Ancient people used tortoise shells to divine good and bad fortune.
Tips
history
卜 is one of the oldest Chinese characters, representing the cracks that appeared on heated oracle bones (甲骨) during the Shang dynasty. The cracks were interpreted as messages from ancestors.
mistakes
占 has two pronunciations: zhān (to divine) and zhàn (to occupy). In 占卜 it is read zhān, not zhàn.
