Stalk Divination. A newly Discovered Alternative to the I Ching

201 Pages·2017·3.481 MB·english

by  Constance A. Cook, Zhao Lu

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STALK DIVINATION
A Newly Discovered Alternative to
the I Ching
Edited and Translated by
Constance A. Cook

AND
Zhao Lu 趙璐
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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2017
CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress
ISBN 978– 0– 19– 064845– 9
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
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CONTENTS
Preface  ix
List of Charts and Illustrations  xiii
Introduction  1
The Cultural Milieu of Fourth- Century bce China  2
The Shifa Text  5
Contextualizing the Shifa and Its Use  13
Stalk Divination  18
Features of the Manuscript  26
1. General Principles of Shifa Interpretation 29
Relative Positioning  35
Fixed Positioning  38
The Use and Nature of Extraordinary Numbers  40
The Application of the Extraordinary Numbers
in the Reading  42
The Rules: Applications and Implications  44
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Contents
2. Traces of Shifa- Style Divination 47
3. Transcription and Translation 53
Section 1. “Life and Death” 死生  71
Section 2. “Obtaining” 得  77
Section 3. “Presenting Offerings” 享  86
Section 4. “Change” 變  90
Section 5. “Arrival” 至  92
Section 6. “Marrying a Wife” 娶妻  94
Section 7. “Negotiation” 讎  96
Section 8. “Meeting” 見  98
Section 9. “Spiritual Blame” 咎  100
Section 10. “Healing” 瘳  102
Section 11. “Rainy and Clear Weather” 雨旱  103
Section 12. “Male or Female” 男女  105
Section 13. “Travel” 行  106
Section 14. “Prognosticating on Husbands
and Women” 貞丈夫女子  107
Section 15. “Minor Attainments” 小得  109
Section 16. “War” 戰  112
Section 17. “Completing” 成  114
Section 18. “Intended Service” 志事  116
Section 19. “Intended Service, Military Troops”
志事 、軍旅  117
Section 20. “The Four Position Chart” 四位表  119
Section 21. “Auspiciousness and
Inauspiciousness According to the
Four Seasons” 四季吉凶  122
Section 22. “The Cycle of Qian and Kun”
乾坤運轉  126
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Contents
Section 23. “Results” 果  128
Section 24. “Pictures of the Trigram Array
and Human Body” 卦位圖、人身圖  131
Section 25. “Heavenly Stems and Trigrams”
天干與卦  134
Section 26. “Curses” 祟  136
Section 27. “Earthly Stems and Trigrams”
地支與卦  140
Section 28. “Earthly Stems and Line Numbers”
地支與爻  142
Section 29. “Line Number Images” 爻象  143
Section 30. “The Seventeen Commands” 十七命  145
Glossary  147
Chart of All Shifa and Some Shuogua Correlations  155
Table of Hexagram Correlations in the Zhouyi and Guicang  159
Summary Content of Zhouyi and Wangjiatai (Guicang)
Hexagram Texts  163
Notes  171
Bibliography  181
Index  191
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PREFACE
This book presents for the first time a full translation and analy-
sis of a newly discovered bamboo divination text from preimperial
China, called the Shifa 筮法. The manual presents a completely new
way of reading the results of stalk divination, which traditionally is
done in terms of hexagrams according to a tradition and text popu-
larly known as the I Ching (otherwise known as the Book of Changes,
Yijing, or Zhouyi). The Shifa divination method is focused on the eight
trigrams, which make up the fundamental building blocks of the 64
hexagrams, as seen in the Zhouyi, but the method of their interpre-
tation in the Shifa is unlike anything in the Changes tradition. The
authors of this book have translated this new text and “cracked the
code” of its methodology. This new divination methodology will gen-
erate a reevaluation of all pre-Q in divinatory results and bring new
light to Zhouyi studies.
The original text is short (only 63 bamboo strips which roll out
sort of like a placemat), but it is complete, including 18 sections of
sample trigram pattern readings and 21 tables or diagrams of factors
(parts of the body, seasons, calendar signs, lists of mantic numbers,
curses, etc.) that had to be considered by the diviner when interpret-
