The Diviner He – Group inscriptions of Shang oracle-bone inscriptions (i.e., Period III) feature an unusual of the word xiang鄉. Although past studies have treated it as part of the divination charge, I argue in this paper that it should be understood instead as a sort of verification or crack notation, indicating that the spirits have “received” the communication being divined. I then use evidence in the Mozi 墨子 and the Shanghai Museum manuscript of the Zhou Yi 周易 to argue that this function of xiang as a verification continued into the Zhou dynasty, and is the original form of the word heng 亨 seen in the formula yuan heng li zhen 元亨利貞 of the Zhou Yi. On the basis of this identification, I propose a new way to understand Zhou Yi divination.

• 夏含夷 | Edward L. Shaughnessy