Wong Tai Sin Temple, Hong Kong (Source: travel.qunar.com)
ABSTRACT
The intention of the essay is mainly to discuss how Chinese Fortune Sticks or Cim (簽) as one of world’s fortune-telling technologies connect human experience with the world and have become a culture in China for thousands of years, until now numerous prayers visit Wong Tai Sin Temple to request answers from the God via the sticks every year. In order to better understand the Sticks as the mediation of humans and the world, the theories involved in the article are essentially extensions, post-phenomenology, human-technology relations, comparing with Tarot Cards which prevails in western world. In the end, the study would argue the Divination Sticks phenomenon and its profound and potential influences on society since it always accompanies with rituals, religion and culture.
INTRODUCTION
At the beginning of the 2017 Lunar Year, one of my friends asked me to accompany her to visit Wong Tai Sin Temple to pray and draw a Chinese Fortune Stick for fortune-telling because she encountered something really awful then and felt she completely lost control of her own life. On that day when we arrived at the Wong Tai Sin station, we found on our way to the temple, there were filled with people who intended to ask the God about their fortune. After we reached the outdoor place especially designed for drawing sticks, we brought a Cim Bucket with 100 Sticks inside from the Administrative Office. Looking at the believers shaking the bucket in order to get one stick dropped out of it, some philosophical concepts and theories came up into my mind and this divination technology could be researched related to our class. And this kind of fortune-telling technology is worshiped by thousands of people, which is a phenomenon connecting with not only religion but also culture, from my point of view.
Background
In ancient China, dating back to pre-Qin Dynasty (先秦時代), people burned turtle shells or bird bones to gain the unique features shown by Gods. Praying for a Cim is one of the commonest and most typical Chinese divination technologies, which was first recorded in the Jade Box Records, an ancient Chinese book written in the Jin Dynasty (晉朝). Cims originated from natural bamboo chips and modified into flat and wide sticks resembling incense sticks with one end painted red and the other end written in numbers, corresponding to poems respectively.
The Cims and corresponding poems in a Hong Kong temple. (Source: wikipedia.com)
Fortune-telling technology has always prevailed from ancient time to our modern society owing to human’s anticipating and fearing the mysterious future. (Yiping & Qinjia, 2009, 47) To study this technology is to better understand and properly treat the relationships between it and ourselves, which is an interesting and meaningful philosophical discussion that human or technology, who is the ruler to control the other one. Through this, humans might have a further cognition of ourselves.
Watching the act of praying, drawing sticks and interpreting the meanings, I just came up with some similarities with Tarot Cards, especially in terms of the divining process, aka. the process of mediating the artifacts: Both of Cim and Tarot Cards require fortune-askers to think what they are going to predict before starting to use the technology - the former is shaking the Cim Bucket to randomly drop one stick, the latter is shuffling and selecting more than one card, which is one difference between the two technologies. No matter which technological artifact has been employed, there should be an “expert” who is capable of understanding and explaining the oracles of Cim or Cards, to give some suggestions according to askers’ own condition.
Related notions like Extensions, Post-phenomenology, Human-technology relations, will be referred to analyze that as a kind of technology, how these bamboo sticks connect with human and produce impacts on human society. Western Tarot Cards will also be introduced to make a comparison with Wong Tai Sin sticks to make a better understanding of these divine technologies.
EXTENSIONS / EMBODIED TECHNICS
According to McLuhan’s famous theory of extensions (1966, pp.129), every technological artifact extends humans’ faculties, like telescope extending our visions, telephone extending our hearing ability. At the start of preparing the study of Chinese Fortune Sticks, I was confused about whether this form of artifacts extend our organs, since this is not linking to eyes, ears, nose, limbs etc. Until Brey’s Extension Theory (2000, pp.2) is researched, I realized one part of ourselves we always use, however, not always detected its existence consciously - it is our brain which is naturally associated with perception, cognition, awareness, spirits, belief, etc. Thus, in my opinion, the divination technology extends our mind to a far-away and unknown world where we cannot reach if with our real and factual body. When people knee down and hold on to the bucket to shake sticks, they are extended to the place where the God lives and they are communicating with Wong Tai Sin himself at that time. In this way, the Cim amplifies humans’ function from my perspective.
As Brey (2000, pp.15) states, “artifacts that engage in symbiotic relationships with human organs, whether they amplify a human function, or …, can be identified as artifacts that engage in embodiment relations.” This let me come up with it as one human-technology relation in Idhe’s “the philosophy of technology” (1990, pp.72). Furthermore, how to use the Sticks and the Cim Bucket is easy to learn, which seems transparent between us and the technology. However, an inevitable dilemma would be encountered with in the embodied relations, the religion-related technology is no exception, where humans utilize it to extend our sense and body to experience the world where Gods exist while we desire to make it become part of ourselves as if we can communicate with Gods directly even though the Sticks are “withdraw”, they are hardly detected. (Ihde,1990, pp.73)
POST-PHENOMENOLOGY HUMAN-TECHNOLOGY RELATIONS
Ihde’s definition, “phenomenon of the human-technology relations”, (1990, pp.72) is found to better comprehend the perception, utilization and positioning of diverse technologies as important components in the Earth. The four sorts - Embodied/Hermeneutic/Alterity/Background Relations he proposed to help deal with our relationships with the technological artifacts, which would be introduced in detail below where I also explore the relations with Chinese Fortune Sticks, comparing the relations between the western typical divination technology - Tarot Cards and humans. One thing needs to mention that Embodied relations of both Chinese and western one are discussed above, thus it would not be analyzed in this section.
