Introduction
If prostitution is the world's oldest profession, then divination must run a pretty close second.
Since the very beginning, human beings have been trying to peek round the next corner of time, to second-guess the future, to discover what will happen before it happens.
The Chinese are no exception. In fact, as they have the longest-surviving civilization on earth, Chinese methods of fortune-telling probably have a lineage that outstretches any others. The I Ching, sometimes known in the West as the Book of Changes, is estimated to be well over 3,000 years old and is still in wide use.
The ways in which the Chinese race presumes to predict and control fate, fortune and the future are many and colourful: some are original creations while others, such as astrology and perhaps palmistry, are based on ideas borrowed from cultures to the west. But even inherited ideas have been embellished almost beyond recognition over the centuries.
If you have a query about the future, you can take your pick from a wide range of methods which proponents of each say are guaranteed to come up with the right answer: count out some sticks and consult the I Ching; work out the date and time of your birth according to the traditional Chinese calender and ask a fortune-teller what it all means; ask Buddha or your local Taoist god for answers to the big questions of life; have an expert read your palm, face, bones or even moles; put your fate in the hands of a small bird which picks out a card in answer to questions on the future; have your dreams analysed; or, if you want to try a really up-to-date method, try a Chinese fortune-telling computer programme.
Fortune-telling was such an integral part of life in traditional China that a look at its history and principles quickly becomes a search for the key to unlock the secrets of the Chinese mind. Chinese fortune-telling is based on exactly the same ideas as Chinese philosophy and traditional science and for thousands of years the three were so closely entwined that it was impossible to distinguish where one ended and the others began.
Fortune-telling and divination played a crucial role in the development of traditional Chinese science and culture. They were the inspiration for a number of important inventions including the compass, musical pipe instruments and even, according to one expert, the game of chess.
The traditional Chinese view of the universe included the idea that there were calculations which could be used to explain and predict all events, and the validity of fortune-telling was accepted almost without question by most people in old China. It was used by virtually all the emperors and by their officials to help decide matters of state, and only ceased to have a formal role in the system of government when the last emperor was de-throned in 1911.
But Chinese fortune-telling is not a dead art. It is alive and well and putting up a strong defence against the twin onslaught of modern scientific ideas and Western fortune-telling methods. It has even staged counter-attacks, and forms of Chinese divination have gained followings in the West, particularly the I Ching and the Animal Years cycle.
Chinese people have relied on fortune-telling to help run their lives perhaps more than any other people in the history of the world. It was not just something to turn to occasionally and then forget about; it was always there, influencing and guiding their lives, like a religion. Today, even in such cosmopolitan Chinese communities as Hongkong, Singapore and Taiwan, fortune-telling continues to be a powerful force, subscribed to by a surprising number of people. Almost everyone, even westernised, highly-educated Chinese people, will say they believe to some extent or other that the future can be glimpsed through such apparently random events as a series of symbols related to the time of a person's birth.
The 1.2 billion people of China proper still have a residual belief in such things, in spite of the strenuous efforts by the Communist Party since 1949 to banish all religions, beliefs and superstitions from their minds.
Even in the 20th century, many prominent Chinese people have retained fortune-tellers and followed their advice. An example is the warlord Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tso-lin), who ruled northeast China from 1913 to 1928 as a protege of the Japanese. Zhang always consulted a fortune-teller before making an important move so that an auspicious time could be chosen. However, his fortune-teller seems to have missed at least one portent: Zhang and his train were blown up in 1928 by Japanese extremists trying to trigger a Japanese invasion of China.
Chinese people consult fortune-tellers at crucial turning- points in their lives, or simply out of curiosity when they come across one with a good reputation. They seem willing to spend money, sometimes large sums, to hear a prognosis of their futures far more readily than people in most other cultures.
There are host of different methods of fortune-telling in the Chinese world, and the important ones, and many of the minor ones are covered in this site. The main types are:
Astrology, encompassing a host of fortune-telling methods based on the date of a person's birth.
The I Ching, an ancient fortune-telling classic which is supposed to reveal the laws governing all developments that occur in the universe.
