The Tricks of Jing (Jing jue 荆決): The Beginnings of jue 決/訣 as an Epistemic Genre
The Chinese genre of text named jue 訣 dates back to the Han dynasty. It encompassed esoteric Daoist manuals and medical handbooks, translated as “tricks,” “methods,” “instructions,” “secret instructions,” and “rhymes.” This essay translates “tricks” and “secrets” for its early use, referring to “wri...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
International journal of divination and prognostication
Year: 2024, Volume: 5, Issue: 2, Pages: 163-187 |
| Further subjects: | B
history of knowledge
B Dunhuang manuscripts B Divination B secret knowledge B 訣 / jue 決 B Epistemology B Daoism B Ancient China |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Chinese genre of text named jue 訣 dates back to the Han dynasty. It encompassed esoteric Daoist manuals and medical handbooks, translated as “tricks,” “methods,” “instructions,” “secret instructions,” and “rhymes.” This essay translates “tricks” and “secrets” for its early use, referring to “writings” (shu 書) linked to privately transmitted technical information, such as divination tricks, alchemical techniques, or medical recipes. Initially, these writings relied on oral instructions and implicit knowledge (“orally transmitted secrets,” koujue 口訣). By the medieval period, as seen in the Dunhuang manuscripts, the link to exclusive oral instruction had weakened, and the jue genre evolved into “how-to” (hezhi 何知) manuals for quick reference in a broader body of formally transmitted texts, like “canons, scriptures” (jing 經). The jue genre began as rhematic (rather than thematic), specifying techniques or “methods” (fa 法), whether Daoist, medical, or divinatory. |
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| ISSN: | 2589-9201 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: International journal of divination and prognostication
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/25899201-bja10015 |