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Abstract
This article analyzes Buddhist variations of the so called temple oracle (qian 籤 divination) that can be traced historically in the form of sets of answers for people seeking counsel about their future. The ritual is commonly known as a habitual practice in popular religious temples today. Three different ritual texts elucidate modes in which the temple oracle has been woven into Buddhist practice: a doctrinal variation (connected to the aspect of jiao 教) has come to us through the fifth-century Consecration Sūtra; in the sixth-century Sūtra on the Divination of the Effect of Good and Evil Actions can be found a practice-oriented integration (connected to the aspect of xiu 修); and a nominal adaptation (connected to the aspect of ming 名) is preserved with the thirteenth-century Efficacious Slips of Tianzhu. The temple oracle in China is based on long-standing East Asian traditions as Carole Morgan demonstrated about twenty-five years ago in this journal. Based on the initial results presented at the end of this article, future research might shed light on how this tradition evolved in the context of a pan-Asian and Buddhist exchange process.
Acknowledgements
This article would not have been possible without the international and interdisciplinary scholarly exchange that takes place at the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities, “Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication,” at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, with its director Michael Lackner. I am grateful that my work on omen literature and in particular the Sūtra on the Divination of the Effect of Good and Evil Actions (monograph in progress) has grown in this context since 2011. I would like to thank Kim Daeyeol, Constance Cook, Zhao Lu, Zhou Qi, Ng Zhiru, the research community of the Nanzan Institute of Religion and Culture, and the two reviewers of the Journal of Chinese Religions for their inspiring comments and help. The last section of this article has profited from exchanges with colleagues from Central Asian Studies and Indologists, and I would like to thank Yukiyo Kasai, Sven Sellmer, Gudrun Bühnemann, and Olga Serbaeva. All remaining errors and misrepresentations certainly are mine alone.
Notes on Contributor
Esther-Maria Guggenmos (谷乃曦) is research fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, where she is working on the relation between Buddhism and divination. She completed her PhD on contemporary Chinese lay Buddhism in 2010 (Ghent University); the revised dissertation was published in 2017 as “I believe in Buddhism and Travelling”—Denoting Oneself a Lay Buddhist in Contemporary Urban Taiwan in the series: Beiträge zur Süd- und Ostasienforschung, edited by Eva De Clercq, Franziska Ehmcke, Ann Heirman, and Andreas Niehaus (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag). Since 2009, she added to her expertise in contemporary religion a historical perspective through the study of divination and its socio-political implications in Buddhist biographical writing, especially the Shenseng Zhuan 神僧傳, and the development of divinatory ritual literature. Guggenmos’s theoretical interests lie in the field of transmission processes across Asia and religious aesthetics (www.aestor.net). After serving as visiting professor of religious studies (Münster) and deputy chair of sinology (Erlangen), Guggenmos currently is preparing a monograph on the Sūtra on the Divination of the Effect of Good and Evil Actions and its cultural history.
Correspondence to: Esther-Maria Guggenmos. Email: [email protected]
Notes
1 A more detailed insight into the social practice of qian divination is given by Julian Pas, “Temple Oracles in a Chinese City: A Study of the Use of Temple Oracles in Taichung, Central Taiwan,” Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 24 (1984): 1–45.
2 Although nowhere deemed false, the monetary purpose of divination in particular is seen as problematic in Indian and Chinese vinaya sources alike. In India, mantic arts are regarded as socially less recognized and are counted among the “lower arts.” While the Chinese Buddhist imaginary of mantic arts is less coherent due to the incompatible organization of Indian and Chinese mantic knowledge, the basic argument that divination should not be a source of income is preserved. The Śramanera precepts are emphatic that divination is an improper and impure conduct and disqualifies probationers from participating in it. In the guiding monastic discipline of East Asia, the Dharmaguptaka vinaya (Sifen lü 四分律), neither the prātimokṣa nor the precepts for monks mention the use of mantic practices; the precepts for nuns identify conducting mantic practices as wrong and not appropriate for bhikṣuṇīs. These latter monastic rules explicitly allow mantic practices when applied to one's own health and safety, for food, for study purposes, and in order to convert non-Buddhists. See T.1428, XX: 754a17–b10, trans. in Ann Heirman, ‘The Discipline in Four Parts.’ Rules for Nuns according to the Dharmaguptakavinaya: Part II: Translation (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002), 760–761; see also Esther-Maria Guggenmos, “A List of Mantic Techniques in the Buddhist Canon,” in Coping with the Future: Theories and Practices of Divination in East Asia, ed. Michael Lackner (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 151-195.
