Five Arts

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The five arts, Chinese 五術 wŭ shù, also called the “five methods”. The ancient Chinese have developed five so called arts dedicated to the metaphysics:

  1. destiny studies (命學 mìng xué): these include the Chinese astrology like the four pillars of destiny (Ba Zi Suanming) or purple star astrology (Zi Wei Dou Shu)
  2. science of divination (卜筮 bŭ shì)
  3. study of physiognomy (相學 xiàng xué): e. g. face reading, feng shui
  4. medicine (醫學 yī xué): the so called Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)
  5. study of alchemy (山 shān oder 仙學 xiān xué)

All disziplines share the basic principles of qi, the five elements and the theory of yin and yang also underlying the daoism. During the centuries there have been composed a great number of treatises in the individual areas serving as “classics” for the scientific debate with these subject even today.

Five Arts
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