There have been many scammers from ancient times to the present, but the cultural atmosphere of the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties has nourished many superb deception techniques. They have different industries, but their only goal is to defraud money.
Jin refers to the fortune teller
Fortune telling is a common name among the people. The professional academic title is Zhouyi Prediction. The academic study of fortune telling is called Yi Xue, also called Shushu. With theory as the core, the theoretical system is relatively complex and profound.
Fortune telling in the narrow sense is to read other people’s birth dates, while fortune telling in the broad sense includes Ziwei Dou Shu, facial palmistry, Bagua Six Yao, Qi Men Dun Jia, geographical Feng Shui and so on. Ancient divination and divination methods are both fortune-telling. The main personnel and tricks are:
Blind Meng: For fortune telling, blind men are the main force. People believe in blind people because they think that blind people can't see and can judge good or bad luck by just one birthday, which is really magical.
Rhetoric: It is the key to fortune telling. A fate (time of birth and destiny) can be dealt with through clichés. Not only can a character come alive in the fortune teller's mouth, but it can also make the test taker scream.
Disaster relief: The purpose of fortune telling is to seek good fortune and prevent misfortunes. If disaster is predicted and cannot be removed, wouldn’t it cause more trouble? Therefore, in the end, if there is a disaster, we must resolve it. It is like going to the hospital for a check-up. Is there any reason why the disease cannot be cured? And disaster relief is where the money is made. Often it cannot be solved on the street. Firstly, there are many people on the street, and your words or other words can often ruin a good thing. Besides, people who tell fortunes on the street don’t have much money on hand.
Pi is a seller of wild medicine.
The gourd contains various miraculous elixirs, which are said to be able to cure all diseases. For poor people who cannot afford medical treatment, these are life-saving straws. For scammers, this is a magic weapon for deceiving.
Cai means magic.
Westerners call it magic. One moment a dove flies out of the sleeve, the other moment there is smoke coming from the head, objects are taken from the air, and white lotuses are uttered at the mouth. These are all deceptive techniques. What's worse is that slaves are sold and poisoned. After the buyer pays the money, the slave comes back by himself at night, and the buyer can't find anyone.
This shows how clever ancient deception was.