A Study On A Lost Ancient Book About Shizhan In Fangmatan Bamboo Slips

Fangmatan Bamboo slips, inscribed with ancient Chinese charecters, were found at a village in Tianshui City, Northwest China's Gansu Province, in 1986. There are about 460 slips. In his book Tianshui Fangmatan Oin-slips, the author divides these bamboo slips into three parts.. This dissertation mainly focuses on the second part, Rishu (Type B).The dissertation consists of five chapters:Chapter 1, Introduction; Chapter 2, Comments on Each part of the Lost Ancient Book about Shizhan in Fangmatan Bamboo Slips; Chapter 3, The Relationship between this Lost Book and other Parts in Fangmatan Bamboo Slips; Chapter 4, The Characters of this Lost Ancient Book; and Chapter 5, Conclusion.The first chapter is an introduction about the Fangmatan Bamboo Slips. In this chapter, the discovering, publicizing and previous studes on these slips are introduced.The second, third and fourth chapters consist the main body of the dissertation. This disseratation holds that some texts in Rishu (Type B) of Fangmatan Bamboo Slips are related to Shizhan, a kind of divination using the cosmic-board. These texts form a systemic, independent book, which can be seperated from Rishu (Type B). It is named Zhonglu Shizhan (A Cosmic-board Divination Book on Twelve-tones).This independent book can be devided into three sub-parts. The first is a series of graphics and captions around the Shitu (a cosmic-board image). The second is a variety of Guaci and Zhanci (divinatory verses and augurs). The third includes a group of explanations on the divination procedures. These three sub-parts are also independent from each other, and thus their sequences can be switched. Zhonglii-Shizhan is simpler than the Shizhan methods in later dynasties. Thus it can be seen as a transitional type from the earlier Shizhan to the maturer ones in Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD). This book is probably related to four other ancient books in which zhonglu is introduced, especially the book Huangzhong(黄鐘), listed in Hanshu Yiwenzhi (漢书藝文志)as a great work by ancient theoretists on yinyang wuxing(陰陽五行).