3 On the seer Asita, see, for example, the comprehensive biographical narration of the historical Buddha, the Sūtra of the Collected Original Deeds of the Buddha (Skt. Abhiniṣkramaṇasūtra; Ch. Fo benxing ji jing 佛本行集經, T.190, esp. chap. 5 onwards, T.190, III: 684a4ff). In this text, Asita's background is disclosed as a renowned seer. With ease, he foresees the enlightenment of the future Buddha and later turns to Buddhism himself.
4 Besides textual studies, there are anthropological, ethno-medical, and psychological aspects of the temple oracle, which cannot be dealt with in this article. In particular, there have been analyses of the psycho-hygienic functions of the ritual. For example, it has been looked at in terms of how it might reduce fear, foster self-confidence, and help in decision-making, or how it might help in the adaptation to recognized social behavior. For the application of Arthur Kleinman's analysis in the context of the Tianzhu lingqian, see Michel Strickmann, Chinese Poetry and Prophecy: The Written Oracle in East Asia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), 43, 75, and elsewhere.
5 See Werner Banck, Das chinesische Tempelorakel (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1976). Werner Banck, Das chinesische Tempelorakel, vol. 2 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1985), reflected on this collection, while the other precious collection of Chinese temple oracles before World War II has been collated by Yoshimoto Shōji 吉元眧治, Sakai Tadao 酒井忠夫, and Imai Usaburō 今井宇三郎, Chūgoku no reisen yakusen shūsei 中國の靈籤藥籤集成 (Tokyo: Fūkyōsha, 1992).
6 Translated by the author. Banck, Das chinesische Tempelorakel, vol. 2, 72–74, provides annotations that I partly draw on in the following analysis.
7 Banck, Das chinesische Tempelorakel, vol. 2 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1985), 72.
8 On the role of the (autumn) moon in Chinese landscape painting, see Jeonghee Lee-Kalisch, Das Licht der Edlen: Der Mond in der chinesischen Landschaftsmalerei (St. Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica, 2001), 21, who quotes the poet Bo Juyi 白居易 (772–842) with the famous line, “Under the light of the same moon we shed our tears. Joined together from five places by our longing for home” (gong kan mingyue ying chuilei, yi ye xiang xin wuchu tong 共看明月應垂淚，一夜鄉心五處同). Poets like Du Fu 杜甫 (712-770) and Bo Juyi feel connected to their home by watching the moon, and the secluded scholar may have an especially intense relation with the moon and its light.
9 For further annotations, see Banck, Das chinesische Tempelorakel, vol. 2, 71–72.
10 Eberhard states that allusions to literary episodes seem to have been integrated into temple oracle sequences; see Wolfram Eberhard, “Orakel und Theater in China,” Asiatische Studien: Zeitschrift der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft 18–19 (1965): 11–18. Allusions to Chinese classics might be more common in modern temple oracle sets like the one discussed by Morgan; see Carole Morgan, “Old Wine in a New Bottle: A New Set of Oracle Slips from China,” Journal of Chinese Religions 26 (1998): 7ff.
11 See Strickmann, Chinese Poetry and Prophecy, 34–46 (chap. 4).
12 The Daoist tradition holds a major collection of oracle slips that resemble in their structure the mode of nominal adaptation presented below; see the Daoist canon, nos. 1298–1305, in Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, eds., The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 2: 1246-49 and 3: 1433. They have been discussed in greater depth in Lin Guoping 林國平, Qianzhan yu Zhongguo shehui wenhua 籤占與中國社會文化 (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2014), 301-324. The set no. 1305 (Huguo Jiaji Jiangdong wang lingqian 護國嘉濟江東王靈籤) is dedicated to King Jiangdong 江東, but later was attributed to Guan Di (d. 220 CE), who is widely revered in contemporary popular religion. The general, who died in 219 AD, served under the warlord Liu Bei 劉備 at the end of the Eastern Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era of China. Guan Yu 關羽 became deified probably during the Sui dynasty (581–618). Even today, he is commonly worshipped in Taiwan, as well as in southern China. He embodies the virtues of righteousness, bravery, justice, and loyalty. The attribution of the set to Guan Di does not affect its content, but determines the religious tradition it is associated with. Daoist thought is represented in the sequences only insofar as it reflects general popular religiosity, but the attribution to Guan Di certainly contributed to the fact that it is “second to none in breadth of diffusion” (Strickmann, Chinese Poetry and Prophecy, 57).
