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7.

li, referred to above, as to whether those tortoises were killed right in the autumn at the time of collection, retaining only the shells for storage; or kept alive and killed at the time when used.  Hu Hsü is in favor of the former opinion and said that collecting and killing of tortoises took place about the same time.  This opinion seems to be somewhat justified on the basis of the finds from An-yang, among which there is a complete shell, freed entirely from the endoskeletal parts, yet not at all prepared for the final operation in divination.  In other words, they were being stored but also having been killed.

A curious thing happens in connection with the killing of the tortoise as well as the using of it in the final operation.  According to Chou-li, in the early spring, the tortoises were smeared with blood or'hsin-ed (舋)'; divination took place before offering sacrifice.  The term 'hsin' has been interpreted by Chêng Hsuen[[strikthrough]](    )[[/strikethrough]] as the operation of "killing the cattle and taking its blood to smear it on the shells of the tortoise in order to make them divine".  Apart from the fact that it was an important item in the whole procedure of the cult, it is significant to note that the tortoise shell were made divine only after the smearing of the blood of the cattle.  Here, an inevitable inference is that the divine quality of the tortoise seems to be borrowed from the cattle and this is probably due to the fact that scapulimancy is antecedent to plastromancy. 

2. Anatomy of the scapula and the plastron.

It has already been noted that in divination only the scapula of the ox and the plastron of the tortoise were used. It seems to be useful to insert a note on their general anatomy before the detailed treatment of their preparations and final usage. 

a. The scapula.