《天原发微(鲍云龙)》Vol. 3

Bao Yunlong called himself “the Ignorant One” and said: When the sun is in the zi position (north, corresponding to midnight), it begins to rise at midnight. To rise is to tend toward generation, and all quarters under heaven become clear and bright along with it. When the sun is in the wu position (south, corresponding to noon), it begins to descend after noon. To descend is to tend toward decline, and the myriad things gradually become dim, as if ghostly. The mechanism by which ghosts and spirits undergo transformation is nothing more than the two movements of ascent and descent. The text also says that the post-noon sun corresponds to geng-xin and ren-gui (Metal and Water among the Five Phases), and explains that this is said with respect to the days of the four seasons.

At the end, it quotes the Yuanming Bao (a Han-dynasty weft text, a classic-expounding work attributed to Confucius), saying: The sun’s body is round; viewed from afar it is vast and boundless, covering the sky and corresponding to a land of a thousand li. Therefore the royal domain directly governed by the Son of Heaven (wangji) imitates its shape.

Chengzi said: Heaven and earth and the sun and moon are originally one body. The moon borrows and receives the sun’s light in order to shine, but the sun does not thereby suffer any diminution. Yet the moon’s light is in fact still the sun’s light. (Chengzi refers to the Northern Song Neo-Confucians Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, known jointly as the “Two Chengs.”)

Shao Yong says: Yang envelops yin, and so the sun is yang within yang. Zhu Xi says: what the Zhouyi calls “ceaselessly vigorous and unremitting” precisely speaks of the sun and moon, cold and heat, coming and going without cease. Only when there is substance is there function; the two cannot be spoken of as divided into before and after.

Heaven encloses the earth on the outside. The earth’s form is small while the sun’s light is great; light shines upward from the four sides of the earth. The moon is in the midst of heaven and, receiving the sun’s light, appears round. When the moon is far from the sun, its light is full; when it is near the sun, its light wanes.

Zhu Zhen says: Heaven and earth mutually assist one another through the Kan and Li hexagrams. Viewed from the sun, when the sun descends the moon rises; viewed from the moon, when sun and moon intersect, the moon and sun meet—that is, the new moon; viewed in terms of the seasons, when cold departs heat arrives, and when heat departs cold arrives. All these are conditions of Jiji (the matter completed and mutually communicating). Kan above and Li below is the utmost of water and fire. When things reach their extreme they return to their beginning; therefore when Jiji reaches its extreme, the signs of Weiji (the matter not yet completed) lie hidden within it.

Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han says: The sun is where the essence of yang gathers; condensing, it forms the “golden crow,” which has three legs because the yang number is odd. This is probably because the rooster belongs to You, which is yin within yang; the Li trigram is empty within, and fire Qi lodges there. He also says: The moon is the essence of yin; condensing, it forms the jade rabbit. The rabbit belongs to Mao; the yin number is even. This is probably yang within yin, because the Kan trigram is solid and full within; therefore the water Qi of “Tianyi” (the first of the Five Phases, belonging to water) lodges there.

Du Yu of the Western Jin says: The substance of the sun is red, and the substance of the moon is white. The Yuanming Bao (the Han apocryphon Chunqiu Yuanming Bao) says: “Sun” means “full”—that is, bright, great, and replete. The sun symbolizes the ruler; if the state practices the right way, sunlight is bright; if the sun has five colors, it indicates political peace.

Shao Yong says: In summer the sun moves northward with the Northern Dipper; in winter it moves southward with the Northern Dipper.

The summer solstice is when heat reaches its extreme; from this point the sun moves northward with the Northern Dipper. The winter solstice is when cold reaches its extreme; from this point the sun moves southward with the Northern Dipper.

Shao Yong says: In summer the sun moves northward with the Northern Dipper; in winter it moves southward with the Northern Dipper.

The summer solstice is when heat reaches its extreme; from this point the sun moves northward with the Northern Dipper. The winter solstice is when cold reaches its extreme; from this point the sun moves southward with the Northern Dipper.

The words of Shaozi (Shao Yong of the Northern Song) agree in many respects with the doctrines of Yang Xiong’s Taixuan from the Western Han; I will explain them point by point below.

Shaozi said: “When the sun travels south once, the myriad things die; when the sun waxes strong northward once, the myriad things live.” At the summer solstice the sun is in the region of the Jing lodge (one of the twenty-eight lunar mansions), having reached the southern limit; yin qi gradually grows, and so the myriad things tend toward death. After the winter solstice, the sun reaches the region of the Qianniu lodge and begins to turn back and move north; yang qi gradually grows, and so the myriad things tend toward life.

The Taixuan also says: “When the handle of the Northern Dipper points north, the myriad things are empty; when the handle points south, the myriad things are full.” After the Beginning of Winter the Dipper handle points to the Hai position (north by west); yin qi gathers and stores the myriad things, hence it is said to be “empty.” At the Beginning of Summer the handle points to the Si position (south by east); yang qi disperses the myriad things, hence it is said to be “full.” (The twelve earthly branches, such as Hai and Si, were used by the ancients to indicate directions and hours.)

It also says: “The sun moves rightward with heaven, while the Northern Dipper moves leftward with heaven.” This is because in spring the sun starts from the west, passes through seven lodges, and goes south, so the sun is said to “move right”; in autumn it turns back, going from the east through seven lodges to the north, so it is said to “turn left.” The Northern Dipper, however, in spring has its handle point east, passes through three positions, and goes south, starting in the east, so it is said to “move left”; in autumn the handle points west, passes through two positions, and goes north, returning from the west, so it is said to “turn right.”

It also says: “The winter solstice and the period after midnight present an image close to Xuan (the Mystery).” At the winter solstice the Dipper handle points north (the Zi position), and midnight also falls exactly at the Zi hour. This is like a thing just beginning to advance, not yet at its extreme; moving forward but not yet reaching the summit; empty but not yet full. At this time the way of heaven moves left, and the Dipper handle also points left with heaven. Although the sun moves rightward contrary to heaven, whenever it meets the moon it corresponds to the direction in which the Dipper handle points.

The Taixuan uses eighty-one “Shou” (each governing about four and a half days, totaling 364.5 days) to match the days of the year. From the “Zhong” Shou to the “Ying” Shou there are forty-one Shou, governed by odd numbers (yang), lasting about 182.5 days; the sun moves within them, and this is yang qi moving within the yang positions. As yang qi moves and fills to the Si position, it completes the Qian hexagram and thereby transforms and gives birth to the myriad things.

“The summer solstice and the period after noon present an image far from Xuan.” At the summer solstice the Dipper handle points south (the Wu position), and noon also falls exactly at the Wu hour. This is like a thing that has reached its extreme and is about to withdraw; having gone to the utmost, it is about to return; having become full, it is about to wane. At this time the way of heaven turns right, and the Dipper handle also points right with heaven. Although the sun moves leftward contrary to heaven, whenever it meets the moon it also corresponds to the rightward pointing of the Dipper handle.

From the “Ying” Shou to the “Yang” Shou there are forty Shou, with even numbers (yin) governing, lasting 182 days; this is yin qi moving within the yin positions. The sun moves through the yin degrees and contracts to the Hai position, completing the Kun hexagram and storing the myriad things.

North and south are the fixed directions of yin and yang, hence they are called the “warp” (jing); east and west are the communication and circulation of yin-yang qi, hence they are called the “weft” (wei). In heaven the sun divides day and night in a single day, divides south and north in a single year, and for the myriad things divides life and death. Therefore it is said: “When yang qi comes, they live; when yang qi departs, they die.”

The commentary says: The preceding totals 364.5 days; adding the one day obtained through the ancient calendrical calculation known as “Qishu Erzan” gives 365 days with 20 parts remaining. In the ancient calendar a day is divided into 80 parts; 20 parts are exactly one quarter of a day, equivalent to three shi (in the ancient twelve-shi day). Therefore a year is 365 and one-quarter days.

Liu Zhao said: When the sun is in the northern tract (the northern segment of the sun’s path), it is winter; when it is in the western tract (the western segment), it is spring; when it is in the southern tract (the southern segment), it is summer; and when it is in the eastern tract (the eastern segment), it is autumn. People are correct to speak of the northern and southern tracts, but to speak of the eastern and western tracts is erroneous and worthy of doubt. The Treatise on Astronomy in the Book of Sui says that the eastern tract is spring and the western tract is autumn; this should be examined separately and not conflated with the former view.

North and south are the warp line, with zi and wu standing opposite each other. At the winter solstice, one yang is born at the zi position; the spirits of Heaven and Earth converge there and together inaugurate the year’s creation, and the sun, moon, and stars also begin their movement from this point. Therefore it is said that traveling through the northern tract is winter and through the southern tract is summer; neither the direction nor the season can be changed.

From this, the Heavenly Dao proceeds from north to east, revolving left and giving birth to the myriad things; the sun, by contrast, proceeds from north to west, turning right and becoming the weft. In early spring (the first month), the sun is in Yingshi (a northern lunar mansion); the first month is established at Yin and conjoins with Kezi among the twelve celestial divisions. In midspring (the second month), the sun is in Kui (a western lunar mansion); the second month is established at Mao and conjoins with Jianglou. In late spring (the third month), the sun is in Wei; the third month is established at Chen and conjoins with Daliang. The sun moves from west to east; therefore it is said that the sun traveling through the western tract is spring.

By the fourth month, si and shen combine, and the sun conjoins with Shishen. The sun travels through the southern tract; one yin is born at the wu position, and creation begins to gather in and bring the myriad things to completion. Thereupon the Heavenly Dao proceeds from south to north, turning right from the west, and completes the myriad things. The sun, however, moves left from south to east and becomes the weft. In early autumn, the sun is in Yi (a southern lunar mansion); shen and si combine, namely Chunwei. In midautumn, the sun is in Jiao; you and chen combine, namely Shouxing. In late autumn, the sun is in Fang; xu and mao combine, namely Dahuo. The sun moves from east to west; therefore it is said that the sun traveling through the eastern tract is autumn.

The east is not spoken of as spring but as autumn, and the west is not spoken of as autumn but as spring, precisely in order to show that the north-south warp cannot be changed, while the east-west weft complements it.

The sun belongs to yang. When yang qi governs, therefore from the winter solstice, at the midnight hour, yang qi gradually advances, daylight gradually lengthens, and so there is warmth and heat. When yin qi governs, from the summer solstice at noon the sun begins to retreat southward, daylight gradually shortens, yin qi prevails, and so there is cold and coolness.

Between the winter and summer solstices, the sun’s path is level and its shadow moderate; the spring and autumn equinoxes are divided from this. The sun has a central path, while the moon has nine paths. On the first day of the lunar month, when the moon’s motion approaches the node, eclipses of the sun and moon arise from this.

