Medical Bamboo Slips

Medical Bamboo Slips

Medical bamboo slips (yaoqian 药籤) can be seen in temples all throughout Asia. After checking whether the day is auspicious or not, of the slips is picked at random and the number is recorded. This number can be used to either check one’s fortune in a nearby book, or will be used as a form of divination medical prescription and one will be assigned a medical herbal formula corresponding to the number.
Here at Chiayi Chenghuang City God Temple, there is cooperation with the medical shop next door. We can see here an old book full of these numbered formulas. Interestingly here, the formulas are quite complex containing a variety of combinations of somewhat rare herbal medicines, whereas often in other places these formulas are simpler in nature.