Viewing page 98 of 182

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

6.

in a very definite way.

According to Hu Hsü (胡煦)* the reason why plastronmancy survived in the Kiangsu districts and their surroundings longer that other places is due to their continued production of the river tortoises.  Land tortoises are comparatively rare; so in the regions less favored with the productions of these animals, either land or river, the cult can not be continued.  Above all we must remember that there is a practical reason for the employment of these plastrons in this cult: they are plate like and sufficiently thick, exactly suited for all the necessary operations attending to this cult.  So far as these requirements are concerned, the plastrons of both the river tortoise and the land tortoise are alike qualified.  Future investigations might show that this cult was probably first originated with the use of one group and then extended to the other. 

2. Plastrons and scapulae: their extractions and preliminary operations. 

The extraction of the scapulae from the skeletal part of the ox was probably a simple affair.  According to oracle bone inscriptions,oxen were killed in large number, for sacrificial purpose.  Their bones were seldom wasted, judging by the extensive use they were made of.  To reserve the scapulae for use in divination was therefore a simple matter for them.  The extraction of plastron, however, must have been a more elaborate process.  The supply of the tortoise was much more limited, their ability to foretell was also proportionately enhanced.  The killing of a tortoise became a very solemn state affair.  There is some difference of opinion in the interpretation of the passage from Chou-

*Living Circa 1655-1737 A.D.