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Divination in Ancient China
Author(s) -
Robinson D.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of the royal statistical society: series c (applied statistics)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.205
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9876
pISSN - 0035-9254
DOI - 10.2307/2347094
Subject(s) - divination , china , ancient history , traditional medicine , geography , archaeology , art , history , literature , medicine
Summary The I Ching is an ancient Chinese book intended primarily for use in divination. Both the standard methods of consulting the book, one using yarrow stalks and the other using coins, lead to a “hexagram” which has various auguries attached to it. An analysis of the probabilities involved shows that, although in general both methods have the same chance of producing any given hexagram, the final outcome of the consultation will be different in the two cases, as a result of the way in which the attached auguries are to be regarded as relevant or not. The relative merits of the two methods of consultation, and the value of the I Ching itself are discussed.