"If Yang is proud, he will not live idly for a long time." - "Summoning the Imperial Master to Give Yuan Tiangang"
After the establishment of human society, due to the lack of experience in environmental exploration, people in ancient times were very surprised by the appearance of some visions, so ignorant people had a strong fear and curiosity about unknown things. Some people slowly find some laws in nature, and they share these laws with people, who feel magical and worship them at the same time. It was believed that these people, who knew the Heavenly Principles and could prophesy the future, existed like gods, so metaphysics developed on this basis.
Under the ancient pedantic feudal system, people liked to call things outside of cognition myths. In addition to the foreshadowing of the laws of nature, people were more curious about the future, and the ancient emperors paid more attention to it. During the Zhou Dynasty, King Wen of Zhou wrote the book "Zhou Yi", which he used to divinate and predict future events. In metaphysics, "Zhou Yi" has a pivotal position, it includes astronomy, geography, meteorology and many other phenomena, and later as people become more and more widely known, "Zhou Yi" has also been processed and improved. In the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, there was a metaphysical master Yuan Tiangang known as the "demon man" who received widespread attention, and he predicted his own death, so what kind of a figure was he in history?
First, a generation of face master Yuan Tiangang
In fact, Yuan Tiangang's real name is Yuan Tiangang, because of the accuracy of his face-to-face technique, so his reputation is outstanding, and it is considered to be the reincarnation of the wisdom star in the heavenly gang star, so he is called Yuan Tiangang. How godly is Yuan Tiangang? Yuan Tiangang was born badly when he was young and lived a difficult life, so he chose Taoism to study. He liked to study the art of cultivating immortality, and he also studied the art of face-to-face quite deeply, often through careful observation and exquisite reasoning combined, often giving people a face, basically can be fulfilled, so his reputation was spread, and even reused by the emperor.
At the end of the Sui Dynasty, when the country was in turmoil and conquests were frequent, yuan Tiangang's name was just rising, and many people went to Yuan Tiangang's residence to find out their faces, hoping to understand their future destiny. One day, when Yuan Tiangang was at home to meet the people, he walked in a ragged young man, and everyone was laughing at him for not having a good future, but at this time Yuan Tiangang was shocked, because he saw that this person must not be a thing in the pool. Yuan Tiangang then said to him: It doesn't matter at the moment, it will definitely start in the future, and the location is in Liangzhou and Yizhou.
Sure enough, soon after, Yuan Tiangang's words came true, it turned out that this person was a descendant of the Sui Dynasty Taifu, over the years, the family gradually declined, but the young man's ambition was still there. Soon after, this young man named Dou Rail followed Li Shimin around, and indeed found a position as a servant in Yizhou.
When Yuan Tiangang saw Dou Rail again, he told him that he should no longer be too strict in the army, otherwise there would be an accident, and sure enough, Dou Rail did not take this to heart, and soon after, he was dismissed because he was too harsh in the army. At this time, Yuan Tiangang appeared in front of Dou Rail again, mentioning him, don't be confused about the future, it will still be reused by the emperor in the future, and Yuan Tiangang's series of languages for Dou Rail have been fulfilled.
2. Prophecy for Wu Zetian
Yuan Tiangang's most astonishing prediction was probably the prediction of Wu Zetian. One day, Yuan Tiangang went to Wu Zetian's house to be a guest, and Yuan Tiangang, who was familiar with the business, saw that Lady Wu was presented with a portrait of a rich man, so he guessed that the heirs born to Lady Wu must have a great nobleman, so he asked the samurai to call all the children and daughters in the family to him. Yuan Tiangang then showed the faces of several of Wu Shiyan's children.
When Yuan Tiangang saw the two sons of Wu Shiyan, Yuan Tiangang said: "These two people are people who defend their families and defend the country and shine on the lintel, and if they are officials in the dynasty, they can be official to Sanpin." Seeing the eldest daughter of samurai, he said, "This woman is also a nobleman, but her face may not be good for her husband's family." When he saw this, Yuan Tiangang was a little disappointed, according to Lady Wu's appearance, there must be extremely noble people among her heirs, and he saw that at this time he had not seen the martial heirs with this face.
In order to test Yuan Tiangang, Wu Shiyan asked the youngest Wu Zetian to put on the clothes of a boy and let the grandmother hold him. When he saw Wu Zetian, Yuan Tiangang did not dare to make a judgment, so he let Wu Zetian walk around on the ground and observe her demeanor.
When Yuan Tiangang asked Wu Zetian to look up, he already expected that this person would become a climate, so he said to the warrior, "This little Lang Jun's face is extremely honorable, if he is a boy, he must be a rich and noble person, if he is a girl, he will have great deeds and become the most honorable person under this heaven." Yuan Tiangang's words came out, which greatly shocked the martial family, you know, in the previous era of son preference, women called the emperor no less than talking nonsense, but later it was well known that Wu Zetian did ascend the throne as emperor, breaking people's traditional concept of emperor.
Third, the judgment of the time of their own death
During the tang dynasty, Yuan Tiangang's reputation attracted the attention of the emperor, summoned him to the palace to accompany him, and often asked him about the faces of his courtiers, which was indeed verified one by one. In addition to being able to predict other people's affairs through his face, Yuan Tiangang was also very familiar with his own fate, and in the eighth year of Zhenguan, he suddenly and repeatedly proposed to the emperor that he wanted to return to his hometown of Huojing County, saying that his destiny was about to arrive, so Tang Taizong obeyed his wishes and let him return to Huojing County as a county commander.
Before Yuan Tiangang returned to his hometown, his colleagues who were officials in the same dynasty held a banquet to send him off, and Shen Guogong took advantage of the wine to ask Yuan Tiangang what plans he had after that, and what kind of official did he want to be? Yuan Tiangang replied to him freely: "Until April next year, my life should be exhausted, so I only plan to return to my hometown, and have no other plans." The colleagues who drank together felt that it was an unlucky thing to say such a thing at this time, and they did not mention it again.
It was not until April of the following year that the news of Yuan Tiangang's death came from Huojing County, and yuan Tiangang's colleagues did not know about it until then. That day, Yuan Tiangang was not talking drunk, but had already seen through his own destiny, so he had petitioned several times to return to his hometown and arrange his posthumous affairs as soon as possible.
epilogue:
Yuan Tiangang relied on his excellent face-to-face skills to establish a fairy-like role in people's hearts in the era at that time. In people's hearts, he is more like a "demon", and he knows that fate is natural. Although the legendary figures of that era were exaggerated to the deification, the historical Yuan Tiangang was indeed an outstanding metaphysician, and his main deeds were included in the Old and New Book of Tang, and everything was traceable.
In addition to his research in metaphysics, Yuan Tiangang is also an astronomer who usually pays great attention to astronomy. However, he was still famous for his xiangshu, and unlike ordinary jianghu warlocks, Yuan Tiangang's precise xiangshu remarks were widely sought after by people at that time, and Dai Liang of the Yuan Dynasty once regarded Yuan Tiangang as the first person in xiangshu.
References: "Summoning Yushi Dafu to Give Yuan Tiangang", "New and Old Book of Tang"