Qian Divination and Its Ritual Adaptations in Chinese Buddhism

This article analyzes Buddhist variations of the so called temple oracle (qian 籤 divination) that can be traced historically in the form of sets of answers for people seeking counsel about their future. The ritual is commonly known as a habitual practice in popular religious temples today. Three different ritual texts elucidate modes in which the temple oracle has been woven into Buddhist practice: a doctrinal variation (connected to the aspect of jiao 教) has come to us through the fifth-century Consecration Sūtra; in the sixth-century Sūtra on the Divination of the Effect of Good and Evil Actions can be found a practice-oriented integration (connected to the aspect of xiu 修); and a nominal adaptation (connected to the aspect of ming 名) is preserved with the thirteenth-century Efficacious Slips of Tianzhu. The temple oracle in China is based on long-standing East Asian traditions as Carole Morgan demonstrated about twenty-five years ago in this journal. Based on the initial results presented at the end of this article, future research might shed light on how this tradition evolved in the context of a pan-Asian and Buddhist exchange process.