Hermeneutic Technics
In the relations, the technology has something to do with the act of reading. Performing as an interface, the technology is utilized by humans to read through the unknown world. However, the “enigma” (Ihde, 1990, pp.87) might emerge between the technology and the world if the hermeneutic technics do not function commendably. Therefore, it requires users to master suitable hermeneutic skills well, then the “enigma” (Ihde, 1990, pp.87) would turn into transparency, which allows humans to read more clearly and easily, like Ihde (1990, pp.82) states, “Textual transparency is hermeneutic transparency, not perceptual transparency”, as though the interface does not exist. Additionally, whether the users believe in the mediation ability of a technology is a determinant of this relation.
Followers pray and draw a Cim from the Cim Bucket with a pious worship, during which the opinions or thinking about the questions they intend to ask, the results of their fortune or sometimes with interest feedback to the God (like if their wishes come true, they will present sacrificial offerings at his altar), would come up into their mind constantly. The hermeneutic relations emerge in the above process since the Chinese Fortune Sticks stimulate the believers to produce such textual ideas on the unexplored world. However, they are unable to but try to understand the oracles of the Cim dropped from the Cim Bucket on account of their poor reading skills. In such case, they are obliged to take down the numbers inscribed on the sticks in order to seek advice from professional fortune-tellers.
The obvious relationship between fortune-tellers and the divination technology is Hermeneutic. Most interestingly, each number corresponds with single poem printed or written on a sheet of paper, revealing an ancient Chinese story, which would be retold in modern sense when interpreting the stick results and related to the imminent events followers literally and inevitably experience. The professionals normally spend several years in learning and improving reading techniques comprehensively via the Chinese divination system – the Book of Changes (周易), Ying and Yang (陰陽), Five Elements (五行) etc. Therefore, the technology seems a transparent interface for interpreters to read through and gain the authentic meaning from Wong Tai Sin more clearly and easily than followers who do not possess this kind of reading ability or not know enough to interpret the textualized technology.
Alterity Relations
A technological otherness is a major characteristic in the relations, creating a sense of communicating with “something other than (ourselves)” (Ihde, 1990, pp.100), which is different from hermeneutic relations. Because of the quasi-otherness related to users, the technology itself alters into the focus of attention fascinating humans to the space full of imagination and challenging them. In addition, there associates with the trust in the technology to some extent. If the technology malfunctions one day, the quasi-otherness would substitute the fascination and belief brought by itself for the disappointment and even indignation as well. Thus, Ihde (1990, pp.101) describes alterity relations between humans and technology with “I must beat the machine or it will beat me.”
It is known that the divination is involved in religion more or less, the Chinese Fortune Sticks is no exception. The invisible or absent power is represented by the religious objects, but this is not their only function, they are also bestowed with sacredness, which Ihde (1990, pp.99) regards the religious things “contain the seeds of an alterity relation.” Just imagine the scene when the believers knee down in front of the Wong Tai Sin and shake these sticks vigorously, twittering some questions you would want to know about. In this way, the followers seem to immerse themselves into the mystical atmosphere of sacredness the sticks constructed, through which they hope the good results would emerge with forms of “Best / Good Cim (上上簽/上簽)” on sticks dropped from the Cim Bucket. However, the sticks would not obey followers’ will, even challenge, “Bad / Worst Cim (下簽/下下簽)” appear time and again. Under the circumstance, the stick owner has no idea but accept the consequence, showing frustration and depression, while the lucky gainer feels more refreshed and hopeful. No matter which kind of reactions the believers take, they are greatly influenced and challenged, might even “controlled”, by the divination technology.
The online version of the Cim needs to be discussed here and in Background Relations. Alterity relations occur in various computer-related technologies, as Ihde (1990, pp.98) elaborates, acting as a quasi-animation and there looks like no doubt that online Cim belongs to this relation. The automatic act of shaking sticks to draw one seems users increasingly lose control of the technology since they can touch the tangible Cim and Cim Bucket offline and take some mental preparation before the results come out. Most PC versions or APPs design the shaking time so short that users have not noticed that the act has already been finished and they even have not started to pray. The experience makes users feel it sucks, through which their awareness of the quasi-otherness is raised.
Background Relations
Different from the alterity relations, the technology in background relations is not situated in the focal center of attention, but function by itself, remaining hardly detectable and blending into the background of other operations. The Background Relations occupies “the position of an absent presence as a part of or a total field of immediate technology” (Ihde, 1990, pp.111), while constructing some environmental experiences. As Ihde (1990, pp.87) points out that certain automatic and semiautomatic machines could be typical examples in the relationships, like heating / lighting system, air conditioning, washing machines and so on.
