Ancient Chinese Divination

by Stephen L. Field

Without delving into whether--and if so how--it works, Field (Chinese, Trinity U., Texas) describes how divination evolved in Chinese society from the New Stone Age in the seventh to second millennia BCE, to the close of the classical period at the founding of the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE. He details how the various forms descended from each other, but also how they are all related to a few basic ideas. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

142 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

Reviews

[Traben]

This book offers an interesting and comprehensive history of the development of several forms of Chinese divination. I did find some aspects of the divination processes described within a bit difficult to follow, but this is through no fault of the author and is instead a consequence of the complexity of the rituals themselves. The book is not overly long, with few footnotes to break up the main text and a liberal amount of diagrams and charts to help illustrate the finer points. This book would make a great jumping on point for the subject matter or an excellent resource for those already familiar with these rituals.