When Yuan Tiangang was young, his family was poor, but he was gifted and liked to read faces. Because he is diligent in learning, he has a high ability in geomantic omen. In the early years of Tang Wude, the then governor of Shu appointed him Huo Jingling. However, Yuan Tiangang is not satisfied with this. He wanted to further develop his ability and gain higher attention and recognition, so he went to Luoyang in 605 AD.
Many people in Luoyang came to him for fortune telling, and Du Yan was one of them. Yuan Tiangang said to Du Yan, "Your Lanting is full and your school is spacious. You will definitely get ahead in the future and be appreciated by your superiors because of your outstanding literary talent. " In addition, he also showed his face to Wang Jue, Wei Ting and others, and analyzed their future destiny respectively. At that time, the three of them were dubious about this, but they were very grateful to Yuan Tiangang for pointing out the future path for them. Later, as Yuan Tiangang said, all the three of them tried, and even the time was consistent. Because Yuan Tiangang is good at physiognomy, his reputation is growing.
Later, when Dou Gui passed by Deyang County, he specially asked Yuan Tiangang to look at his face. Yuan Tiangang said: "You have a bulging bone and a good chin. You will definitely make achievements in Liangzhou and Liangzhou." I am very happy to hear Yuan Tiangang's answer. Sure enough, in 6 18 AD, Dou Gui became the servant of Yizhou. During his tenure, he sent someone to call Yuan Tiangang again. He asked sincerely and respectfully, "What do you think of my face now?" Yuan Tiangang replied, "In appearance, you are no different from the past. But the red pulse in the eyes is a little protruding, which makes the red gas appear on the face when talking. If the general does not be vigilant, I am afraid that many people will be killed. " After a while, Dou Gui was dismissed and recalled for killing innocent people, and what Yuan Tiangang said came true again.
Enter the court with you, diamond cut diamond. As Yuan Tiangang became more and more famous among the people, his deeds also shocked the court. At that time, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, soon wrote a letter and invited him to the palace. According to historical records, then Emperor Taizong compared Yuan Tiangang to Yan Junping, a famous metaphysician in history. Yuan Tiangang is not only outstanding in metaphysics, but also knows how to advance and retreat when dealing with people, so he replied: "If it is not timely, I will win." After meeting, Emperor Taizong and Li Shimin had a very good impression, so from then on, everything in the palace, big or small, was decided by Li Shimin and Yuan Tiangang. At that time, there was a celestial phenomenon that asked Yuan Tiangang to explain Yuan Tiangang's calculation through divination: after three generations of the Tang Dynasty, the Wu family was going to perish.
At that time, Li Shimin was so scared that he even wanted to use the imperial edict to destroy Wu Shi's daughter in the world. After learning that Emperor Taizong had this idea, Yuan Tiangang immediately dissuaded the emperor and gave the solution of "beheading Long Mai". But people all know that Wu Zetian was finally called the emperor in the imperial court, which can also be explained by Yuan Tiangang's words, that is, "the destiny cannot be violated". Ancient emperors liked all kinds of talents to be used by them. Besides Yuan Tiangang, there was also a Li. Li is also good at divination and geomantic omen, so he often hopes that the two of them can compete.
Li Shimin once asked them to guess which horse by the river would fall into the water first. As a result, the answers of the two people are completely opposite. Li Shimin was amused and stopped to watch the result of the game. However, the result is even more surprising. The red horse drank the water from the river first, but the dark horse jumped into the river to take a bath first. Li didn't lose to Yuan Tiangang, which made Emperor Taizong even admire him at that time. Not only that, once two people had a contest to choose a cemetery, which was better than the geomantic place they found. In order to avoid cheating or accidents, they were asked to stagger the time to look for it. In this competition, Yuan Tiangang first went to a place he thought was a treasure trove of geomantic omen, and buried a copper coin in this place. Then Li went to look for it. He planted a Jin Baihe in the selected place. Finally, unexpectedly, Li's Jin Baihe happened to be inserted in the copper coins buried by Yuan Tiangang. Through these two games, it can be fully proved that Yuan and Li are neck and neck.
Predicting one's life Yuan Tiangang can not only predict people and events outside more accurately, but also predict one's life very accurately. He also calculated his life span by observing that his face is equal to his bones. When Yuan Tiangang anticipated that his life was coming, he asked his former boss for the position of Fire Master, who asked him why. He replied: "I know that my life will run out in April, and I hope to leave the court and resume my previous post." In the end, Yuan Tiangang died on his way to the Firewell Order in April. This ending has to make people feel surprised and admired by Yuan Tiangang's superb physiognomy. There are many other legends about Yuan Tiangang, such as the tuibei of folklore, which was written by him and Li. In addition, various folk unofficial history also exaggerated his story and magnified his own abilities. What's more, through almost all the folklore about him, he is revered as a god.
However, in any case, Yuan Tiangang's understanding of Taoism and Zhouyi is absolutely rare in the world. From this point of view, he is an outstanding astrologer and metaphysicist. As descendants, we can neither blindly believe in some so-called masters nor blindly refute that Zhouyi is a feudal superstition. We should treat and evaluate people like Yuan Tiangang more objectively.