Legend of Chinese fortune tellers Ancient and brilliant fortune telling

The legend of Chinese fortune tellers. Among the advanced physiognomy techniques in ancient China, crosstalk is also a method commonly used by fortune tellers to judge people. Chinese martial arts have the technique of identifying incoming hidden weapons by their sounds, which is based on subtle differences in sound. This seems to be doable, because people with high martial arts skills are familiar with the hidden weapons used in the martial arts world, and different hidden weapons make different sounds when used with different forces. Predicting a person's fate based on his voice, apart from the partial explanation given by traditional Chinese medicine theory, the rest is mysterious, or is based on experience without any logic, or is simply the subjective conjecture of a fortune teller. Strangely, most of these records in the literature turned out to be true. The story of Li Fan, the prime minister, who planted gourds to grow chickens is an example in Volume 153 of Taiping Guangji. Li Fan lived in Luoyang. He was nearly thirty years old and had not yet obtained any official position. He heard that Hu Lusheng could tell the nobleness of a person by listening to his voice, so he went there with his wife's clan, the Cui brothers, to seek the position of prime minister. Cui's younger brother arrived first, but Hu Lusheng did not stand up to greet him, but just extended his hand to invite him to sit down. Li Fan suffered from brain abscess and arrived later. Before the person arrived, Hu Lusheng said that a distinguished person was coming and ordered the waiters to sweep the courtyard to welcome him. When Li arrived and had not yet dismounted his donkey, Hu Lusheng came out to greet him, smiled and held his hand, saying: "My dear, you are a noble man." Li Fan said: I am poor and sick, and I want to move thousands of miles away. What's the point of it? Lu Sheng said: People in a gauze cage, why should they fear disaster? Li didn't understand and asked about the sarong, but Hu Lusheng remained silent. Li Sui moved his family to Yangzhou. A few years later, Zhang Jian appointed Pushe as the governor of Yangzhou and recommended Li as the inspector and proofreader. There was a monk from Silla who was good at judging people. When he saw Queen Lee, he said to Zhang Jianfeng: The inspector is a man in a sarong, not even as good as the Minister of Public Security. Zhang was overjoyed and asked about what was in the gauze cage. The monk said: The prime minister must have hidden in the underworld to protect it, for fear that it would be disturbed by strange objects, and other officials would be unable to get in. Upon hearing this, Li Fan finally understood what Hu Lusheng meant by the person in the gauze cage. Later, he was indeed promoted to prime minister. In this story which originated from "Yi Shi", Hu Lusheng's ability to tell a person's status by listening to his voice is already very novel, but compared with the voice observer of Wuzhong in "Sanguo Dianlue", it is nothing. It is recorded that at the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there was a blind Wu scholar who was good at crosstalk. When he arrived in the north, the Prime Minister, the successor to Shuhai King Gao Cheng, asked him to test him. When Wu scholar heard Liu Taozhi's voice, he said: "The noble kings, dukes, generals and ministers of this time died at my hands. However, they are like hawks and dogs, being used by others." Hearing the voice of Zhao Daode, he said: He is also a noble man. When he heard the voice of Gao Yang, Duke of Taiyuan, he said: I should be the ruler. Hearing Gao Cheng's voice, he did not move. Someone pinched him privately to remind him that Wu Shi had lied and said Gao Cheng should also be the king. Gao Cheng said arrogantly: The slaves in my family are extremely valuable, let alone myself! Most of the kings and ministers of the Later Qi Dynasty were sentenced to death because of Liu Taozhi's flattery. Gao Cheng was actually killed by his own food slave Lan Jing, and his brother Gao Yang was succeeded by Chan and became the King Wenxuan of the Northern Qi Dynasty. Wu Shi was blind and could not see the person, but he could predict people's fortune or misfortune based on their voices, and his predictions were always correct, which could not but make people surprised and deeply suspicious.

After the Song Dynasty, physiognomy flourished and the number of crosstalk performers also increased. Not only can they judge a person's fortune or bad luck, status or social class based on his or her voice, but they can also predict a person's fortune and fate based on the sounds of the objects he or she uses.

