Okay, so I got this crossword clue the other day, “ancient Chinese divination book,” and I was like, what the heck is that? I’m not super into ancient stuff, but I do love a good puzzle. So, I decided to dive in and figure this thing out.
First, I tried to think if I’d ever heard of anything like that before. Nothing came to mind. Then I checked out the crossword itself to see if there were any other clues that could help me narrow it down. The clue was in a group of clues related to ancient history, so I figured it was something legit and not just made up.
Next, I hit the internet. I typed the clue into a search engine, and a bunch of stuff popped up. It looked like a lot of other people had been stumped by this one, too! I saw that there were a few different crossword solver sites that had some answers.
I started reading through some of the forums and articles that came up in the search results. I learned that there’s this ancient Chinese book called the “I Ching,” which is apparently all about divination and predicting the future. That seemed like it could be the answer.
Digging Deeper
- I found out that the “I Ching” has been around for thousands of years.
- Apparently, it started as a way to predict the future back in the Western Zhou period, like 1000 years before Christ.
- Then, it kind of morphed into this whole philosophical thing with a bunch of commentaries called the “Ten Wings” during the Warring States and early imperial periods.
I also discovered that there are crossword puzzles out there that use Chinese characters for the answers, even though the clues are in English. That’s pretty wild! I don’t know any Chinese, so I definitely wouldn’t be able to solve one of those. Luckily, the puzzle I was working on just wanted the answer in English.
So, after all that digging, I felt pretty confident that the answer to the clue “ancient Chinese divination book” was “I Ching.” I filled it in on the crossword, and it fit perfectly! It was pretty cool to learn something new while solving a puzzle. From now on, If I ever see that clue again, I’ll know the answer right away. And who knows, maybe I’ll even check out the “I Ching” itself sometime. It sounds kind of interesting, even if it is super old.
