ABSTRACT
The change from the spontaneous utterances or prophecies of a seer to the pronouncements of a learned consultant is seen in the production of special documents that came to be used during the mantic process. Long before the Han age the original simple procedures of this type of divination had given way to a complex process marked by ritualism. The change is seen in two ways. First, in the initial stages the questions had been put to a seer, whose visionary powers had enabled him to seize intuitively upon the answer that was inherent in the single line; but in the later stages, the answers were forthcoming after the consultation of written guides. Secondly, from the production of a single line which would suffice to inspire a seer's reaction, there developed a lengthy ritual which led to the deliberate production of a more complex pattern.
