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The type of books on divination (shushu lei 術數類) is a sub-category to the literary category of masters and philosophers (zibu 子部) in the collectaneum Siku quanshu 四庫全書. Divination was seen as a sidebranch of the Confucian Classic Yijing 易經, the "Book of Changes", and was therefore always highly regarded by scholars, even if it did not serve them in daily life. Their relation to mathematics and astronomy can also be seen in the extensive use of numbers in divination practice. The compilers of the Siku quanshu divided the sub-section into six parts: Divination by numerology (shuxue 數學, 16 books), divination by weather (zhanhou 占候, 2 books), geomancy (xiangzhai xiangmu 相宅相墓, 8 books), divination by hexagrams (zhanbu 占卜, 5 books), books on commands and divination (mingshu xiangshu 命書相書, 14 books), and books on the theory of Yin-Yang and the Five Processes (yinyang wuxing 陰陽五行, 5 books), making out a total of 50 books. The most important books are the Taixuanjing 太玄經, Kaiyuan zhanjing 開元占經, Zhaijing 宅經, Zangshu 葬書, Hanlongjing 撼龍經 and Jiaoshi yilin 焦氏易林.
* not included in the imperial collectaneum Siku quanshu 四庫全書
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system
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