English translations of fangshi include alchemist, astrologer, diviner, exorcist, geomancer, doctor, magician, monk, mystic, necromancer, occultist, omenologist, physician, physiognomist, technician, technologist, thaumaturge, and wizard.
The Chinese word fangshi 方士 combines fang 方 "direction; side; locality; place; region; formula; (medical) prescription; recipe; method; way" and shi 士 "scholar; intelligentsia; gentleman; officer; yeoman; soldier; person trained in a certain field".
Throughout archaic times, the word also occurs commonly in the compound ssu-fang [四方], meaning four outlying areas, and hence refers to people, places, and cultures removed from the central court.
Automatically most of the meanings for fang which DeWoskin claims are "potentially a factor in the etymology of the term" can be eliminated, especially the series "parallel, correlative, comparative."
It is possible to group the antecedents of fang-shih thought and techniques into three distinct areas: astrology and calendrics; the practices of wu mediums and conjury; and pharmaceutical and hygienic medicine.
[18] These historical texts document that during the late Warring States period (475–221 BCE), fangshi originated in northern China and specialized in xian 仙 "immortality; transcendence" techniques.
By the middle of the Six Dynasties Period (220–569 CE), the role of fangshi had declined and their techniques had been adapted into Daoist religion and traditional Chinese medicine.
Song Wuji, Zhengbo Qiao, Chong Shang, Xianmen Gao, and Zui Hou were all men of Yan who practiced magic and followed the way of the immortals, discarding their mortal forms and changing into spiritual beings by means of supernatural aid.
Thus from this time there appeared a host of men, too numerous to mention, who expounded all sorts of weird and fantastic theories and went to any lengths to flatter the rulers of the day and to ingratiate themselves with them.
These early fangshi asserted to know of three divine mountains where the elixir of immortality existed, Penglai 蓬萊, Fangzhang 方丈, and Yingzhou 瀛洲 in the Bohai Sea.
Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) lavishly patronized fangshi, writes DeWoskin, "to such an extent that virtually anyone with a plausible 'secret tradition' rushed to court to collect his reward".
The Book of Later Han chapter on fangshi broadened the category to include omen and portent techniques such as fengjiao 風角 "wind angles".
[27] Some are familiar (e.g., dunjia 遁甲 "Evading Stems; sexagenary cycle divination" and wuyi 巫醫 "Medium Healing; shamanic medicine"), while others are obscure.
The nature of the analysis is still to be determined, but some sources link the practice to expertise in the five tones (wu-yin), specifically the ability to hear and differentiate pitches that are inaudible to most people.
"This practice, which may date back to the Shang dynasty, involves using the temperature, strength, and changes in direction in seasonal winds to determine the local increase and decrease in Yin and Yang qi."
[29] Citing examples of the techniques named tuibu 推步 "astrology" and tingzhuan 筳篿 "cleromancy", Harper says "inaccuracy abounds" in DeWoskin's translations.
What is the reader to think, for example, when DeWoskin translates the term t'ui pu as "astral influences" and explains that it relates to "projections from sky readings" (p. 23)?
A more literal rendering of t'ui pu would be "plotting the paces" and the term refers primarily to determining the paths of the sun, moon, and planets.
DeWoskin explains The repertory by which fang-shih won their patronage included not only storytelling, but glib dissertations on astrology, omenology, and esoteric philosophy and various performances of magical arts.
The histories record many instances of a fang-shih challenge game, she-fu 射覆, where masters the likes of Tung-fang Shuo, Kuan Lu 管輅, and Guo P'u 郭璞 (276–324) guessed the identity of hidden objects before gatherings of dinner guests or skeptical officials.
Their divination practices can be traced back to late Shang-dynasty oracle-bone culture, Chou-dynasty milfoil-stalk procedures, and Chou astrological and calendric technology.
This historical connection between divination practices, especially calendric and astrological types, and the chronicling of events is reflected in the conspicuous literacy of the fang-shih and their propensity for authoring biographical, geographical, and other narratives.
The fang shih 方士 or 'gentlemen possessing magical recipes' were certainly Taoist, and they worked in all kinds of directions as star-clerk and weather-forecasters, men of farm-lore and wort-cunning, irrigators and bridge-builders, architects and decorators, but above all alchemists.
[37] Gu Yong 谷永 (d. 8 BCE), minister to Emperor Cheng of Han, specialist on the Yijing, is known for harsh criticism of the contemporary fangshi practices: All those occultists, who turn their backs on the right path of benevolence and correct duty, who do not revere the model of the Five Classics but who rather are brimming with claims about the strange and marvelous, about spirits and ghosts, who stand in unquestioning reverence of the sacrificial practices of every locale,... who say that immortals are to be found in this world and who imbibe all manner of longevity drugs, who capriciously set out on distant quests and travel so high that their shadows are cast upwards,... who have mastered the transformation of base metal to gold, who have made uniform the five colors and five stores within their bodies — those occultists cheat people and delude the masses.