Academic literature on the topic 'Divination Fa'

Abstract The Chinese genre of text named jue 訣 dates back to the Han dynasty. It encompassed esoteric Daoist manuals and medical handbooks, translated as “tricks,” “methods,” “instructions,” “secret instructions,” and “rhymes.” This essay translates “tricks” and “secrets” for its early use, referring to “writings” (shu 書) linked to privately transmitted technical information, such as divination tricks, alchemical techniques, or medical recipes. Initially, these writings relied on oral instructions and implicit knowledge (“orally transmitted secrets,” koujue 口訣). By the medieval period, as seen in the Dunhuang manuscripts, the link to exclusive oral instruction had weakened, and the jue genre evolved into “how-to” (hezhi 何知) manuals for quick reference in a broader body of formally transmitted texts, like “canons, scriptures” (jing 經). The jue genre began as rhematic (rather than thematic), specifying techniques or “methods” (fa 法), whether Daoist, medical, or divinatory.

??? Yehang Chuan ‘Night Ferry’ is an encyclopaedic masterpiece and the chef-d’oeuvre of ?? Zhang Dai (circa 1597-1689), an illustrious historian, poet, dramatist, essayist, aesthete, musician and gastronomist in late Ming and early Qing China. Night Ferry cumulates more than four thousand entries and encompasses a veritable cornucopia of topics in an elephantine range. In this research, I investigate Chapter Twenty ?? Fang Shu ‘Alchemy and Sorcery’ of Night Ferry, which comprises Section ?? Fu Zhou ‘Amulets and Incantations’ and Section ?? Fang Fa ‘Prescriptions and Practices’. Both sections abound with depictions pertaining to occult acts and paranormal forces, the vast majority of which embody cultural allusions concerning religion, divination and patriarchy. Furthermore, Chapter ‘Alchemy and Sorcery’ is featured by humorousness, though Night Ferry is not a dedicated jestbook. The humorous effect in Night Ferry is not attained via sarcasm or homo-/hetero-erotism, as manifested by derisive and prurient jokes compiled in a renowned pre-modern jestbook entitled ????Xiao Lin Guang Ji ‘A Collection of Classic Chinese Jokes’.

Oracle-bone scholars have long uniformly read the charges (i.e., the portion that mentions the event being divined) of Shang oracle-bone inscriptions as questions. Since the 1970's, many foreign oracle-bone scholars have proposed a new view that the charges are never questions, or at least are generally not questions. Whether or not the charges are actually questions is a very important question bearing not only on oracle bone studies, but also on research on ancient divination and on ancient Chinese grammar. Based on an examination of a great number of Shang oracle-bone inscriptions, the author of this essay believes that charges that can now be determined to be questions are mainly those choice-type charges in early inscriptions that contain the final particles yi and zhi, and true-or-false type charges that contain yi. Charges of the type “V bu V” (such as “rain not rain” [yu bu yu]) and “V bu,” regarded by many as choice-type questions, are actually comprised of the charge and a verification or use notation, the “bu V” being a verification and the “bu” being either a verification or a use notation (similar to the notation bu yong, “do not use”). Charges that can now be determined not to be questions are mainly in those inscriptions with complex charges, such as “this *spring the king ought not ally with Wang Cheng to attack Xia Wei, (for if he does) he will not receive divine assistance” (jin ?chun wang wu bi Wang Cheng fa Xia? Wei, fu qi shou you you, and “On ren we ought not hunt, (for if we do) it will rain” (ren wu tian, qi yu), the syntax of which shows that they cannot be questions.