Physiognomy, the art of reading a person's character and fate from the shape of his or her body, the lines on his or her palm etc.
Direct appeals to the Gods for advice and for information on the future.
What is interesting is that apart from the last of these four categories, all Chinese fortune-telling methods deny any connection with spiritualism or mysticism. Their proponents view them as sciences which are just as objective and rational as modern science, but based on different principles. The relevant details are put into the formula and an answer arrived at. They make it sound like "a + b = c", although the formulae used are often extremely complex. Like computer experts, Chinese fortune-tellers generally blame incorrect results on incorrect data.
"Garbage in, garbage out," as they say in Silicon Valley.
Aside from the main types of divination, there are a number of related arts, including chronomancy -- the choosing of lucky and unlucky days -- and Chinese geomancy or Fengshui, by which people attempt to improve their fate by controlling their environment, and that of their ancestors.
"Fate Improvement" is almost an obsession with many Chinese people, and a host of methods are avilable, from burning fake money for ancestors to spend in the Other World to keep them on-side, to auspicious car registration numbers.
While they have some very interesting methods of second- guessing the future, one thing the Chinese do not use is the crystal ball so beloved of European clairvoyants. From an Anglo-Saxon point of view, it is also absolutely devastating to discover that, in spite of the fact they invented tea-drinking, the Chinese do not read tea-leaves.
Another strange thing is that despite their fascination with soothsaying and fate, the Chinese do not have daily horoscopes in their newspapers and magazines such as those published in Western newspapers and magazines. Why not? The reason seems to be that Chinese fortune-telling takes a rather longer view of fate than the European variety. Anyway, many Chinese people would see fortune-telling as being too serious a subject to discuss with such flippancy.
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At the heart of the most important methods of Chinese divination is a belief that there is a Grand Scheme to the universe, a pattern to life which, once understood, can be analysed and anticipated.
The Chinese conceive of a "dynamic matrix" of factors which combine to mould the universe, and channel all that happens in it. Action and response: a change in one part of the matrix affects all other parts to some degree.
Furthermore, the Chinese believe, there are rules governing the changes which occur in this "dynamic matrix" of life. The rules are difficult to grasp but the pattern is there, they say, and when it is calculated correctly, the future can be revealed with stunning clarity. The I Ching and the many forms of Chinese astrology are supposed to hold the key to this pattern of change. But accurately working out how the pattern relates to future events -- fortune-telling -- requires experience and wisdom.
It is much like the way in which stock traders analyse the stock market. Many factors influence the way in which a stock market moves. A trader has to identify the factors and on the basis of experience, predict what will happen next. But rational analysis is not always enough -- intuition also plays an important role, and many stock traders put some of their decisions down to simply a "feeling".
The fact is no one really knows what's happening with all those numbers on the screens. Economies grow and contract, foreign exchange rates and commodity prices fluctuate with little regard for the bands of economists who are try to regulate or even just understand them.
Economists try to find patterns in economic movements which they can use to predict future movements; but Chinese fortune-tellers claim to have the problem already licked: they have found the principles governing not just economics but the very pattern of life itself.
Some believers argue that in its higher forms, Chinese fortune-telling is in fact a religion, but one which is more sophisticated than standard faiths. When religious believers go to a church or a temple with a problem, all they can do is pray to their God and hope for divine intervention in their affairs. Believers of Chinese fortune-telling are not generally searching for such a breakthrough. Instead, they want to interpret the natural forces acting upon their situation so they can better decide for themselves what to do. The act is still for the individual to make, they say; fortune-telling simply helps to indicate when the time is ripe, or not ripe, for action.
The Chinese fortune-teller does not usually give specific information; advice tends to be like a weather forecast. To use a sailing analogy, he might suggest to his client that now is not a good time to sail out of harbour; there is a storm coming, so stay where it is safe until the storm has passed and it is safe to go out.
Most forms of Chinese fortune-telling, therefore, are meant to be used as early warning systems, providing enquirers with clues as to the future so that pitfalls can be avoided and opportunities seized.