At the winter solstice the sun reaches its southernmost point and the shadow is longest. If the south did not reach its extreme, warmth would instead become a harm. At the summer solstice the sun reaches its northernmost point and the shadow is shortest. If the north did not reach its extreme, cold would become a harm.

Shao Yong (the Northern Song Neo-Confucian scholar, style name Kangjie, known as Master Shao) said: The movement of Heaven forms day and night; the movement of the sun forms cold and heat. In summer the sun’s path is shallow, in winter it is deep; this is where Heaven and Earth intersect. Heaven rotates to the left and the sun moves to the right, and cold thereby becomes a harmful Qi. Another account says: leftward rotation and rightward movement are the conjunction of Heaven and the sun.

Heaven revolves once each day. The sun moves about one degree across the sky each day and is carried along by Heaven’s rotation. In summer the sun rises at the yin hour (roughly 3–5 a.m.) and sets at the xu hour (roughly 7–9 p.m.); in winter it rises at the chen hour (roughly 7–9 a.m.) and sets at the shen hour (roughly 3–5 p.m.); at the spring and autumn equinoxes it rises at the mao hour (roughly 5–7 a.m.) and sets at the you hour (roughly 5–7 p.m.). When the sun rises it is day; when it sets it is night. Day and night appear to be determined by the sun’s rising and setting, but in reality the sun’s movement depends on the rotation of Heaven.

When the sun is below the earth it is cold; when it is above the earth it is hot. In winter the sun travels through the Northern Lu (the ancients divided the sun’s apparent path into four segments; the Northern Lu is the segment containing the winter solstice); at this time its position is lower and its depth below the earth greater, hence cold. In summer it travels through the Southern Lu; its position is higher and its depth below the earth shallower, hence heat. In spring and autumn it travels respectively through the Western Lu and Eastern Lu, placing it between cold and heat. When the course of Heaven turns southward, the sun gradually moves from deep to shallow; when it turns northward, from shallow to deep. This is the principle of the intersection of Heaven and Earth.

Some say that in summer the southern pole tilts upward and in winter the southern pole tilts downward, and they use the human head and neck as an analogy to explain why summer is shallow and winter deep. This claim arises from not understanding that the sun has a Huangdao (the ecliptic, the path along which the sun moves on the celestial sphere).

At the summer solstice the sun is in the wu position, directly facing the wu direction; at the winter solstice it is in the zi position, directly facing the zi direction. All this is formed in accordance with Heaven’s rotation. Thus the intersection of Heaven and Earth is explained in terms of shallow and deep. After the winter solstice, Xingji (one of the twelve celestial stations) moves rightward accordingly, and the sun moves one degree each day. With one leftward revolution of Heaven, the sun’s position has already shifted about ten degrees; as the sun travels through the Liujia, it meets the Northern Dipper. This is the conjunction of Heaven and the sun.

The night of the winter solstice is like the day of the summer solstice, and the night of the summer solstice is like the day of the winter solstice. The winter night is only like the spring or autumn day because daytime encroaches on nighttime by five ke (an ancient time unit: one day and night comprises one hundred ke, one ke is about 14.4 minutes, so five ke is about 72 minutes). The sun’s rising and setting originally have fixed times: before the sun rises above the horizon, the sky has already brightened by two and a half ke (about 36 minutes); after the sun sets, the sky remains bright for another two and a half ke before it turns dim.

It further says: The sun rises in the east in the morning and sets in the west in the evening; this is its movement following the revolution of heaven. In summer it inclines north and in winter inclines south; this is the north-south alternation that follows heaven. Each time heaven completes one revolution, it travels one lunar mansion farther than the sun, and this corresponds to the sun’s motion. Spring corresponds to due west (the you position), summer to due south (the wu position), autumn to due east (the mao position), and winter to due north (the zi position); this corresponds to the alternation of the sun’s movement.

On the day of the winter solstice, at midnight (the zi hour), the sun is located in Xingji (the station in which the winter solstice falls among the twenty-eight lunar mansions). The sun moves one degree eastward each day, while heaven moves one degree westward; therefore at midnight the sun is always at this position. Thus the sun again comes out in the east in the morning and sets in the west in the evening. It is heaven that moves, not the sun itself. In summer the sun inclines north; in winter it inclines south. When the sun is farthest north it is closest to the North Pole, so the shadow is short and the day is long; when it is farthest south it is farthest from the North Pole, so the shadow is long and the day is short. This is the alternation that follows heaven.

The sun moves one degree each day, while heaven completes one revolution plus one degree each day. This degree is a degree of the fixed stars, and so it corresponds to the sun’s motion. At the winter solstice the sun is at the zi position; at the summer solstice it is at the wu position; at the spring equinox it is at the you position; at the autumn equinox it is at the mao position. This is the movement of celestial phenomena. At the winter solstice the sun is exactly at the zi position, at the summer solstice exactly at the wu position, and at the spring and autumn equinoxes exactly at the you or mao positions. East and west alternate, producing the Yin-Yang alternation of spring and summer; this is the principle corresponding to the sun’s alternation.

I have examined ancient records: at the winter solstice the sun is at the beginning degree of Qianniu; at the spring equinox it is at the fourth degree of Lou; at the summer solstice it is at the twenty-first degree of Dongjing; and at the autumn equinox it is at the tenth degree of Jiao. (The original text says “at the spring equinox it is at the tenth degree of Jiao”; according to the context this should be the autumn equinox.)

The “Treatise on Astronomy” in the Book of Sui says: When the sun is close to the North Pole, the shadow is short and the day is long; this refers to the summer solstice. When the sun travels along the inner path and is close to the North Pole, the day is extremely long. Set up an eight-foot gnomon, and the shadow is only one foot five inches long. If the spring equinox is at Lou and the autumn equinox at Jiao, day and night are equal; at this time, with an eight-foot gnomon set up, the shadow is seven feet five inches long.

The “Treatise on Astronomy” in the Book of Sui also says: When the sun is far from the North Pole, the shadow is long and the day is short; this refers to the winter solstice. When the sun travels along the outer path and is far from the North Pole, the day is extremely short. Set up an eight-foot gnomon, and the shadow is one zhang and three chi long. Take the intermediate value and subtract one foot five inches, leaving a shadow length of one zhang, one foot, and five inches; this is the shadow length between the winter and summer extremes. Therefore it is said: the sun has a middle path. The sun reaches north to Qianniu, close to the pole, at the summer solstice; it reaches south to Qianniu, far from the pole, at the winter solstice. East at Jiao and west at Lou, it is midway in distance from the pole. Therefore the sun’s southern extreme at Jiao and eastern extreme at Lou belong to the spring and autumn equinoxes.

Master Zheng (possibly referring to Zheng Xuan) says: At the spring equinox the sun is at Lou; the moon at first quarter is at Dongjing; the full moon is at Jiao; and the last quarter is at Qianniu. At the autumn equinox the sun is at Jiao; the moon at first quarter is at Qianniu; the full moon is at Lou; and the last quarter is at Dongjing. One can also use the sun’s shadow to determine whether a solar term has arrived. When the climatic influences of spring, summer, autumn, and winter all arrive, the order of the four seasons is correct. Measuring the sun’s shadow at the winter and summer solstices is the basis for examining the sun’s actual motion. Therefore, when the shadow is at its longest or shortest, government orders are carried out to the utmost, and the climatic influences arrive accordingly. In winter there is no excessive yang qi, and in summer there is no latent yin qi. When measuring the sun, if the shadow seen at noon conforms to the standard, the year will be abundant and the people harmonious; if it does not conform to the standard, the year will be bad and the people deceitful. If the ruler’s government and instruction are proper, then the shadows of the four seasons will change according to the standard.

When the shadow lengthens and exceeds the standard measure, floods occur. This is because the sun moves outside the ecliptic—the sun’s apparent annual path—and the shadow therefore grows longer. A lengthened shadow belongs to yin qi predominating, so it governs water.

When the shadow shortens and falls short of the standard measure, drought occurs. This is because the sun moves within the ecliptic, and the shadow therefore becomes shorter. Solar eclipses are also determined according to this measure; this belongs to yang qi predominating, so it governs drought.

When the shadow shortens to the corresponding value, this corresponds to the month, because months are counted by twelve. If it contracts by one chi and two cun, there is a solar eclipse, because the number of the sun is completed at ten. A lengthened shadow is called “fullness,” and a shortened shadow is called “contraction”; it is also by means of the solar shadow that one knows whether the solar terms have arrived.

It is also said: The sage looks up and observes the movements of the sun and moon, matching them with the two trigrams Kan (water, representing the moon) and Li (fire, representing the sun); thus the meaning of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) is made manifest.

The Xici says: Of the images suspended and displayed in the heavens, none is greater than the sun and moon. Zhu Xi explains that what is used here is the Najia method: the Kan trigram is correlated with the Heavenly Stem Wu, and the Li trigram with the Heavenly Stem Ji. One line of the Qian trigram belongs to Wu, and one line of the Kun trigram belongs to Ji. Only by taking away the Wu line and retaining the Ji line are the two trigrams Kan and Li formed. Qian and Kun are the great father and mother; Kan and Li are the lesser father and mother.

Zhu Zhen (sobriquet Hanshang), citing Yu Fan, says: The sun and moon hang in the heavens and together form the images of the eight trigrams. On the dark day, at night, on the first day of the month, and at dawn, the Kan image appears; water flows toward the Wu position. At noon the Li image appears; fire relies on Ji earth and becomes Wu. Ji earth occupies the center; the sun and moon press and impel each other, and light is thereby produced. When the second and fifth lines of Qian and Kun intersect, Kan and Li are generated, and the sun and moon emerge from this.

Specifically, the lunar phases

The moon’s waxing and waning begin in the west, and when it is full it is in the east. The place where the sun rises is the east. Before dawn breaks, the sun is already moving underground; it has simply not yet emerged above the earth. When the ancients explained the character ri (sun), they took it in the sense of “full/solid,” and when they explained yue (moon), they took it in the sense of “deficient”; this is indeed so of the sun. The movements of celestial bodies differ in speed: the sun, moon, stars, and constellations each have their own slowness or rapidity. Only the sun’s movement remains uniformly the same throughout, and so they call ri “full/solid.”

It is also said: the great “wu” (awakening) of heaven and earth occurs in summer, while the human Shen is stored in the conjunction of the heart and the body.

