一切經音義 26.49

26.49

Divination by tortoise shell and yarrow stalks (bǔshì 卜筮) (shí + shì fanqie. The Book of Rites says: 'The tortoise is used for bǔ; yarrow stalks are used for shì'. Both refer to resolving doubts and settling hesitations. Hence the character is composed of 'bamboo' and 'shaman'; one counts out yarrow stalks to derive hexagrams and snaps bamboo for lines, so the character takes the 'bamboo' radical. Shè [counting out stalks] is chán + liè and yú + liè fanqie. Shì [yarrow] is pronounced shī).