Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/196

184 P‘u kua (卜卦) is to forecast future events by means of the eight diagrams, to divine.

K‘an hsiang (看相). The physiognomist makes the book Liu chuang shên hsiang (柳莊神相) by Shui Ching of the Han dynasty, or the ma i (麻衣) hsiang by Ch‘ên Tuan of the Sung dynasty the basis of his art.

The following are some of the things they pretend to be able to do:—

They guarantee that their clients will get by raffle the funds of the joint stock company. Several people join in a company when they want to get a larger sum together than they could otherwise do at one time, but by paying in monthly instalments they can manage it. The fund is raffled for each month at the home of one of their number. Some families who want the money quickly appeal to this class for assistance to get the lucky number.

They undertake the protection of a family from demons and snakes. They also fix the site of a dwelling house, the choice of a lucky day to begin building, and the lucky day for hoisting the top beam of the house.

They fix a lucky day for funerals, marriages and almost everything, by an appeal to the stars. Each day has a governing star and they decide whether the day star agrees with the birth star of the individual. This is one of the most common of the methods of fixing a lucky day, and it is done by what is known as the fa chia, one of the schools of geomancy.

They fix a lucky day by what is known as an appeal to the three things which harmonize; that is, heaven, earth, and man. This method is known as the hsing chia (形家), or k‘an yü (堪輿) chia, and is another of the schools of geomancy.

Wu ho (合) and liu ho. They tell fortunes by an appeal to the five elements, gold, wood, water, fire and earth, or by an appeal to the four points of the compass with the zenith and nadir. These methods are used by fortunetellers and geomancers.