At noon the sun moves with heaven in the south; at zi (midnight) it is in the north. This is the waking and sleeping within a single day. In summer the sun is exactly at the noon position; in winter it is exactly at the midnight position. This is the waking and sleeping within a single year. Therefore the summer sun represents the vast Haotian, and the Li trigram (symbolizing brightness and mutual seeing) corresponds to the image of all things encountering one another. The sun is the divine brightness of heaven. The human Shen is in the heart by day, like summer, and in the kidneys by night, like winter. The heart of day and the kidneys of night resonate with each other; this is a hidden and secret condition. The Xuan says: “Hide the heart in the deep abyss, and Shen will not disperse outward.” This means placing the heart amid Qi and the viscera in order to preserve Jing and Shen.

The place where heaven and earth intersect accounts for about three-tenths. On the summer solstice’s daylight, the sun is above ground for seven parts; on the winter solstice’s night, the sun is underground for seven parts as well. From heaven’s perspective, the sun’s above-ground portion is seven-tenths and its underground portion is three-tenths; therefore the Yang number is complete at seven. The sun’s movement differs from that of heaven because the sun’s path has north-south tracks.

It is also said: the sun sinking into the earth is a symbol of Yin-Yang conjoining essence (copulating and transforming).

The night of a single day is like the winter of a single year. Heavenly spirits and earthly numina, yang hun-souls and yin po-souls, meet at the midpoint of the zi hour at the winter solstice (around eleven or twelve at night) in the bureau of the Yellow Springs (the dark subterranean realm; here referring to the yin world). Therefore the gestation of the fetus, the primordial creation of heaven and earth, and the sprouting of the ten thousand things all begin from this. Hence it is said: only after man and woman unite and their jing and qi meet is a human being born; only when the yang jing of the sun and the earthly qi of the earth intersect are the ten thousand things born. One who understands this principle understands the “study of nature and life” (the learning that investigates human nature and the root of life).

It is also said: the sun is the yang hun-soul of heaven. When yang qi wraps around yin qi, it becomes the sun, with the hun-soul governing the po-soul. When yin qi wraps around yang qi, it becomes the moon, with the po-soul restraining the hun-soul.

Master Zhu (that is, Zhu Xi) said: the sun and moon are related to water—this is precisely the principle of the study of nature and life.

It is also said: when the sun and moon rise from the water, they ascend into the sky; when they set in the west, they sink back into the water.

1. Is There Water Beyond Heaven, or Qi?

Someone asked Zhu Xi: “The Hun Tian theory holds that beyond heaven there is water, and therefore water can support heaven and bear up the earth.” Zhu Xi replied: “There is no water beyond heaven; it is water beneath the earth that holds the earth up.” Mencius said that water flows within the earth, and Master Su (Su Shi) also said that there is no place in the earth without water. Once this is understood, one knows that there is water beneath the earth and qi beyond heaven—this is a very clear principle.

2. The Nature of Heaven and the Position of Earth

Yang Metal (the qi of yang metal) is the mother of water, and water is in turn the mother of the myriad things. Heaven is nothing more than a mass of pure, clear, and vigorous qi, within which the earth rests securely.

3. The Sun, Water, and the Relation of Yin and Yang

Each night the sun circles once beneath the earth, moving one degree each day. The qi of Heavenly One (Tianyi; the primordial qi between heaven and earth, from which, in Daoist belief, water is generated) produces water and brings benefit to the myriad things. The sun belongs to yang essence and can also dry up the water beneath the earth, so that water does not harm the myriad things. Water is not discharged by means of Wojiao (a legendary place that absorbs seawater) or Weilü (the legendary outlet through which seawater drains). The spirit of Heavenly One is the root of qi. When cloud qi rises, water vapor steams upward and spreads, circulating day and night; drops of water then flow from it and become rain and dew. If water is abundant and there is no sunlight to dry it up, floods will overflow, and the people of the world will suffer from the calamity of water.

4. Day and Night, and the Sun Moving Beneath the Earth

It is said that in the time of Yao ten suns rose together; this account is not credible, but there is indeed principle in the heavenly bodies’ compassion for the people. The sun belongs to fire and is constantly bright; its advance and retreat follow the heavenly Dao. The Yi (Book of Changes) says, “Brightness enters into the earth: Mingyi”—this precisely speaks of the sun entering the earth and turning in its course. Heaven being in water is like Waiting (the Xu hexagram). The sun is yang, water is yin; yin qi does not dissipate without cause, nor does water qi vanish for no reason. When the sun rises from beneath the earth, it is day; when it enters beneath the earth, it is night. Such movement actually occurs in the universe, and this is also the sense in which the creative process supports yang qi.

The celestial body is perfectly round, encircling the belly of heaven like the outer wall of an inner city. The moon is the essence of water; hence it waxes and wanes. According to the saying “Heavenly One generates water,” the sun moves upward from beneath the earth; the rise and fall of the tides can serve as verification. The Sui dynasty Treatise on Astronomy says that the sun can dry up water; this statement is also quite apt.

In the heavens there are two routes, the ecliptic and the celestial equator. Shen Cunzhong (that is, the Northern Song scientist Shen Kuo) said that calendrical astronomers marked them with ten different colors merely to record the positions of the sun and moon in their motions.

The celestial sphere is perfectly round, like two covers fitted together. The celestial equator lies across the middle, exactly at the boundary where the two covers join. The part north of the equator is like the cover above; the part south of the equator is like an outer enclosing wall, and also like a lower cover supporting it from below. Both take the center of the celestial sphere as their pole: the pole north of the equator is called the North Pole, and the pole south of the equator the South Pole.

Zhu Xi said: The ecliptic is like the seam of that box, situated at the center of heaven. He also said: The celestial equator is exactly at the center of heaven, like the seam of a box, while the ecliptic crosses through it. He also said: The celestial equator is half within the ecliptic and half outside it. The two intersect at the east and west, and thus divide the heavens crosswise into many degrees.

When the two paths intersect, it is as if the ecliptic and the celestial equator meet and collide at a crossroads. When the sun and moon conjoin or oppose, one is at the zi position (north) and the other at the wu position (south), yet both are at the same degree. For example, when the moon is at the eleventh degree of the Bi mansion (one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions), and the sun is also at this degree, they simply face each other north and south. The reason a solar eclipse occurs (on the new moon) is that the moon is always below and the sun always above; when the sun and moon meet, the sun is obscured by the moon below. As for a lunar eclipse occurring on the full moon, it is because Yin Qi dares to oppose Yang Qi; hence the saying, “Yin dares to be an enemy to Yang.”

The sentence “The sun has a central path; one [account] calls it the Yellow Path” means that there are two ways of speaking of the sun’s course, one of which is the ecliptic discussed above.

Vernacular Explanation

Someone asks: The center belongs to the earth of the Wu-Ji stems; what corresponds to it are the stars, and the four seasons each have their four excursions. The moon and stars, in their movement, incline west in spring, east in autumn, north in summer, and south in winter, which differs from the sun’s path—east in spring, west in autumn, south in summer, and north in winter. The four months of Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei each belong to the end of a season and all pertain to earth; this is the due position of the ecliptic (the path along which the sun travels through the sky over the course of a year). The stars at this time also belong to the ecliptic. After returning to the due position, the sun constantly travels along the center of the ecliptic.

Zheng Xuan, in his commentary on the Hongfan (a chapter of the Shangshu), says: What is the relationship between the intervals of the four seasons and the ecliptic? Bao Yunlong holds that the intervals between winter and spring, between spring and summer, and between autumn and winter are precisely the months in which the four seasons belong to earth. Each season lodges eighteen days, totaling seventy-two days for the four seasons. Finally it occupies the space between fire and metal, with its direction at Kun (southwest); this is said with respect to the seasons.

The ecliptic occupies the center and is also called the central path. The four paths—blue, red, white, and black—are each divided into two; together with the ecliptic they make nine paths, which assist the sun in bringing about the growth of the myriad things.

The “Treatise on Astronomy” says: The route traveled by the sun is called the ecliptic. The moon’s movement has nine paths: two black paths north of the ecliptic, two red paths south of the ecliptic, two white paths west of the ecliptic, two blue paths east of the ecliptic, and together with the ecliptic, nine paths in all. At the Beginning of Spring and the Spring Equinox, the moon follows the blue path to the east; at the Beginning of Autumn and the Autumn Equinox, it follows the white path to the west; at the Beginning of Winter and the Winter Solstice, it follows the black path to the north; at the Beginning of Summer and the Summer Solstice, it follows the red path to the south. Yellow is the orthodox color.

It further says: Blue and red belong to the yang paths; white and black belong to the yin paths. If the moon moves without proper regulation, traveling on a yang path brings drought and much wind, while traveling on a yin path brings much rain; only movement on the ecliptic is normal.

The Xingbei says: When a sage ruler is on the throne, the sun, moon, and five planets all travel along the ecliptic. Although the moon’s movement has the distinctions of the white, black, red, and blue paths, none goes beyond the east, west, south, and north of the ecliptic.

The sun travels in the center of the ecliptic. North of the ecliptic is the inner, from the Kui mansion to the Lou mansion, that is, the positions from Hai to Si; south of it is the outer, from the Jiao and Kang mansions to the Shi and Bi mansions, that is, the positions from Chen to Xu. Between the Jiao and Kang mansions in the east is the Heavenly Gate; the Fang mansion is also called the Heavenly Street, and the ecliptic passes through it; this is where the sun, moon, and five planets (the seven luminaries) travel.

Shao Yong (a Northern Song Neo-Confucian scholar, known as “Shaozi”) said: Taking the north as the boundary, from the Kui mansion to the Lou mansion, corresponding to the directions from Hai to Si, is the northern region. Beyond the north is the south, from the Jiao and Kang mansions to the Shi and Bi mansions, corresponding to the directions from Chen to Xu. The east lies between the Jiao and Kang mansions; the two stars Tianmen and Youfang are connected and are called the “Celestial Street” (Tianjie). The ecliptic passes through it, and it is the path along which the sun, moon, and five planets (the “seven luminaries”) move.

Shaozi also said: Solar and lunar eclipses are the result of the sun and moon meeting in the heavenly numbers, comparable to water and fire overcoming each other. When the sun and moon face each other, this is “wang” (full moon); at this time the moon and sun are far apart and opposite, and if the earth happens to be between them, a lunar eclipse occurs. When the sun and moon meet, this is “hui” (the new moon, or shuo); at this time the moon blocks the sun, and a solar eclipse occurs.

A solar eclipse occurs on the first day of the lunar month (shuo), when the moon approaches the sun and no light is visible; hence it is called “hui” (darkening). Therefore, when petty persons draw near and collude, they can often harm the ruler. A lunar eclipse occurs on the full-moon day (wang), when the moon is opposite the sun and its light is instead at its fullest, just like a petty person occupying an outer position: though their influence is at its height, they constantly harbor fear within. Water overcomes fire by concealment, which belongs to the petty person’s use of force; fire overcomes water with another object in between, which belongs to the gentleman’s use of wisdom.