13 An overview of these as well as other deities to which the temple oracle can be addressed is available in Xu Hongxing 徐洪興, Zhongguo gudai qianzhan 中國古代籤占 (Beijing: Jiuzhou chubanshe, 2008).
14 See Yoshimoto, Sakai, and Imai, Chūgoku no reisen yakusen shūsei, and Morgan's anthropological research which covered several sets that deal with specific medical questions. For example, sets distinguish between the suffering of men, women, children, but also specific ailments such as eye diseases and “outer physical problems” (waike 外科); see Carole Morgan, “A propos des fiches oraculaires de Huang Daxian,” Journal Asiatique 275, nos. 1-2 (1987): 163–191, who analyzed the temple oracles of a local god in Hong Kong.
15 Strickmann, Chinese Poetry and Prophecy, 30, does not elaborate further on this, but gives a general outline of terminology (pp. 30-33).
16 For an illustration, see the rubbing of a Han dynasty stone relief from a tomb near Nanyang in Henan Province in Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4, part 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962), plate CXIII, fig. 350. For a recent study of touhu, see Virginia Bower and Colin Mackenzie, “Pitchpot: The Scholar's Arrow-Throwing Game,” in Asian Games: The Art of Contest, ed. Colin Mackenzie and Irving Finkel (London: Asia Society, 2004), 274–281.
17 Lin Guoping, in his monograph on the temple oracle, collected a list of seventy-one cases in which the temple oracle was consulted for the purpose of civil examinations, starting in the year 1519, up to the end of the imperial era (Lin, Qianzhan yu Zhongguo shehui wenhua, 386-393). He gives as his source: 世界關氏宗親總會第九屆懇親大會籌委會編印⟪關公文化資料叢書⟫第五冊⟪關帝神運⟫of 2008.
18 See Marc Kalinowski, ed., Divination et société dans la Chine médiévale: Étude des manuscrits de Dunhuang de la Bibliothèque nationale de France et de la British Library (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2003) on divinatory Dunhuang manuscripts, and Donald Harper and Marc Kalinowski, eds., Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China: The Daybook Manuscripts of the Warring States, Qin, and Han (Leiden: Brill 2017). For Japanese temple oracles, see Lin, Qianzhan yu Zhongguo shehui wenhua, 530-547.
19 For a short general overview, see Lin, Qianzhan yu Zhongguo shehui wenhua, 33-88.
20 On recent tomb discoveries of Yijing manuscripts, see Edward L. Shaughnessy, Unearthing the Changes: Recently Discovered Manuscripts of the Yi Jing (I Ching) and Related Texts (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).
21 Schipper, fascicle 1041, in Schipper and Verellen, eds., The Taoist Canon, 1: 82-84; translation by Ralph D. Sawyer and Mei-chün Lee Sawyer, Ling Ch’i Ching: A Classic Chinese Oracle (Boston: Shambala, 1995).
22 See Carole Morgan, “An Introduction to the Lingqi jing,” Journal of Chinese Religions 21, no. 1 (1993): 103-106.
23 Strickmann sums up his investigations on T.1331 in his study on the written oracle; see also Michel Strickmann, “The Consecration Sūtra: A Buddhist Book of Spells,” in Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, ed. Robert E. Buswell (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1990), 75-118. Previously, T.1331 was “supposed to be a translation of an Indian scripture made by the renowned Kuchean specialist in spells, Śrīmitra, in the first quarter of the fourth century, at Chien-k’ang” (Strickmann, Chinese Poetry and Prophecy, 58).
24 The title of S.1322 is identical with its title in the sūtra: Foshuo guanding fantian shence jing di shi 佛說灌頂梵天神策經第十.
25 On the abhiṣeka ritual, see Ronald M. Davidson, “5. Abhiṣeka,” in Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, ed. Charles D. Orzech and Henrik H. Sørensen (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 71-75.
26 The first character is rendered as “above/superior” instead of “divinatory” in the Yuan and Ming editions according to the Taishō annotation (shangjing 上經 instead of bujing 卜經, T.1331, XXI: 524a6).
