On Divination in the Xunzi and Beyond: A Brief Note with Implications for the Modern Couplings of Secular vs. Sacred, the Personal vs. the Communal, and Monarchical and Autocratic

Abstract Human beings’ brains are hardwired to see the world in binaries, such as “rational” vs. “superstitious” or “credulous,” “secular” vs. “sacred,” and in concept clusters, such as “monarchical” and “autocratic.” This essay argues that many binaries we have applied to divination theories and practices in the early empires in China contradict the worldviews expressed in the texts from that period, which presumed an extended community composed of the living and the dead over multiple generations, rather than individual lifespans that end with death. In addition, like Aristotle but unlike most moderns, they did not regard all monarchies as autocratic.