The sun and moon conjoin twelve times in a year. A lunar eclipse occurs only when they are in opposition on a full-moon day; if they are not in opposition, it does not occur. The sun travels along the ecliptic, while the moon travels along the nine paths (several routes of the moon’s orbit), and therefore there are also cases in which the sun and moon conjoin but no eclipse occurs. At conjunction (new moon), the sun and moon are at the same degree; at full moon, they are farthest apart and opposite; at the first and last quarters, their positions differ by a considerable distance—only the degree of distance varies.

For example, when the sun is at the wu position, the moon may be at the mao or you position. At conjunction, although the sun and moon are at the same degree, if the moon’s north-south position is far from the sun’s, no solar eclipse will occur; or if their north-south positions are close, but the sun is on the inner side and the moon on the outer side, no solar eclipse will occur either.

Zhuzi (Zhu Xi) said: Solar and lunar eclipses are both extraordinary phenomena, but lunar eclipses are relatively common. A solar eclipse is regarded as an inauspicious omen, because yin qi prevails over yang qi and obscures the sunlight. Therefore the Spring and Autumn Annals invariably records solar eclipses but does not record lunar eclipses, and this too is for this reason.

The ancients divided a year into twelve months, and the monthly “conjunction” (huihe) refers to the moon joining with the sun. The day when the moonlight is entirely gone and the moon cannot be seen is called hui (the end of the month), and the day when the moonlight revives is called shuo (the first day). Shuo and hui are about fifteen days apart; at this time the sun and moon face each other. The day when the moonlight is exactly full is called wang (the fifteenth). On the day of wang, the sun and moon are opposite each other; if the degrees and courses of their movement coincide, the sun will “kang” (obscure) the moon, and the moon is therefore eclipsed—this is a lunar eclipse. At hui and shuo, the sun and moon are in conjunction; if their east-west degrees are the same and their north-south courses are the same, the moon will cover the sun, and the sun is therefore eclipsed—this is a solar eclipse. All of these have fixed patterns.

However, if a ruler cultivates virtue, appoints worthy men, and removes the wicked and depraved, yang Qi flourishes and yin Qi cannot encroach, so the moon often yields to the sun. Even if their movements are somewhat irregular, it is possible that a solar eclipse which ought to occur does not occur. Conversely, if virtuous government is not cultivated, if ministers betray their ruler and fathers, petty men bully gentlemen, and barbarian peoples disturb the Central Plains, then yin Qi flourishes and yang Qi declines; eclipses occur when they should and also when they should not. This is what constitutes an extraordinary anomaly.

The Guliang Zhuan records four circumstances of solar eclipse: first, those occurring on a hui day, as in the third year of Duke Yin of Lu; second, those occurring on the day after shuo, as in the seventeenth year of Duke Huan of Lu; third, total solar eclipses (“ji” means the sun is completely covered), as in the third year of Duke Huan of Lu; and fourth, solar eclipses occurring at night, as in the eighteenth year of Duke Zhuang of Lu. The ancients took one day and one night as a single full day. If there is no solar eclipse during the day but one occurs at night, then the sun is below the earth and people cannot see its form. When the sun rises again on the shuo day, if it is found to be damaged or incomplete, one knows that this was a solar eclipse occurring at night. A night eclipse also belongs to the hui day of the preceding month, because at night the starlight is dim and it cannot be perceived.

In the line “On the shuo day xinmao, the sun was eclipsed” from “Shiyue zhi jiao” in the Xiaoya section of the Shijing, Zhu Xi’s Shiji zhuan adopts Kong Yingda’s annotation; its explanation is quite detailed, and his account is excerpted here.

Ancient calendrical works such as the Zhoubi say that the circumference of heaven is 365¼ degrees, and that both the sun and the moon move rightward (from west to east) through the sky. The sun advances one degree per day, and the moon advances 13 7/19 degrees per day; thus the sun moves slowly and the moon swiftly. After a little more than twenty-nine days, the moon catches up with the sun and meets it. This is called “jiao” (the intersection of the moon’s orbit with the sun’s orbit, that is, conjunction). At each monthly conjunction, the moon is sometimes outside the sun’s path (the solar path, or ecliptic) and sometimes within it; therefore not every conjunction produces a solar eclipse—an eclipse occurs only near the nodal point. A solar eclipse occurs only when the moon and the sun are on the same path. In the Zhou calendar this is the tenth month, corresponding to the eighth month of the Xia calendar.

When the sun and moon meet and a solar eclipse occurs, it symbolizes Yin encroaching on Yang and a minister encroaching on his ruler. Thus what is called a “solar eclipse” is in fact the moon obscuring the sun. He Xiu, an Eastern Han classical scholar, said: The Chunqiu does not write of “lunar eclipses” because the form of a lunar eclipse is not easily seen; for this reason it was written with uncertainty as “the sun has an eclipse.”

The ten Heavenly Stems, from Jia to Gui, belong to “sun.” Jia is rigid and Yi is soft; among the ten stems there are five rigid and five soft, all called “stems” (gan); therefore “sun” symbolizes the ruler. From Zi to Hai are the twelve Earthly Branches, belonging to “chen” and symbolizing ministers. Zi is Yang and Chou is Yin; among the twelve branches six Yang and six Yin correspond to each other, all called “branches” (zhi); therefore “chen” symbolizes ministers. Mao belongs to Wood and is analogous to the minister; Xin belongs to Metal and is analogous to the ruler. According to the principle of mutual generation and overcoming among the Five Phases, Metal should overcome Wood. Now, however, the minister encroaches upon the ruler instead, which reverses the order of the Five Phases. Xin Metal is at its most flourishing in autumn, while Mao Wood is then in a state of decline, withdrawal, and abandonment; thus this encroachment is just like encroaching upon a ruler who is properly in his position and still young.

Tianyuan Fawei (Bao Yunlong):

The celestial degrees of ancient and modern times are consistent. Solar eclipses and lunar eclipses originally have no fixed time. Calendar specialists calculate the cycles of conjunction between the sun and moon, taking roughly somewhat more than 173 days as a boundary. The sun and moon move through heaven, each with its own track. Even when the new moon arrives—the first day of the lunar month, when sun and moon meet—the two tracks still differ as inner and outer: if the moon is first on the inner side (closer to the inner side of the ecliptic, that is, the side near the node), then eclipses occurring according to the expected time are more numerous; if the moon is first on the outer side, then even when an eclipse should occur according to the expected time, eclipse occurrences are fewer.

Du Yu, observing this unevenness, said: Although the sun and moon are heavenly bodies that move regularly, their degrees of motion always have some waxing and waning variation and cannot be entirely uniform. Therefore, even when the sun and moon meet but no solar eclipse occurs, only in the Zhengyang period (referring to the fifth month of the Xia calendar, when yang qi is at its height and which the ancients regarded as taboo) would the gentleman be especially vigilant. From this it can be known that solar and lunar eclipses have no fixed time, and it is not only in the months of the equinoxes and solstices (the months containing the spring equinox, autumn equinox, summer solstice, and winter solstice) that they eclipse each other. The reason is that at the two equinoxes day and night are equal, and the situation resembles the ordinary track; at the two solstices day and night reach their extremes, and the situation is likewise similar. These statements merely use celestial phenomena as a vehicle for moral principles; they are not the true condition of the sun and moon.

In fact, solar eclipses are all anomalies of celestial phenomena. If the ruler corrects his faults and cultivates good government, then even in the Zhengyang month disasters can be eliminated; if the ruler indulges in evil conduct and does not repent, then even in the months of the equinoxes and solstices he will suffer calamity. How could there be any principle that only the two solstices and two equinoxes can be exempt from disaster and anomaly?

The sun shines brightly upon the earth, then suddenly is obscured; day turns into night. No celestial phenomenon is more extraordinary than this. Therefore the ancients had the ritual of beating drums and presenting silk coins, and also the practice of reducing meals and suspending music ([fagu yongbi]: the ancient ritual of beating drums and sacrificing with silk and coins during a solar eclipse; [biansheng qule]: reducing food and withdrawing music and dance to express awe at celestial changes). All this was to take celestial changes seriously and to alert the ruler. The Way of Heaven is profound and remote; sometimes it truly responds, but it may also be that human calamities merely happen to coincide with celestial phenomena.

Thus the sages, taking advantage of changes in celestial phenomena, often used the spirits as a pretext to admonish the world. The intelligent and penetrating can grasp the sages’ deeper meaning, while those of middling or lesser endowment believe in theories of ominous and auspicious portents and are thereby moved to awe. Yet the spirits can assist moral instruction but cannot replace it. Excessive reverence for spirits will delude the people; abandoning them entirely will damage the proper measure of instruction. Hence the words in the text seem present yet absent, and the events recorded seem credible yet doubtful; the sole purpose is to lead people to understand the principles of things.

Du Yu (a Western Jin scholar and famous commentator on the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals) said: At the full moon, the sun’s light is blocked by the earth and cannot reach the moon, and therefore a lunar eclipse occurs. When the sun and moon meet, the moon obscures the sun, and therefore a solar eclipse occurs.

Mr. Su (a Song dynasty scholar) said: Confucius revised the Spring and Autumn Annals, covering a period of 242 years and recording changes in celestial phenomena such as solar eclipses and astral signs, but he did not record lunar eclipses. Commentators hold that the moon symbolizes the way of the feudal lords and also the Yi and Di peoples. The waning of the moon indicates that the Son of Heaven’s decrees have been overpowered by the political forces of the Central Plains (China), and so it was not regarded as a calamity or anomaly.

The Zuo [Commentary] records that Bu Chuqiu (a divination official of the state of Lu in the Spring and Autumn period) said: The number of the sun is ten, so it is divided into ten periods and also corresponds to ten ranks.

Master Du of Jin held that the sun’s position in the sky can correspond to ranks in the human world: at high noon it corresponds to the king; at the morning meal, to the duke; at early dawn, to the minister; at cockcrow, to the scholar-official; at midnight, to Fu (Zao, a low-ranking menial clerk); when people have settled for the night, to Yu (the charioteer); at dusk, to Li (servant); at sunset, to Liao (associate official); at the evening feeding hour, to Pu (attendant); and when the sun’s shadow slants west, to Tai (a minor official). Other hours, such as yuzhong and yuzhong, likewise each had their correspondences. In every case, the sun’s movement expresses the meaning of honoring the king and the dukes. This applies the arrangement found in the “five hexagrams per month” scheme—where the first line is the marquis, the second the grand master, the third the minister, the fourth the duke, and the fifth the ruler—to the hours of a single day.

