Liu Bowen’s philosophy of divination—a discussion on HuangjinCe or golden treatises

This paper discusses the Chinese philosophy of divination, named Wuxingyi (五行易), or the doctrine of yi of the Five Elements. Wuxing is a method of divination established from Han dynasty, which fulfills the needs of civilian life through a large philosophical system. This concept of divination grew to maturity when Liu Bowen of the Ming dynasty came to reorganize what later became the mainstream of modern Chinese folk divination. This paper focuses on the discussion of divine practice according to Liu Bowen’s thought, the impact of ideological and theoretical foundation to the general public, and how this method evolves into a set of analytical methods of predicting fate and changes in life of modern folk. The reason for this lies in its strong implementation of philosophical thoughts, compliant with the evolution of philosophical interpretation across time, which is also central to the discussion in this article.