“The Transmission of Yijing Knowledge and Divination Practices in Contemporary China”
Zheng Liu (CAS-E)
The purpose of this lecture is to show the teaching and learning of Yijing knowledge and divination practices in the “Yijing community” in mainland China. The learning of Yijing knowledge relates to both to the Yijing text and debates related on divination in sinology. The divination techniques are two Yijing-based divination methods, Meihua Yishu 梅 花易数 and Liu Yao 六爻, and two Yijing-derived divination methods, Qimen Dunjia 奇门遁甲 and Sizhu 四柱. The first part of this lecture will highlight what Yijing knowledge and divination practices offers today’s learners, including the target audience and their motivation for learning. The second part of the lecture will focus on the curricula, and the teaching content will be explored through a combination of ethnographic data collected in the field since 2013 and textual analysis of Chinese cosmology, philosophy, and sinological materials. Finally, I will show how explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge in divination have been articulated through “learning by doing it”, supported by empirical evidence.
24.10.2023- 18:15
