FROM BONE TO BAMBOO: NUMBER SETS AND MORTUARY RITUAL / 從甲骨至竹簡： 數字卦與喪禮

The earliest hexagrams appeared as sets of numbers on items used in mortuary ritual. The shift from numbers to solid and broken lines, symbolizing Yin and Yang, occurred around the same time that the Five Phases (wuxing) cosmological system became popular. Texts used by diviners for the interpretati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of oriental studies (Hong Kong) 2006-06, Vol.41 (1), p.1-40
Main Authors: Constance A. Cook, 柯鶴立
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bamboos
Bones
Bronzes
Divination
Diviners
Funerary rituals
Oracle bones
Religious rituals
Ritual music
Sound pitch
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Summary:The earliest hexagrams appeared as sets of numbers on items used in mortuary ritual. The shift from numbers to solid and broken lines, symbolizing Yin and Yang, occurred around the same time that the Five Phases (wuxing) cosmological system became popular. Texts used by diviners for the interpretation of hexagrams, such as the Yijing, are tied to this later system. The author postulates that a system other than Yin and Yang, possibly linked to ritual music and librettos, was behind the generation and interpretation of the early number sets and ultimately the source for song fragments preserved in later divination manuals. 八卦最早表現為喪禮儀具上的一組數字。 以代表陰陽的實、虛線取代數字的做法， 約始於五行學說流行之際。 《易經》一類衍生於八卦的文字， 便是建基於這種後期系統。 作者提出， 數字卦的產生， 是源自一種與祭祀音樂有關的系統。 這種系統與陰陽學說無涉， 而以詩歌形式殘存於後世的卜辭中。
ISSN:0022-331X