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Is there really a certain basis for ancient tortoise shell divination?

The ancient divination culture in China has a long history, and the primitive ancestors still lacked a full understanding of the laws of nature. Therefore, in their communication with nature, they often combine some phenomena without causal connection as signs of ghosts and gods, so they judge astronomical phenomena, climate, hunting, nomadism, going with them and so on. With the help of natural signs, and in various forms to appeal to the will of the emperor and ghosts and gods, but natural signs are not always visible. Later, possession was used as an intermediary to communicate with ghosts and gods, and some signs were used to predict the good or bad luck in the future, so divination came into being.

In ancient times, many magicians or fortune tellers used tortoise shells for divination, because turtles were called Xuanwu in ancient times. Huai Nan Zi, one of the five beasts, originated from the worship of stars in ancient times, and is the northern god representing Zhuan Xu and the seven nights in the north. Based on gossip, it dominates the water in the five elements, symbolizing the old yin in the four elephants and the winter in the four seasons. In the Han dynasty, the symbolic meaning of turtle was added with the meaning of the underworld, benevolence and wisdom. After the Han dynasty, Taoism absorbed him as the protector, calling him the god of ghosts, and then the Zhenwu Emperor. "HongFan. "The Five Elements" said: "The tortoise has spoken for a long time, and the chitose knows the good and evil of this beast." It can be seen that in ancient times, turtles were closely related to Taoism, immortals in Taoism, dharma protection and so on. Even if the tortoise is not mythical, its longevity will bring a kind of mental and spiritual psychological change to ancient people.

Another reason why the ancients used tortoise shells for divination is because of the skeleton structure of the tortoise, which has tortoise patterns on the back and three squares in the middle, representing heaven, earth and man. There are 24 squares next to it, representing 24 mountains. There is also a 10 grid, which represents the ten-day stem, and a 12 grid at the bottom of the turtle shell, which represents the twelve earthly branches. On a small turtle shell, there are endless mysteries. The characteristics of tortoise shell just correspond to the image of heaven and earth, the three talents in gossip and heavenly stems and earthly branches in divination theory. Coincidence aside, the tortoise is really sacred. In short, this feature makes turtles an important tool for ancient divination.

Secondly, it is because of the habit of turtles. There is an old folk proverb, "The tortoise sweats and takes an umbrella when going out". This means that turtles have a strange ability to predict the weather. When the ancients raised turtles, they found that the shells were wet, the lines on the shells were mixed and black, and it was going to rain soon. There are water drops in the turtle shell, like sweating, which is getting more and more; The turtle shell is dry and the lines are clear, so it won't rain in the next few days. So the ancients believed that turtles could predict the future. This is why tortoise shells are the first choice to predict good or bad luck.