16
JULIAN PAS
From Sung times on, the blockprint method made the spread of temple oracles much easier. I also believe that once one temple started using the oracles, the practice must have spread as quickly as fire to other temples to attract worshippers and increase temple revenue. Nowadays the great majority of temples in Taiwan have sets of bamboo lots for the use of visitors. Few temples, mostly those of Buddhist affiliation, can afford not to include them in their paraphernalia, and even then many Buddhist temples do make use of them. Taking over a successful practice, however, does not necessarily mean downright imitation. Personal inspiration and possibly competition amongst the temples resulted in an incredible variety of oracle texts. These texts, written by diviners, priests and even poets share the same basic orientation or purpose: to give answers to people in distress or uncertainty. It is believed that when the worshipper shakes the container, the divine influence will make the right answer appear. Besides this one universal characteristic, each set of oracles has its own individual traits, as will be shown below.
The oldest set of oracles discovered so far probably dates from the Sung dynasty (ca. 1250) and was reprinted in 1958.1 In W. Banck's text edition, oracle no. 78 of that blockprint series has been reproduced; it is interesting to notice that in the interpretation given, the character kua | is used: this immediately links this oracle to the diagrams of the I Ching which are always called kua.
Local influences, individual tastes and the talents of their creators must have given each series its own particularities. Obviously competition among various shrines must have also influenced the authors. In modern times the rich variety of oracle sets is amazing: in W. Banck's collection 55 different sets are photographically reproduced: 46 sets were collected in Taiwan temples, the remaining ones are from Hong Kong (3), Macao (1), Malaysia (3), Bangkok (1) and even California (1). Besides these, I collected in Taiwan some other sets not included in Banck's collection. One wonders how many more sets were once in use in mainland temples, since the varieties found in Taiwan mostly reflect the situation in Fukien and in a more limited way in Kuangtung.
The Taotsang, the collection of sacred writings of the Taoists17 has preserved 7 or 8 oracle series, probably derived from other
16
JULIAN PAS
From Sung times on, the blockprint method made the spread of temple oracles much easier. I also believe that once one temple started using the oracles, the practice must have spread as quickly as fire to other temples to attract worshippers and increase temple revenue. Nowadays the great majority of temples in Taiwan have sets of bamboo lots for the use of visitors. Few temples, mostly those of Buddhist affiliation, can afford not to include them in their paraphernalia, and even then many Buddhist temples do make use of them. Taking over a successful practice, however, does not necessarily mean downright imitation. Personal inspira- tion and possibly competition amongst the temples resulted in an incredible variety of oracle texts. These texts, written by diviners, priests and even poets share the same basic orientation or pur- pose: to give answers to people in distress or uncertainty. It is believed that when the worshipper shakes the container, the di- vine influence will make the right answer appear. Besides this one universal characteristic, each set of oracles has its own individual traits, as will be shown below. The oldest set of oracles discovered so far probably dates from the Sung dynasty (ca. 1250) and was reprinted in 1958.1 In W. Banck's text edition, oracle no. 78 of that blockprint series has been reproduced; it is interesting to no- tice that in the interpretation given, the character kua | is used: this immediately links this oracle to the diagrams of the I Ching which are always called kua.
Local influences, individual tastes and the talents of their cre- ators must have given each series its own particularities. Obvious- ly competition among various shrines must have also influenced the authors. In modern times the rich variety of oracle sets is amazing: in W. Banck's collection 55 different sets are photo- graphically reproduced: 46 sets were collected in Taiwan temples, the remaining ones are from Hong Kong (3), Macao (1), Malaysia (3), Bangkok (1) and even California (1). Besides these, I collected in Taiwan some other sets not included in Banck's collection. One wonders how many more sets were once in use in mainland tem- ples, since the varieties found in Taiwan mostly reflect the situa- tion in Fukien and in a more limited way in Kuangtung.
The Taotsang, the collection of sacred writings of the Taoists17 has preserved 7 or 8 oracle series, probably dervied from other
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