Chinese oracle
In China , oracles have a tradition that goes back thousands of years.
to form
Animal bone oracle (also scapularamanty)
The oldest is the oracle with animal bones heated in the fire . This find evidence already in the Neolithic period (about 5000 v. Chr.), Document lacks the highlight was but during the Bronze Age falling Shang Dynasty recorded.
Originally, the bones came from sacrificial animals, but there is no evidence mostly from the shoulder blades of cattle, pigs or sheep or the breastplates of turtles . The oracle consultation itself was traditionally in the hands of the rulers, who hoped to gain information about the success of upcoming campaigns, the development of the weather and the harvest or the progress of the dynasty. On the other hand, they also got advice from the oracle, for example on the appointment of office holders, the construction of cities and political decisions of all kinds.
The bones were specially prepared before use; For example, round or oval cavities were drilled, which in turn were provided with bronze wires. No evidence The heat then formed cracks and fissures in the bones that were reminiscent of a "T" or the Chinese character bù (不, "not"). No evidence The ruler or specially trained fortune tellers then drew their conclusions from the exact course of the lines. The question to the oracle, the number of cracks and their interpretation as well as a later confirmation were carved into the animal bones and partially colored red.
In some cases, the inscriptions were also applied beforehand, in such a way that they represent facts in an affirmative and negative form, separated by an unlabeled space. The course of the cracks then gave information about which variant will occur.
To date, more than 100,000 oracle bones have been found. The oracle inscriptions made a significant contribution to the study of the early forms of Chinese writing .
Yarrow oracle
Around 1000 BC In addition to this, the so-called yarrow oracle (筮 shì, with yarrow, 蓍 草 shīcǎo, oracles) prevailed. Here, fifty were pulled out of a bundle of dried stems of yarrow (today also thin sticks made of wood, metal or ivory) in a complicated process and laid out according to a certain system in such a way that tri- and hexagrams were created from solid or broken lines. The yarrow oracle is based on a complicated numerology .
The prophecy technique of the I Ching (Book of Changes) developed from the yarrow oracle . The following rules apply:
- After a ritual cleansing of the room, the 50 sticks are taken in the left hand and one is put away, then the 49 remaining are divided into two piles and counted by removing four sticks. Depending on the remainder - four or less - you can find the numbers »2« or »3«.
This leaves five or nine sticks on the first count; four or eight sticks on the following last two counts. Five or four sticks mean the number "3". Nine or eight sticks mean the number "2".
- This process is carried out three times and the determined numbers are added: There are eight possible combinations with the sums 6, 7, 8 and 9. The "6" and "8" correspond to a yin (
). The "7" and "9" correspond to Yang ( 
). - This process is repeated six times. This results in the six lines of the hexagram from bottom to top.
- The lines or strokes of a sign identified with the digits "6" and "9" are the walking lines through which their respective opposites take their place and thus dissolve into one of the 63 other signs.
Each hexagram created in this way stands for a certain combination of Yin and Yang influences and thus for a certain future development.
Chopstick oracle
Finally, under the influence of Buddhism , the chopstick oracle developed. It is easier to perform and interpret than the aforementioned forms, which has contributed to its greater popularity.
Usually, a specific question was asked in a temple of the goddess Guanyin on a topic of personal future such as business, health, marriage and child prospects and the like. Then you shook a certain number of wooden sticks with characters (Chinese: 签 qiān) in a cup and pulled out one of them. The prophecy contained therein then answered the question posed.
The coin oracle
A method was therefore later developed to answer simple questions more quickly, in the form of a coin oracle . This kind of oracle was probably in China since the era of the Warring applied (403-221 v. Chr.). According to legend, the coin oracle of the I Ching was developed by the Daoist hermit and philosopher Gui Guo Zi. The coin method soon found widespread use in Chinese society. However, the number of coins used in each case varied. In connection with the I Ching, the three-coin method ultimately prevailed as far as possible. The questioning and especially the interpretation of the oracle should take place immediately after or during a meditation - this applies to each of the methods listed here.
The number "3" is assigned to the front of a coin and the number "2" to the back. This is followed by the method analogous to the yarrow oracle.
16 marbles
These 16 marbles are distributed in an urn as follows: One marble has the number "6", three marbles have the number "9", five marbles have the number "7" and seven marbles have the number "8". The four different numbers stand for four different line qualities, which will be explained later.
Now six marbles are to be drawn from the urn, each drawn marble being put back before drawing again. In this way you get six numbers, which then form the oracle as lines painted on top of each other, since each number means a different type of line.
This has the same probability as the yarrow method: random (array (8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9, 9, 6));
The rarest sign is therefore the hexagram with the lines 6,6,6,6,6,6.
In addition the I Ching (hexagram with the number 2): “All lines: Your character is solid and in balance. You can now have a lasting and beneficial effect on the world. "
Other forms of oracles
There are also clues for other forms of oracles: For example, the legend reports that the two sibling gods Fuxi and Nüwa were only induced by an oracle from two columns of smoke that unite in the air to put aside their concerns about an incestuous relationship and to marry each other.
The book Shen Shu , written around the turn of the ages, contains a coin oracle .
See also
literature
- Jacques Gernet : The Chinese World. The history of China from the beginning to the present day . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-518-38005-2 , pp. 51-53 ( Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch 1505).
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Dieter Kuhn : East Asia until 1800 . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-10-010843-2 , pp. 92 .
- ↑ Walter Flemmer: The old China . Tessloff, Nürnberg 2000, ISBN 3-7886-0672-X , p. 8 .
- ↑ a b c Dieter Kuhn : East Asia until 1800 . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-10-010843-2 , pp. 134 .
- ↑ 揭開 千年 蓍 草 神秘 面紗 ， 能 占卜 只是 其中 一個 特技！ ｜ Zi 字 媒體. July 21, 2017, Retrieved February 16, 2019 (Traditional Chinese).
- ^ Wolfram Eberhard: Lexicon of Chinese symbols . Diedrichs, ISBN 3-424-00750-1 .
Web links
"The coin oracle", based on a statement by Richard Wilhelm , viewed on April 16, 2011