Questions, questions and more questions (READ THE OP FOR ANSWERS)

[Kirishima]

Not only did Nasu make me research Buddhism and watch Three Kingdoms and read Fengshen Yanyi he's gonna make me research Taoism and stuff about Xians. Thanks.

[Lily Emilio]

So Fangshi=Taoist Arts=Philosophy Magecraft?

Adding to what Comun said, which quite accurately inline with how the arts are sorted IRL, Fangshi you can consider it to be the primitive form of the big stuffs you usually hear when talking about Taoist arts. Prior to the appearance of Laozi and later popularized by QSH during his reign, ancient Chinese tribes had extensive ways to practice their totem faith and other nature worship, alchemy. All of those various types of "magic" at that time was not systemized into what is known later in Taoist teachings, or in the case of Nasuverse take - the Philosophy Magecraft. Fangshi is more accurately one of the five great arts of ancient China at the time. It is also known by the name "Mountain arts", where practitioners go to mountains to train their asses off to obtain enlightenment, immortality, harmony with nature, mystical power to defeat demons, Chinese martial arts, and other crazy shits. It is the basis for most of the insane stuffs you see in later Taoism. The other 4 include divination of fate (primitive form of Taoist divination), form observation (primitive form of Fengshui), Bagua Astrology (primitive from of what tacticians like Zhuge used) and Medicine.

Taigong being the one first talking about Fangshi is a nice nod, because according to legends that does not include the Fengshen Yanyi stuffs, he actually found a book written by Xuanyuan Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) in the Kunlun mountains. The book contains Huangdi's compilation of these five great arts. So Taigong in this legend was not taught by big Xian master, but rather used the magical stuffs inside the book to then help overthrow Shang dynasty. During the Warring States era, it appeared again in the form of the Guiguzi, then used by Zhuge Liang during 3K era, tho by that time a lot of the juicy contents were lost to history, the remaining stuffs got interpreted differently by later Taoists, giving birth to multiple Taoist sects.

So TLDR: Fangshi is the primitive form of a group of arts that constitutes the majority of what the Philosophy Magecraft is about.

[Takashi]

Then why call it the root. it makes no sense

It is called pseudo root and that's because it functions only one function albeit in limited way but for modern day mages it might as well be limitless. Only function it does is limited akashic records

[Byegod]

Im just saying if a lot of the earlier characters were added now they would've had the philosophy skill

[All fictions]

Again, which earlier characters?

[Ideofago]

By god byegod you have a really big issue with this whole hermeneutics bojangledangle dontcha

[Byegod]

Again, which earlier characters?

In all likelihood some character wouldnt have them as skills, but it would have likely come up. Prob the most obvious who should have it as skills are zhuge and chen gong, the latter explicitely using xian stuff already. and i dont count interludes or mentions after the concept was introduced as a whole.

Hell does philosophy magecraft even come up in lb3? like the words themselves? Considering that Qin shi huang searched for xian stuff, and the philosophy stuff was already established by the time of taigong which was before Qin shi huang.

[Takashi]

The world was built around considering philosophy magecraft from as far as Kara no kyoukai

[Lily Emilio]

Asking to mention Philosophy key all the time is like asking all Clocktower mages to have a skill called Magic Crest (insert clan name here).

[Petrikow]

The world was built around considering philosophy magecraft from as far as Kara no kyoukai

Sure, buddy.

[Takashi]

Well idea of eastern magecraft was there from the get go.
Otherwise the statement that western magecraft would be incompatible against eastern magecraft wouldn't exist. If the concept of eastern magecraft wasn't already made

[Dullahan]

Nasu's scattered references to houjutsu in the early 2000s do not support the conclusion that he had already thought up Philosophy Magecraft at that stage.

[Takashi]

I ain't refering to references. Only the fact that general idea about philosophy magecraft already existed since it's been said that western magecraft and philosophy magecraft are incompatible. Or that statement is said on void if the general idea about it doesn't exist before hand.

[Reign]

Nasu knew he wanted Chinese magecraft and Western magecraft to be incompatible but that doesn't mean the exact details were ironed out.

[OnesFleetingGlory]

Does MA's eastern counterpart also assign Ranks to their members? Do they use different naming methods?

[Misaya]

In all likelihood some character wouldnt have them as skills, but it would have likely come up. Prob the most obvious who should have it as skills are zhuge and chen gong, the latter explicitely using xian stuff already. and i dont count interludes or mentions after the concept was introduced as a whole.

Hell does philosophy magecraft even come up in lb3? like the words themselves? Considering that Qin shi huang searched for xian stuff, and the philosophy stuff was already established by the time of taigong which was before Qin shi huang.

Clearly that Gen is suck at connecting all the lore together. It already is a thing since how off Fate/Zero is and how short the LB3 character profiles in Material are while there is tons of things you can write. Also, the whole Eastern system in charged by Sanda together with Nasu, not Gen. So he doesnt know anything, or just he doesnt care enough to put more effort. LB3 probably one of the best opportunity to introduce how thing about Chinese system and Gen messed that up then passed them to Sanda to handle.

[OnesFleetingGlory]

Fun fact: Urobuchi was considering a Xian as Caster candidate in FZ, but then Nasu shot it down because they would be too OP.


CMIIW

[You]

Does MA's eastern counterpart also assign Ranks to their members? Do they use different naming methods?

My guess is that this information will be part of El Melloi adventure mats, preorder now.

[Takashi]

Nasu knew he wanted Chinese magecraft and Western magecraft to be incompatible but that doesn't mean the exact details were ironed out.

There's thing about xians as well not being on fate zero. With all said and done I wouldn't say he already established philosophy keys and what not. But basic concept of Chinese magecraft is more than likely already established. You are speaking about he "wanted" it but that's not how the wording says. It's a direct statement that it already is. So in universe they already know it. If you can read minds that it was proposed not already made be my guest

[Kirishima]

You don't need to have anything about Chinese magecraft established to know that a Xian would just stomp everything. The original Chinese texts already make that pretty clear.