天灵灵，地灵灵，算命看相我最行。正如电影《观相》中的妓女通过点痣改变了命运，算命行业在韩国长盛不衰的原因在于他们相信命运并非一成不变，三分天注定，七分靠人为。
我是个算命先生
译者：邓小雪 & 倪婷 & 鲁城华
校对：陈怡蓓
策划：鲁城华
In South Korea fortune-telling will soon be a $3.7bn business
韩国的算命产业规模将很快达到37亿美元
But like every other trade, it is having to contend with automation
同其他行业一样，算命也面临自动化的竞争
本文选自 The Economist | 取经号原创翻译
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DESTINY is usually said to lurk in heavy drapes of purple velvet, in the wicked glint of a crystal ball, behind a veil of heady incense or in the tuck of a gold-chiffon turban. Your correspondent went in search of hers among a crush of Korean schoolgirls at the “Broken Heart Tarot Club” in booming Hongdae, a university district in Seoul. The café’s façade is an inviting jumble of pink neon signs and glowing graffiti. At the next table, a hip tarot reader spread a deck face-down for two girlfriends in oversized denim jackets, who took turns picking out cards and sipping on their lattes. He looked as cool as them, more rapper than rune-reader, in dark glasses with a chain around his neck.
通常来说，命运隐藏在厚重的紫色天鹅绒帘子下、闪着邪光的水晶球中、烟雾缭绕的熏香背后或由层层金色薄绸制成的头巾之下。本刊记者前往热闹的弘大区（首尔的大学城），跟一群韩国女学生进入“伤心塔罗俱乐部” ，共同探寻自己的命运。俱乐部像个咖啡馆，混合着粉色的霓虹标牌，还有鲜艳的涂鸦装饰。旁边的桌子坐着一位时髦的占卜师，对面是一对穿着宽大牛仔夹克的女生，占卜师摊开牌面向下的塔罗牌，女生一边喝着拿铁一边抽牌。占卜师戴着深色墨镜，脖子上挂着条链子，看上去和那两个女生一样酷，他更像个说唱歌手而不是占卜师。
Interrogating the decorated cards costs 3,000 won (about $2.75) a question. A tarot reader assesses the character of her clients first. Two flicks of her wrist, and a pair of Queens appears. “You chose the strongest set in the deck,” she says brightly. “Fame is within reach.” Will a move to a new country go smoothly? The Beggar. “The start will be hard, but you can succeed if you ask for help.” Will the Koreas go to war? Death and The Emperor show up, apparently the tarot incarnations of Kim Jong Un (here a scythe-wielding woman in blue veils) and Moon Jae-in, the leaders of North and South Korea. “Death plays tricks but the Emperor is wise,” the reader assures.
解牌的费用是每个问题3000韩元（约2.75美元）。占卜师首先会评估客户们的特质。手腕摆动两下，一对皇后牌出现了。“你抽中了桌上最强的牌，”她扬声道，“名望近在咫尺。”能否顺利出国？乞丐牌。“开始不易，但如果你寻求帮助就能成功。”韩国会打仗么？抽中了死神和皇帝牌，明显代表了朝鲜领导人金正恩（一个扛大镰刀、蒙蓝色面纱的女人）和韩国总统文在寅。“死神在耍花样，但是皇帝是明智的，”占卜师断言。
“Broken Heart” is among dozens of fortune-telling businesses on the street, packed between cheap clothes and cosmetics shops. Business is brisk. Other stores offer the Korean arts of face-reading, palm-reading—one entices clients with a detailed mapping of Barack Obama’s raised hand at his presidential swearing-in—and saju. An ancient form of divination, saju analyses the cosmic energy at the hour, day, month and year of a person’s birth from Chinese astrological records and texts. A seer at “Broken Hearts” says she began to study saju two decades ago (she says she found it hard to trust other fortune-tellers), but took up tarot recently to keep up with the times. “The young like it. The cards are pretty, it’s cheap and it’s quick,” she says.
