Are ancient fortune tellers charlatans or Feng Shui masters?
The ancient Chinese had a complete set of theories about numerology in ancient times, but these theories were rarely spread to the people. Therefore, before the Zhou Dynasty, there were only two types of people who knew fortune telling. One is the family fortune teller, and the other is the family of scholar-bureaucrats who understand this theory. Of course, later with the popularity of Confucius and the Five Elements theory, the monarchs of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty could not support so many of these people. These declining families began to face the society. To obtain a continuation of life, that is to say, start to move closer to the common people and scholar-bureaucrats. The advantage of this is that you can really make a living with your own knowledge. Of course, some powerful people also participate in state affairs and become the key to victory or defeat. , but the divination at that time was mainly based on whether the two sides were going to war or not. Of course, the successes were recorded, and the failures were probably left undisclosed. Many of their records were left in Zuo Zhuan.
As it developed later, more and more people were practicing divination, and there were more and more sects. They turned into various different schools, which led to great competition among everyone. But generally speaking, The more people engaged in the industry, it proves that this industry is becoming more and more prosperous. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the fortune-telling people around Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had no less than a hundred years of sects, and everyone had different views on one thing in particular.
Later, it slowly spread to the people, and folk masters began to emerge one after another. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, Yuan Tiangang and others were masters from the folk. He and Li Chunfeng also wrote a book on push-back pictures. , this push-back diagram, you can say whether it is accurate or not, it must be accurate, it is a strange book that has been written for thousands of years. Therefore, fortune telling and Feng Shui are originally a family, but everyone has different understandings. Of course, the more powerful ones rarely help people tell fortunes casually, because fortune telling is not good for oneself. The founder of Plum Blossom Yishu in the Song Dynasty had very poor health throughout his life. He was weak, and he also knew that the sky was punishing him at this time, so fortune-telling was not random.
But it gradually developed later, because this became a business and could support the family. Later, many scholars could not pass the imperial examination and could not work in the fields. However, failure to study was the three major harms, so they had to Looking for something to do, at least make some money to survive, they slowly learned some superficial fortune-telling and Feng Shui. Anyway, these things are all based on words, believe it or not, psychology and deception. Anyway, the world doesn’t blame you. Since then, there is basically no threshold for becoming a fortune teller. Anyway, if you can understand a few words, you can be a fortune teller. Of course, everyone just does it. What has happened? Everyone thinks this thing is unreliable. In fact, this thing requires knowledge. It cannot be calculated accurately without study and experience.
With the development of science, fortune telling is now slowly being challenged and questioned by science. But look, after so many years, don’t Westerners still believe in tarot cards and astrology? , so when there are some things that science cannot explain, everyone has no choice but to turn to tradition. In fact, this is all within the scope of psychology.
So fortune telling and Feng Shui are actually just like the ancient people’s big data summary of people, society, and the natural environment. Believe it or not, it all depends on you.