Talk:Wu (shaman)

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Shamanism in fujian[edit]

http://books.google.com/books?id=sPo8qbj3N_MC&pg=PA299#v=onepage&q&f=false

Guderyean (talk) 05:18, 17 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Puett[edit]

The article does not make use of Michael J. Puett's To Beocme a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China. 2002.

The book totally negates K.C.Chang-based reconstruction of shamanism as the basis of early Chinese religion. Even if debatable, it is very much relevant for understanding the academic views on the topic.--Shanghainese.ua (talk) 10:15, 23 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Question about the wu+bamboo character 筮 meaning as achillea millefolium[edit]

This is a very interesting connection! However it appears that 筮 is not the common character for yarrow or its formal name. At least I was unable to find it in any online dictionaries. Can anyone provide more information on this connection. Also, it seems, in the spirit of accuracy, that this reference should be revised in some way as it could be misleading.

I became a Wikipedia contributor in order to make this comment. If this is not the best way to approach this issue, please advise.

Thank you,

Barryef (talk) 18:20, 12 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Barryef, and welcome to Wikipedia. Yes, yarrow or milfoil is the English translation for shi 筮. It's the Classical Chinese name for Achillea and shi 蓍 is the modern one. My favorite dictionary Wenlin says

shì 筮 "tell the future using yarrow stalks (蓍草)", with shīcǎo 蓍草 "milfoil (used in divination)"
From zhú 竹 "bamboo" (Radical 118) and wū 巫 "witch, wizard", and quotes Léon Wieger, "The 竹 stalks of the Achillea Sibirica 蓍 that were used by the 巫 wizards to divine."
This shì 筮 is a phonetic component in shì 噬 "bite" (with radical 30).

The Baynes/Wilhelm Yijing translation describes the divination method. Hope this helps, Keahapana (talk) 20:45, 13 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Keahapana, this is helpful. I'm still a little confused. I figure to sort through the confusion at the moment is to suggest to you a rewording of the meaning of 巫 in the entry.

It now states:

This 巫 component is semantically significant in several characters: ... shi 筮 (with the "bamboo radical" 竹) "Achillea millefolium (used for divination)" ...

Would you regard this as correct:

shi 筮 (with the "bamboo radical" 竹) classical Chinese: "Achillea millefolium (used for divination)," modern Chinese: "to divine with stalks, particularly with Achillea millefolium"

I take you on your word regarding the classical Chinese definition. I assume this could be found in the appropriate dictionaries. The Wenlin definition seems to be close to the Google definition, which does not explicitly mention ::yarrow. Thus, it seems 巫 classically mean yarrow and came to represent divination with stalks. Or did it classically mean both?

Thank you!

Barryef (talk) 18:24, 14 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Barryef (talk • contribs) 18:19, 14 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Barreyef: Both shi names have the same meaning of "Achillea (used for a Chinese type of rhabdomancy)" (to get technical). Neither shì 筮 nor shī 蓍 occurs as an independent word, only bound in compounds like bǔshìguān 卜筮官 "diviner", shìrén 筮人 "fortune-teller", and shīcǎo 蓍草 "milfoil (used in divination)". In a sense, the components of 筮 ideographically signify "shaman plant". (PS, you can sign your user name by typing four tildes ~, also at the bottom of edit page under Wiki markup) Keahapana (talk) 20:02, 16 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

List of wu shamans[edit]

List of wu shamans redirects here but has substantial text after the #REDIRECT directive. Please can an editor familiar with the subject un-redirect, merge, delete or otherwise deal with the content? Pinging the author of the redirect, Dbachmann. Thanks, Certes (talk) 21:54, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]