According to Volume 9 of Volume A of Yijianzhi, Yu Weng from Shaowu was a fortune teller who was good at predicting good and bad luck by listening to the sounds of objects. One day, Mr. Yu was walking in the fields and heard water flowing in the fields. He said to people: The water flows sadly, the fields will change owners. Later it turned out to be true. I once entered the street and heard the sound of music and said: "The sound of gold is loud, there will be war, and it should be between Shen and You." However, I was not injured, but four soldiers were drowned. When the time came, soldiers returned from Tingzhou and went to the market to drink. They fought over prostitutes and drew their weapons to kill each other. Some were afraid of the disaster and fled across the river at dusk. However, the spring tide rose sharply and four soldiers drowned in the water. Someone asked Mr. Yu how he knew this, and he replied: The Sun is in Zi, which belongs to the water element. Water is strong in Zi, and metal will die here. Mr. Yu does look like a prophet, but his words about the sad flow of water and the change of ownership of the field are quite human, while his prediction that four soldiers would drown was based on the theory of the five elements of the Yin-Yang school. This is exactly the characteristic of physiognomy after the Song Dynasty. Yu Shanren mentioned in Volume 2 of the Zhizhi of the same book was not only good at reading people's faces, but also skilled in listening to the sounds of instruments. One day, Yu Shanren went to Li Xizhong's house in Wuyuan. Li wanted to test his skills, so he asked Yu to stand outside the door, climb up the corridor to the ladder, hold two hammers and knock on them four times. Then he called Yu in and asked him questions. I said: The drum has double sounds, which should correspond to the happy events of the two young men. The attacker is no ordinary person. This year was the 13th year of Chunxi reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Song Dynasty (1186). In the autumn examination, both sons of Xizhong were on the list. They went to the provincial capital the following year. Their uncle Zhizhong was appointed as the examiner of the Imperial Academy as the left treasury chief and was sent to the academy. The sorcerer Wang Sheng in Jiao Hong's "Jiao's Bicheng" in the Ming Dynasty was also good at crosstalk. However, he seemed to be better than Yu Shanren. When Yu Shanren visited a friend's house, he would only talk about happiness and not sadness, or he might be lucky occasionally, but Wang Sheng from Nanjing could tell the fortune of the host from the sound of horse hooves. Ding Wei was first dismissed from his post as vice-chancellor and appointed as the governor of Jingeng. One day, when their carriage was leaving the south gate, Wang Sheng heard the sound of horse hooves in the crowd and shouted to everyone: The vice-chancellor will be summoned in the middle of the month. After more than a month, he was urgently summoned back to the capital to meet the emperor and then entered the Secretariat. After Emperor Zhenzong passed away, Ding was appointed as the envoy to the mausoleum. When Wang Sheng arrived in the capital, Ding was very happy to hear that he had come. He treated him well and let him stay overnight in the academy. At dawn, Ding entered the court. Wang Sheng heard the sound of his horse's hooves and said to everyone: The sound of hooves is a sign of heading west. Everyone thought that he already knew that Prime Minister Ding was the envoy to the mausoleum and therefore said so. Wang Sheng did not argue and said privately to others: The hooves went west without any echo. Ding Guo was dismissed from his post as prime minister, divided from Xijing, and exiled to Yazhou. The three fortune tellers, Yu Weng, Yu Shanren and Wang Sheng, are quite like martial arts masters who can identify instruments by listening to sounds, or like famous Chinese medicine experts who can diagnose diseases according to the patient's voice. They can even predict a person's status, fortune, and luck according to the sounds of running water, instrumental music, percussion, and horse hooves. This is truly incredible. Face reading, bone reading, and cross talk are the common methods used by fortune tellers, but the art of qi and color reading are also used by sorcerers. Legend has it that Yuan Tiangang used the art of physiognomy to predict Li Jiao's status, longevity and early death. Li Jiao was a talented child since childhood. His five brothers all died before the age of thirty, but Li Jiao grew up. Li's mother was still worried, so she asked Yuan Tiangang to read her son's face. After seeing him, Tian Gang said: “You are a handsome young man, but your life span will not be long. I am afraid you will not live past thirty.” Li's mother was very frightened. Li Jiao was very famous at that time and had the potential to become a nobleman, so he disagreed with the words. Li's mother asked Yuan to be the prime minister again, but Yuan said that the fate was already determined. Li's mother also invited her to sleep on the couch in the study. Yuan climbed onto the couch and fell asleep, but Li Jiao did not. At five o'clock in the morning, he suddenly fell asleep. By then Yuan had woken up and saw that Li Jiao had no breathing sound. He used his hand to feel for it, and found that he was dead from his nose. Yuan was quite shocked. After observing carefully for a long time, he realized that his breathing was in his ears. He then stood up to congratulate Li's mother: "I have observed several times, but to no avail. Now I see that your husband is breathing like a tortoise. He will be rich and live a long life, but he will live a long life but not be rich." When Wu Zetian died young, Li Jiao was appointed prime minister, but his family was very poor. The emperor saw this and sighed, saying: "It is against the etiquette of a great country for a prime minister to be like this." Embroidered silk curtains for imperial use. Qiao Qinzhi felt uneasy and as if he were ill, so he asked for dismissal and resumed his old account. Li Jiao had no thick features on his ears, eyes, mouth or nose, but he lived a long and noble life because of his tortoise-like breathing. He eventually held the reins of power three times, becoming the most noble official in the country. (The story is recorded in Volume 221 of Taiping Guangji) In Volume 19 of Yijianzhi Supplement, Huangfu Shitong was a fortune teller who was good at judging people’s appearance. In the first year of Longxing reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song Dynasty (1163), Hong Mai's brother Hong Shi was appointed as the Shaoqing of the Ministry of Agriculture to manage military supplies in Zhenjiang. Shi Tong went to pay a visit to him, and after seeing him again, he returned to Quzhou. Liu Gongfu, the governor of Hengzhou, often invited Shi Tong to his academy. Just then, someone reported that Lord Tang Qi was appointed as the left prime minister, and Lord Zhang Wei was appointed as the right prime minister. Liu said: "Now that the two gentlemen have returned to Gu Ting, they will enjoy endless blessings and fortune from now on." Shi Tong Dao: Recently, I have seen Mr. Tang and Mr. Zhang on horseback many times. They look dull and impatient. How can they make progress? They may not be able to make progress in one year. There must be something that cannot be concealed.