Bao Yunlong, a Daoist of the late Yuan and early Ming, comments: The Yi is a book that exalts yang and suppresses yin. The sun symbolizes the ruler, and so it must be revered. The Upper Canon of thirty hexagrams ends with Li, which represents the sun; all living beings under Heaven look up to its light. The Lower Canon of thirty-four hexagrams ends with Jiji and Weiji, both of which contain Li. Without sunlight, the people could not live; therefore Li is the root of providing for the people’s daily needs. Qian is the image of the ruler; when Kun comes to intermingle with Qian and forms Li, this embodies the principle of the minister serving the ruler with loyalty. Thus when Li rises into the sky, it becomes Dayou, and the soft line attains the honored position; reversed, it becomes Tongren, and the yang-bright qi no longer rises. When Li emerges above the earth, it is Jin, and in daylight the sunlight is received three times; reversed, when it sinks into the earth, it becomes Mingyi. All of this is to exalt yang and suppress yin, fearing that for even a moment the yang-bright qi might fail to rise into Heaven.

The remaining figurations of Li are scattered among the various hexagrams, each with its function: sometimes as Ding, governing cooking; sometimes as Bi, governing human culture; sometimes as Feng, governing the fullness of midday; sometimes as Ge, governing the regulation of the calendar and the clarification of the seasons. As for Kui, Shihe, Lü, and Jiaren, these are the reverse side of Li. The hexagram image says: The sun is the lord of the myriad things; the moon and stars still share its radiance and attach themselves to Heaven—how much more, then, the myriad things?

When King Wen was imprisoned at Youli, he performed Mingyi; this was King Wen’s misfortune. Yet he also elaborated the Yi, opening the transmission that led to Confucius’s composition of the Ten Wings. From this we see that Confucius’s “sun” and King Wen’s “sun” shone in succession upon the world, and day and night have their constancy. This is surely a great fortune for the world and for later generations.

This is the collation note at the end of juan 6 of Tianyuan Fawei, not the doctrinal exposition of the main text. Tianyuan Fawei is the Yuan-dynasty author Bao Yunlong’s commentary on Tianyuan and is an astronomical and calendrical work included in the Daozang (Daoist Canon). The collation notes take the Siku Quanshu edition—the large imperially commissioned Qing compilation—as the control and mark, item by item, the places where the original text’s characters differ from it, in the form “original has X; changed according to the Siku Quanshu edition.”

The entries may be summarized as follows: for “tian” (Heaven), the original had “da” (Great), and it was corrected accordingly; for “wei” (to say/call), the original had “qing” (to request), and it was corrected accordingly; for “ershi” (twenty), the original had “yishi” (one ten/ten), and it was corrected accordingly; for “bei” (north), the original had “ji” (reach/and), and it was corrected accordingly; for “yue shangxian” (the moon at first quarter), the original had “yue zai xian” (the moon at the quarter), and it was corrected accordingly; for “fou” (negation/not), the original had “bu” (not), and it was corrected accordingly; for “ba” (eight), the original had “ru” (enter), and it was corrected accordingly; for “shi” (ten), the original had “ding,” and it was corrected accordingly; for “zhuo/zhe” (to attach/particle), the original had “zhe” (particle), and it was corrected accordingly; for “shuo” (say/explain), the Siku edition has “she” (establish/set up); for “tou” (head), the original had “yuan” (wish), and it was corrected accordingly; for “zhuo/zhe” (to attach/particle), the original had “kan” (look), and it was corrected accordingly; for “zai” (at/in), the Siku edition has “shi” (is); for “yue” (moon/month), the original had “you” (have), and it was corrected accordingly; for “dao” (the Dao/Way), the original had “shi” (lose), and it was corrected accordingly; for “qing” (green/blue), the original had “zai” (at), and it was corrected accordingly; for “bing” (and/combine), the original had “jing” (well), and it was corrected accordingly; for “yue” (moon/month), the original had “wu” (five), and it was corrected accordingly; for “dongzhi” (winter solstice), the original had “buzhi” (not arrive), and it was corrected accordingly; for “gu” (ancient), the original had “you” (right), and it was corrected accordingly; for “bi” (compare), the original had “ci” (this), and it was corrected accordingly; and in the original text one “ren” (person) character was missing and has been supplied according to the edition. These changes are mostly errors of graphically or phonetically similar characters; the collator corrects them on the basis of the commonly circulated edition, making the calendrical and image-number calculations easier to read and follow.

Title Note: Tianyuan Fawei is a work on Yijing studies and Daoist Neidan (internal alchemy) compiled by Bao Yunlong (style name Luzhai) of the Yuan dynasty and collated by Fang Hui (style name Xugu). This passage is the title of fascicle seven and the opening of the section “Taiyin (Great Yin)”; “Taiyin” refers to the moon and its yin essence.

Vernacular Explanation: The Shuogua says that the Kan trigram symbolizes water and also symbolizes the moon; the moon is the essence of water. The Hetu Dilan further says that the moon is the essence of metal. In the Kan trigram, a single yang line is hidden between two yin lines, and this is precisely the symbol of the moon.

Supplement: In the Kan trigram (☵), the upper and lower lines are yin lines and the middle is a single yang line. The ancients used this to draw an analogy with the moon: the moon does not shine by itself but becomes bright by borrowing the sun’s light; yang Qi is hidden within the yin body, and therefore the Kan trigram is used to symbolize the moon.

The Moon Is the Essence of Water, with Brightness and Darkness

The Shuogua says that the Kan trigram symbolizes water and also the moon; it is where the essence of moon and water lies. (Kan is one of the Bagua, the Eight Trigrams: one yang line dwelling between two yin lines, symbolizing water and the moon.) The Hetu (the legendary ancient chart) says that the Kan trigram is the essence of metal; one yang line dwells within, and therefore it is bright inside and dim outside. In heaven it is the moon; on earth it is water.

Master Hu says that the moon’s substance belongs to Kan: a yang line in the center and yin lines enclosing it outside, yet in function it leans toward yin. Because of its yang nature, the moon moves quickly; because of its yin nature, it shines at night.

The Li Ben Yi says that the moon seen in the morning is called “na,” and the moon seen in the evening is called “tiao.” The Wuxing Zhuan (i.e., the Hongfan Wuxing Zhuan, a Han dynasty work explaining portents) says that when on the last day of the lunar month (hui) the moon appears in the west, it is called “tiao”; when on the first day (shuo) it appears in the east, it is called “ce.” When the moon disappears from view, it is also called “tiao-na.” The moon’s “tiao” portends that the ruler is relaxed and unhurried; its “ce” or concealment portends that the ruler is impatient and rushed.

The commentary on the Taixuan (a Han dynasty work by Yang Xiong modeled on the Zhouyi) says that “tiao” and “ce” are the appearances of the moon’s changes; “tiao” means to appear. On the first day the moon is seen in the east and is called “ce”; on the last day it is seen in the west and is called “tiao.” The sun is male and the moon female; the two move across heaven without ever stopping.

The Sitian Kao says that in calculating the moon’s motion one must correct it according to the calendar; for the sun’s motion and its conjunction with the moon, “tiao-na” is taken as the fixed constant, and then increased or decreased as needed.

The Zhoubi (i.e., the Zhoubi Suanjing, an ancient work of astronomy and calendrical calculation) says that the moon’s light comes from the place illuminated by the sun, while the moon’s dark side (po) arises where the sun obscures it. When the moon directly faces the sun, its radiance is completely full; when it comes near the sun, its radiance is entirely lost.

Jing Fang (a Western Han Yijing scholar) says that the moon has no light of its own but shines when illuminated by the sun; the side illuminated by the sun is bright, while the side not illuminated is dark, and when the two are joined it cannot be seen. After the moon is full, it immediately begins to wane.

According to the Former Heaven Bagua sequence, Qian is one and Dui is two; the moon is calculated starting from the Dui position because the speed of the moon’s motion cannot keep up with the degrees of the sun’s motion. The speeds of the sun and moon both change: when the sun moves fast and the moon slow, the moon’s “middle” (wang, the mid-month point) falls behind, while the new moon (conjunction) comes early; when the moon moves fast and the sun slow, the moon’s “middle” comes early, while the new moon falls behind.

Zhang Zai (a Northern Song Neo-Confucian) says that the moon is the essence of yin, and its nature lies in returning to yang. The side of the moon facing the sun is illuminated by sunlight, and so what it receives is the sun’s light, not the sun’s essence. When the moon and sun are in opposition and [the moon] is at the mid-chord position, its light is obscured and becomes an eclipse; this shows that essence and light are fundamentally one body and cannot be divided into two. He also says that the essences of the sun and moon each reside hidden in the other’s dwelling.

Zhu Zhen (Hanshang) said: The Tai hexagram (one of the sixty-four hexagrams of the Zhou Changes) means heaven and earth interact, so the myriad things become tongda (penetrating and unobstructed); the Pi hexagram means heaven and earth do not interact, so the myriad things are not tongda. Tai corresponds to the nine-five line of the Kan hexagram (one of the eight trigrams, symbolizing water), with water qi rising upward. The body of Kan is Kun (symbolizing earth), while the single yang line within Kan is Qian (symbolizing heaven), occupying the second and fifth line positions. Qian yang flows into Kun yin, so when the moon moves quickly it appears to fall behind. The moon itself does not shine; it must wait for the sun’s illumination to become bright—and what is bright is Qian (yang). Saying “sun and moon unite in brightness” means the Kan and Li hexagrams mutually function. Saying in the Yu hexagram that “sun and moon do not pass beyond” is because Kan symbolizes the moon and lies hidden within Li (symbolizing the sun); sun and moon meet in the north. Saying in the Dun hexagram that “sun and moon obtain heaven” is because the nine-four line of Qian moves to the fifth place, thereby becoming the Li and Kan hexagrams.

The top nine line of Xiao Xu, the six-four line of Zhong Fu, and the six-five line of Gui Mei all speak of “the moon nearly full” (yue ji wang). In Xiao Xu’s fourth line Kan is hidden; in Xun, Zhen is hidden. Moon in the east and sun in the west—that is the full moon (wang). In Zhong Fu, Kan changes to Zhen; moon in the east—again wang. In Gui Mei at six-five, moon in the east and sun in the west—likewise wang. In Xiao Xu and Zhong Fu, Kan sits at the fourth line; in Gui Mei at six-five, the line is in the fifth place. Kan in the fourth or fifth position is thus centered.

Therefore when the sun looks toward the moon a lunar eclipse occurs; when the moon covers the sun a solar eclipse occurs—this is because Kan and Li alternately prevail.

