A Prophet
A Prophet
Title: 长风起 (我是个算命先生)
Also Known As: Chang Feng Qi (Wo Shi Ge Suan Ming Xian Sheng); Rising Winds of Destiny; I Am a Fortune Teller
Author: 易之 (Yi Zhi)
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Drama
Country of Origin: China
Synopsis:
A work of documentary-style popular fiction compiled from oral accounts by senior members of the Jiangxiang Faction, centering its narrative on Zu Ye, the grandmaster of the faction during the Republican era.
Having suffered the tragic destruction of his family in his youth, Zu Ye entered the underworld by chance and began his career as a fortune teller at the age of fifteen. Relying on classic underworld tricks such as Yingyao (psychological manipulation) and Zhafei (elaborate deception), he navigated the rogue world for over thirty years, rising to become one of the four legendary fortune tellers of the Republican period. Rubbing shoulders with military and political elites above while dealing with common folk below, he engineered intricate fortune-telling traps and scams by reading human nature.
The book deconstructs the inner workings and astrological disguises of the fortune-telling trade, reconstructing the several-decade history of the Jiangxiang Faction from its peak to its collapse. Though Zu Ye saw through the greed, anger, obsession, and desires of humanity, he could never divine his own ultimate fate, ending his later years in loneliness and poverty. Through the rise and fall of its characters, this work exposes the truth behind the fortune-telling industry, serving as both a glimpse into underworld lore and a snapshot of an era, warning readers to see through the scams of feudal superstition.
Chapter List:
Fortune-Telling Is an Ancient Profession
Chapter 1 - The Fortune-Telling Mantras That Are Never Divulged
Chapter 2 - First Time Telling Fortunes
Chapter 4 - Fortune-Telling Psychology
Chapter 5 - Grandfather's Only "Leaked Setup"
Chapter 6 - Playing at Ghosts and Gods with the Zhafei Technique
My Master Was a Renowned Fortune-Teller of the Republican Era
Chapter 1 - The Immortal Children's Corpses Walking Against the Current
Chapter 2 - Saving the Mortal Enemy Who Killed One's Family at the Risk of One's Life
Chapter 3 - The Heaven and Earth Society's Robin Hood Branch: The Jiangxiang Sect
Chapter 4 - Grandfather Enters the Path
Chapter 5 - Humiliation at the Teahouse
Chapter 6 - My Years at My Master's Hall
The Earth-Shattering Secrets Behind Birth Characters, Corpse Diving, and Ghost Marriages
Chapter 1 - The Destined End of "Immortal Hands"
Chapter 2 - The First Double-Sided Trap in the History of Fortune-Telling
Chapter 3 - The Opium Trade Inside Corpses
Chapter 6 - Iron Spike Execution
Cleverly Setting Up a Honey Trap to Avenge Wang Yaqiao, China’s Number One Assassination King
Chapter 1 - Predicting Fortune and Misfortune Through the Eight Characters of Birth
Chapter 2 - China's Number One Assassination King
Chapter 3 - The Superstitious Military Statistics Bureau Agents
Chapter 4 - A Female Con Artist Falls in Love with a Military Statistics Bureau Agent
Chapter 5 - The Fortune-Teller’s Beauty Trap
The Mysteries of the Book of Changes Hidden With the Fortune-Telling Trade
Chapter 1 - Military Statistics Bureau Manhunt
Chapter 2 - The Nationalist Highest Command's Annihilation Directive
Chapter 3 - The Senior Master Zhou Zhenlong After Thirty Years
Chapter 4 - The "Wind-Hand" Meets a Tragic End
The “Four Great Fortune-Tellers” Display Their Unique Secret Skills
