At a glance
- Reading focus
- Six Han bibliographic categories do not form one shared algorithm.
Definition and details
Shushu is a broad historical and analytical designation, not one complete science with unchanged rules. Methods work with shells, stalks, celestial events, numbers, characters or terrain. Study operations, interpreters and audiences alongside bibliography and institutions, avoiding the projection of a current five-arts classification onto every earlier period.
Structure and history
Hanshu’s numerical-arts bibliography distinguishes astronomy, calendars, phases, turtle and stalk methods, miscellaneous divination and form assessment. Shiji preserves astral and political-omen language. They are different genres rather than one manual. Bibliographic classification also reflects collecting and knowledge organization, not an exhaustive inventory of every contemporary local practice.
A concrete example
Dunhuang research documents coin, draughtsman, wooden-wheel and numerical-trigram techniques coexisting and circulating. Compare implement counts, generated results and lookup procedures; the word gua does not guarantee a Zhouyi hexagram. Attributions to Confucius, Laozi or other prestigious figures must also be separated from the ascertainable date of a manuscript witness.
Context and limits
History can analyze relations with politics, religion, commerce and households without treating age, popularity or success stories as evidence of efficacy. Document change through witnesses, provenance and user records instead of filling gaps with primordial legends. The aim is to understand formation and circulation while keeping unknown authorship, lost texts and evidence limits visible.
References & further reading
Historical sources document ideas and rules of their time, not empirical proof of predictive accuracy. Source notes identify the nature and scope of each reference.
- 漢書 · 卷030 藝文志Primary / tradition source
Public-domain bibliographic history with astronomy, calendars, phases, turtle/stalk, miscellaneous and form categories.
- 史記 · 卷027 天官書Primary / tradition source
Public-domain astral and omen text with later commentary; distinguish base text from notes.
- Dice and Gods on the Silk Road · The Divination of MaheśvaraScholarly research
Scholarly chapter comparing Chinese, Tibetan and other divination materials from Dunhuang.