The Art of Fate Calculation: Practicing Divination in Taipei, Beijing, and Kaifeng

by Stéphanie Homola

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781800738133
Publisher:	Berghahn Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/13/2023
Series:	Asian Anthropologies , #14
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	374
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Stéphanie Homola is Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and member of the French Research Institute for Eastern Asia (IFRAE). She was previously Assistant Professor for Ethnology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Director of the Elite Master's Program "Standards of Decision-Making across Cultures".

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword
Michael Lackner

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1. Clients of Divinatory Services: Societal Issues and Consultation Experiences (Taipei)
Chapter 2. Divinatory Arts Specialists: Taipei’s “World of Divination”: Historical Development, Claims, and Reforms
Chapter 3. Fate Calculation Techniques: Contemporary Reformulations of a Traditional Knowledge on the Individual and Their Environment
Chapter 4. Professional Practitioners in Beijing: Institutional and Cultural Legitimacy of Professional Diviners in Mainland China (Beijing)
Chapter 5. Amateur Practitioners and Shared Knowledge: Everyday Knowledge and Modes of Transmission (Kaifeng)

Conclusion: Trust and Standardization

Appendix I: Brief History of the Ziwei Doushu Method
Appendix II: Ziwei Doushu Schools in Taiwan
Appendix III: Correspondence Tables in the Ziwei Doushu Method

Glossary of Chinese Terms
References
Index