Without a doubt, the Chinese are one of the most influential groups of people who have ever set foot on the planet's soil. Since ancient times, the Chinese were already thought to be excellent merchants, travelling the seas in order to trade with its Asian neighbors. No wonder it's still as aggressive in business as it is today.
Aside from the economy, the Chinese have also played a vital part in world culture and brought a lot of ideas to it from whichever side you look at it. The Chinese has got to play some role. Of course, divination is no exception. To varying degrees, it is obvious that there are Chinese influences in it.
Primary to Chinese influence when it comes to divination is the I Ching, one of the oldest classical texts in existence. It is also know as The Book of Changes. The book contains a divination system that is somewhat similar to the Western geomancy system.
Transmitted by Fei Zhi during the Han dynasty, the book has constantly been used by people to make important decisions and to predict the future. Until now, certain groups of people still use this book and makes it their source of wisdom and inspiration. The earliest know version of the text, an incomplete version written on bamboo slips, is the Chujian Zhouyi, which dates to the latter years of the Warring Period (late 4th to early 3rd century BC).
In a nutshell, an oracle is set by flipping coins or by manipulating yarrow stalks. The text of the book, meanwhile, is composed of 64 sets of six lines each. Each of these sets is called a hexagram. The hexagram itself is composed of two trigams, each of which is composed of three lines. Those lines are either straight (Yang) or broken (Ying). Each of the hexigrams then, in turn, represent a state, chosen using the technique of manipulating yarrow stalks mentioned above.
There are various websites over the Web that offer free I Ching reading or tutorial. Here's one.
