5. 占星(zhan4 xing) Astrology: In ancient China, astrology was also used to forecast a country or an emperor’s future. A lot of emperors had astrologers as their counselors. They monitored closely for the relative positions or movements of the celestial bodies.
It is also used as a form of fortune-telling for individuals. 紫薇斗數(zi3 wei2 dou3 shu4) is probably the most well-known system. It is the study of a person’s life based on the movement and location of the Zi Wei Star and other stars at the specific time the person was born.
6. 占夢(zhan mong4) Dream interpretation: Speaking of interpreting a dream, you have to know a book called 周公解夢(zhou gong jie3meng4), which consists of interpretations of seven kinds of dreams and is passed along with anonymous authors. As I know, it has nothing to do with the historic figure周公. But in the Chinese language, we often use the term “夢周公” (meng4 zhou gong) to refer to sleeping.
7. 八字相命(ba zhi4 xiang4 ming4) Four Pillars of Destiny: It’s telling one’s personality and fate by his 八字, “eight characters of birth time.” It’s called “eight characters” because each of the four pillars (representing the year, month, day, and hour of one's birth respectively) is represented by two characters. It shows the relative position of the sun when one was born. Philosophy of陰陽五行(yin yang2 wu3 xing2),Yin & Yang, the Five Elements (gold, wood, water, fire, earth) are utilized in telling one’s fortune here.
8. 易經卜卦(yi4 jing bu3 gua4)：易經，the Classic of Changes, one of the oldest texts, contains a divination system. 八卦(ba gua4), referred to as "trigrams" in English, is eight diagrams used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. The eight trigrams are extended into 64. One of the ways to divine is flip three coins to get different head -tail combinations, each of which represents one of the 64 trigrams. The trigram is interpreted according to易經as a prediction for the future.
9. Animal: Some people use animal to divine. For example, I’ve seen birds do the job. You ask a question then the bird picks up an answer for you. I heard that roosters are used too. You might want to see this on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcS0AWB8wzA&feature=related
A friend told me that by chance he once got a “book” of his destiny, which records important occurrences of his life. He read it until the part to the end of that year. He stopped there because he didn’t have the nerves to go on. Some event, though seen much unlikely when he was reading it, really came true later.
For thousands of years, people have been trying very hard to have a peep into the future. We’re always wondering what will happen tomorrow or further ahead, or sometimes we’re just too confused or too weak to decide which way to go. So we resort to an old mysterious way, divination.
I think it’s good to know the weather forecast as to decide what to wear or if you should go out with an umbrella. But foreseeing the future, like who you’re gonna marry or when you’re gonna die?
I think I’ll do the same if I should have the chance to get my “book” as the friend mentioned above. I don’t think I’ll open and read it. Like a Hong Kong science fiction novelist 倪匡(ni2 kuang) put in one of his novels, what is the fun of life if you live it like reading yesterday’s newspaper?
(THE END)
紫薇斗數=紫薇斗数
周公解夢=周公解梦
陰陽五行=阴阳五行
易經=易经
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