Le système de divination Fa au Bénin, intègre des connaissances ancestrales et occupe une place centrale dans la culture du sud béninois, alliant transmission orale et résilience face aux influences extérieures. Notre recherche examine comment ce système, marqué par ses objets et pratiques rituels, conserve et transmet son savoir symbolique de génération en génération dans une culture d’oralité, tout en assimilant des éléments de géomancie issus de civilisations scripturales comme celles islamiques ou perses.Grâce à une approche interdisciplinaire, notre étude met en lumière les mécanismes de transmission et d’adaptation propres au Fa. L’analyse de récits issus de corpus Fon et Yoruba, combinée à une exploration des stratégies de saillance symbolique et des structures morphosyntaxiques, révèle l’ingéniosité du système à rendre mémorables des connaissances complexes. Ce processus de résilience orale, qui intègre aussi bien les influences culturelles que les innovations modernes, se distingue par une transformation active de l’héritage géomantique qui permet au Fa de s’adapter aux réalités actuelles sans perdre son essence.Parmi les résultats marquants, l'étude démontre que la saillance symbolique, avec ses personnages et contrastes marqués, facilite la mémorisation. De plus, les structures orales sous forme de tableaux dans les versets divinatoires montrent une capacité d’organisation logique sans recours à l’écrit, illustrant une capacité d'analyse complexe propre à l’oralité. Cette résistance culturelle et cognitive, appuyée par des objets rituels qui servent de supports mnémotechniques et symboliques, met en évidence un système qui se renouvelle tout en préservant la continuité de son savoir.Ainsi, le Fa apparaît non seulement comme un système divinatoire, mais aussi comme un modèle cognitif riche et résilient. Par sa capacité à intégrer les changements sociétaux et technologiques, il maintient une forte cohésion entre passé et présent, démontrant que les traditions, loin de s’effacer sous l’effet de la modernité, peuvent se transformer pour rester significatives
The Fa divination system, in Benin Republic, integrates ancestral knowledge and occupies a central place in the culture of southern Benin, combining oral transmission and resilience in the face of external influences. Our research examines how this system, marked by its ritual objects and practices, preserves and transmits its symbolic knowledge from generation to generation in an oral culture, while assimilating elements of geomancy from scriptural civilizations such as Islamic or Persian.Thanks to an interdisciplinary approach, our study highlights the transmission and adaptation mechanisms specific to Fa. The analysis of narratives from Fon and Yoruba corpora, combined with an exploration of symbolic salience strategies and morphosyntactic structures, reveals the ingenuity of the system in making complex knowledge memorable. This process of oral resilience, which integrates both cultural influences and modern innovations, is distinguished by an active transformation of the geomantic heritage that allows Fa to adapt to current realities without losing its essence.Among the notable results, the study demonstrates that symbolic salience, with its marked characters and contrasts, facilitates memorization. In addition, oral structures in the form of tables in divinatory verses show a capacity for logical organization without resorting to writing, illustrating a capacity for complex analysis specific to orality. This cultural and cognitive resistance, supported by ritual objects that serve as mnemonic and symbolic supports, highlights a system that renews itself while preserving the continuity of its knowledge.Thus, Fa appears not only as a divinatory system, but also as a rich and resilient cognitive model. Through its ability to integrate societal and technological changes, it maintains a strong cohesion between past and present, demonstrating that traditions, far from fading under the effect of modernity, can be transformed to remain significant

Chapter 2 examines Dahomian theology and the major traits of Vodun, including organization, hierarchy, practices, and rituals like initiation and the Annual Feast of the vodun (spirits), as well as the place of amulets, the tovodun, and the role of prohibitions in the service of spirits. The aim is to reveal Haitian Vodou’s African religious foundations. Discussions include the music of initiation, the relation of music to possession, and spiritual categories in Vodun religion. The naturalization of foreign vodun in Dahomian royal religion reveals ancient syncretistic approaches to conquest. The Aja-Fon spirits examined include the personal vodun Legba, the divination spirit Fa, the python vodun Dangbe and Dan, the panther vodun Agasu, plus Adjahouto, Hebyoso, Aizan, Loko, Djisò, Dan-aïdô-ouêdo, Lënsouhouè, the tohosu, Mahu and Lisa the creator couple, Sakpata, and the sacred twins. Hueda’s Dangbe temple and the politics surrounding the Dahomian King’s re-ranking of temples in 1727 are examined.