Research On Divinations Based On The Changes In The Western Han Dynasty

As an important part of the traditional Chinese "elite" culture from which it emerged,Yi divinations has held a high position in social activities throughout history,and the Western Han period,a period of long-standing social stability and full cultural integration of all regions,was the most important stage in the development and evolution of ZhouYi divinations.The development of divinations in the Western Han Dynasty was based on the incorporation of other mathematical arts,inheriting the divinations methods of the pre-Qin Dynasty and incorporating the astronomical calendar,the five elements of yin and yang,and other divinations techniques of the time,resulting in a sophisticated and complex new divinations method.In addition to the direct divinations method using the eight trigrams of the Zhou Yi,there are other divinations methods that imitate the Zhou Yi in the form of the Yi.The Western Han documents unearthed in recent years mainly include the three major aspects of Yi divination materials,namely,the bamboo divinations of the Marquis of Haihun,the Han divination of Fuyang,and the bamboo divinations of Dunhuang.Haixuanhou "Yi Zhan" is to break the four times how the auspiciousness,"Yi Zhan" in the trigram gas said that there is likely to be a connection with the style method.The Fuyang Han dynasty’s ZhouYi has a tendency to combine divinations with the art of choosing days,a tendency that has had a significant impact on the content and scope of divinations.The Han simple divinations materials excavated at Dunhuang suggest that they were used for the purpose of divinations.In addition to this,some of the divinations methods in the Dunhuang documents bear some resemblance to the divinations methods of the Zhou Yi,and may have some connection with Yi divinations.The divinations method of divinations by Gua Qi,which matches the 64 hexagrams to the calendar,incorporates the ideas of yin and yang and the five elements into the Gua Qi system,and matches the eight hexagrams to the five elements of the seasons,thus deducing the theory of human affairs.The Najia divinations method uses the trigrams as its core and introduces the ten heavenly stems,twelve earthly branches and the five elements of yin and yang into the sixty-four trigrams of the ZhouYi,forming a complete system of divinations.Jingfang incorporated the five stars and the twenty-eight constellations into his system of ZhouYi,making it an important element in determining the fortunes of people.Divinations had a certain influence on the politics of the Western Han Dynasty,and played a role in the military activities of the Western Han Dynasty and in the system of selecting officials.In military matters,the rulers of the Western Han Dynasty attached great importance to astronomical divinations as a means of knowing the destiny of the heavens,and Yi scholars who were skilled in divinations were often relied upon by the imperial court for their ’divinatory responses’.As divinations was used extensively in the Western Han Dynasty,not only by monarchs,ministers and ordinary people,but also in all aspects of Western Han society,including military warfare,natural disasters,births and marriages,travel,and personal moral cultivation and even daily games,divinations influenced both the military and political judgements of the rulers at the top and the social behaviour of ordinary people,and played a significant role in the Western Han society.In addition to this,divinations also contributed to the development of philosophy in the Western Han,expressing the idea of the unification of symbols,numbers and reason,and promoting Confucianism as the official ideology of the Western Han.