Divination with Hexagrams as Combinatorial Practice1

The production of broken and unbroken lines in yarrow stalk divination did not only serve the purpose of prognostication. This contribution shows that it was also considered as a model for mathematical reflections to solve combinatorial questions. By analyzing and translating entirely a text by the mid-Qing scholar Wang Lai 汪萊 (1768–1813), it turns out that mantic figures—without being limited to the six lines as in a hexagram—were used as the paradigmatic model in his manuscript