清華簡《筮法》八卦卦名、卦序與輯本《歸藏》密合,具有鮮明的《歸藏》特征。但它占筮只依據八經卦,不用六十四卦系統,其占筮形式與方法又與《歸藏》表現出顯著差異。《左傳》、《國語》某卦之"八"是指筮數八,韋昭"八為不動陰爻"說,存在明顯誤讀。數字卦向符號卦的過渡,為先秦易學表現形式的一次重要轉型。清華簡《筮法》所反映的數字爻與符號爻的分工,可能是數字卦向符號卦轉型的重要原理與依據。殷周揲蓍法乙與以清華簡《筮法》為代表的楚地筮法形式最為接近,如果尋找楚地筮法的最初源頭,揲蓍法乙是頗值得注意的對象。清華簡《筮法》重要的學術意義在于:六個筮數聯用,不是判定殷墟易卦為重卦的充分條件。如果沒有筮法作支撐,不知時人對筮數如何分析,單據六個筮數聯用,依然不能斷言重卦在商代晚期已經出現。

The names and order of the eight trigrams or gua(gua refers to a combination of broken and unbroken lines forming a trigram or hexagram and used for divination) in the Shi Fa(筮法 Methods of Divination) in the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips coincide closely with those recorded in the Gui Cang(歸藏) version of Yi Jing,thus show a distinctive feature of it.The form and methods of divination in the Shi Fa,however,show distinct differences from those in the Gui Cang,as the former are based on the eight trigram system rather than the sixty-four hexagram system.The ba(八) of a particular gua in Zuo Zhuan and Guo Yu refers to the divinatory number "eight";thus Wei Zhao is clearly mistaken in explaining it as "Ba is an unchangeable yin yao(陰爻)." The shift from numerical to symbolic gua marks an important transition in pre-Qin study of the Yi Jing;the division of labor between the numerical and the symbolic yao seen in the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips’ Shi Fa may offer important evidence and guidelines here.The Divinatory Method B found in the Yin and Zhou she shi(揲蓍) may be the origin of the divinatory methods represented by the Shi Fa in the Chu region.The academic importance of the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips’ Shi Fa lies in the fact that even when the six divinatory numbers are combined,we still do not have sufficient grounds for deciding whether the yi gua(易卦) are chong gua(重卦).If we were to rely only on the combination of six divinatory numbers without the supporting evidence of the Shi Fa and a knowledge of how its contemporaries analyzed the divinatory numbers,we would still be unable to determine whether chong gua had emerged in the late Shang Dynasty.