ing the trigram patterns (hexagrams are never mentioned). This book
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PrefaCe
explores the logic behind each rather cryptic translated case and pres-
ents it to readers as a functional manual, not simply as a translation
exercise. Some of the information buried in the text is also transcribed
graphically into useful reference charts. Illustrations of the different
sections of the original text are included for the use of scholars and
students but also to give all readers a tangible sense of the original.
Besides charts to clarify the logic of the ancient divination method, a
number of reference tables are appended for readers, who may wish
to think through each case themselves and perhaps compare it with
other published divination manuals, such as the Zhouyi. Even though
the Shifa trigrams are presented as number series in the original (a
concept we analyze), the more modern trigram signs (of broken and
unbroken lines) are also supplied. For simplicity, we have included no
archaic characters except a few as illustrations in the Introduction.
Readers must understand that the contrast with the modern Chinese
language and worldview is dramatic. The fourth- century bce world,
of which this manual gives us a glimpse, is long gone.
Anyone who studies this book, particularly those interested in
the Zhouyi, will soon realize that the Shifa is in many ways a “coun-
terclassic.” It was not written by an acolyte of King Wen, Zhou Gong,
or even Confucius in the northern Zhou tradition. The Shifa bears
distinct identifiers that mark it as southern and most likely produced
in the southern state of Chu. It is a pragmatic text without a shred
of mystical philosophy. The original author(s) must have been aware
of the Zhouyi— after all, trigrams were the original building blocks of
the hexagrams, but the Shifa methodology employed a completely
different method of reading the stalk-d ivination results. With this
new interpretative method in hand, the authors suggest that some
variations in later commentaries of the Zhouyi tradition may have
been the result of influence from this countertradition.
The authors come to the project as specialists of two different
eras of Chinese religion and thought. Cook is an expert on excavated
texts from the preimperial era, and Zhao is a scholar of intellec-
tual history of the imperial era. Both acknowledge the inspiration
as well as the intellectual and financial support of the International
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PrefaCe
Consortium for Research in the Humanities, “Fate, Freedom and
Prognostication: Strategies for Coping with the Future in East Asia
and Europe” of Friedrich- Alexander-U niversität Erlangen-N ürnberg,
Germany. We thank Lala Zuo for help with the illustrations, Chen
Wei and Li Rui for bibliographic suggestions, and the anonymous
reviewers of our manuscript for their many helpful suggestions.
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LIST OF CHARTS AND
ILLUSTRATIONS
Chart 1.1: Trigrams and the Four Directions  30
Chart 1.2: Seasons and Trigram Auspiciousness  31
Chart 1.3: Gender and Trigrams  32
Chart 1.4: Earthly Branches and Trigrams  33
Chart 1.5: Heavenly Stems and Trigrams  33
Chart 1.6: “Wife- and- Husband” Positions  35
Chart 1.7: “Vacancy” Examples  37
Chart 1.8: Line Reconfiguration Examples  38
Chart 1.9: “Accomplishment” Example  43
Chart 3.1: “Left and Right” Trigrams  78
Chart 3.2: Spatial Trigram Array  88
Chart 3.3: Trigrams and Normative Moon Positions  88
Chart 3.4: The Four Positions  120
Chart 3.5: Seasons and Trigrams  125
Illustration 3.1: Section 24  55
Illustration 3.2: Sections 1 and 2  56
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List of Charts and iLLustrations
Illustration 3.3: Sections 3– 13  58
Illustration 3.4: Sections 14 and 15  59
Illustration 3.5: Sections 16– 18  60
Illustration 3.6: Section 19  62
Illustration 3.7: Section 20  64
Illustration 3.8: Sections 21– 23  66
Illustration 3.9: Sections 25– 29  68
Illustration 3.10: Section 30  70
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