Someone asked: Kan is water and Li is fire—what is the reason fire attaches to water? The answer: Li fire without water cannot shine and has nothing to rely on; Kan water without Li fire cannot display brightness and has no way to generate. When water gathers, essential qi gathers; when essence gathers, spirit-intelligence is born. Burning firewood turns it to charcoal; dead wood turns to ash. Rotten wood glows at night; when soaked through, the light dims. Human blood can become phosphorescent fire, appearing on rainy evenings at dusk. Hence it is said “Li means attachment and adornment” (Li zhe, li ye—Li is the meaning of fu li, clinging/adorning). When Kan water is exhausted, Li fire has nothing left to cling to.

Zhang Zai (Hengqu) said: The sun, moon, and five planets move against heaven’s course and are all encompassed by earth. The moon is yin essence; it returns toward yang, so when the moon runs to the right it is relatively fast. The sun’s nature belongs to yin and the moon’s nature belongs to yang; at new and full moon, yin and yang essences and spirits meet in opposition, so moonlight shows waxing and waning, deficiency and fullness—the pattern of eclipse and of kui and ying. The moon is nearer to people and the sun farther outside, so the moon receives sunlight, usually on the outer side. Observing its whole path: at first like a hook, at mid-heaven like a half jade disk—this verifies kui and ying. Metal and water sit inward and are luminous; they can avoid and receive the essences of yin and yang, each hidden in its own dwelling, each at rest. Thus the forms of sun and moon never change through the ages.

Someone asked Chengzi: The moon inherently has a certain “po” (the dark portion not illuminated by sunlight), while the sun is very far from the moon. The moon borrows sunlight to shine; do the phases people see—waxing and waning—arise from this? Chengzi replied: The sun and moon both belong to the celestial bodies. There is no principle that “the sun is higher than the moon,” and waxing and waning cannot be explained in terms of distance and elevation.

If the moon had no waxing and waning, it could not form a monthly cycle, and there would be no way to reckon the seasons and years (“cheng sui”). For every part by which the moon brightens, the dark po diminishes by a part; waxing and waning are precisely the expression of how much light it receives.

If the moon did not receive sunlight, an “eclipse” would occur (solar or lunar eclipse). When the moon and sun are directly opposite, Yin Qi and Yang Qi contend, and so an eclipse occurs. The ancients beat drums to assist Yang; therefore, for both solar and lunar eclipses, drums could be beaten to rescue them. After the moon passes across the sun’s face, it quickly becomes round again, showing that it cannot alter its own regular motion.

Between the sun and moon there is a Yin-Yang distinction of honorable and humble: near the ruler’s position, authority is diminished; far from the ruler’s position, power is abundant. Thus when the moon is far from the sun its light is full, and when near the sun its light is deficient. Before the day of full moon, the moon appears in the west; after the full moon, it appears in the east. Yang Xiong said: Before the moon is full, the po it carries is in the west; after the moon has become full, the final po is in the east. This means that when the moon first appears, sunlight strikes the west side of the dark po, making the east side bright, and only at the full moon is it completely round; after the full moon, sunlight remains on the east side of the dark po, and the west side gradually wanes until, on the last day, it is entirely gone. The moon appears bright when far from the sun; before the full moon the sun is on the moon’s right, after the full moon on the moon’s left, so the moon receives light according to the sun’s position. The two sentences that Zhu Zi quotes as “Ri zi yun” also contain errors.

The Book of Documents says: “In the first month, on the renchen day, beside the dying po.” It also says: “In that fourth month, the light began to be born.” (“Zai sheng ming” refers to the first appearance of light at the beginning of the month, around the third day.) The Record of Rites says: “Three and five, and it is full; three and five, and it wanes.” That is, on the fifteenth day the moon is full, and after another fifteen days it wanes.

Cai Jiufeng (Cai Shen) says: The first month is “month one,” which is the Jian Yin month of the Xia calendar. The scriptural text does not say “day zheng” but “day one,” because the Shang dynasty took the Chou month as the beginning of the year. “On the second day, the death of the po” (er ri si po) refers to the new moon, the first day; “pang si po” refers to the second day; “shi sheng ming” refers to the third day. “Si po” is when the moon’s dark face fills the disk and the lunar body cannot be seen; “sheng ming” is when the moon begins to give light. The Hanshu, “Lüli zhi,” says: At the new moon the moon is still invisible, and this day is called “si po”; when light first appears in the evening, it is called “chu.”

Master Chen holds that some also set “sheng ming” as the third day. Kong Yingda of the Tang held that “sheng ming” and “si po” both belong to the beginning of the month, so “shi si po” is the time when the po dies and brightness is born. He took “sheng ming” as the first day and “pang si po” as the second.

At the full moon (the fifteenth), the bright face of the moon is completely visible and the dark face completely hidden. On the day after the full moon, the dark face begins to emerge again, and the bright face diminishes accordingly. At the dark day (the end of the month), the bright face completely disappears and the dark face completely occupies the disk. Therefore the end of the month is called hui, because the dark face fills it; the beginning of the month is called shuo, because brightness begins to appear. Judging from the cases of hui and shuo, Kong Yingda’s view should be taken as correct.

Confucian scholars set “zai sheng po” as the sixteenth day, but the po begins to be born only after the day of the full moon, and the full moon sometimes falls on the fourteenth, fifteenth, or sixteenth day, not at a fixed time; therefore it cannot be uniformly assigned to the sixteenth.

Zhu Xi (Master Kaoting) says: The length of a month is calculated as twenty-nine and a half days plus twenty-nine nine-hundred-fortieths of a day, and one must judge according to the time of conjunction. The time when moonlight first appears is the third day in a long month and the second day in a short month. From sheng ming to the first quarter, and on to the full moon on the fifteenth, the light becomes full and the dark face begins to emerge. After the last quarter, when another fifteen days have passed and the dark day arrives, the light is deficient and the dark face occupies the disk. The po is the dark part; when the po dies, brightness is born. Someone says of “zai ying po” that zai is like a cart carrying a person: the hun attaches to the po, and it is the po that carries the hun. The moon itself receives the sun’s light and is always complete; because people observe it from below, the waxing and waning they see are different.

Zhen Dexiu, Master Xishan, says: Only after yin and yang combine does the moon generate brightness. The moon originally has no light; it waxes and wanes according to how much sunlight it receives. On the new moon the sun and moon conjoin, and on the third day brightness arises; on the eighth day, the first quarter, the moon is half lit; at the full moon on the fifteenth, the light is full—this is “three and five, then full.” After the full moon it gradually wanes; on the twenty-second day, the last quarter, half the light is gone; on the thirtieth day, the dark day, the light is exhausted—this is “three and five, then wane.” The dark day is pure yin, so the po is still present but the light has been extinguished. When the sun and moon conjoin again, brightness is born anew.

The moon itself is black; it appears white only because it receives the light of the sun. The moon is the sun’s shadow, and one may also say that it is the yin within yang. It belongs to the same yang category as the sun, and therefore it can also be seen in daytime.

Zhu Xi (Zhu Zi) held that Heaven surrounds Earth on the outside, while the shape of Earth is relatively small. When the sun is below Earth, the moon is at the center of Heaven. The moon’s body is black, which is the nature of yin; it receives the sun’s light and becomes white, which is its acquisition of yang Qi.

All around Earth is illuminated by sunlight, but Earth blocks the sun’s light, and the shadow that Earth casts upon the moon is the outline of mountains and rivers in the dark parts of the moon. Wang Pu said: The sun and moon in the sky are like two mirrors reflecting each other, with Earth situated between them and surrounded by air and water. Thus the slightly dark places in the moon are precisely the shadow of Earth reflected in the mirror; they are not really a cassia tree, a toad, and a jade rabbit (the lunar imagery of folk legend). This explanation is reasonable and sufficient to resolve a doubt of ages.

Master Zhen of Xishan (Zhen Dexiu, sobriquet Xishan) said: The moon is like a round ball, and only one side of it receives light. On the full-moon day, the fifteenth of the lunar month, the sun is in the west and the moon in the east; the two are directly opposite, and the moon receives the fullest light. The accumulated Qi in the sky rises upward, and the empty space in between is the passage through which the sun and moon come and go. Sometimes the moon is at the center of Heaven and the sun at the center of Earth; light shines onto the moon from all around, and the dark places within it are the shadow of Earth. After the full moon, as the sun and moon move, they gradually turn away from each other; the illuminated face gradually slants and recedes. By the new-moon day, the first of the lunar month, they meet again, and the sun and moon almost closely coincide; the sun is then obscured and loses its brightness—this is a solar eclipse. The moon sometimes passes above and sometimes below; it is not that it receives no light at all, but only that it receives less sunlight.

Zhu Xi said: The moon itself has no waxing or waning; it is only when people look from the earth that it appears to wax and wane. On the day of hui (the end of each month, when the moon and sun are nearly in conjunction), the moon meets the sun; by the third day, the moon has just gradually left the sun. Viewed obliquely from the earth, the moonlight one sees is the incomplete part. The sun moves slowly and the moon moves quickly, so every night the moon shifts somewhat eastward; from this one can see the manner in which it gradually withdraws from the sun.

When sun and moon meet, the sun is above the moon, its light shines on the upper side, so there is no moonlight on earth. When sun and moon gradually move apart, moonlight gradually appears below. At the full moon (wang, the fifteenth), moonlight fills the lower half; after the full moon, the light gradually moves upward again.

“Heavenly Questions” in the Songs of Chu asks: What virtue does the moon have that it can die and be born again? What benefit has it obtained, so that the Jade Rabbit (the rabbit in the moon, also called Gu Tu) is always in its belly? This asks on what basis the moon can die and be reborn.

The old calendrical specialists said: after the first day the moon gradually moves away from the sun, so the po (the unilluminated part) dies and the ming (the illuminated part) is born; after the full moon the moon gradually approaches the sun, so the po is born and the ming dies; at the end of the month it again meets the sun, and again moves away, and the brightness is born again—this is what is called “dying and being reborn.” The author believes this account is mistaken. If it were truly so, before the full moon the moon’s west side is near the sun and its east side far from the sun, so the newly born bright light should be on the east side; after the full moon the east side is near the sun and the west side far from the sun, yet the undied bright light is on the west side. How can one say that before the full moon the po is in the west and after the full moon the po is in the east, and yet take distance from the sun as brightness?

Therefore Shen Kuo’s account is correct. Shen Kuo (a Northern Song scientist) said: The moon originally has no light, like a silver ball; it shines only when illuminated by sunlight. When moonlight first appears, the sun is beside it, and the light falls only on its side, so it looks like a hook; as it gradually moves away from the sun, the light shines obliquely, and the bright part gradually increases. This is like a pellet smeared with white powder on one half: viewed from the side, the powdered part looks like a hook; viewed face-on, it is round.