27 Another term, jiyi 稽疑, “to examine doubts [by divination],” was also established in early China when, for example, in the Book of Documents, Shujing 書經, the seventh of nine principles of governance is given as “the Intelligent Use of the Examination of Doubts” (“mingyong jiyi 明用稽疑”), translation following James Legge, The Chinese Classics. Vol III. The Shoo King, or The Book of Historical Documents (Hongkong: Lane, Crawford & Co., 1865), 324.
28 The research available on this sūtra and its dating, such as in Endō Jun’yū 遠藤純祐, “‘ Senzatsu zen'aku gōhōkyō’ no shinkō「占察善悪業報経」の信仰,” Gendai Mikkyō 現代密教 13 (2000): 285–304, and Kuo Li-ying, “Divination, jeux de hasard et purification dans le bouddhisme chinois: autour d’un sūtra apocryphe chinois, le Zhanchajing,” in Bouddhisme et cultures locales: quelques cas de réciproques adaptations, ed. Fumimasa Fukui and Gérard Fussman (Paris: EFEO, 1994), 145-167, has been summarized in Ng Zhiru, The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva: Dizang in Medieval China (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007).
29 The “five defilements“ of the world are given in the Pusa dichi jing 菩薩地持經 (Bodhisattvabhūmi-sūtra, T. 1581) as the defilement of having a lifetime (mingzhuo 命濁), of being a sentient being (zhongsheng zhuo 衆生濁), of afflictions (fannao zhuo 煩惱濁), of mistaken views (jianzhuo 見濁), and of the trends of the present age (jiezhuo 劫濁), which is associated with the age of continuation (zhujie 住劫) beginning with the decrease of the human life span to less than 20,000 years (see T.1581, XXX: 928c21-23 and the entry “wuzhuo 五濁” by Ch. Muller, Karen Mack and others in A. Charles Muller, ed., Digital Dictionary of Buddhism [DDB] (http://www.buddhism-dict.net/cgi-bin/xpr-ddb.pl?q=五濁, accessed September 20, 2017).
30 On the conceptual emergence of evolving ages in the Indian and Chinese context, see Jan Nattier, Once upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1991), esp. chap. 4, and Jan Nattier, “Buddhist Eschatology,” in The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology, ed. Jerry L. Walls (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 151–169. In East Asia a threefold scheme is commonly assumed: first is the time of the “true dharma” (zhengfa 正法), during which the teaching is preached and understood (500–1000 years). This is followed by the time of the “semblance dharma” (xiangfa 像法) during which teaching and practice are possible, but there is no possibility of enlightenment (500–1000 years). Last is the time of the “late dharma” (mofa 末法) during which teaching, practice, and enlightenment are no longer possible (a duration of 10,000 years). For insight into the complexity and volatility of these time frames, see Jan Nattier, Once upon a Future Time, 27–64.
31 For an outline of this corpus, see Ng, The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva, 81 ff.; T.1159: Dizang dadao xin quce fa [峚-大+(企-止)]
大道心驅策法 (The Exorcism Method of Dizang's Aspiration Toward Great Awakening); T.1158: Dizang pusa yigui 地藏菩薩儀軌 (A Ritual Manual on the Bodhisattva Dizang); T.2909: Foshuo Dizang pusa jing 佛說地藏菩薩經 (Scripture on the Bodhisattva Dizang); and T.412: Dizang pusa benyuan jing 地藏菩薩本願經 (Scripture on the Past Vows of Dizang Bodhisattva).
32 The shape of these dice was probably reinvented by the Buddhist monk Hongyi 弘一 (1880–1942) by following the description in the sūtra. To my knowledge, no physical dice of this ritual (or any drawing of them) exist that can be reliably dated before the twentieth century. The purification entails the veneration of the Bodhisattva with flowers, donations, through name recitation, vows, and the veneration of the three jewels. Finally, one asks for a true answer corresponding to one's particular situation. The interpretation of the result is then described. In general, non-matching results—results that are inconsistent with each other or with reality—are traced back to lacking sincerity and uprightness during the performance of the ritual.
