Abstract
This chapter describes attempts to prove the rational foundations of Chinese cosmological and divinatory traditions: one, by Jiao Xun 焦循 (1763–1820), grounding the sequence of the divinatory hexagrams as described in the Classic of Changes (also known under its Chinese title Yijing 易經) in combinatorial theories; the other, by Yuan Shushan 袁樹珊 (1881–1952?), using polar coordinates to model mathematically on a unit circle the cosmological transformations between the Five Elements, Heavenly Branches, Earthen Stems, and the sexagenary cycle. It reveals the importance of numerical patterns as a rational principle for establishing truth in the late imperial and early Republican period, when scholars were particularly eager to prove the real scientific character of traditional divination schemes in the context of new mathematical knowledge and a prohibition of mantic arts as part of a struggle for China’s modernity.
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