Chinese Divination and Writing System Sample Clauses

Chinese Divination and Writing System. The turtle is commended in China as one of the four spiritually-endowed creatures, and is highly regarded in the Confucian Classics, particularly in the Book of Rites.34 It is said to possess several different powers, including the power of foresight. As a result, in the early establishment of Chinese civilization, the turtle became key to rituals involving ancestor worship and divination. The practice of divination stems from the Chinese belief that the ancestors who passed away possessed great power and influence over the living, which gave rise to the practice of propitiatory sacrifice as a form of ancestor worship.35 Oracle bones were used to read future outcomes in divination practices. Holes were punctured into each half of the shell. Once heated with an inflamed stick, the bone developed cracks. Diviners read and interpreted these cracks. First, the diviner would state one positive statement and one negative for the two halves of the oracle bone.36 Then, depending on where the cracks formed, the answers would be read foreseeing a positive or negative outcome. Finally, these outcomes were carved into the bone for documentation. Divination from the cracks in the oracle bone “was a method of predicting the future and ensuring a favourable outcome for the enquirer by identifying the correct target of appeasement.”37 The oracle bones (甲骨), more than three thousand years old inscribed with Chinese characters kept in the Xxxxxxx Collection at the Cambridge