Chapter 1 - The Third Chieftain's Plot to Destroy the Faction
Chapter 2 - Feigning Trapped by the Scheme, Heading to Sichuan
Chapter 3 - Qin Bailian's Interlocking Schemes
Chapter 4 - Grandpa Personally Sets the Feng Shui Formation
Chapter 5 - Qin Bailian's Impending Doom
From Demon to Buddha: How I, a Fortune-Teller, Became Fascinated by the Book of Changes
Chapter 1 - Moving the Branch Back to Jianghuai
Chapter 2 - Grandfather's Unknown Wife and Child
Chapter 3 - The Fortune-Teller's Confession
Chapter 4 - The Immortal Huang Farong
The Fish-Luring Technique Dating Back to the Xianqing Era of the Tang Dynasty
Chapter 1 - I Saw Grandfather
Chapter 2 - Exposing Street Scams
Chapter 3 - Who is Qiao Wumei
Chapter 4 - The Fish-Summoning Technique
Chapter 5 - Troublemakers at the Funeral
Chapter 6 - Besieging Wei to Rescue Zhao
Chapter 7 - The Master of Zhazhai Techniques
Urine-Inducing Toad Powder
Chapter 1 - Farce at the Wedding
Chapter 2 - Stealing a Day from the Gods
Chapter 3 - Setting up the Altar Solely as a Blind
The Raven-Hair Coffin: A Scam Fortune-Tellers Would Never Dare to Pull
Chapter 1 - Grandfather's Worries
Chapter 2 - Zhang Zizhan's Matchmaking
Chapter 3 - Eight Characters Determine Destiny
Chapter 4 - The Mystery of Praying for Rain
Chapter 5 - The Secret of Why Roosters Do Not Crow and Dogs Do Not Bark
Chapter 6 - Eating Noodles with Immortals
Chapter 7 - The Fallacy of "Pigs Meeting Apes Will Never Reach the End”
Chapter 8 - The Coffin Full of Hair
Chapter 9 - Playing with Fire and Burning Oneself
Ghost General Arts: The Bizarre Trick of Controlling Animals
Chapter 1 - Uninvited Hedgehogs
Chapter 2 - White Immortal "Possession"
Chapter 3 - Ghost General Technique
Chapter 4 - Three Arts of Yi Numerology
Chapter 5 - Zuo Yongchan Appears
Chapter 6 - Lanterns on the Wall
Chapter 7 - There is a Mole Within
Chapter 8 - Knowing the Face But Not the Heart
Chapter 9 - Executing the Mole Tomorrow
Chapter 10 - Earthworm Transmitting Intelligence
The Earth-Shattering Inner Secrets of the Four Major Fortune-Telling Sects
Chapter 1 - The Miraculous Uses of Honey
Chapter 2 - The Affiliation of the Fourth Boss
Chapter 3 - The Metamorphosis of a Gambler
Chapter 4 - The Plum Blossom Society's Visit
Chapter 5 - Grandfather's Whereabouts Unknown
Japanese Research into I Ching Studies
Chapter 1 - Resurrection of "Second Sister-in-law Tian"
Chapter 2 - Modern "Paper-Transfixing Sorcery"
Chapter 3 - Master Zu's Schemes
Chapter 4 - The Fifth Gang Leader Retires Unharmed
Chapter 5 - Secret Meeting with Mei Xuanzi
Chapter 6 - Reading the Physiognomy of Feng Yuxiang
Setting a Trap for the Willing: The Exquisite Eight-Trigram City
Chapter 1 - Entering the Tiger's Den
Chapter 2 - The Emperor's Imperial Edict | Ching Debate Conference
Chapter 3 - The Bone-Reading Master of the Heavenly Saint Dao
Chapter 4 - Four-Pillars Calculation
Chapter 5 - The Six Yao Divination
Chapter 6 - Successor of "Three Sovereigns Feng Shui"
Chapter 7 - Mysteries of Palmistry
Chapter 8 - The Authenticity of "Plum Blossom Easy Numbers”
Chapter 9 - "Qimen Dunjia"
Chapter 10 - Repaying the Country with One's Life
Chapter 11 - The Decisive Battle
Methods for Identifying Haunted Houses
Chapter 1 - What Defines a Haunted House
Chapter 2 - The Death of China's Number One Assassination King
Chapter 3 - Grandfather Eliminates Huang Farong
Divining Good and Ill Fortune Through the Five Elements and Birth Characters
Chapter 1 - The Secret Divination Convention of the Military Statistics Bureau
