On Balance and Life ") Therefore, the noble person learns as a person, and only he can be an official; Being an official like others, only he can be promoted step by step; The rich do business like everyone else, only he can make a fortune, and the poor do everything for nothing and suffer for nothing. The same is true of good or bad luck. "Mortals have good or bad luck in their lives when their parents are angry. "(Wang Chong's" On the Balance of Life ") When you are rich, you can turn evil into good and be safe forever; Living in poverty, disaster arrival, people are often unhappy, which can not be changed by any effort.

the Tang Dynasty

Zhang Jinhua, a descendant of Shi Tian, thinks that fortune-telling began in the Tang Dynasty, but he thinks that there are two main lines in its inheritance: one is the inheritance of the concept of Yin-Yang and Five Elements in the Han Dynasty, and the other is the blending of western astrology. Superstitions in foreign astrology were introduced to China in the Six Dynasties along with Indian, Western Brahmanism and Buddhism. For example, Wang Songying-lin said, "Saturn's calendar pushed people's lives high and low, starting in the early years of Tang Zhenyuan, and Li Du warlock Li Bigan passed on the Brahma Book" Yu Jing "." Yuan Wu Lai explained that "Li Du" means "all come" and is the name of a river. Li Bigan is a foreign warlock from a well-off country. The Silk Sutra is a star book in India. There are also three volumes of "Weighing the Stars" in the unified examination. "In terms of the sun, the moon, Jin Mu, fire, water, earth, five stars, and Luohou, they are all purple and angry, and they play the degree of the zodiac to blame others for their longevity. I don't know what to do, or I can learn from the clouds. " Luo Houyun, obviously a foreign word, can prove that it is from a foreign country. It can be seen that the five-element superstition of ancient astrology in China, together with the divination superstition of foreign astrology, constitutes the fortune-telling in the Tang Dynasty (ancient folk magic in China, Anhui People's Publishing House, 199 1 May).

Song dynasty in five dynasties

While affirming that China's fortune-telling was formed in the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty, Jiang also raised the question whether this fortune-telling custom was related to the traditional astrology. In this regard, general researchers believe that there is a source relationship. Feng and Bao's record of specializing in astrology at the age of 18 is the first, and people often use "five stars" or "astrological numerology" as another name for fortune telling, which is enough. In this regard, Jiang pointed out that this is because some fortune-telling books in late ancient China often used the word "star" in their titles, which caused misunderstandings, such as The Complete Book of Star Movement in Ming Dynasty and Textual Research on Emperors' Ephemeris in Qing Dynasty. All kinds of fortune-telling and fortune-telling techniques have nothing to do with the actual astronomical phenomena and celestial bodies, and do not conform to the basic definition of astrology at all. In a word, the basic feature of ancient astrology in China is "astrology in the army", which can be seen from the classification statistics of characters in Historical Records. None of them belong to the military category and are not aimed at personal affairs. The personal life and death, honor and disgrace, joys and sorrows of the ordinary people have no place in China's astrology (ibid.).