Lingqijing

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ling Qi Jing
Classic of the Divine Chess
Chinese name
Hanyu Pinyin
Língqíjīng
Literal meaning"Classic of the Divine Chess"
North Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl령기경
South Korean name
Hangul영기경
Japanese name
Hiraganaれいききょう
Kyūjitai靈棋經
Shinjitai霊棋経

Lingqijing (or Ling Ch'i Ching; 靈棋經 lit. "Classic of the Divine Chess") is a Chinese book of

Jin Dynasty
.

As its name suggests, the work concerns "divining" with tokens, such as Chinese chess (xiangqi i.e.象棋) pieces (instead of with the more traditional turtle shells or yarrow stalks used in I Ching divination).

Twelve Xiangqi pieces [a] are used; each piece is a disc with a character on one side, and the other side unmarked. Four have the character for "up" (, pronounced shang), four have the character for "middle" (, zhong), and four have the character for "down" (, xia), representing respectively the Three Realms: Heaven (, tian), Humanity (, ren), and Earth (, di).

These pieces are cast onto a surface, and the text of the Lingqijing the resulting combination is in for what fortune the combination means.

The text of the Lingqijing has an entry for all 125 combinations (i.e., three kinds of pieces, times the five possibilities for each kind: one through four pieces landing face up, or none).

Notes

  1. ^ As can be seen in entry "Xiangqi", none of the characters 下, 中, or 上 occur actually as characters on Xiangqi pieces. The pieces for Lingqijing look like Xiangqi pieces, except for bearing these special characters.

See also

  • I Ching - the most famous Chinese oracle, much more complex than the Lingqijing
  • Taixuanjing - similar to the I Ching
  • Xiangqi - the board game that is commonly called Chinese chess
  • Qi Men Dun Jia
    - a divination/astrology
  • Zhang Liang - a purported author of the Lingqijing
  • Three Strategies of Huang Shigong - another work by another purported author/editor of the Lingqijing.

References

  • Sawyer, Ralph D.; Sawyer, Mei-chün Lee (2004). Ling Ch'i Ching: A Classic Chinese Oracle. .
  • Kashiwa, Ivan (October 1997). Spirit Tokens of the Ling Qi Jing (1 ed.). .
  • .

External links

  • The dictionary definition of Lingqijing at Wiktionary