Historical evidence
Supported by datable material, catalogs, objects or verifiable text.
01Panoramic atlas of Chinese mantic arts
Classify the myriad signs.
Trace every art to its record.
A growing map of Chinese mantic knowledge: thirty-four core dossiers, nine genealogical families and dozens of branch leads, each documenting principles, formation, primary texts, historical change, traditional attribution and contested limits.
34core dossiers9families3language editions
INDEXPAGE CONTENT
Establish the families and evidence boundary before entering 34 dossiers.
This page presents nine knowledge families, explains inclusion and evidence, opens the searchable catalog, and then records branch terms and explicit exclusions.
No closed, universally accepted list covers every Chinese mantic art. Names overlap, divide, disappear, acquire pseudonymous authors and are reinvented. This atlas centers identifiable texts, living systems and significant branches, with its scope and evidence levels made explicit.
From oracle bones, yarrow and numerical hexagrams to Hetu-Luoshu and Najia: the symbolic, temporal and numerical languages shared by many later systems.
Distinct traditions of inference built around hexagrams, lines, correlative roles, oracular texts and large-scale models of time.
Taiyi, Qimen, Liuren and related methods organize time and space through nine-palace models, cosmic boards, agents and calendrical rules.
Interpretive models of individual life cycles based on birth time, stems and branches, palaces or celestial positions.
From state astrology to winds, cloud forms and phenology: how observations became political and human interpretation.
Approaches to dwellings, graves, settlements and landscapes through form, orientation, timing and spatial order.
Historical systems of classification and analogy based on appearance, bones, voice and movement, studied together with their risks of bias.
Traditions matching activities with calendrical days, seasonal nodes, the Twelve Officers and other almanac factors.
Lots, moon blocks, character analysis, dream books and local quick methods reveal the diversity of divination in everyday life.
02Scope and classification
Foundational diagrams, operative systems, branches and cross-cultural formations are marked separately.
Hetu-Luoshu, the Nine Palaces, stems-branches and phases are shared languages; Qimen, Liuren and Six Lines have concrete charting procedures; Sanhe, Xuankong and flying boards are branches or methodological routes.
Traditional attribution
How a lineage or book tells its story; not automatically a modern historical finding.
Legend
A culturally meaningful origin narrative that does not establish a date.
Debate
Disagreement over author, composition, genealogy or algorithmic relationship.
03Core dossier index
Thirty-four core dossiers organized into nine families.
Every dossier includes Chinese and English names, pinyin, aliases, formation, evidence tags, principle, history, limits, major texts and related systems.
龟卜与骨卜
Guībǔ yǔ gǔbǔ · Pyromantic shell and bone divination
A pyromantic decision system using prepared turtle shell or animal bone whose cracks were interpreted; it is the earliest Chinese divinatory institution documented by a large surviving archive.
Excavated evidenceTextually documented
Principles, history & texts↗
蓍筮与《周易》
Shīshì yǔ Zhōuyì · Yarrow divination and the Zhou Changes
A method producing a six-line hexagram and changing lines with counting stalks, interpreted through line statements and later correlative reasoning; it became a canonical hub for Yijing studies and many later arts.
Excavated evidenceTextually documented
Principles, history & texts↗
数字卦与先秦筮法
Shùzì guà yǔ Xiān-Qín shìfǎ · Numerical hexagrams and pre-imperial divination
Excavated traditions in which numbers such as one, four, five, six, eight and nine directly formed line positions, revealing a plurality of methods before and alongside standardized yin-yang lines.
Excavated evidenceTextually documented
Principles, history & texts↗
河图、洛书与九宫
Hétú, Luòshū yǔ Jiǔgōng · River Chart, Luo Writing and the Nine Palaces
Spatial-numerical models of parity, generative numbers, center, cardinal and corner positions; a foundational node for the Three Boards, fengshui, date selection and Song correlative Yijing studies.
Textually documentedTraditional attribution
Principles, history & texts↗卦气、纳甲与八宫
Guàqì, Nàjiǎ yǔ Bāgōng · Hexagram qi, Najia and the Eight Palaces
Correlations of hexagrams and lines with months, seasonal nodes, stems, branches, phases, pitch and waxing-waning cycles; a technical substrate for Six Lines, fate calculation and some fengshui systems.
Textually documentedContested lineage or date
Principles, history & texts↗04Branch index and extended dossiers
Beyond the core dossiers lie numerous schools and local quick methods.
These names remain in a traceable branch index. They become independent dossiers only when rules, dates and relationships can be described with adequate evidence.
Six Lines: Huozhulin, Wenwangke, Huangjin Ce, hidden lines, advancing-retreating signs and timing schools
Qimen: rotating, flying, split-term, intercalary, Maoshan, hourly, daily and selection approaches
Liuren: lesson-pattern, correlative, case-based, Golden Formula and the genealogically uncertain Lesser Liuren
Fate calculation: nayin luming, Ziping pattern, strength, climatic adjustment, spirits, Taiyi natal methods, nine-palace annual movement and hand mnemonics
Astral nativities: Qintang, Guolao, celestial-office planets, Seven Governors and Four Auxiliaries, animal-star and lodge traditions
Fengshui: form, Sanhe, Sanyuan, Xuankong, Flying Stars, Eight Mansions, living and burial approaches and compass layers
Physiognomy: face, bone, hand, voice, gait, complexion and moles, with cross-cultural origins marked where needed
Miscellaneous methods: hidden-object guessing, inverse puncture, emptiness, animal calls, bodily signs, anomalies, board games, coins, dominoes and dice
Excluded or separately sourced
- 01The modern Five-Grid name system spread chiefly from Japan and is not treated as an ancient Chinese invention.
- 02Tarot, Western astrology, Kabbalah and Jyotisha are not Chinese-origin systems.
- 03Phone-number energy, license-plate magnetism and quantum-occult marketing do not enter the historical core.
- 04Claims based only on secret transmission or invention by the Yellow Emperor or Zhuge Liang are marked traditional or unverified.