SIDE BY SIDE
Compare mantic systems
Read systems against shared questions to identify common language, procedural differences and distinct limits.
| Dimension | 数字卦与先秦筮法 ↗ | 龟卜与骨卜 ↗ |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Divination and correlative foundations | Divination and correlative foundations |
| Inputs | Published plate, number sequence and scholarly reading | Rubbing, transcription, catalogue number and dating proposal |
| Procedural structure | Different sources correlate generated numbers with directions, body parts, topics or positions. The Tsinghua Shifa offers unusually complete tables and judgment structures but does not represent every pre-imperial method. | A diviner drilled or grooved the medium and applied heat before reading the resulting cracks. Late-Shang inscriptions may record date, charge, prognostication and verification, placing question, judgment and outcome in one archival chain. |
| Formation | Shang-Zhou through the Warring States | Prehistoric precedents; mature royal institution in the late Shang |
| Evidence labels | Excavated evidence · Textually documented | Excavated evidence · Textually documented |
| Texts | Tsinghua Shifa / Chu divination and sacrificial manuscripts / Shang-Zhou objects bearing numerical hexagrams | Anyang oracle-bone inscriptions / Rites of Zhou, Offices of Spring / Records of the Grand Historian, Traditions of Turtle and Yarrow Diviners |
| Limits | Not every numerical hexagram belongs to the received Zhouyi, and visual resemblance alone cannot prove that a complete bagua system existed in prehistory. | Oracle-bone divination should not be equated with Zhouyi divination, and its rules of crack interpretation can be reconstructed only in part. |
| Research question | Which assumptions turn a numerical sequence into lines? | How are the charge and verification distinguished on one surface? |