Later Wang Pu further elaborated this theory: On the evening when the moon first appears, one sees only a hook. At the time when sun and moon face each other, with the observer in between, one can see its complete form. In fact, at the quarters and at the dark of the moon, it is no different from the night of the full moon; people simply cannot see it. From this it can be known that moonlight is always full; its waxing and waning is only because the position and viewing angle of the observer are direct or oblique, not because it dies and is reborn.

The moon is the essence of Yin; its form is round and its substance clear. When sunlight reaches it, it displays brightness; where the light does not reach is the po. At the full moon, with the observer between the two, one can see all the moon’s light, and its shape is round. At the first and last quarters, the sun shines on the side of the moon, and people view it from the side, so they see only half bright and half po. On the days of new moon and dark moon, the sun shines on the outside of the moon, while people are on its back side, so they cannot see it.

I. The Principle of the Lunar Eclipse

When the moon is at its fullest and brightest, a dark void is hidden within it (that is, the shadow cast on the lunar surface after the Earth blocks sunlight), and it is extremely subtle. On the full-moon day (the fifteenth day of the lunar month), the sun and moon stand exactly opposite each other, without the slightest discrepancy, and the moon is then covered by the dark void; thus a lunar eclipse occurs. This is yin qi overcoming yang qi, but in the end it is not a good thing. If yin qi were to yield slightly and not directly face yang qi, they would not confront each other and cause a lunar eclipse.

II. Zhang Heng’s Account

Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han said: fire is the light of the sun, and water contains the image of sunlight. Moonlight comes from the side illuminated by the sun, while the moon’s dark deficiency appears on the side obscured from the sun. When the moon faces the sun, its light is full; when it draws near the sun, its light is entirely lost. All the stars are illuminated by sunlight, and the moon, borrowing water, reflects its radiance. When the moon and sun are directly opposite, the moonlight often cannot unite with the sunlight because it is blocked by the Earth; this is the dark void. Among the stars and the faint moonlight, whenever the dark void is encountered, an eclipse (diminution) occurs.

Zhang Heng further explained: when one looks from darkness toward brightness, the brightness is not refracted, and so from a distance it appears like fire. At the center of the sky, sky and earth are equally bright. Faint light appears as if united, yet within that union something is still taken away, so it looks like water. Fire gives forth light only at night; by day it is not bright.

III. Bao Yunlong’s Commentary

I believe the theory of the dark void has its origin here. What is called the dark void is yin enclosing yang to form the moon. In the Bagua (Eight Trigrams), Kan is the moon; the middle of Kan is a single yang line, originally transformed from the middle yin line of the Li trigram. Qian entering Kun becomes the moon; Kun entering Qian becomes the sun. At the full moon, sun and moon face each other, and the Jing and Qi of yin and yang meet. Li (the sun), taking Qian as its body, wishes to draw in that single yang line in the moon; therefore the moon is swallowed. The dark void spoken of here is that single yin line in the Li trigram. This is a matter right before our eyes; it is simply that among the ancients no one ever spoke of it this way.

It is also said: When the moon is close to the sun, it reveals only a slender crescent like a fine eyebrow. As it gradually moves away, its moonlight gradually grows. If the sun is at the wu position (due south) and the moon at the you position (due west), separated by about ninety degrees—that is, the “near one, far three” configuration—then this is the first-quarter moon, shaped like a drawn bow. When it reaches wang (the full moon), the sun is in the west and the moon in the east; looking up from the earth, one can see the moon’s illuminated face entirely lit.

The Huanyi Lueshuo says: The moon moves quickly and the sun moves slowly. The moon catches up with the sun in about twenty-nine days and more, so in a year the two meet twelve times. When they meet, the moon and sun occupy the same position, and no moonlight is visible from the earth; this is called hui (the time at the end of the month when there is no light). Afterward the moon again leaves the sun, and light is generated from this point on—this is the change of lunar phase after shuo (the new moon).

If calculated by the circumference of the heavens (one circuit of the celestial sphere, about a little more than 365 degrees): when the moon is near the sun it is about a little more than 91 degrees away; when far, about a little more than 274 degrees (the original text says “374,” which should be “274,” because the two added together make exactly one circuit). This is “near one, far three makes the quarter,” that is, the first quarter. After this the moon continues moving and goes opposite the sun, separated by about a little more than 182 degrees; the two balance each other at a distance, called “mutual balancing.” Because the moon is at the center of heaven and opposite the sun, this moment is called wang (the full moon). After passing the midpoint, the moon gradually approaches the sun again; at this time the separation is about 274 degrees, again forming the “near one, far three” configuration—this is the last quarter.

The first quarter is usually on the eighth day, the last quarter on the twenty-second, and the full moon on the fifteenth; these are the regular norms. If there are variations: the first quarter may come early on the seventh or late on the ninth; the last quarter may be on the twenty-first or twenty-third; the full moon may be on the fourteenth or sixteenth.

At the first quarter the moon is already half bright, shaped like a drawn bow with the string facing upward; at the last quarter the moon is already half dark, shaped like a bow with the string facing downward.

It is also said that in the Xiantian tu (Pre-Heaven Diagram)—a diagram of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) positions traditionally attributed to Fuxi, which uses trigram images to represent the waxing and waning of Yin-Yang—the changes of the moon correspond to the cycle of one month. It begins with the Fu hexagram (the first arising of one yang) and then passes in order through Zhen, Dui, Qian, Xun, Gen, and Kun. On the third day, the moon begins to give light, which is called “shengming” (the birth of brightness); at the Dui position, the eighth day, it becomes the first-quarter moon; at the Qian position, the fifteenth day, it is the full moon, “wang”; at the Xun position, the eighteenth day, the moon begins to wane; at the Gen position, the twenty-third day, it becomes the last-quarter moon; and at the Kun position, the thirtieth day, all moonlight is gone, which is called “hui” (the dark of the moon).

The waxing and waning of a month: within a single breath, the changes of hui, shuo, xian, and wang (the dark of the moon, new moon, quarters, and full moon) are already present. At the first quarter, Yang Qi (vital energy) is contracting, from above downward; at the last quarter, Yin Qi is receding, from below upward. At the full moon, Yang Qi is full, its light shines below, and the moon is full above. At hui and shuo, the sun and moon conjoin above. This is like the principles of “raising water to extinguish fire” and “metal returns to nature” (Neidan (internal alchemy) terminology, using water and fire, metal and wood, and so on, as mutually complementary and mutually controlling to describe metaphorically the harmonization of Yin-Yang and the return to the root). The jia, yi, bing, ding, geng, and xin in the text are spoken of according to the sun’s setting and rising at dusk and dawn; they are not used to divide the positions of the six trigrams.

It is also said that ming, po, xian, wang, hui, and shuo are all named according to the positions in which the moon faces toward or away from the sun.

From shengming to the first quarter, after the sun sets at the You hour (dusk), the moon accordingly begins to give light. Within the moon’s dark substance (po, the dark side of the lunar body), the bright substance (hun, the bright side of the lunar body) is generated; the moon bows down to receive the sun’s light, and brightness gradually arises from below. When it reaches a half circle, it is exactly divided equally, and so it is called the first quarter, located before the day of full moon.

From the full moon to the last quarter, the sun rises at the Mao hour (early morning), and the moon accordingly diminishes in light. Within the bright substance, dark substance is generated; the moon looks up toward the sun and moves away, and the light from before the full moon all transforms into dark substance. Light recedes from below; when it reaches the last quarter, it again joins with metal and water (referring to the moon’s Yin Jing (essence)). The equal division is the same as before, and so it is called the last quarter, located after the day of full moon.

The ancients matched the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) to the movements of the sun and moon in order to calculate the moon’s waxing and waning. Every five days constituted a “node” (jie), with one trigram presiding over it.

From the early morning of the first day—the dawn of the new moon (shuo dan)—the Zhen trigram began to preside, symbolizing the first interaction of Yin-Yang. Passing in order through Dui, Qian, Xun, Gen, and Kun, each trigram governed roughly five days. From the twenty-sixth day onward until the second day, Kun presided. The phases of the moon changed accordingly. When the sun moved to the Zhen position, the moon began to shine with one part of light; when it reached Dui, the moonlight increased to two parts; when it reached Qian, the whole moon shone, that is, the full moon. After the sixteenth day, the sun moved to the Xun position, and the moonlight gradually waned. Between the dark day (the last day of the month) and the new moon day (the first day), the sun and moon were separated, and the moon was completely without visible light.

When the sun and moon meet, hui (the dark moon) and shuo (the new moon) are thereby distinguished. When the moon moves into the same position as the sun, it turns its back on the human realm; its illuminated face is not visible, and only its dark body is seen. This is hui, symbolizing the Kun trigram. At this time the moon is in the Yi position (east), and the sun is also in the Yi position; the two coincide, and so it is said that “Kun combines with Yi.” When the moon reaches the day of hui, it travels from east to north and meets the sun in the north. East corresponds to Yi and north to Gui; the Qi of Yi dissolves and returns to Gui, finally converging at Ren in the Qian position. Ren and Gui are where the Yin Qi of the north returns. In the twelve conjunctions of the year, the myriad things flourish, and the moon again appears in the positions of Zhen and Dui. Heaven and Earth first conjoin, and only then does Zhen arise; Zhen symbolizes the first union of Heaven and Earth and the first flourishing of the myriad things. Therefore Kun ends at Yi and Gui, while Qian begins at Zhen and Geng; full moon, dark moon, and new moon cycle back and forth, end and beginning succeeding one another without cease.

(Note: The heavenly stems are correlated with directions: Jia and Yi belong to the east, Bing and Ding to the south, Geng and Xin to the west, and Ren and Gui to the north.)

Now let us look at the six stages of a month.

The first stage (around the third day): It is entirely pure Yin; afterward one Yang first arises, a faint thread of light appears, and the lunar image is Zhen. At this time the moon is seen at dusk in the Geng position in the west, just as the sun has set below the horizon; hence the Zhen trigram is paired with Geng.

The second stage (around the eighth day): Two Yang lines generate brightness, and light and dark each occupy half; this is the first quarter moon, symbolizing the Dui trigram, seen at dusk in the Xin position in the south.

The third stage (the full moon, around the fifteenth day): Yang Qi is full and abundant, pure Yang with no Yin, and the lunar image is Qian. At dusk it is seen in the Jia position in the east, receiving sunlight and level with the earth.

The fourth stage (after the sixteenth day): The Qian body begins to generate one Yin line below, becoming Xun, and moonlight begins to wane. The lunar image is Xun, and at daybreak it sets in the Xin position in the west.

The fifth stage (around the twenty-second day, the last quarter): One Yin line is born in the middle, becoming Gen; the lunar image is Gen, and at dawn it sets in the Bing position in the south.

