KAU CHIM
What is Kau Chim?
Kau chim is a traditional stick-based fortune-telling practice performed at Chinese temples. A numbered stick is shaken out of a cylinder, and the answer is read from the verse text corresponding to its number. It is considered part of the same old lineage of stick-divination as the Japanese omikuji, and remains actively practiced across a wide area of East and Southeast Asia today.
Overview
- System
- Omen Reading (reads from the number of the stick shaken out)
- Origin
- China
- What You Need
- A cylinder with numbered fortune sticks
- Best For
- Life, career, money
- Time Frame
- Today to the near future
Origins & History
Kau chim is a traditional Chinese stick-divination practice that has long been performed at Taoist and Buddhist temples. In front of an altar, while silently reciting a question, the practitioner shakes a cylinder holding a row of numbered sticks until a single stick falls out.
A verse corresponding to the number of the stick that fell out is then given, and its words are read against the question. This is often combined with jiaobei, in which wooden blocks are thrown to confirm the result, and this system of receiving the words of gods and buddhas through a numbered stick is thought to belong to the same old lineage of stick-divination shared with the Japanese omikuji.
How It Works
- 01Decide on a single question to ask.
- 02Shake the cylinder containing the numbered fortune sticks.
- 03Check the number of the single stick that falls out.
- 04Receive the verse corresponding to that number and read it against the question.
What It Reveals
It is well suited to obtaining an answer, through the words of a verse, to everyday questions about fortune, career, and money. Because it works through a simple mechanism of reading a short verse, it is not a divination that explains complicated backgrounds or long-term life planning in detail.
Related Methods
References
- Wikipedia: Kau chim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kau_chim)