“伤心塔罗俱乐部”和街头算命生意一样，挤在廉价服饰店和化妆品店中间。生意挺红火。其他店铺还解韩式面相和手相，有一家甚至用奥巴马宣誓就职时举手的分析图片来向客户做宣传。还有生辰八字，这是一种古老的占卜方式，依据中国的占星文献来分析某人生辰年月。“伤心塔罗俱乐部”的一位预言家说，她二十多年前就开始学习生辰八字（她说她不太相信其他占卜师），但为了跟上时代最近也开始解塔罗牌了。“年轻人喜欢塔罗。卡片很漂亮，解牌既便宜又快，”她说。
The otherworldly in South Korea will soon be a 4trn won ($3.7bn) business, predicts the Korea Economic Daily, a local newspaper. Paik Woon-san, head of the Association of Korean Prophets, estimates that there are over 300,000 fortune-tellers in the country, and 150,000 shamans, many of whom provide clairvoyance. Unusually in a country of evangelical Christians and devout Buddhists, it continues to thrive as anything from a bit of curious fun to a dependable guide for making everyday decisions.
当地的《韩国经济日报》指出，在韩国，算命将很快成为一个价值4万亿韩元（约37亿美元）的产业。韩国预言协会的会长白云山估计，全国有超过30万占卜师和15万萨满巫师，其中很多人提供“预见”服务。不同寻常的是，在这个有诸多福音派基督徒和虔诚佛教徒的国家里，占卜持续兴盛，有人只是对它感到好奇和有趣，有人则将其视作日常决策的指南。
Duo, an online marriage agency, found that 82% of unmarried women and 57% of bachelors surveyed in 2017 had visited saju masters to ask about their love life. The practice survived government campaigns in the 1970s that urged citizens to junk juju and make their own fate; they were, after all, conjuring their own potent magic by building South Korea’s economic “miracle on the Han river”. (The North has other reasons to dislike diviners, who are banned yet sought after; reports have trickled out of the authorities punishing those who make political predictions.)
2017年，一家在线婚恋机构Duo的调查显示，82%的未婚女性和57%的单身汉曾经用生辰八字求过姻缘。政府在1970年代曾发起过一项运动，号召民众不要求神拜佛，而要自己主导命运，毕竟他们曾靠自己的努力，造就了“汉江奇迹”实现了经济腾飞。但占卜之风还是流传下来了。（朝鲜也不喜欢占卜者，明令禁止占卜行为，有秘密报告称，政府会惩罚预测政治的占卜师。）
Now fortune-telling apps for smartphones are beguiling city kids, taking the occult into the otherworldliness of cyberspace. Handasoft, a software developer, has launched 13 apps in the past five years. Its most popular, Jeomsin, introduced two years ago, has been downloaded over 3m times. Every morning it sends users their personalised fortune for the day (other mobile prophecy-providers sell their detailed user data on to marketers, but Jeomsin makes money only from ads). Proffer your palm to the camera or snap a selfie, and another app provides instant face- and palm-reading. Shin Hyun-ho of Jeomsin reckons two or three new apps are being launched every day.
如今，手机上的算命app把神秘的占卜带进网络空间的理想世界，让城市的孩子们入了迷。一家软件开发商Handasoft在过去5年内开发了13个app，其中最流行的是2年前面世的Jeomsin，下载量超过300万。每天早晨，程序会向用户推送个人化的每日运势（其他占卜类手机app通过向市场出售用户信息来盈利，但Jeomsin仅通过广告来盈利）。拍下你的手掌或来张自拍，另一款app马上就能解读面相和手相。Jeomsin 的申贤浩推测，每天都能有2到3个新app上线。
More than two-thirds of those surveyed by Trend Monitor, a local market-research firm, said they see a fortune-teller at least once a year. Many visit between December and February, to see what awaits them in the new solar and lunar years. At Kyobo, South Korea’s biggest bookstore chain, as many shelves are devoted to deciphering destiny as to understanding Korea’s modern history, with primers including “Your Winning Lotto Number is in Your Dreams”. Diviners appear regularly in television dramas, sometimes as fraudsters but often to foreshadow a plot twist. In “The Face Reader”, a gifted seer employed by a 16th-century king correctly identifies traitors from their facial traits. It was among the highest-grossing films of 2013.
