Why did the ancients use tortoise shells for divination?

Supernatural methods are used to obtain information about things on earth or to predict bad luck and good luck. "Zhan" means observing, and "Bu" means burning tortoise shells. It is believed that the shape of cracks can predict good or bad luck. It judges the unknown or predicts the future by studying the incomplete basis obtained by observing various signs. In many societies, divination is only the behavior of the operator seeking information or answers with the help of certain instruments or phenomena when he is about to do something to meet his psychological needs. Divination is very popular in cultures of all ages all over the world, and there are various methods. Early divination is closely related to religion, and its development is influenced by cosmology and national psychology. The common divination methods are divination (such as China folk divination), chicken divination, bird divination, bird divination, water divination, star divination and card divination. The Book of Changes said: "There are four ways to become a saint: the speaker is still loyal to their words, the doer is still loyal to their changes, the maker of devices is still loyal to their image, and the prophet is still responsible for them." The way of divination originated very early! Zhou Li was given three gifts by Guan Tai in the spring, one was called Lianshan, the other was called Guizang, and the third was called Zhouyi. Lianshan and Guizang have long been lost, and now there is only the Book of Changes. Zhouyi originated in Fuxi, when there were only images and no words. Zhou Wenwang's sixty-four hexagrams belong to Ci, which is called "haiku". Duke Zhou presented Xiang Xiang with Yi Ci. Finally, Confucius wrote ten wings. This book is very well prepared. It is called "Four Saints of the Book of Changes" in history, and the Book of Changes has become the standard of philosophy of Yin-Yang and Five Elements in later generations! Among them, divination, of course, is also Zushao's Zhouyi, which cannot be separated from all changes. But more strictly speaking, the origin of divination is earlier than the Book of Changes, and it is only China's divination method, which can't be compared with the Book of Changes! There are many methods of divination. In ancient times, the method of divination with yarrow was very complicated. For example, the copula says, "The number of big swallows is fifty, and nine out of forty are used; Split in two, there are two images, hang one with three images, wipe it with four images, have four images, return to strangeness, have a leap of images, and then leap at the age of five, so hang up again. This is the divination method of yarrow. Later, it was said that the fairy Lord of Guigu turned grass into copper coins, and wealth, officials, fathers, brothers and sons were all bound by God's orders. This is actually a major reform of divination! Because the ancients were calm and sincere, the long process and time of divination can still make people feel connected and concentrate; There are many people and distractions today, so it is better to wait for a long time! Before yarrow was finished, it was like putting a thousand kites in my head, and I didn't know where to fly. How can you get accurate divination without concentration? This trend of simplification has been developing; For example, rice grains, numbers and characters are drawn ... Among them, in the book "The Change of Plum Blossoms", things, sounds, words [words include one word, two words ... eleven words], feet, movements and so on. Most of the divination methods we can see today can't get rid of these categories, but they have changed slightly. I believe many friends know that there are three kinds of I Ching: Lian Yi Shan, Gui Zang Yi and Zhouyi. Unfortunately, the first two have been lost, and there are only some scattered records in later generations. Before introducing various divination methods, let me talk about the different emphases of the application of Yijing. You know, in different historical periods in China, the focus of divination by using the Book of Changes is different. It should be pointed out that the tortoise divination method was lost after the Tang Dynasty and no one used it, so this article will not mention it. Fuxi times mainly paid attention to the inspection of Yi Xiang (for example, dry hexagrams have the meaning of heaven, monarch, father, gold and jade, which is called dry hexagrams), and this period paid more attention to visualization, that is, Yi Xiang. However, the Zhou Dynasty attached importance to divination and rhetoric in the Book of Changes, and at the same time emphasized divination and imagery. The Western Han Dynasty added the concept of five elements to the Zhou Dynasty. At this stage, it can be said that the method of divination has developed very well, that is to say, from the current point of view, all necessary elements are basically complete. Later masters of divination were Jiao Yanshou and He of Han Dynasty, Guan Ju and Guo Pu of Wei and Jin Dynasties, Li of Tang Dynasty and Shao Yong of Song Dynasty. After the promotion and development of these people, the divination method in the Spring and Autumn Period can be said to be carried forward and shine brilliantly. Let me talk about some divination methods I know: the first one: I ching divination looks strange. Are other methods not based on the Book of Changes? In fact, the word "Book of Changes" here emphasizes that after divination, the basis for judging good or ill luck is the scripture of the Book of Changes (of course, the Book of Changes, which was later directly called the Book of Changes), that is, the words of divination and written words. According to the method of divination, there are two kinds: large number of divination, that is, divination with 50 pieces of grass (shi 1); The second is the well-known money divination, which uses three copper coins to calculate divination (of course, after divination with copper coins, you can also use six hexagrams or plum blossoms to explain the analysis, which is another matter). To use this method, you need to be very familiar with the hexagrams in the original Zhouyi, and at the same time be very skilled in the analogy of Yi Xiang in order to use it freely. The second method: Five elements divination combines the concepts of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, and some also combine the factors of heavenly stems and earthly branches. There are mainly three kinds: the big six expensive occupation method, the six expensive occupation method, and the plum blossom easy number I often use. This method judges the quality according to the birth date and grams of the five elements. In general, you don't need to refer to the original Zhouyi. The third type; This method of divination is very common, and it is also the most common one in the streets and lanes (including TV dramas), and its forms are also various. However, the essence is the same. They all write a meaningful signature on a piece of paper or bamboo stick in advance, and then extract and select these signatures in some way. There are usually people who specialize in interpreting these signatures. For example, some people ask for a sign face to face, some people peck the sign with birds (called picking birds, which is different from picking birds with plum blossoms), or divination with playing cards, and there are other methods. This method is the most common among people, mainly because it is easy to master and because it is short, flat and fast. If you use the method of six hexagrams or six hexagrams on the street to help others calculate divination, I'm afraid it will take you a long time to analyze and explain, and the diviner has long been impatient to leave. Fourth, other methods mainly include Taiyi and Qimendunga. These methods are called stunts and profound. Of course, we can't ignore them. Because I don't know much about it, I just mention it and apologize to those who know it. If there are any omissions in other methods, I also hope that Mr. Wang will add and correct me. Nowadays, many people in the society often come to online self-help divination (operating on the web page by themselves) to directly produce results. This kind of divination belongs to sign divination, which I believe many people have used. These results are directly generated by computer programs. At present, the commonly used divination methods are six hexagrams and plum blossoms, and some people use methods such as Qimen and Liuren. It can also be said that each has its own chances of winning, and a hundred flowers blossom.