ABSTRACT
A distinction has been drawn above between the use of the terms omens, divination and oracles. For 'divination' as defined here includes the manipulation of shells and bones in order to procure a message or a sign. The term 'oracle bones' has become so well entrenched in western usage that it would be excessively pedantic to abandon it. Divination has a long history in China which may be traced back to the first evidences of civilisation and the emergence of the earliest known records of connected writing. One characteristic of divination and oracles as practised in China is the value placed on linear patterns as the signs of a message. Different types of evidence suggest that divination and oracles were matters of considerable importance in Han China. The original process of divination by stalks and hexagram depended on the seer's immediate recognition of how the resulting hexagram applied to the problem that was under consideration.
