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5.

It cannot be found out from the written record as to whether this tradition could be traced back to the Shang Dynasty; but there is reason to believe that the tortoises used for divinations in the Shang time show exactly the kind of difference as noted by Chen Hsuen. Althou Testudo anyangensis Ping, sp. nov. is a land tortoise, the inscriptions of the oracle bone indicate that fresh water tortoises were also collected. There is a very interesting tale told by Chuang Tsu(莊子) in one of his essays about the capture of a divine tortoise from the river:

"Sung Yuan-chün(宋元君) dreamed in the midnight, that a man with drooping hair spied at the Â-gate(阿門), saying 'I have come from the pond of Chai-lu, acting as a messenger from Ch'ing-chiang (清江) to the court of He-po(河伯); the fisher Yü Ch'ieh(余且) has captured me. When Yuan Chün wakened, a divination was ordered, answering, 'This is a divine tortoise.' The king asked 'Is there a fisher, Yü Ch'ieh by name?' The courtisans said 'Yes.' 'Let him come to see me!' On the morrow, Yü Ch'ieh came to the court. The king asked, 'What have you fished?' The fisherman answered, 'The net of Ch'ieh captured a white tortoise, its circular dimension measures five feet......." ^[[*]]

In the Tribute of Yü(禹貢), it is recorded that Chiu-chiang(九江) sent large tortoises as one of its regular tributes. This is significant in two respects: in the first place, it shows tortoises were transported from long distance for royal usage, and secondly the large tortoises from Chiu-chiang were very likely river tortoises. In the dictionary Er-ya(爾雅), tortoise is described under the fish category, and is divided into ten different varieties, of which one is called river tortoise variety and another marsh tortoise variety.

All these serve to show the tradition that river tortoises were collected and kept under custody. Whether they were used for divination is of course another question. But it seems to be probable enough that they were related to the cult of plastronmancy

^[[*]] Changtzu: [[underlined]] Wai-wu pien [[/underlined]](外物篇)