From housewives to students and high-ranking officials, people from all social backgrounds in China and Taiwan visit fate calculation masters to learn about their destiny. How do clients assess the diviner’s skills? How does one become a fortune-teller? How is a person’s fate calculated? The Art of Fate Calculation explores how conceptions of fate circulate in Chinese and Taiwanese societies while resisting uniformization and institutionalization. This is not only due to the stigma of “superstition” but also to the internal dynamic of fate calculation practice and learning.
Author(s): Stéphanie Homola
Series: Asian Anthropologies, 14
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 318
City: New York
The Art of Fate Calculation
Contents
Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 — Clients of Divinatory Services: Societal Issues and Consultation Experiences in Taipei
Chapter 2 — Divinatory Arts Specialists: Historical Development, Claims, and Reforms in Taipei’s “World of Divination”
Chapter 3 — Fate Calculation Techniques: Contemporary Reformulations of a Traditional Knowledge on the Individual and Their Environment
Chapter 4 — Professional Practitioners: Institutional and Cultural Legitimacy of Professional Diviners in Beijing
Chapter 5 — Amateur Practitioners and Shared Knowledge: Everyday Knowledge and Modes of Transmission in Kaifeng
Conclusion — Trust and Standardization
Appendix 1 — A Brief History of the Ziwei Doushu Method
Appendix 2 — Ziwei Doushu Schools in Taiwan
Appendix 3 — Correspondence Tables in the Ziwei Doushu Method
Glossary of Chinese Terms
References
Index
