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

divination Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...

. It is not known when, nor by whom, it was written, though a legend has spread that strategist Zhang Liang received the book from Huang Shigong (黃石公), a semi-mythological figure in Chinese history. The first commented edition of the work appeared in the

Jin Dynasty Jin may refer to: States Jìn 晉 * Jin (Chinese state) (晉國), major state of the Zhou dynasty, existing from the 11th century BC to 376 BC * Jin dynasty (266–420) (晉朝), also known as Liang Jin and Sima Jin * Jin (Later Tang precursor) ...

. As its name suggests, the work concerns "divining" with tokens, such as Chinese chess (''

xiangqi Xiangqi (; ), commonly known as Chinese chess or elephant chess, is a Strategy game, strategy board game for two players. It is the most popular board game in China. Xiangqi is in the same family of games as shogi, janggi, chess, Western ches ...

'' i.e.象棋) pieces (instead of with the more traditional turtle shells or yarrow stalks used in ''

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...

'' divination). Twelve

Xiangqi Xiangqi (; ), commonly known as Chinese chess or elephant chess, is a Strategy game, strategy board game for two players. It is the most popular board game in China. Xiangqi is in the same family of games as shogi, janggi, chess, Western ches ...

pieces 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 Tian () is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and cosmology. During the Shang dynasty (17th―11th century BCE), the Chinese referred to their highest god as '' Shangdi'' or ''Di'' (, ...

''), 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

See also

References

External links