In such way, the new development of the Chinese Fortune Sticks is considered as Background Relations. As mentioned before in Alterity Relations, the reduced time of praying while shaking Cim causes the unimposing feelings and the automatic operation is suffused with characteristics of amusement, both of which might lower users’ attention to the technology. If the online version is promoted and accepted, people are no longer religious because they can just click the bottom written with “Draw Cim (抽簽)” to start the automatic working of the system as a background, once it begins, they can do other things at the same time, this could be seen in some online versions which simulate real situations taking more time than the former ones.
In this part, I discuss that Chinese Fortune Sticks and its developed one display a compounded texture of Ihde’s four human-technology relations, Embodied/Hermeneutic/Alterity/Background. Although Background Relations simply appear in the online version where we are completely unaware of in a conscious state, the on-the-spot Cim technology is able to performance the other three relationships at the same time in the whole process, as it can extend our mind to connect with the God, it can be itself alien from us humans and it can also help us look or read through the unknown and unsettling world a little bit more clearly and lightly.
CONCLUSIONS
After analyzing our relations with the Chinese Cim, something interesting and relevant I found between it and the Tarot Cards in Ihde’s human-technology relations. The hermeneutic relations of the Tarot Cards are similar with the ones of the Cim, as the fortune-askers who know a little about the Tarot reading skills would only understand the literal and superficial meanings of the cards they choose while the professional fortune-tellers are able to regard the divination cards as a transparent tool to interpret the true essence without any obstacles. The Embodied relations can be regarded to exist in the fascination of the world the two divination technologies stimulate humans’ brain to produce, taking a form of cognitive extension, however, another kind of fascination also occur in the Alterity Relations where the results of the Tarot Cards cannot be controlled by users’ expectations. Unlike the existence of both Alterity and Background Relations in online Chinese Fortune Sticks, I suppose Internet Tarot Cards only have Alterity Relations because of its prescribed drawing rules - users need to turn the randomly-selected cards (down) over (up) after shuffling. If persisting in considering the shuffling as an automated uneasily-detectable part, it is far-fetched to acknowledge online Tarot Cards as Background Relations with humans to some extent.
Additionally, the extensions represented in the divination technology are worth emphasizing here. When believers utilize the Cims or Tarot Cards, the artifacts would help extend their mind or cognitive functions, including “the sense, central nervous system, and ‘consciousness’” (Brey, 2000, pp.2; McLuhan, 1966, pp. 218). In my mind, the world where Gods exist is a part of the real world with which we can mediate the technics, after all, there is no obvious evidences proving it does not exist and nothing is absolute that present acknowledged knowledge might be overturned tomorrow. Moreover, as Brey (2000, pp. 11) stresses that the social and cultural extensions of the Chinese Fortune Sticks and Tarot also need to pay attention to, since their status functions are agreed by the collective society and “used to satisfy spiritual needs, such as worship, identity formation, and self-expression”: Look at the fortune-askers, they hang on to the bucket to show their veneration to Wong Tai Sin, know and accept themselves in virtue of the Cim and corresponding poems. Here, I also intend to mention that us humans should not be manipulated by the technology and should play an active role in the relationships, otherwise one harmful social result would happen that the number of lazy guys increase since they just wait for the good predictions without working.
In the end, I must admit that the cultural aspect of the divination technologies, either Cims or Tarot, is discussed deficiently in this study. Although the field of technological culture is more complex and usually getting involved in politics, this still deserves more researches, attracting me to delve later and deeper into two perspectives I’ve associated with: In light of Ihde’s research on Cultural Hermeneutics (1990, pp.130), comparing Chinese with western technology, such as clocks, I would like to continue study the similarity or difference of Cims and Tarot. In addition, the phenomenon that Cims is developed and used to ideologically rule people by the ruling class in ancient China, reminds me to explore Winner’s two ways (1980) to evaluate whether Cims have politics as well as contrasting with Tarot.
REFERENCES
Ihde, D. (1990). “5. Program One: A Phenomenology of Technics”, Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 72-112.
Ihde, D. (1990). “6. Program Two: Cultural Hermeneutics”, Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 124-161.
McLuhan, M. (1966). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 129-218.
Brey, P. (2000). “Technology as Extension of Human Faculties.”, Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Technology. Research in Philosophy and Technology, Vol. 19. Ed. C. Mitcham. London: Elsevier/JAI Press. pp. 1-20.
Yiping, W. & Qinjia, L. (2009). “On Chinese Ancient Fortune-telling”, JOURNAL OF YULIN NORMAL UNIVERSITY (Social Science), Vol. 30, No.1. Yulin Normal University Press. pp. 45-48.
Haiqing, J. (2015). “A Dispelling of Doubts on Post-phenomenology: Pragmatic and Hermeneutic Dimensions of D. Ihde’s Philosophy of Technology”, JOURNAL OF CHANGSHA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (Social Science), Vol. 30, No. 3. Changsha University Press. pp. 27-32.
Winner, L. (1980). “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”, Daedalus, Vol. 109, No. 1, Modern Technology: Problem or Opportunity? The MIT Press. pp. 121-136
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