33 The ten good and evil deeds are noted on these ten dice. The evil ones appear as negations of the good ones on the opposite side of the corresponding dice. The ten good deeds (daśakuśala-karmāni) are as follows. There are three with regard to the body (shen 身): not killing (bu shasheng 不殺生), not stealing (bu toudao 不偸盜), and not committing adultery (bu xieyin 不邪淫). There are four with regard to speaking (kou 口): not lying (bu wangyu 不妄語), not speaking harshly (bu ekou 不惡口), not speaking divisively (bu liangshe 不兩舌), and not speaking idly (bu qiyu 不綺語). Finally, there are three with regard to the mind (yi 意): not being greedy (bu tanyu 不貪欲; tan’ai 貪愛, which appears in figure 2, is a more common expression for tanyu 貪欲, covetousness); not being angry (bu chenhui 不瞋恚); and not having false views / being deluded (bu xiejian 不邪見 / bu yuchi 不愚癡). See also Foguang Shan Zongwu Weiyuan Hui 佛光山宗務委員會, ed., Foguang dacidian 佛光大辭典 (Kaohsiung: Foguang Shan, 2000), 468, and the enumeration in Fo shuo lishi apitan lun 佛說立世阿毘曇論 (Lokasthānābhidharma śāstra), T.1644, XXXII: 215c11–13, or the Da baoji jing 大寶積經 (Ratnakūṭa-sūtra), T. 310, XI: 388c17–19.
34 The text also describes the circumstances of the practice. The evaluation and repentance of one's karma is seen as mandatory for following any philosophical or meditative studies. The place of the repentance ritual is described as having to be quiet, peaceful, and decorated with banners, fragrant flowers, and the like. One shall perform repentance on a daily basis through veneration, confession, and vows until pure karma emerges after 7, 14, 21, 100, 200, or even 1,000 days. The reevaluation is conducted with the second set of dice. After seven days, the three dice of the second throw are thrown each morning. This is done to maintain the improvement of karma. Visions, positive dreams, and special smells might occur. These might be auspicious signs, but one is admonished not to hang on to illusions.
35 As in the Guanding Jing, non-matching results are ascribed to lacking sincerity. It is also possible to conduct this ritual on behalf of others, and in these cases the same inner sincerity is crucial to its proper functioning.
36 See also Patrick A. Pranke, “Vipassanā (Sanskrit: Vipaśyanā),” in Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2004), 889–890.
37 These are enumerated in the work Fozu tongji 佛祖統紀 (Complete Records of the Buddha and Patriarchs, chap. 33), a historiographical work with a major focus on the Tiantai 天台 school completed in the year 1269 and assembled by Zhipan 志磐. The works mentioned are “The Oracle Slips of the Great Noble One” (i.e., Guanyin, Dashi Qian 大士籤), “The Hundred Oracle Slips of Tianzhu” (Tianzhu bai qian 天竺百籤), and “The 130 Oracle Slips of Yuantong in Yue” (Yue Yuantong baisanshi qian 越圓通百三十籤). See T.2035, XLVIV: 318c13.
38 For a good overview of Song dynasty woodblock printing and its interaction with Buddhism, see Huang Shishan 黃士珊. “Banhua yu huihua de hudong—Cong Song Yuan fojiao banhua suo jian zhi Song hua Yuan su tan ji 版畫與繪畫的互動—從宋元佛教版畫所見之宋畫元素談起,” in Zhejiang daxue yishu yu kaogu yanjiu (teji yi): Songhua guoji xueshu huiyi lunwen ji 浙江大學藝術與考古研究 (特輯一): 宋畫國際學術會議論文集, edited by Zhejiang Daxue Yishu yu Kaogu Yanjiu Zhongxin 浙江大學藝術與考古研究中心編 (Hangzhou: Zhejiang University 2017), 1-75. The oldest preserved woodblock print, a print of the Diamond Sūtra, dates to the year 868 CE. It is stored at the British Library; see http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-diamond-sutra (accessed January 7, 2017).
39 See Shih-shan Susan Huang, “Tianzhu Lingqian: Divination Prints from a Buddhist Temple in Song Hangzhou,” Artibus Asiae 67, no. 2 (2007): 259.
40 Huang, “Tianzhu Lingqian,” 247.
41 The attribution to Guanshiyin can be derived from lot numbers 75 and 76. See Huang, “Tianzhu Lingqian,” 248–252, esp. 250. On the Chinese Avalokiteśvara, see Yü Chün-fang, Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteśvara (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001).
42 Huang makes use of illustrations on a ceramic pillow as well as a bronze mirror to illustrate that “this motive was a common pictorial convention in popular imagery” (Huang, “Tianzhu Lingqian,” 260). For a broader impression of woodblock printing in Hangzhou from the tenth to fourteenth centuries, see Shih-shan Susan Huang, “Early Buddhist Illustrated Prints in Hangzhou,” in Knowledge and Text Production in an Age of Print: China, 900-1400, ed. Lucille Chia and Hilde De Weerdt (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 135-165.
