Title: The Origin of an <i>Yijing</i> Line Statement
Abstract: This essay begins by examining divination records from the Zhou dynasty (such as those from Zhouyuan and Baoshan, as well as records in traditional texts) showing that the topic of divination was invariably announced in the form of a “charge” indicating the desire of the person for whom the divination was being performed. Next, other accounts of turtle-shell divination (in the Shiji, Guo yu and Zuo zhuan ) are examined to determine how the results of the divinations were interpreted. The author shows that the diviner was responsible for producing a yao 竊 or “omen-text” that was composed of three lines of four characters, the first describing the crack in the shell ( i.e. , the omen), followed by a couplet linking this omen to the announced topic of the divination, similar to the way in which the nature evocations of the Shijing are linked to events in the human realm. Finally, the author shows that this omentext is formally identical to the most developed form of the line statemerits of the Yijing , and proposes that from this form can be discerned the divinatory context that originally produced these line statements.
Publication Year: 1995
Publication Date: 1995-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 24
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