Why can yarrow be divined?

The ancients believed that yarrow was the oldest herb, and it was immortal, so it could be counted. Therefore, it is used for divination.

Yarrow is a kind of grass stem with white fluff. It is said that it can live for hundreds of years and never die in winter, unlike other grasses, which "come and go with the seasons". "Natural History" said: "You are a thousand years old and have three hundred stems, so you know good or bad." According to legend, Fu used yarrow for divination. In ancient China, 49 yarrow trees were often used for divination. Therefore, the ancients also called yarrow sacred grass.

One of the characteristics of yarrow is the so-called "wine-lowering function". In ancient times, people paid attention to offering sacrifices to ancestors. As long as the wine is poured on the yarrow, the wine can be sucked up at once (because the grass itself is low in water content and covered with fluff, which can absorb water), so the people think that the wine they worship is enjoyed by the ancestors' gods. In this way, yarrow is also regarded as a spiritual thing. Yarrow was originally used by Zhou Wenwang for divination.

Related knowledge of yarrow

Yarrow is a perennial erect herb in Compositae, which is more than three feet high and has alternate pinnate veins. It blooms in summer and autumn, withers in late autumn and grows again in spring. It is said that this kind of grass can grow for thousands of years and has 300 stems. It is the longest growing grass among herbs, and its stem is very straight. So use yarrow for divination.

Because yarrow naturally has eight white lines and eight edges on its stem when it is mature and eight corners when it is cut, it is also called "Bagua grass". Interestingly, in western culture, the flower language of yarrow is "comfort", and divination is actually seeking psychological comfort! At this point, the eastern and western cultures seem to be interlinked.