JULIAN PAS
divination and the use of milfoil. The former method as practised by several Mongolian tribes produced various linear patterns in the shoulder blades of sheep when they were roasted in fire. These lines, caused by fissures and cracks due to the heat, appear to be much more complicated than the ones found on the Shang oracle bones and show a strong affinity with lines obtained through the use of stalks. The milfoil may have been an alternative method used whenever bones were not available.
Yet another method of using sticks or stalks consists in numbering or marking a certain amount of them, and then drawing one at random. This technique is also called sortilege or "the act or practice of drawing lots; divination by drawing lots." A related method is called belomancy: "drawing an arrow to obtain an answer to a problem. The ancient Babylonians used this technique: they put arrows in a container; after shaking they took one out at random to determine further action. These arrows had previously been marked with signs." Moslem authors describe the same method as used by the Arabs; seven arrows without points or feathers, each marked with a significant word, were put in a container and mixed. After prayers to the main temple deity one arrow was drawn."2 The use of sticks was common to all tribes of Scythians in Asia, and from there was transmitted to the Chinese.
Although this type of divination with stalks is quite different from the more complex I ching consultation, there may have been a definite connection between the two. I would like to presume that the simpler way of using numbered sticks was a popular adaptation made available to the non-specialized layman. The I ching developed into a very complex system not only in its philosophy but also in its manipulation of the sticks. The common people needed a simpler way for obtaining answers in difficult situations. All the data were on hand in the I ching system: what was needed was a simplification of the texts and an easier technique. At what time such an adaptation was first attempted, is as yet not known. But the still surviving and in some places of the Chinese world very popular custom of consulting the temple oracles is very likely an offshoot of the old I Ching related methodology.
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JULIAN PAS
divination and the use of milfoil. The former method as practised by several Mongolian tribes produced various linear patterns in the shoulder blades of sheep when they were roasted in fire. These lines, caused by fissures and cracks due to the heat, appear to be much more complicated than the ones found on the Shang oracle bones and show a strong affinity with lines obtained through the use of stalks. The milfoil may have been an alternative method used whenever bones were not available.
*
Yet another method of using sticks or stalks consists in num- bering or marking a certain amount of them, and then drawing one at random. This technique is also called sortilege or "the act or practice of drawing lots; divination by drawing lots." A related method is called belomancy:" drawing an arrow to obtain an an- swer to a problem. The ancient Babylonians used this technique: they put arrows in a container; after shaking they took one out at random to determine further action. These arrows had previously been marked with signs." Moslem authors describe the same method as used by the Arabs; seven arrows without points or feathers, each marked with a significant word, were put in a con- tainer and mixed. After prayers to the main temple deity one arrow was drawn."2 The use of sticks was common to all tribes of Scythians in Asia, and from there was transmitted to the Chi-
nese.
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12
Although this type of divination with stalks is quite different from the more complex I ching consultation, there may have been a definite connection between the two. I would like to presume that the simpler way of using numbered sticks was a popular adap- tation made available to the non specialized layman. The I ching developed into a very complex system not only in its philosphy but also in its manipulation of the sticks. The common people needed a simpler way for obtaining answers in difficult situations. All the data were on hand in the I ching system: what was needed was a simplification of the texts and an easier technique. At what time such an adaptation was first attempted, is as yet not known. But the still surviving and in some places of the Chinese world very popular custom of consulting the temple oracles is very likely an offshoot of the old I Ching related methodology.
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