Divination by the Zhouyi required minimal resources and, combined with increasing literacy, allowed much wider practice and thus was a factor in increasing social mobility. The earliest known Chinese divination, recorded on the oracle bones, was elaborate and expensive. Credibility of decisions was based on the consultation of oracles.
In early cultures much of the charisma that enabled kings to maintain power was due to their divinatory activities. It has been defined broadly as a method for obtaining knowledge not obtainable by normal means, including the past, the future, the state of the dead, ways to propitiate ancestors and spirits, and the nature of the cosmos.
Divination is among the earliest of human spiritual practices.
