By the end of the Later Chou, there are several occurrences of the word "fang" in two new binomes, ''fang-shu'' () and ''fang-shuo'' (), literally, "fang books" and "fang theories". The word "fang" in its various common contexts meant "efficacious," "formulaic," "parallel," "correlative," "comparative," "medicinal," "spiritual," or "esoteric." Throughout archaic times, the word also occurs commonly in the compound ''ssu-fang'' (), meaning four outlying areas, and hence refers to people, places, and cultures removed from the central court. Each of these meanings is potentially a factor in the etymology of the term." (1983:1-2)

Whatever ''fang'' or ''shih'' as separate words meant in an earlier period, when they were combined to form the name for wonder-workers who gathered at the Ch'in and Han courts, the name expressed some essential quality of these people. 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." In analyzing the term ''fang shih'', earlier scholars have focused primarily on the meaning "method" or "tablet on which a method is recorded, recipe," in which case ''fang shih'' means "master possessing methods" or "master possessing recipes." (1986:395)

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. Virtually all the fang-shih prominent enough to be included in dynastic histories specialized in only one of these areas. Because the three areas are not historically related, and the typical fang-shih does not embrace them all, the grouping suggests that the common sense of the name ''fang-shih'' was somewhat akin to "others," and did not attach to any readily definable school or tradition. (1983:6)

#The ''fang-shih'' usually belonged to the tiny privileged segment of the population who could read books and leave records. The writings we have, not a random sample, are of high literary quality. Early stories about technicians often have them confounding philosophers. The ''fang-shih'' usually came from a family that we know held official rank, even in periods when such rank was normally hereditary.
#The ''fang-shih'' himself did not usually hold high rank in the regular civil service. If he did, it tended to be obtained irregularly, most often as an imperial gesture. Someone who reached a high post through a conventional career, although he might have considerable mechanical skill, scientific knowledge, or mastery of the occult, was not often called a ''fang-shih''. …
#The ''fang-shih'' did not strive for the personal goals that the well-born expected of their own kind. He usually held conventional moral and political opinions, if we can rely on the record, but the stigma of inappropriate technical enthusiasms, however faint, is commonly visible. Someone in a conspicuous position of orthodoxy, regardless of technical expertise, was not considered a ''fang-shih''.
#The ''fang-shih'' had powers only rarely seen in the orthodox literatus – to foresee the future, to arrogate to himself the shaping and transforming powers of natural process (''tsao hua'' 造化), and so on. At the same time descriptions of him never limn the full humanity, the mastery of the social Way, of the more conventional great. (1995:28-9)