Page 274 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 267
In the later practice of prognostication by means of the yarrow plant 50 sections of
yarrow stem were laid out: certain divisions and subtractions were then performed which
were construed as ‘correspondences’ to heaven, earth, man, the
seasons. Odd and even residues of whole or broken yarrow stems were then formed
into trigrams which were subsequently expanded into hexagrams. This is the
principle underlying the celebrated Yi-jing, the 3,000-year-old ‘Book of Changes’.
This consists of a logically expanding system of 64 hexagrams, whose accompanying
explanations (‘The Verdict’, ‘The Picture’) are supposed to enlighten the enquirer with
regard to his own situation. This is not a simple binary prognostication of the ‘good/bad’
type: rather it identifies, with the help of tossed coins or staves, the contingent situation
of an individual and the possible or likely developments therefrom. ‘As long as things are
still happening, they can be directed’ (Yi-jing, tr. Richard Wilhelm).
If the Yi-jing has become something of a fashionable craze in the West (via translation
into Western languages) this is not the case in the East, where the book is now used by
scholars only, as it is no easy matter to interpret commentaries and explanations whose
authenticity is itself far from certain. Nowadays in most East Asian temples – and
especially in South-east Asia – there are bamboo canes containing 12, 24, 28, 49, 64, 100
or 120 short rods. The enquirer chooses one of these and shakes the container till a rod
falls out. He looks at the number written on it and then chooses the correspondingly
numbered slip from an adjacent board: on this he will find the answer to his questions
concerning his fate. Attendants are employed to read the slips of paper to the
illiterate, and to explain their content to anyone who cannot understand it. These answers
are obviously simplifications and vulgarisations of the text of the original Yi-jing.
In addition there are books that interpret dreams; and some people try to foretell the
future from strange noises in the ears or twitching of the eye (yan-tiao).

Orange

ju-z

Oranges grow in South China. They were regarded as very suitable presents for children.
The story was told of Lu Ji, who was given two oranges for himself but who ate neither
and presented them both to his mother; he was thus known as an example of xiao,
the attention to filial duty which the Chinese prize so highly. Ju = orange is phonetically
very close to zhu = ‘to wish or pray for good fortune’ (zhu fu); and accordingly, the
orange is regarded as a harbinger of good luck and is often eaten on the second day of
the New Year Feast. On this day in ancient times the Emperor had oranges
distributed to his officials.
A related fruit is the bitter orange (yuan), which symbolises the phonetically
equivalent fate, destiny (yuan).