Throw moon blocks
Hold one question in mind, make it a yes or no, and throw. A Holy Answer means yes.
How to throw
- Pick one question you can answer with yes or no.
- Hold it in mind, then press Throw.
- Read the fall. If it is a Laughing Answer, ask again.
What each fall means
Each block has a flat side and a rounded side. The flat side counts as yang and the rounded side as yin, so a Holy Answer is one of each.
Holy Answer
聖筊 shèngjiǎo
One flat, one rounded
Agreed.
Laughing Answer
笑筊 xiàojiǎo
Both flat
Not decided. Ask again.
No Answer
陰筊 yīnjiǎo
Both rounded
Not agreed. Not this time. Also called the angry fall.
Meanings: Tainan City Cultural Heritage Management Office, teaching unit on the Kaiji Jade Emperor Temple. Names and the yin and yang reading: Wu Pin-ta, 2014, a study of standing blocks in fifty Taiwanese temples.
How many Holy Answers do you need?
It depends on the temple. Some are happy with one Holy Answer, some want three in a row, and there is no single rule. Say which you are going for before you throw.
Questions
What are moon blocks?
A pair of crescent-shaped blocks, flat on one side and rounded on the other. You throw them to get a yes, a not yet or a no. In Chinese they are called jiaobei, and the throw is 擲筊.
What does a Holy Answer mean?
One block lands flat side up and the other rounded side up. The Tainan City Cultural Heritage Management Office gives that fall as agreed, in a teaching unit on the Kaiji Jade Emperor Temple.
What if I keep getting a Laughing Answer?
Both blocks flat side up means not decided, so it isn't an answer yet. Ask again.
How many Holy Answers count?
It depends on the temple. Some count one, some want three in a row. Decide before you throw.
Where does the name jiaobei come from?
In his Yanfanlu, the Song scholar Cheng Dachang describes two clam shells thrown to the ground and read by how they land face up or face down. He writes that the character 珓 comes from 教, to teach: what the god teaches shows in how they land.
How old is throwing blocks?
At least as far back as the Tang dynasty. In a poem by Han Yu, a temple keeper hands him the blocks and shows him how to throw.
Ask it for real
In Knock you can ask once, or ask solemnly, which counts only after three Holy Answers in a row. Then you get the fall read for you, with its sources.