Transcendent and Immanent Efficacy in Divination: A Description and Classification of the Diviners from Hong Mai’s 洪邁 (1123–1202) Yijian zhi 夷堅志 (The Chronicles of Yijian)

Abstract

The term shushu 數術 is commonly accepted to describe and include a wide range of diviners in China. But can we use the same group identifier to classify both a clairvoyant master, who is highly skilled and accurate in prognostication, and a purely technical user of shushu, who may often fail in his interpretations? The goal of this article is therefore to nuance this classification by finding other ways of categorization through close examination of the mantic specialists encountered in Hong Mai’s Yijian zhi. This examination focuses on three groups: the clairvoyants, the technicians, and the perspicacious characters. All three of these groups make use of what the author identifies as transcendent divination and immanent divination.