41
etym, (variant); } = cracks; 1= || scapula !) (K. 1192) enquire by divination; auspicious, good, virtuous; firm, solid; and !! diviner's fee?) { Kui (K. 462) tortoise, divination by aid of the cracks in heated tortoise shell to draw lots; a lot [this character is a strange mixture; enclosure or “border prairie” with possibly 2 sets of stalks on top of a tortoise: 2 types of divination mixed together] * (K. 894; M. 5763) to divine by stalks of milfoil; (from K magic and " bamboo-stalks) * shih (M. 5801) milfoil (“achillée”) [the character suggests a plant, and elder person, and a mouth: oracle of old sage?]
Characters derived from 4: A hands manipulating divining sticks on a table to perceive name of king, Kao, a diviner to learn to teach (to learn + whipping)
NOTES
1 The Chinese text of this oracle is found in Sheng-ch'ien chu-chieh (see bibliography)
2 While this article was already in press, I obtained new information stating that there is a still older example of Chinese oracles, dating from the 5th century A.D: “The earliest example of a Buddhist oracle-sequence can be dated to the middle of the fifth century, and is found in the printed Buddhist Canon. It forms the tenth book in a work entitled The Book of Consecration (Kuan-ting ching, T. 1331).” Although this text is not necessarily a temple oracle, yet it is so far the earliest book containing 100 oracle stanzas in a style similar to the later temple oracles. (Michel Strickmann, “Chinese Oracles in Buddhist Vestments”, p. 27 of an unpublished paper delivered at the Berkeley Conference on Chinese Divination and Portent-lore, June 20-July 2, 1983).
3 See for example L. Vandermeersch, "De la Tortue à l'Achillée", p. 46. Fung Yu-lan, in his History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 1 (1952), pp. 27-28: quotes the Ch'ien Han Shu, which in its turn refers to the Shuching. “The divina-tion plant (shih ) and the tortoise shell (kuei #k) are used by the Sages. The Shu says: "when you have doubts about any great matter, consult the tortoise shell and divination stalks'. . . .
** See also J. Needham, Science & Civilization in China, vol. 2 (1956), pp. 347-349. On page 348 there is a reproduction of a drawing dating from the late Ch'ing dynasty, which shows the legendary emperor Shun and his ministers consulting the oracles of the tortoise-shell and the milfoil.
7 & Miyazaki Ichisada (1966), p. 161.
8 Miyazaki (1966), p. 162.
9 Webster's New 20th century Dictionary of the English Language (1979), p. 765.
10 Andree Richard (1906).