根据韩国本土市场调研公司Trend Monitor的调查，约三分之二的被调查者每年至少会去占卜一次。很多韩国人在十二月到二月之间会去占卜，去算一下在新的一年（公历新年和农历新年）会有什么好事坏事在等着他们。韩国最大的连锁书店教保文库的书架上摆放了许多破译命运的书籍，和韩国现代史类书籍一样多，其中也包括像《彩票中奖号码就在梦里》这样的入门指南。占卜师频频出现在各种韩剧中，有时候是以大骗子的形象出现，但更多时候为剧情反转做铺垫。在电影《观相》中， 16世纪的朝鲜国王雇用了一位极具天赋的观相师，通过观察面部特征从而纠出了反叛者。这是2013年韩国最卖座的电影之一。
Andrew Eungi Kim, a professor at Korea University, says soothsayers hold an everyday relevance in South Korea that they do not have in the West. He likens dropping in on one to occasional Sunday churchgoing in the West. The practice is passed on within families—as “one possible way by which to make sense of the world”.
高丽大学教授金恩基说，占卜师在韩国人日常生活中的重要性非西方国家可比，他将韩国人顺道就去占卜和西方人周日固定去教堂视为相同的行为。这种行为在家族内部传承，是“人们理解世界的一种方式”。
Judgment and The Lovers
占卜与爱
Big
junctures
in life are a common time for a celestial steer. Careers fairs at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, in Seoul, reserve places for tarot readers. Students go to saju masters with lists of potential employers to determine those most likely to hire them. Businessmen might go to one to select a propitious date to launch a new venture. New parents routinely visit name-makers, another branch of fortune-telling, to help decide on the luckiest name for their baby. Couples check their compatibility before marriage, and one or both may be advised to change their first names to improve their matrimonial
lot
. In the past decade 1.5m Koreans have legally taken a new one.
人生中的
关键
时刻同天体的运转是同步的。韩国外国语大学首尔校区办的招聘会上为塔罗师预留了位置。学生列出有意向的雇主名单到算命大师那里判断哪些公司最有可能雇佣他们。企业家会到算命师那里为项目开张挑选吉时。取名是算命的另一项分支，许多初为父母的人例行去取名大师那里为孩子起一个最吉祥的名字。情侣在结婚前会去算双方是否相合，算命师可能会建议其中一人或双方改名来改善婚
运
。在过去的10年中，150万韩国人正式地改名。
Juncture
/-tʃɚ/ a particular point in time 时刻；关头propitious /prə'pɪʃ.əs/ adjective likely to result in or showing signs of success 吉祥的，吉利的
Lot
[lɒt] the quality of someone's life and the experiences that they have 生活状况，命运
The clairvoyance business has also been able to thrive because fate is not fixed in Korean cosmology. Bad news can be
mitigated
with charms, often given in the form of an action: take up a religion, take out health insurance, stop eating red meat, do not even think about getting a tattoo.
Repeat
clients are thus ensured. Some even drop in for a weekly check-up.
算命生意长盛不衰的原因在于韩国人相信命运并非一成不变。坏事可以通过符咒得到
缓解
，通常符咒以行动的方式进行：皈依宗教、购买医疗保险、停止吃荤，纹身想都别想了。
频繁
光顾的顾客因此就得到了庇佑。有的人甚至每周都去占卜一次。
mitigate
/'mɪt.ɪ.geɪt/ verb to make something less harmful, unpleasant or bad 使缓和；减轻（危害等）
repeat
/rɪ'pit/ ADJ If a company gets repeat business or repeat customers, people who have bought their goods or services before buy them again. 回头客的;再次光顾的
As palm lines and facial features evolve with age, so too, it is thought, does fortune. Rather than put a brave face on a luckless situation, a small number of Koreans simply change theirs. Some
plastic surgeons
have been educating themselves in
physiognom
y
to advise their clients. (In “The Face Reader”, rivals to the throne modify the face of a contender to get the king to banish him.) Purists in the face-reading business lament that their jobs are getting tougher in plastic-happy Korea.
掌纹和面部特征会随着年龄的变化而发生改变，于是人们认为福祉也会随之改变。面对困境时，一小部分韩国人并不是选择勇敢面对，而是直接换脸。一些
整容医师
自学
面相
知识从而给客户提供建议。在电影《观相》中，为了争夺王位，一位叛臣将对手整了容而让他被国王废黜。面对热衷整容的韩国人，纯粹的面相师不禁感叹这一职业处境越来越艰难。
plastic surgeon
A plastic surgeon is a doctor who performs operations to repair or replace skin which has been damaged, or to improve people's appearance. 整形外科医生
physiognomy
/'fɪzɪ'ɑnəmi/ noun the physical appearance of the face 相貌，容貌
In the posh district of Apgujeong (part of stylish Gangnam) the entrance hall of a prominent saju café is plastered with autographs from
glitterati
.