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The Chinese have sayings for everything, and they naturally have many touching on the subjects of fortune-telling and fate. Here is one: "Life and death are in the lap of the gods, riches and honour depend upon Heaven." (Si Sheng You Ming, Fu Guei Zai Tian). And here's another: "Great wealth comes from Heaven, moderate wealth comes from frugal diligence".
These two sayings highlight the age-old question of destiny. Is everything about a person's life decided from the moment they are born? Is it simply a matter of going through the motions? The first of the two sayings would suggest so, but amongst the Chinese, fatalism is definitely a minority view.
Few Chinese would completely deny the existence of fate, however. One argument goes like this: two people who are equally capable and hard-working are not necessarily equally successful. The factor that makes the difference is -- fate.
But the power of Heaven is generally considered to be just one of a number of factors influencing the lives of human beings, albeit a powerful one. Opportunities are a gift from heaven, but benefitting from them is a matter of hard work. People have a chance of escaping from their own fate, or at least of cushioning the effects. Overall, most Chinese would agree with Thomas Edison when he said: "Everything comes to he who hussles while he waits". If it were not so, what point would there be for most of us to carry on?
The blueprint of a person's fate does not have to be followed slavishly. Fortune-telling generally reveals the guidelines within which a person is allowed to operate, and the tendencies of his or life. With that knowledge, the person can work to improve his or her fate. Chinese fortune-telling offers assistance through "Fate Improvement" and "Fate Alteration" methods, but the blueprint limits how far things can be improved. A moderately bad fate may with care be transformed into a moderately good one, but there no point trying to change an idiot into a genius.
The Confucianists of traditional China were often firm believers in the idea of unchangeable fate. But Buddhism provided the ordinary people with a way out by teaching that evil is repaid with evil and goodness rewarded. So, it is possible to improve one's fate and lengthen one's life by accumulating good acts. Buddhists also have the added consolation that if things don't go too well this time round, there is always the next incarnation to look forward to.
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Believers point to the length of time Chinese fortune- telling methods have been in use as one proof that they are effective. How could a book such as the I Ching, compiled at least three thousand years ago, have remained so popular for so long as a tool for predicting the future if it was a fake?
Fortune-telling methods, we are told, are the result of what amounts to several thousand years of statistical research into how differences in date of birth or lines on a palm affect people's lives. These methods, said one Taiwan fortune-telling expert, Kao Yuen, are "the crystallisation of our ancestors's wisdom and hard work".
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The Chinese people have always been a very superstitious people. What with spirits and ghosts and taboos of all kinds, superstitions have shackled the Chinese people and ruled a large portion of their lives for thousands of years. With regard to fortune-telling, it is purely a matter of personal opinion as to where superstitition ends and objective fact begins, if indeed there is any distinction between the two.
Non-believers in Chinese fortune-telling will tell you the whole thing is a charlatan's trick; believers say the charlatans are to blame for giving fortune-telling a bad name and clouding its truth and "scientific" nature with mysticism and mumbo-jumbo.
Most believers in Chinese fortune-telling will also admit that no method is a hundred per cent accurate. But then, they point out, neither is the weather forecast.
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Will Chinese fortune-telling methods work for non-Chinese? The exoerts are divided. Some say East is East and West is West and ne'er the twain shall meet -- that European-style astrology, with its Zodiac and horoscopes, is unsuited to Chinese people just as Chinese methods are unsuited to non-Chinese. Others say the basic principles hold true for the whole of mankind, although certain adjustments are necessary to take account of different places of birth and different racial and cultural backgrounds.
This site is put together by people who don't necessarily believe in any form of fortune-telling, but who also don't believe any of them to be completely without basis. Such an attitude should work to the benefit of Chinese fortune-telling techniques, if there is anything in them.
A craft which has a history of thousands of years and claims to have the power to predict the fate of both individuals and of mankind deserves something better than blind faith.
In some sections of this fortune-telling guide, we have relied heavily on Joseph Needham's monumental work, "Science and Civilisation in China". It would be impossible, or at least foolhardy in the extreme, to write about the development of any aspect of China's science, technology or culture -- including fortune-telling -- without referring to Mr Needham's milestone effort, which will surely be regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest works of scholarship.
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