appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Fran Lu

China has a long-established history of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by using supernatural means.
From its earliest forms dating back 3,000 years to the more recent incarnations, divine intervention is ingrained in Chinese culture.
According to a 2021 survey by NetEase DataBlog, almost 80 per cent of people under 30 have used fortune-telling services.
Temples in China, where traditional divination services are mostly provided, had three times more visitors in 2023 than in previous years, according to China’s largest online travel platform, Trip.com.
The Post explains some of the most popular ways of seeking divine intervention.
Drawing fortune sticks

This works by lightly shaking a container full of flat bamboo sticks inscribed with text or numbers and waiting for one to fall out.
While shaking the container, a person whispers or thinks about the questions they have for the deity.
Soothsayers then match the “chosen” stick with a prophecy, which is usually written in four vertical lines of Chinese classical prose. They then explain the prose.
Throwing poe

This is more common at temples in the southern part of China.
Two small wooden pieces, known as jiao bei in Mandarin, are thrown onto the floor and a divine answer is interpreted from the positioning of the pieces on landing.
The pieces have a round and a flat surface, and the combination of the two when they settle suggests whether the deity agrees or disagrees with your question.
One flat and one round, known as one yin, or “negative”, and one yang, or “positive”, means the deity says “yes”. The other two combinations mean “no”.
Face and palm reading

This lies in the belief that everyone’s fate lies in their facial features.
Life can be predicted by matching the features from forehead to chin.
Of particular importance is the nose, which stands for wealth. A larger nose suggests better fortune.
Palm reading, as the name suggests, holds that the fate of a person lies in their hands.
Lines on the palm represent life, career, marriage and success. The length and direction of the lines suggest what lies ahead in these separate areas.
Tradition says the right hand is more decisive in a person’s fate than the left.
Character reading

Known as chai zi in Mandarin, this predicts a person’s fate from the Chinese character they select.
Those who want to ask the deity something select a random character.
The soothsayer then splits the character and interprets the meaning of its respective parts. The relationship between the parts reveals the answer of the deity.
This method of divination is possible because Chinese characters are usually compounds of two or more pictographic or ideographic characters which suggest the meaning of a word.


What the I Ching is really about

How Teochew people spread from China, and their outsize influence from Hong Kong to Thailand

‘Night of Horrors’: LA’s Chinese massacre of 1871 brought to the fore in new book

Meet the chef marrying Cantonese and Jiangnan cuisines at Wynn Palace in Macau

Chinese culture

4 bizarre ways that Chinese people seek supernatural guidance, blessings and wisdom from the gods

Faith in the supernatural remains strong in China. The Post explains some of the rituals used to summon the wisdom of the gods. Photo: SCMP Graphic Image

The pursuit of divine intervention is centuries old in China. The Post explains some of the methods still used to summon the wisdom of the gods. Photo: SCMP Graphic Image

Fortune sticks are shaken inside a container until one with the answer falls out. Photo: Shutterstock

The way the round and flat edges of the poe configurate on landing dictates the divine answer. Photo: Shutterstock

Face and palm reading is a common method of predicting what the future holds. Photo: Shutterstock

Chinese characters can be split into their component parts, allowing soothsayers to divine a deity’s response to a question. Photo: Shutterstock

China KOL with 19 million fans shut down for faking story about school homework left in Paris café toilet apologises

An online influencer in China with 19 million fans, whose social media account has been shut down over fabricated video content she posted to boost her internet profile, has apologised. Photo: SCMP composite/Douyin

The influencer bought the homework book online then flew to Paris with it to film the fabricated videos. Photo: Douyin

The blogger, who lost 440,000 followers in the 24 hours after her story was exposed as a fake, has apologised. Photo: Douyin

Chinese mistress uses frozen embryos to conceive son after lover’s death, sparks controversy over battle for inheritance

Mainland social media has rounded on a mistress who is trying to grab a chunk of her dead lover’s estate after using his held-over sperm to create a son at a private clinic. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock

The mistress launched a legal bid to wrest a portion of her dead lover’s estate from the man’s wife. Photo: Shutterstock

The woman’s legal bid, based on the existence of a baby son, was rejected by a court. Photo: Shutterstock

China couple abandon baby with nanny after claiming they will receive US$55 million inheritance from woman’s ex

A couple in China have vanished, leaving their nanny with a baby, after claiming they were about to receive a US$56 million inheritance from the woman’s ex-partner. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/Douyin

The nanny has been left holding the baby, unpaid, and owed a substantial amount of money. Photo: Douyin

Many people online suspect the disappearing couple are not the abandoned baby’s real parents. Photo: Douyin

China ‘invisible man’ painter blends into surroundings with chameleon body colouring to promote love of nature

An eco-friendly artist in China, known as the “invisible man” for painting himself, chameleon-like, into the background of natural scenes has become a hit on mainland social media. Photo: SCMP composite/Douyin

Wang Liang blends into the backdrop of a lotus pond in one of his creations. Photo: Douyin/@Hh58585

The artist says a love of nature drives his desire to produce unusual art pieces. Photo: Douyin/@Hh58585

First China transgender clinic deals with ‘visitors’ as it embraces country’s 4 million people with body dissatisfaction

A doctor who set up China’s first transgender clinic says he does not consider the work he does as “treatment” because he believes the country’s four million people with body dissatisfaction, among them famous dancer Jin Xing (left), do not suffer from an illness. Photo: SCMP composite/Baidu/Weixin

A person undergoes a consultation at the Beijing clinic which caters for transgender people. Photo: Weixin

The doctor who set up the facility in 2017 says people who use the facility are not “patients” but visitors. Photo: Weixin

News

People & Culture

Trending in China

Belief in divination goes back centuries and remains integral part of Chinese life
Deities can be summoned by shaking sticks, reading faces and palms


A belief in divine intervention is as old as China itself, here, the Post explains some of the supernatural rituals still practised today.


China society

Provide background, definition and detail of a specific topic, helping the reader understand how something works or what has happened in the past.  (Eg. What is Nafta? US and Mexico are on the verge of revising trade deal.)
 


Explainer

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Belief in divination goes back centuries and remains integral part of Chinese life Deities can be summoned by shaking sticks, reading faces and palms

Drawing fortune sticks

Belief in divination goes back centuries and remains integral part of Chinese life

Deities can be summoned by shaking sticks, reading faces and palms