Chapter 4: The Ancient Perspective: The Shamanic-Historical Tradition and the Sacredness of "Number"

Section 4.1: From "Severing Communication Between Heaven and Earth" to "Divergence of Shamans and Historians" — The Transformation of Knowledge Power

To understand the original function of the Zhouyi, we must shift our focus back to the ancient shamanic-historical tradition, even earlier than the Zhou Dynasty.

The Guoyu, "Chuyu Xia," records an extremely important ancient historical narrative—"Severing Communication Between Heaven and Earth" (绝地天通):

"When Shao Hao's (少皞) reign declined, the Jiuli (九黎) tribes disrupted virtue, and people and spirits mingled, making distinctions impossible. Each household offered sacrifices, and each family acted as shaman or historian, without proper standards. The people were depleted in sacrifices and did not know their blessings. The incessant offerings were without measure, and people and spirits occupied the same positions. Zhuanxu (颛顼) received this mandate, and accordingly ordered Nan Zheng Zhong (南正重) to be in charge of Heaven to connect with spirits, and ordered Huo Zheng Li (火正黎) to be in charge of Earth to connect with people. This was to restore the old order, without mutual transgression. This is called the Severing of Communication Between Heaven and Earth." (及少皞之衰也，九黎乱德，民神杂糅，不可方物。夫人作享，家为巫史，无有要质。民匮于祀而不知其福。烝享无度，民神同位。颛顼受之，乃命南正重司天以属神，命火正黎司地以属民。使复旧常，无相侵渎，是谓绝地天通。)

This passage describes a major reform in ancient society: after the decline of Shao Hao's reign, "people and spirits mingled"—everyone could communicate with spirits, and every family had shamans, leading to great disorder in social order. Emperor Zhuanxu then carried out a "restructuring of knowledge power"—ordering "Zhong" to be solely in charge of heavenly affairs and "Li" to be solely in charge of earthly affairs, thus transforming communication between Heaven and humanity from a freely accessible act for everyone into a specialized, institutionalized, and ordered knowledge system.

This is "Severing Communication Between Heaven and Earth"—cutting off direct channels of communication between ordinary people and the heavens, concentrating the power of "communicating with Heaven" in the hands of professional religious personnel.

Why recount this ancient history$32 Because the Zhouyi is likely a product of the transformation of the shamanic-historical tradition towards rationalization after the "Severing of Communication Between Heaven and Earth."

Before the "Severing of Communication Between Heaven and Earth," shamans communicated with spirits through ecstasy, possession, and intuition—a direct, irrational mode of cognition. After the "Severing of Communication Between Heaven and Earth," communication between Heaven and humanity was brought into an institutionalized framework, and the previously intuitive shamanic cognition began to transform towards systematic image-number cognition. The system of Eight Trigrams, sixty-four hexagrams, and Yin-Yang lines is precisely the crystallization of this transformation—it transformed the vague spiritual intuitions of shamans into a operable, teachable, and verifiable symbolic system.

In other words, the birth of the Zhouyi was not the development of divination techniques, but the rational sublimation of the ancient shamanic-historical tradition—a leap from "communicating with spirits" to "thoroughly investigating principles."

Section 4.2: Yarrow Worship and Plant Spirit Power — Vestiges of Ancient Thought

Why does Shi divination use yarrow, and not other materials$33 This seemingly minor question hides a profound secret of ancient thought.

The Xici Zhuan states:

"Therefore, the virtue of yarrow is round and spiritual; the virtue of the hexagram is square and knowledgeable." (是故蓍之德圆而神，卦之德方以知。)

The virtue of yarrow is "round and spiritual" (圆而神)—harmonious and divinely responsive. The word "spiritual" (神) here is not superstitious; it reflects the ancient perception of the special properties of the yarrow plant. Yarrow (Achillea) grows slowly, is said to live for hundreds of years, and its stems are firm and hollow. These natural characteristics were endowed with cosmological significance in ancient thought: longevity symbolizes "lasting as long as Heaven and Earth," hollowness symbolizes "emptiness that can receive," and uprightness symbolizes "correctness without deviation."

But the deeper reason may be that the growth process of yarrow itself is a miniature cosmos of "change." From seed germination, to the unfolding of stems and leaves, to the blooming of flower clusters, to withering in autumn and winter, and regenerating in the following year—this cycle of life and death is precisely the natural symbol of the "Way of Change" described in the Zhouyi.

Choosing yarrow as a tool for Shi divination was not because it possessed some mysterious "divinatory spiritual power," but because its natural life itself embodied the "Way of Yi." Using yarrow in the Shi divination operation was to use a natural object that was in cosmic resonance with Heaven and Earth to simulate the laws of Heaven and Earth's operation—this is a profound way of thinking "observing the Way through things."

