The Treatise of Twenty-eight Star Constellations[二十八宿占]in Ri Shu[日书]of the Zhoujiatai Qin slips consists of a line diagram and the relation between the moon and the stars,heavenly stems and earthly branches(Stem-Branch),twenty-eight constellations and the divination method.Many scholars have discussed the line diagram and divination method.This article summarizes previous researches and points out the flaws.The role of the moon-stars relation and the Stem-Branch in the slips is to describe the device needed for this divination.The line diagram is not the device image as scholars speculated before,but the information needed for divination instead.Diviners convert the twenty-eight star constellations on the heaven plate to twenty-eight time spans.According to the annual and daily rotation of the Big Dipper,they can get the coordinates of star constellations that the handle refers to at each time of the day within twelve months,and then judge the good or bad fortune by reviewing the divination instructions.From The Treatise of Twenty-Eight Star Constellations,it can be inferred that the Liuren[六壬]device had appeared by the end of the Qin dynasty.
Zhoujiatai Qin slipsThe Treatise of Twenty-Eight Star ConstellationsLiuren device
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