Folk divination methods of chicken divination

There are many popular ways of using chickens for divination, which vary according to different ethnic groups and regions. The chicken divination of the Han people is done by slaughtering a chicken and cooking it. The two eye bones of the chicken are taken out, and there are holes in them. If they look like a human, they are lucky, and if they are not, they are bad luck. The chicken divination of the Yi ethnic group, also known as chicken divination, is popular in Liangshan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other Yi areas, and is used to inquire about diseases, production, etc. When performing divination, take the left and right ribs of the femur, tie them tightly with fine linen, and hang them on the wall to judge the direction of the orifice to judge the good or bad luck. In addition, the chicken head is used to predict the weather and fortune. A bright and clear parietal bone is a sign of sunshine, and a dark and dull parietal bone is a sign of rain. Many black spots on the parietal bone are a sign of illness and death, and red spots are a sign of death and bleeding. The Li people in Hainan also have "Chicken Bone Divination". After the chicken is killed, two femurs are extracted from the chicken and inserted on a small Y-shaped branch. Then a small stick is inserted into the femoral hole, and the direction of the small bamboo stick is used to determine good or bad luck.

The Miao people select a rooster, slaughter it and cook it, cut off the two chicken legs, and after trimming the meat, look at the size of the gap between the two leg bones and whether the length is the same. If they are consistent, it means a good sign. , if they are inconsistent, it is considered a bad omen. For example, the Wa people use prepared bamboo sticks to stab the chicken to death, pull out the chicken femur, and tie the lower ends together in the order of the left femur on the left and the right femur on the right. "∨" shape is used to determine good or bad luck. There are "omens" but no hexagrams. (It is said that among the Bulang, Wa, Yi, Miao and other ethnic groups in the Simao area, the custom of divination of chicken hexagrams was popular in the past, that is, by looking at the chicken head, tongue, mouth, bones, eyes, eggs, etc. to infer good or bad luck and arbitrate the guilt or innocence. Each ethnic group chooses the defective part to ask for divination. The Bulang and Yi people kill chickens and take out the leg bones. They insert bamboo sticks or yarrow into the bone holes to see whether the chicken hexagrams are connected and how many holes are connected. Which way the bamboo sticks turn to determine good or bad luck. , if you don’t have access, you won’t be able to travel far or interact with someone)