Liu asked: How about Chen Lugong? The world channel is also a short number. Even if I enter again, it will still not be good. Liu asked who could be the prime minister, and Shi Tong replied: There is an official who must be the prime minister, but his position is still far away, and even his words are not credible. This person is General Hong from Zhenjiang. Liu Da disagreed and accused Huangfu Shitong of talking nonsense. The ruling official had many attendants, so how could there not be one to serve as prime minister? Why did he seek an envoy from outside? Shi Tong bowed and said: I can make a contract with you. From now on, except for the original prime minister, if other nobles become prime minister before Lord Hong, I will no longer serve as prime minister. The following year, Mr. Tang and Mr. Zhang resigned from their positions as prime ministers and died soon after. Duke Lu of Chen was appointed prime minister and served for two months. Indeed, Duke Wenhui Hong Shi was appointed prime minister in the winter of the Yiyou year of Gandao (1165), just as Huangfu Shitong had said.

Some skilled fortune tellers do not judge a person's fortune, luck, or longevity based on just one single point, but make a comprehensive consideration based on physiognomy. The Hu monk Chen Zhizhong in "Qing Zuo Gao Yi" combined the physiognomy techniques of bone reading, face reading, and complexion reading together. Chen Zhizhong was appointed governor of Duanzhou. He went up the river but was blocked by the wind between Hongji and Qi. He went ashore for a leisurely walk at night and met a foreign monk with a curled nose and raised eyes. The monk said to Chen: You have tiger eyes and phoenix nose, square bones and clear energy, and you must be of great noble character. Chen knew that the monk was an unusual person, so he asked him about it in detail. The monk replied: The qi should be hidden, not released; the bones should be thin, not exposed; the flesh should be thick and shiny, and the hair should be black and shiny; they should be far apart, with black and white clearly distinguished; the eyebrows should be thin and thick, rising opposite to each other; the lips should be red, moist and square, the nose should be high and straight, the face should be square and shiny, the ears should be thick and hidden, the body muscles should be heavy and thick, and the movements should be detailed. They are all beautiful. It is better to be beautiful inside than to be beautiful outside. Beauty on the outside is something everyone has, but beauty on the inside is difficult for everyone to have. To be beautiful inside and out is to be a great man. The male's appearance is very strange, but he has tiger eyes and a monkey body, so he cannot survive on flat ground. He must climb up somewhere before he can get food. The Duke soon became a high-ranking official. The monk wrote a four-line poem as a gift to Chen, which goes like this: The tiger's eyes and the monkey's body are the most valuable, because they can rise higher by climbing. I know that you are going to Duanxi now, so I will help you to sail away the raging waves with the gentle breeze. Chen Zhizhong later gained the favor of Song Renzong and was promoted to prime minister.

The above is all about the legendary ancient Chinese fortune tellers. For more information on "appearance is determined by the heart", please follow the Dream Interpreter website.