43 The Chinese reads: Dang yuyin guiren er huo caibao; you yi churu, zaoji, guiren, wenshu zhi shi 當遇陰貴人而獲財宝; 又宜出入, 遭濟, 貴人, 文書之事; Zheng, Zhongguo gudai banhua congkan 中國古代版畫叢刊 (Shanghai: Gudai wenxue, 1959), 289. See also Huang, “Tianzhu Lingqian,” 281.
44 On the history of civil service examinations, see Benjamin A. Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
45 Even well-known scholars and poets consulted the temple oracle, like the famous poet Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101); see Shih-shan Susan Huang, “Tianzhu Lingqian,” 286f.
46 In the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions of the Buddhist canon, reading variances occur according to the Taishō: [1] 經＝法, [2] 帝相榮＝常相營, [3] 嘉＝佳 (T.1331, XXI: 524a8–11). See also the translation in Strickmann, Chinese Poetry and Prophecy, 60.
47 In the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions of the Buddhist canon, one reading variance occurs according to the Taishō: [1] 誨＝悔 (T.1331, XXI: 525b08–11). The emendation has been translated. See also Strickmann, Chinese Poetry and Prophecy, 62.
48 This is reflected well, for example, in the Tiantai xiao zhiguan 天台小止觀, T. 1915. See the annotated translation in Paul Swanson, Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press 2018), 1659-1759.
49 Verse 3 talks of apostasy (not believing in the Three Refuges) and defamation (ridiculing the Buddha) as reasons for enduring suffering. Consequences can be constant sickness, harassment by officials (verse 70), quarreling in one's family (73), and becoming the target of people's gossip (87). See also Strickmann, Chinese Poetry and Prophecy, 67–68, who translates selected verses.
50 On the development of repentance rituals in general, and in the Tiantai school, see also Kuo Li-ying, Confession et contrition dans le bouddhisme chinois de Ve au Xe siècle (Paris: L’École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1994); David W. Chappell, “Repentance,” in Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2004), 721-723; and Daniel B. Stevenson, “Where Meditative Theory Meets Practice: Requirements for Entering the ‘Halls of Contemplation/Penance’ (観／懺堂) in Tiantai Monasteries of the Song,” Tendai Gakuho/Journal of Tendai Buddhist Studies, Special Issue: Essays on the International Tendai Conference, October 2007, 71-142.
51 Answers 1–45 are about spiritual practice: Are teachers, people, recited texts, and learned doctrine trustworthy? Will one reach one's spiritual aim? Is the chosen way the correct path? The answers from 46 to 160 cover a broad area of requests: Will actions be successful? In accordance with questions asked in the traditional temple oracle, will there be good fortune, wealth, long life, and success in one's career (49–54)? What about social relations (according to the Confucian worldview)? How are other people doing? Will there be a meeting? Will necessary goods or an intended aim be reached? What about lost goods? What about the safety of a living place, a travel location, or the way leading there? What about the state and its rulers? Do strange things or dreams have a meaning? Can hindrances, difficulties, or sicknesses be overcome? None of these concerns is answered through Buddhist concepts or vocabulary. However, Buddhist thought can be found in answers 1–45, briefly in nos. 86 and 87, and again in the answers from 161 onwards.
52 Consequently, according to the field observations of the author, the temptation to use this list independently is frequent in contemporary practice.
53 The Korean practice has been discussed in the context of repentance ritual development in connection with the monk Chinp’yo/Zhenbiao 真表; see the three consecutive articles on this topic by Ch’ae Inp’yo 蔡印幻, “Silla Chinp’yo yulsa yŏn’gu 新羅真表律師研究 (I/II/III),” Pulgyo hakpo佛教學報 23 (1986), 35-68; 24 (1987), 37-57; 25 (1988), 39-63. Ouyi Zhixu reflected in depth on the Sūtra on the Divination of the Effect of Good and Evil Actions and composed a ritual instruction. Beverley Foulks McGuire analyzed the role divination and the practice of the Zhancha shan’e yebao jing played in the life of Ouyi Zhixu, see esp. McGuire, Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), 37-52. I trace the cultural history as well as the contemporary practices of this sūtra in my monograph “Buddhism and Divination – On the Sūtra on the Divination of the Effect of Good and Evil Actions and Its Cultural Transmission” (in preparation).
