Divination Cups

According to Yan Fan Lu, a book written by Cheng Da-chang in the Song dynasty, ancient people used seashells as currency and also used two seashells as divination cups, which were then called "bei-du." However, seashells were easily broken, so they were later replaced with wood or bamboo. They would split a small piece of wood or bamboo root in two and slightly carve it into a clam shape. Regarding the etymology of "bei-du," Cheng Da-chang theorized that they used the character "bei" because seashells could hold water like cups. The sound of "du" is similar to the sound of "jiao," meaning to teach. The character "du" was used because the cups were used to convey the will of the gods and Buddhas by their orientation to teach people.

There is also a story related to divination cups in the Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety. According to legend, Ding Lan was an unfilial farmer. Whenever his mother arrived late with his meal, he would scold her and even beat her. One day, his mother was late again, and Ding Lan was so angry that he intended to beat her when she arrived.

At that moment, he noticed a pair of birds, each carrying food in their beaks, flying to the top of a tree. He was curious and cautiously climbed up to take a look. He realized that the mother bird was sick and had lost many feathers, and the baby bird was feeding the weak mother. Ding Lan was deeply remorseful and vowed to be filial to his mother from then on.

At that moment, Ding Lan saw his mother rushing over from a great distance. He immediately opened his arms and ran toward his mother. His mother, mistaking him for wanting to beat her again, jumped into a large pond in panic. Ding Lan was startled and immediately jumped in after her. But despite his mournful cries, he could not find his mother. He searched until sunset, only to find a wooden plank. Ding Lan took the plank home and enshrined it as if it were his mother, day and night. This is the origin of the "shrine tablet." Later, Ding Lan cut two pieces of wood and made them with two sides, one facing up (representing the yang) and the other facing down (representing the yin). He would use these two pieces of wood to ask his mother for guidance on any matter. This is also considered the origin story of divination cups.

A story about Liu Bowen and "ba-bei" (the overturned divination cup). According to legend, Liu Bowen, He Da-hai, and Chang Yu-chun, disguised themselves as traveling entertainers, went out to find their master, Zhu Yuanzhang, to overthrow the Yuan dynasty and establish the Ming dynasty. Once, the three of them were tired and sore from walking and went to the house of a wealthy man to ask for lodging for the night. The wealthy man, seeing that the three looked like traveling physicians, said, "My daughter has been sick for three years. If you can cure my daughter's illness, I will be eternally grateful, and lodging will be no problem." Liu Bowen looked at He Da-hai and Chang Yu-chun and said, "Okay! Let's try." After they examined the patient and asked about her medical history, they walked outside and each rubbed off some dirt from their bodies. They each took a small amount of the dirt and gave it to the wealthy man's daughter to mix with water and drink. Strange to say, after drinking it, she felt a little better. The wealthy man treated the three as honored guests, and even gave his daughter's room to them to stay in. The three hung their luggage on the door latch and went to sleep.

There was a frog spirit in the pond in front of the wealthy man's house. Every night, when the people fell asleep, the frog spirit would come and tease his daughter. That night, the frog spirit came to the door and called out, "Bamboo brother! Willow brother! Camphor brother! Open the door!" Bamboo brother said, "No way! Camphor brother and Willow brother are carrying their luggage tonight!" After a while, the frog spirit called out again. The three were sleeping in bed, and were awakened by the cries. They secretly watched, and saw two beams of light flickering at the door. The frog spirit heard the noise inside, and scurried away into the pond in front of the door. The next day, they carefully examined the "door ghost" (the lock) and discovered that it was made of thousand-year-old camphor wood, the door latch was made of thousand-year-old willow, and behind the door was a thousand-year-old bamboo nearly as tall as a man. They confirmed that there was a monster in the pond and told the owner to drain the water from the pond to see what was inside. The owner called in many people and it took less than two hours to drain the pond. In a stone cave, they found a frog. The three of them killed the frog, cooked it, and ate it. They even burned the bones to ash, ground them into powder, and mixed it with wine to drink. From then on, the wealthy man's daughter was completely cured.

A few days later, when the three were about to leave, they asked the wealthy man for the thousand-year-old bamboo behind the door to use as a carrying pole. The bamboo could talk to them and act as a guide. Whenever they came to a fork in the road, it would point out the right path to take. This was very convenient.

One day, they arrived at an inn. It was raining continuously and the wind was piercingly cold. They had no rice and no firewood, and the innkeeper used the thousand-year-old bamboo carrying pole as firewood. When they discovered it, only a small piece of the bamboo remained. They were heartbroken and had to split this small piece of bamboo in half to make "divination cups." Whenever they reached a fork in the road, they would use the "ba-bei" (overturned divination cups) to determine the direction. From then on, people continued to use divination cups.