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Chinese fortune telling practice

Kau chim, kau cim, chien tung, "lottery poetry" and Chinese fortune sticks are names for a fortune telling practice that originated in China in which a person poses questions and interprets answers from flat sticks inscribed with text or numerals. The practice is often performed in a Taoist or Buddhist temple in front of an altar. In the US, a version has been sold since 1915 under the name chi chi sticks. It is also sometimes known as "The Oracle of Kuan Yin" in Buddhist traditions, a reference to the bodhisattva Kuan Yin. It is widely available in Thai temples, known using the Teochew dialect as siam si (เซียมซี). The similar practice is also found in Japan, named O mikuji.

Chim bucket : A long cylindrical bamboo cup or tube. Kau shim sticks : The flat sticks which are stored in the tube. Generally made of bamboo, they resemble wide, flat incense sticks, and are often painted red at one end. A single number, both in Arabic numerals and in Chinese characters, is inscribed on each stick. Each stick has a different number on it, and no two are alike. There are usually a total of 100 sticks in the cup, although the chi chi Sticks variation sold in the US for fortune telling has only 78 sticks. 100 written oracle outcomes (or 78, for the Chi Chi sticks variation). A German, Werner Banck, has classified the contents of 420 sets into 24 categories and 160 sub categories.

The practice of kau chim or chien tung interpretation dates back to the Jin dynasty, according to the Jade Box Records, an ancient Chinese book on date selection, written by the famous Taoist monk Xu Xun in the 3rd century AD. Despite the Cultural Revolution in mainland China during the 1960s and 1970s, lottery poetry still persists today in temples in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. Most Taoist temples have lottery poetry to provide religious guidance for believers.

The prediction begins with the cup storing a number of the sticks. In 1915, kau chim sticks were introduced to the United States under the trade name "Chi Chi Chinese Fortune Teller" by the Pacific Dry Goods Company of San Francisco, California, where a large population of Cantonese Chinese immigrants had settled. The Chi Chi sticks, 78 in number, were made in China of bamboo but they were marked with Arabic numerals instead of Chinese characters, and were packaged in a bright yellow and red chipboard tube with a black lid (like a modern mailing tube). They were accompanied by a rolled up booklet of 78 rhyming interpretations that fit inside the tube with the sticks. By the early 1920s, chi chi sticks were available all across America, from several importers and under a variety of trade names, including "Chien Tung Fortune Teller." They were heavily marketed to African American fortune tellers through mail order catalogs. They fell out of popularity during World War II, but only due to problems with supply, as China had been invaded by Japan and trade routes were disrupted. In the 1990s, importations of kau chim sticks were available again in the US. This time, packaged in leather covered tubes painted with ornate Chinese designs, but also with the old rhyming Chi Chi stick booklet so well known to Americans. Meanwhile, vintage Chi Chi sticks of the 1915 1935 era (if all their parts and the booklet are intact) have become highly desired artifacts among those who collect fortune telling objects. The practice of using sticks in Chien Tung may be related to the game of pick up sticks played today. This theory is based on a Japanese variation, called Mikado, which also has an emperor stick. A form of the game developed in the 16th century and may have been adapted from Chinese culture and religion. Some Taoist temples in Taiwan and Malaysia also revere a special Medicinal Oracle sticks (藥簽) which the poems are written in the form of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) concoction. Visitors can use the poem to buy items from the nearby Traditional Chinese Medicine shop. This was a common practice at certain Baosheng Dadi temples in olden days.