수잔
Blood type

I've heard a lot about the belief that a person's blood type influences their personality. Is this a Korean tradition or is it generally an Asian tradition? And, do most Koreans still believe it? Where does the tradition/belief come from? What do you all think?

Jun 18, 2014 6:12 PM
Comments · 18
2

Do you know 사주 or 궁합? You probably heard about the word 사주 or 궁합 in a Korean drama or movie. Traditionally, most of Korean people believe in 사주 and 궁합, especially when a couple is planning to marry, 궁합 is thought to be a greatly important thing. No one cares about the blood types, such a foolish belief, except for childish young girls.

 

사주(四柱) means the four pillars determining a person's fate or destiny, and it is often called 사주팔자(四柱八字). 사주팔자 means the eight letters written in 한자(漢字), referring to the date and the hour at which a person was born. Thus, 사주 is formed with 년(年, year), 월(月, month), 일(日, day), and 시(時, hour) of one's birthday according to the lunar calendar.

 

궁합(宮合) refers to the marital compatibilty between a couple to marry, but its literal meaning is an analysis or a status of "two kingdoms/palaces come together as one". 궁합 is the one part of 사주, and it is divided into two classes, 겉궁합 and 속궁합. When 겉궁합 and 속궁합 are both well-matched. it is called 찰떡궁합.

 

*So, I could understand what Jim said immediatlely.

June 20, 2014
1

many Asian traditions can date back to ancient China. in that time, technology is not advanced as today, there were so many phenomenons they could  not explain.they tried their best to get the  good luck, and get rid of the bad things.so they formulate a procedure.some of them are  handed down to  generations and become a custom .

June 24, 2014
1

i am a chinese. what littlething had posted is popular in China especially  decades ago. before two chinese people get married, they must check the marital compatibilty based on zodiac and the exact time they are born. then choose a day to match the date they were born for their wedding day. i do not know the specific rule about it. but it is almost the procedure. there are many such kinds of traditional custom. they observe the formality when  a big, important event is brought to pass .

June 24, 2014
1

Yes, Susan. Of course, my wife and I too, had consulted our 궁합 and 사주, before we married.

Today, most of Korean couples marry in a western style wedding, because the western style wedding is very quick and very convenient. Whereas the traditional Korean wedding would be rather complicate and take a long time than the western style. However, my wife and I had married in the traditional Korean wedding, because my grandmother wanted it. I couldn't help but accept and follow her earnest request since she was my Grandmother.

 

Well, Let me tell a story about my wedding.

 

At the beginning of preparing to our wedding, my grandmother, behind my back, had sent 사주단자 -- 四柱單子, a small chest containing my family's proposal letter and my 사주(四柱) -- to the family of my wife. So, my wife and my parents in-law were very surprised and troubled by it, because they didn't know how to answer it.

Thus, I had my wife brought me a brush, an ink-stick, an ink-stone, and two pieces of Hanzi, the traditional Korean paper. And instead of them, I wrote the letter of my marriage permit and my wife's 사주(四柱), and put them into the chest they received and resent it to my home with another person.

 

A few days later, my grandmother called me in the presence of her and seriously scolded me, because she noticed a trace of my handwriting while she was reading the letter of marriage permit and the critical my fault was that I forgot to write the comment about the date of our wedding in it.

 

Well, A perfect crime could not exist on the world.

June 21, 2014
1

Though the idea may have come from Imperial Japan, it was widely believed in both where I lived in 경기도 용인시 and in 경상남도 통영시.  In fact, three years ago my school in 용인시 distributed ID badges to all teachers that included our names, job titles, picture, and BLOOD TYPE.  After just an hour of wearing it a colleague advised me to take mine off, because as a foreigner, I had a rare blood type and students kept talking about it.  Most people I know in the USA do not even know their blood type, nor would this information ever be included on any kind of ID.

 

In 통영시, a brief mention of the tradition in my high school English class about personality vocabulary made the class out of control.  They wanted me to help them translate a chart that linked personality types to A and B blood types, further distinguished by sex.

June 19, 2014
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