The Shuogua Zhuan (说卦传, Explaining the Trigrams) further reveals the essence of this ancient thought:

"In ancient times, when the sages made the Yi, they were mysteriously inspired by spirits and produced yarrow; they matched Heaven and Earth and relied on numbers; they observed changes in Yin and Yang and established the hexagrams; they elaborated on hardness and softness and produced the lines; they harmonized with the Way and regulated righteousness; they exhausted principles and fulfilled nature, reaching to destiny." (昔者圣人之作《易》也，幽赞于神明而生蓍，参天两地而倚数，观变于阴阳而立卦，发挥于刚柔而生爻，和顺于道德而理于义，穷理尽性以至于命。)

Please note the logical chain in this passage: "mysteriously inspired by spirits and produced yarrow" (幽赞于神明而生蓍) is the starting point, and "exhausted principles and fulfilled nature, reaching to destiny" (穷理尽性以至于命) is the endpoint. From yarrow, it ultimately leads to "exhausting principles and fulfilling nature, reaching to destiny"—thoroughly understanding the principles of all things, exhausting the truth of one's fundamental nature, and ultimately comprehending the profound mystery of destiny.

This is a complete epistemological program, not an operational manual for divination. "Exhausted principles and fulfilled nature, reaching to destiny"—is this a realm attainable by divination$34 This clearly points to the ultimate pursuit of philosophy, and even ontology.

Section 4.3: The Sacredness of "Number" — The Numbers of Great Elaboration and the Numbers of Heaven and Earth

The ancient understanding of "number" (数) fundamentally differs from later periods. In ancient thought, number was not an abstract mathematical concept, but the fundamental code of cosmic order.

The Xici Zhuan states:

"Heaven is one, Earth is two; Heaven is three, Earth is four; Heaven is five, Earth is six; Heaven is seven, Earth is eight; Heaven is nine, Earth is ten. The numbers of Heaven are five, the numbers of Earth are five; the five elements mutually attain their position and each has its combination. The numbers of Heaven are twenty-five; the numbers of Earth are thirty. The sum of the numbers of Heaven and Earth is fifty-five. This is how changes are completed and spirits and ghosts move." (天一，地二，天三，地四，天五，地六，天七，地八，天九，地十。天数五，地数五，五位相得而各有合。天数二十有五，地数三十，凡天地之数五十有五。此所以成变化而行鬼神也。)

This passage assigns the natural numbers one to ten to Heaven and Earth: odd numbers belong to Heaven (1, 3, 5, 7, 9), and even numbers belong to Earth (2, 4, 6, 8, 10). The sum of Heaven's numbers is 25, and the sum of Earth's numbers is 30. The total sum of Heaven and Earth's numbers is 55.

Why does a description of numbers appear here$35 Why does it say "This is how changes are completed and spirits and ghosts move" (此所以成变化而行鬼神也)—this is the fundamental reason for the changes and operations of all things under Heaven and Earth, and the movement of spirits and ghosts$36

Because in ancient thought, numbers are the skeleton of cosmic structure. The reason why all things under Heaven and Earth can operate, change, and flourish endlessly is that they follow the laws of numbers. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten are not human-invented calculation tools, but the inherent order codes of Heaven and Earth.

The core operation of Shi divination—dividing the yarrow stalks, counting them, and returning the remainder—is essentially a mathematical calculation process. Each operation produces a number (6, 7, 8, 9), corresponding to old Yin, young Yang, young Yin, and old Yang. The combination of these numbers forms the hexagram—and the hexagram is a symbolic expression of the cosmic structure at a particular moment.

Therefore, Shi divination is not "gambling with random numbers to predict fate," but "revealing the cosmic structure at this moment through mathematical calculation." There is a world of difference between the two: the former is superstition, the latter is a simple, yet profound, "cosmology of numbers."

The Xici Zhuan further states:

"The Yi has four ways of the sage: In speech, the emphasis is on the words; in action, the emphasis is on change; in making artifacts, the emphasis is on images; in divination, the emphasis is on prognostication." (夫《易》，圣人之道四焉：以言者尚其辞，以动者尚其变，以制器者尚其象，以卜筮者尚其占。)

This passage explicitly lists the four functions of the Yi: 1. The Way of Speech (emphasis on words); 2. The Way of Action (emphasis on change); 3. The Way of Making Artifacts (emphasis on images); 4. The Way of Divination (emphasis on prognostication).

Please note: Divination is only the last of the four functions. It is placed alongside the teaching of speech, the guidance of action, and the creation of technology, not above them. This itself indicates that, in the understanding of the author of the Xici Zhuan, divination was not the core function of the Yi, but merely one of its many functions—even the last one.