Chapter 2 - The Five Elements and Naming
Chapter 3 - Debunking "Flying Celestials" and Burning "Heavenly Beings”
Executing Conspiracies Under the Guise of Corpse Driving
Chapter 1 - Military Maps in the Corpse-Driving Inn
Chapter 2 - The Japanese Bombing of the Supreme Lord Lao Temple
Chapter 3 - The Three Lessons of Liaofan
Chapter 4 - Grandpa's Ancestral Tombs Dug Up
Chapter 5 - Ancient Slip-Drawing Divination
Chapter 6 - The Ten Great Jianghu Swindles
The Feng Shui of Nanjing City
Chapter 1 - Liu Congyun's Zhuge Military Strategist Dream
Chapter 2 - The Tiger Covered in Green Fur
Chapter 3 - The Four Great Flying Thieves of the Republic
Chapter 4 - The Feng Shui of Nanjing, the "Ancient Capital of Six Dynasties”
Counterintelligence Strategy: Stealing the Map of China’s Dragon Veins
Chapter 1 - Three Types of the Book of Changes: Lianshan Yi, Guicang Yi, and Zhouyi
Chapter 2 - Schools of Feng Shui Since Ancient Times
Chapter 3 - Two Master Thieves Sneak Into the Japanese Secret Service Agency
Chapter 4 - Feng Shui Formation: Burning the Japanese Legion
Feng Shui Warfare: Protecting the Dragon Veins
Chapter 1 - A Catastrophic Mistake
Chapter 2 - Military Statistics Chief Dai Li Decodes Japanese Feng Shui Intelligence
Chapter 3 - The Dead End of the Dragon Vein: Kunlun Pass
Chapter 4 - Huang Farong Opens a Fortune-Telling Parlor in Nanyang
Chapter 5 - Bai Chongxi's Bloody Battle at the Dragon Vein of Kunlun Pass
Man Proposes, Heaven Disposes
Chapter 1 - Grandfather Relocates the Guild Hall Back to Shanghai
Chapter 2 - A Discussion on the Dao by the Two Great Fortune-Tellers of the Republic Era
Chapter 3 - Dai Li's Name and the Death of Dai Li
Chapter 4 - The Recovered Remains
Chapter 5 - The Military Statistics Second-in-Command Hunts Down the Fortune-Teller
Comprehensive Demystification of the Four Major Fortune-Telling Secrets - Abao, Yingyao, Junma, and Zhafei
Chapter 1 - Grandpa's Unveiling of the Mystery of Nayin Divination
Chapter 2 - Telling the Fortune of a Green-Hong Gang Hall Master
Chapter 3 - The Origins and Background of the Secret River-Merchant Manual: The Military Horse Chapter
Chapter 4 - The Second Leader's Ghost-Catching Expedition
The Four Great Fortune-Tellers Discourse on Various Fortune-Telling Frauds
Chapter 1 - Mind-Easy Divination, Character Analysis, Dream Interpretation, and the Art of Walking Horse Yin-Yang Feng Shui
Chapter 2 - Grandfather Ingeniously Acquires the Secret Manual of "Military Horse"
Unveiling the Bizarre Logic of Various Fortune-Telling Arts
Chapter 1 - The Apocryphal Masterpiece of the Mortal Realm: The Record of Confusion Dispelled by Yin and Yang
Chapter 2 - Chiang Kai-shek's Fortune-Telling Prophecy
Chapter 3 - Zeng Jingwu Cleverly Captures Kuomintang Secret Agents
Opening Up Sealed Past Events
Chapter 1 - The Death of the Second Boss Leader
Chapter 2 - Telling Grandfather's Wife and Child the Complete Secret
The Fortune-Telling Jianghu of the 1980s
Chapter 1 - Secrets of Blind Fortunetelling
Chapter 2 - Seventh Bahtou Tells Fortunes to Pray for a Son
Chapter 3 - The Five Elements: Generation, Restriction, and Counter-Restriction
Chapter 4 - The Fortunetelling Con Artist Invites a Bloody Calamity
Chapter 5 - The Mega Financial Fraud Case and the Feng Shui Formation
The Mystery of Grandpa Ancestor’s Apparent Survival
Chapter 1 - Huayue Rong and the Song of Mind and Destiny
Chapter 2 - The Death of Zeng Jingwu
Chapter 3 - The Mystery of Grandfather's Survival