54 Huang, “Tianzhu Lingqian,” 282.
55 For a description and interpretation of in this passage, see Huang, “Tianzhu Lingqian,” 283, and the passage on pp. 282–284.
56 See Paul Groner, Ryōgen and Mount Hiei: Japanese Tendai in the Tenth Century (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2002), 298-300, and Strickmann, Chinese Poetry and Prophecy, 40–41. The Ganzan oracle has been the widest spread sequence in Japan since the Tokugawa period (1603–1868). It was associated with Ryōgen 良源, the patriarch of Tendai (Ch. Tiantai) Buddhism—also known as Ganzan, as he died on the third (zan) of the first month (gan). He is seen as an incarnation of Guanyin. Legend has it that he brought the oracle from China. However, this process of transmission can hardly be verified. On the temple oracle in Japan, see also Lin, Qianzhan yu Zhongguo shehui wenhua, 530-547, who subsequently analyzes the role of China in the process of diffusion (548ff.).
57 For example, in 2010 the oracle set of the Tianxin Yongle Chansi 天心永樂禪寺 at Wuyi Shan 武夷山 in Fujian Province was offering, under the very same title, a nominally adapted version of the temple oracle. In his study on the temple oracle, Julian Pas collected oracle slips in Taizhong City (Taiwan) in the 1970s, see Pas, “Temple Oracles in a Chinese City: A Study of the Use of Temple Oracles in Taichung, Central Taiwan.” The majority of the oracle sets belonged to a set dedicated to the goddess Mazu 媽祖. The second most frequent set was the one that could be attributed to Guan Di. Of the total of 115 sets, 6 were dedicated to Guanyin.
58 Foguang Shan also provides an app for Android and iOS called Foguangshan lingqian 佛光山靈籤. However, as of February 3, 2017, it is no longer available.
59 A.F. Rudolf Hoernle, ed., The Bower Manuscript: Facsimile Leaves, Nagari Transcript, Romanised Transliteration and English Translation with Notes. Part III to VII (Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1897). The Old Uighuric omen booklet Irk Bitig is another source of omen literature from the Silk Road. A ninth-century manuscript of this booklet has been preserved in Dunhuang (Or.8212/161), see Talat Tekin, Irk bitig: The Book of Omens (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1993). On Uighur almanac divination, see also Matsui Dai 松井太, “Tonkō shutsudo no Uiguru-go rekisen monjo: Tsūsho ‘Gyokkōki’ to no kanren o chūshin ni 敦煌出土のウイグル語暦占文書：通書『玉匣記』との關連を中心に,” Jinbun shakai ronsō 人文社會論叢 26 (2011): 25–48.
60 Hoernle, ed., The Bower Manuscript, parts IV–V, pp. 192–221. These two parts both contain lists of omen answers.
61 Indian omen literature might be informed by its Mesopotamian predecessors: Babylonian omens are found in the Šumma ālu (tablets of terrestrial omens affecting individuals) and the Enūma Anu Enlil (tablets of lunar, solar, meteorological, and stellar, together with planetary omens, affecting countries and their rulers, both from the millennium B.C.E.). Pingree concludes that
[…] it is clear that in the 5th and early 4th century B.C. much of the Mesopotamian omen literature, perhaps from Aramaic versions, was translated into an Indian language, and that these translations, through undoubtedly considerably altered to fit with Indian intellectual traditions and with the Indian society which the diviners had to serve, form the basis of the rich Sanskrit and Prakrit literatures on the terrestrial and celestial omens. See David Pingree, From Astral Omens to Astrology: From Babylon to Bīkāner (Rome: Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 1997), 33.
62 The Mahābhārata (MBh II, 60, 1 ff.) describes the fight between the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas in a game made by Duryodhana and Yudhiṣṭhira with nuts from the Vibhīdaka tree. Yudhiṣṭhira is addicted to the game but he has no skill. As a result, he loses his land, his kingdom, his brothers, himself, and finally his wife. Eventually Kṛṣṇa intervenes and comes to his aid. For details, see the standard reference on dicing in Ancient India by Heinrich Lüders, Das Würfelspiel im alten Indien (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1907). Falk provides a description of the game in the Veda: From the 150 nuts some are removed, then four are repeatedly removed until 0, 1, 2, or 3 remain. It is on this final set that the result of the game is decided. The nuts can be replaced by four-sided dice, pāśakas; see Harry Falk, “Würfelspiele in Indien,” Journal für Geschichte 6 (1984): 12–17. Dumont elucidates the multiplicity of applications of dice in Indian literature—in the Ṛgveda, the Atharvaveda, through Vedic literature, in epic, Buddhist, and classical literature, as well as in dramas, narrations, and novels; see P.-E. Dumont, “Sur le jeu de des dans l’Inde ancienne,” Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres / Classe des Lettres et des Sciences Morales 5, no. 8 (1922): 347.