Sotdae Saju Cafe offers clairvoyance with cocktails. Its saju master says counselling is the biggest part of his job. “A lot of rich types around here are dissatisfied. Not long ago South Koreans were trying to survive. Now they’re trying to be happy,” he says. Tae-young, a 30-something Seoulite, says she goes for a reading whenever things get too much, or if something worrisome is on her mind. Some say readings help them to accept whatever unhappy situation they are in.
在江南区狎鸥亭(Apgujeong) 高档社区，一家著名占星咖啡馆的入口处贴满了
名流人士
的签名。Sotdae占星咖啡馆不仅占卜，还供应鸡尾酒。这家占卜师的主要工作是做咨询，他说：“附近的许多富人对生活并不满意。不久前，韩国人只想活着，现在的韩国人想要快乐。” 30岁左右的首尔人太英说，每当遇到麻烦或感到焦虑，她就会去算一卦。有人说占卜能够让他们接受不如意。
glitterati
/ glɪt.ə'rɑ:.ti/ plural noun rich, famous and fashionable people whose activities are of interest to the public and are written about in some newspapers and magazines （为公众或一些报刊津津乐道的）富人，名流，时髦人士
Few of those who see fortune-tellers take the readings as fact. Many say they offer an additional perspective. In a country where mental troubles are taboo, this is useful. Lim Chaewoo of the University of Brain Education in the city of Cheonan, south of Seoul, says that as modern societies have grown more complex, making decisions has become exacting. During the financial crisis in 2008, American stock traders and insurance brokers, themselves givers of advice, turned to psychics for a steer. Theirs seemed as good as any, in the circumstances.
去占卜的人几乎没人会把占卜师的话当真。很多人认为占卜师提供了看问题的新视角。在一个视心理问题为禁忌的国家里，占卜很有用。首尔南部天安国际脑教育综合大学院大学(university of brain education) 的Lim Chaewoo说随着现代社会越来越错综复杂，人们做决定也越来越艰难。2008年金融危机时，美国的股票交易员和保险经纪人，原本是提供意见的人，结果也需要求助于灵媒。不过在当时的环境下，灵媒的建议似乎没什么不妥。
That saju and face-reading are recognised as academic pursuits in Korea also lends them some modern-day credibility. Janet Shin, a saju master and newspaper columnist who also lectures at universities, says that her clients include doctors, professors and religious types. Status within the profession is achieved through study and experience, as in other disciplines, rather than bluster. Kwon Hee-gwan, who offers readings from soothsaying tents near Tapgol Park in Seoul, is a firm believer in this. On a recent weekday evening, wearing a navy-blue cardigan and tie, he delicately examined clients’ palms with a bone-handled magnifying glass. Mr Kwon sees as many as 20 faces a day, and has worked on a total of 10,000 in his career. But that is only half the number necessary, he says, to know a client’s troubles as soon as she enters his tent.
在韩国，生辰八字和看相被视为一种学术研究，这多少增加了这种职业的可信度。珍妮特·申是一位报纸专栏作家，同时还在大学讲学，她也是一名占卜师，她说医生、教授和有宗教信仰的人都是她的占卜对象。与其他学科一样，占卜师的行业地位不是靠胡说八道取得的，同样需要不断地学习和积累丰富的经验。权熙坚信这一点，他在首尔塔谷公园附近支了一间帐篷专门给人占卜看相。最近工作日的晚上，他穿着深蓝色羊毛衫、系着领带，拿着带柄的放大镜仔细地观察客户的手掌。权熙每天能接待20人，目前已经服务了10000个客户了。但他说，至少需要再看10000人才能达到一眼识人的境界，在客户踏进帐篷的那一刻，便能看出他的困惑。
Some contend that this is not as mysterious as it sounds. Face-readers consider cues like posture, body language and tone of voice in assessing a customer, much as people naturally assess physical appearance to guess someone’s emotional state. In pre-industrial Korea, when few people left their place of birth, many thought people’s faces were a record of their lifestyles and so in some ways a guide to their fate. Researchers even suggest that palm lines may be a “fossilised record” of a person’s earliest moments, because they develop early in the womb. Maybe, then, they hint at a baby’s future health.
