Celebrities of Their Day
Divinators of Ancient China
By ZHANG TIANLIANG
Dynasties of ancient China supported many scholars, poets and divinators. In ancient China the art of divination came from the heart and could only be done when the heart was pure. Prophecy in ancient China was given great respect and more complex than fortunetelling in the West.
How did they do it? First, there is the divinatory symbol. It could be a color, number, sound or rhythm. The divinator took into account time and direction. The divinator carefully observed the person asking to have his fortune told. Were they sitting, standing, lying down or walking? The last piece of the puzzle lie in the Five Elements.
Ancient peoples believed the Five Elements promoted and restrained each other in turn. The idea was to correctly interpret their correspondences and tell the fortune.
The legendary fortuneteller Shao Yong did his divination with his own Plum Blossom Number of Changes. Some consider the theories in this school more complex and variable than modern western algebra because it integrates the factors of time and space.
Divinators also cultivated their spiritual and moral life. They were called cultivators. And there were strict requirements for the cultivator, regardless of his divination school. His heart must be pure. A fortuneteller must be like calm water, free of impure thoughts. He needed to purge attachments to fame and self-interest. He needed to connect to the universe.
There is the legend that Shao Yong threw his pillow at a noisy mouse and discovered a message the said he would do what he had just done—throw his pillow at a noise mouse—and stated the exact time of the event. Who wrote such an amazing note? It is said that Li Zhicai wrote the note in Shao Yong's pillow. He studied under Chen Tuan, another divinatory celebrity in Chinese history.
Daoism and Confucianism both honored Chen Tuan. Before the first emperor of the Song dynasty unified China was a time of continual war and disaster. During this time, Chen Tuan lived alone on Mount Hua. He was riding a donkey when he received news of the rise of the first emperor. Overjoyed, he fell off the donkey and declared, "The world will be peaceful from now on."
Chen Tuan could sleep for long periods of time. Most people who knew about Chen Tuan believed he slept to get away from political intrigue and constant war. He studied the I Ching, or Book of Changes. He called himself Sir Cyclone.
Telling a fortune by singing a song? In the Chun Qiu period, there was a Chinese zitherist named Shi Kuang, who could foretell the result of a war based on how a person's mood was expressed in Shi's music. According to the legend, Jin Ping Gong, ruler of Jin, asked Shi Kuang to prophesy the outcome of the war when he heard that the Chu were about to attack the Zheng. Shi Kuang played the Chinese zither, and sang different songs in northern and southern China. He then reported to Jin Ling Gong, "Chu dominates the weak by being strong and will definitely lose in the end." As Shi Kuang expected, several days later the news of Chu's defeat was delivered. Shi Kuang was not born blind. Records of the Countries in the Eastern Dong Zhou Period said that he smoked his eyes to blindness with wormwood. Incredible as it seems, it is said that the things he saw with his eyes distracted and confused him. So he chose to attain peace by ruining his eyes.
Divinators of ancient China needed high character to foretell the future which was sorely tested by adulation of the people and the celebrity accorded them.
Pureinsight.org Used with permission