63 Albrecht Weber, “Über ein indisches Würfel-Orakel,” in Indische Streifen: Eine Sammlung von bisher in Zeitschriften zerstreuten kleineren Abhandlungen von Albrecht Weber (Berlin: Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1868), 285; there called “Ms ‘Sir Robert Chambers, no. 286.’”
64 Weber, “Über ein indisches Würfel-Orakel,” 282.
65 See Weber, “Über ein indisches Würfel-Orakel,” 283. Besides omen literature, there is also evidence in the Indian tradition of a connection between karmic evaluation, the fields of consultation mentioned, and the divinatory mechanical process of throwing sticks: in the Somaśambhupaddhati, an early Śaiva ritual manual composed by Somaśambhu in Kashmir in the last part of the eleventh century, a ritual is described that connects the idea of karma and fortune with the falling of sticks into certain directions, see Hélène Brunner-Lachaux, ed., trans., annot., and introduction, Somaśambhupaddhati. Troisième partie: rituels occasionnels dans la tradition śivaïte de l'Inde du Sud selon Somaśambhu. II: dikṣā, abhiṣeka, vratoddhāra, antyeṣṭi, śrāddha (Pondichéry: Institut Français d'Indologie, 1977), 211.
66 Tomb no. 15 of the excavation site at Wangjiatai 王家台 in Jingzhou Province was opened in 1993, see report in Jingzhou Diqu Bowuguan 荊州地區博物館, “Jiangling Wangjiatai 15 hao Qinmu 江陵王家台15號秦墓,” Wenwu 文物, 1995, no.1: 37–43; see also Constance Cook, “Myth and Fragments of a Qin Yi Text: A Research Note and Translation,” Journal of Chinese Religions 26 (1998): 135–143. It contained eight hundred pieces of bamboo slips comprising almanacs and Yijing literature, but also a cosmic board, pottery items and vessels, etc., as well as counters and dice. The dice consisted of twenty-three wooden cubes coated with black lacquer scattered in a coffin in two sizes: nine were 2.9 cm in length with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 engraved on them, and fourteen were 2.4 cm in length, engraved similar to the larger ones, but with two of them empty on top and bottom while four sides were covered with the numbers 1 and 6. Either the dice were used alone or with a device/text together, though one cannot easily match the dice with the texts found.
67 For example, well-preserved dice from the Song dynasty are exhibited in the museum within the grottoes at Luoyang. The study of the history of dice in Asia started with Culin's research, see Stewart Culin, “Chinese Games with Dice and Dominoes” (Annual Report of the U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1893). Recent findings are summarized in Irving Finkel, “Dice in India and Beyond,” in Asian Games: The Art of Contest, ed. Colin Mackenzie and Irving Finkel (London: Asia Society, 2004), 38-45.
68 Hubert Durt, “The Counting Stick (Śalākā) and the Majority/Minority Rule in the Buddhist Community,” Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū 23, no.1 (1974): 470–469.
69 On the usage of śalākā/chou in the Buddhist context, see Hubert Durt, “The Counting Stick (Śalākā) and the Majority/Minority Rule in the Buddhist Community,” 470–464, and Hubert Durt, “Chū 籌,” in Hōbōgirin 法宝義林 Dictionnaire encyclopédique du bouddhisme d’après les sources chinoises et japonaises, vol. 5, ed. Sylvain Lévi, Junjiro Takakusu, and Paul Demiéville (Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1979), 431–464.
70 Banck, Das chinesische Tempelorakel, vol. 2, and Carole Morgan, “A propos des fiches oraculaires de Huang Daxian,” 166.
71 Stephen F. Teiser, “Social History and the Confrontation of Cultures: Foreword to the Third Edition,” in The Buddhist Conquest of China. The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China, by Erik Zürcher (Leiden: Brill, 2007), xxi.