The sixth stage (the thirtieth day): All three Yang lines turn to Yin, the light is exhausted and the form hidden, lying concealed in the northwest. A month is divided into six stages; when the six stages are complete, it passes to the next month, where the Zhen trigram is born again, cycling on without end.

The Cantong qi (a classic of the alchemical Dao written by Wei Boyang in the Eastern Han, which uses the hexagram images of the Zhouyi to discuss alchemy and the Heavenly Dao) says in Chapter 14: The Gen trigram is located in the Bing direction (south), and the waning half-moon appears on the twenty-third day; the Kun trigram corresponds to Yi, and by the end of the month, on the thirtieth day, the moonlight in the northeast disappears. When the solar terms complete a round, they abdicate and hand over to one another, like a son inheriting the father’s body, and from this the Zhen trigram is reborn (symbolizing the revival of yang qi, hence called the “dragon”).

This passage discusses “Najia” (the method of assigning the Heavenly Stems to the eight trigrams). Qian is the father and takes Jia and Ren; Zhen is the eldest son, inherits the father’s body, and takes Geng; Kun is the mother and takes Yi and Gui; Xun is the eldest daughter, inherits the mother’s body, and takes Xin; Kan is the middle son and takes Wu; Gen is the youngest son and takes Bing; Li is the middle daughter and takes Ji; Dui is the youngest daughter and takes Ding. The Heavenly Stems are generated from below upward in the order Ren, Gui, Geng, Xin, Wu, Ji, Bing, Ding, Jia, and Yi. Qian and Kun each use two lines (yao) and encompass the six children within them, so they can generate and transform the myriad things. Wu and Ji belong to Earth and reside in the center: the yang line of Kan takes Wu, and the yin line of Li takes Ji; yin and yang each attain their kind and harmonize in the center. Ren is the jing (essence) of yang, Jia is the head of yang, Gui is the blood of yin, and Yi is the beginning of yin. The two trigrams Qian and Kun embrace and store all, while Kan and Li occupy the center and preside over affairs; thus the creative transformation of Heaven and Earth becomes inexhaustibly wondrous.

The final passage uses numbers and lunar phases to explain the movement of the celestial circuit (zhoutian). The 384 lines (sixty-four hexagrams multiplied by six lines) are the number of one celestial circuit. Each line corresponds to one day; each day governs four hexagrams, and twenty-four lines are used to correspond to the twenty-four solar terms. Within a month there are xian, wang, hui, and shuo (first quarter, full moon, the dark end of the month, and the first day); within a day there are the four time positions Zi, Wu, Mao, and You. Viewed from a single day, a month and a year are both contained within it: from the Zi hour to the Si hour, the moon begins to generate light, and the first quarter through the full moon lies within this interval; from the Wu hour to the Hai hour, the moon begins to wane, and the last quarter through the dark moon lies within this interval.

The twelve double-hours (shichen) correspond to the twelve ruling hexagrams (shier pigua)—the twelve hexagrams used to represent the waxing and waning of Yin-Yang—and the seventy-two yao lines correspond to the seventy-two hou, the seventy-two seasonal periods into which the year is divided, each lasting about five days. If considered in terms of a month, the first and last quarters correspond to the “two-eight” of Yin-Yang, the respective nodes of Yin’s and Yang’s waxing and waning. The three hundred sixty double-hours correspond to the three hundred sixty yao lines, and these three hundred sixty yao lines in turn correspond to the three hundred sixty days of a year. If considered in terms of a year, the Najia method—a method of correlating the Heavenly Stems with the Bagua—assigns the six yao to the twelve ruling hexagrams; viewed in pairs, the function of a year is thereby contracted into a single month. Thus one can infer the month from the day and the year from the month: within a day one reckons by double-hours, within one double-hour one reckons by ke, and the interval of a single ke naturally contains the climatic changes of a whole year. Such are the principles of Heaven and Earth’s creative transformation that can be examined in fine detail.

Shaozi—Shao Yong of the Northern Song, the Neo-Confucian scholar whose style name was Kangjie and who is commonly called Shaozi—said: Yin enclosing Yang forms the moon, and the moon is a thing that contains Yang within Yin. When Yang Qi recedes, Yin Qi grows; therefore, as the sun sets in the west, the moon emerges from the west. When Yin Qi becomes strong enough to rival Yang, the spectacle of the sun and moon facing each other appears, and the moon rises from the east. Heaven is like the father and the sun like the son, hence the celestial bodies rotate leftward, from east to west; the sun is like the husband and the moon like the wife, hence the sun rises in the east and the moon emerges in the west. When the moon is far from the sun, its luminous part (ming) grows slowly; when it is near the sun, its non-luminous part (po) grows quickly. Here the relationship between moon and sun is used as a metaphor for the righteousness between ruler and minister—that is, Yin’s softness attaches to Yang’s firmness, each having its proper place and coordinating with the other.

Although the sun and moon each have their own motions, the sun also turns leftward along with heaven; the moon, though it moves quickly, catches up with the sun and meets it, always remaining behind the sun. The stars move following the moon, and therefore can be seen only at night. The various calendrical systems state: from the first to the fourth day of the month the moon moves fastest, about a little more than fourteen degrees per day; from the twenty-fourth day to the end of the month it is fastest again, with the same daily motion. From the fifth to the eighth day its speed is next, about a little more than thirteen degrees per day; from the twentieth to the twenty-third day it is somewhat faster, with the same daily motion. From the ninth to the nineteenth day it moves slowly, about a little more than twelve degrees per day. If calculated as an average over one month, the moon moves thirteen and seven-nineteenths degrees per day.

When the moon is far from the sun, its light gradually brightens and its motion slows; when the moon is near the sun, the moon’s dark aspect arises and its motion speeds up—this embodies the proper relation between ruler and minister. The moon originally has no light; it borrows the sun’s light and shines. When it reaches the full moon, it contends with the sun for yang and becomes a force opposed to yang; how can one who is ruler fail to be cautious? Heaven revolves to the left, while the sun moves to the right; the sun rises in the east, and the moon emerges in the west. Father and son, husband and wife—these are precisely the principle of yin-yang pairing. If the full moon also rose in the east, that would be yin opposing yang and contrary to normal order.

In my view: heaven is greatest, the sun next, and the moon next after that. Therefore the sun’s motion does not reach that of heaven, and the moon’s motion does not reach that of the sun. One is honored and one is humble, each having its proper station; this is precisely the instruction of heaven. King Wen of Zhou elaborated the principles of the Yi in the Kan trigram, expounded the trigram images, and pointed out that the moon is the image of one yang in the center surrounded by two yin. In the twelve conjunctions of the year, the moon always lags behind the sun and dares not precede yang; its meaning is profound and far-reaching. Yin assists yang to complete the work of the year; it is indeed indispensable that the moon lend its assistance. But if yin becomes excessive and encroaches on yang, this is especially something against which one must guard. Therefore the Qian hexagram speaks only of the sun and moon, and again joins brightness to the sun (in the sun).

This scriptural passage mainly expounds the principle that Yang is honored and Yin is humble. When ancient books discuss the sun and moon, they often say “the sun and moon do not overstep” and “the sun and moon obtain Heaven,” meaning that each follows its own path and complies with heavenly principle. When they refer to the sun and moon together, they never place the moon before the sun; precisely through this they imply the revering of Yang and the restraining of Yin. As for taking the moon alone as a warning, the intent is especially urgent.

The Xiaoxu hexagram says, “The moon is nearly full; advancing brings misfortune”: in this hexagram a single Yin line wishes to override the Yang of the top nine, and therefore there is misfortune. Within the hexagram, the fourth line conceals Kan (Water, the image of the moon), and within the Xun trigram Zhen is also concealed (the image of the direction of sunrise); the moon is in the east and the sun in the west. Yin uses a small force to press down Yang, and therefore there is misfortune. The six in the fifth place of Guimei also says, “The moon is nearly full; good fortune,” because the Kan moon occupies the east and the Li sun occupies the west; Yin and Yang each keep their positions and dwell in centrality and correctness. Although the sun and moon face each other and the moon is nearly full, they do not contend, and therefore there is good fortune.

From this it can be known that the moon may face the sun only at night and must not stand alongside the sun in daylight. This is the natural law of the heavenly Dao—how much more so for humans? When the sun and moon face each other, the moon wanes and is eclipsed; when the moon obscures the sun, the sun is eclipsed. Yin must not approach Yang, a minister must not contend with the ruler, a wife must not contend with her husband, and a petty person must not contend with a noble person. Master Cheng (Cheng Yi, a Northern Song Neo-Confucian scholar) said: When a minister occupies the honored position, as with Wang Mang and Dong Zhuo, it can still be discussed; when a woman occupies the honored position, as with Nüwa (a goddess in ancient myth) and the Wu clan (Wu Zetian), this is an extraordinary aberration and cannot be discussed.

The Han Zhi (the “Treatise on Pitch and Calendar” in the Book of Han) says that the moon revolves from the right; this accords with the sequence of the Bagua in the Xiantian tu (Pre-Heaven Diagram, the Bagua diagram transmitted by Shao Yong in the Song dynasty).

The ancients believed that the sun has its dark and new phases, and the moon its quarter and full phases. The sun belongs to Yang and the moon to Yin; moonlight arises when the moon receives the sun’s shining light. As Yang qi wanes, Yin qi becomes visible.

After the new moon (shuo), the moon moves to the right—from west to east—gradually leaving the sun, and its light begins to appear. On the seventh or eighth day it is the first-quarter moon, half bright; on the fifteenth day, at the full moon (wang), it is farthest from the sun and wholly bright. After the full moon, the moon gradually moves left and approaches the sun, and its light diminishes accordingly. On the twenty-second or twenty-third day it is again half bright, called the last quarter. On the thirtieth day the sun and moon meet, and the moonlight is entirely overwhelmed by the sun’s illumination; this is called the dark of the moon (hui).

The various schools differ on this subject, and only this account is credible. The author uses trigram images and the twelve earthly branches to verify it: on the day of hui the trigram is at the Kun position, the sun and moon meet at the Zi position, and the moonlight is wholly lost. Thereafter the moon turns right from Kun, and the trigram image becomes Gen; sunlight arises from the outside, with the position between Xu and Hai. Then it changes to the Kan trigram, with one Yang line in the center; the moon and sun are half a day apart, which is the first quarter. At midnight the moon is at the You position; the sun rises in the east and illuminates half the lunar face, hence the saying “within it there is a rooster” (the rooster belongs to You and is opposite Mao).

Then it enters the Xun trigram, with two Yang lines outside, and the moon’s dark part remains only within. At midnight the moon is between Wei and Shen, just in the interval between quarter and full. The sunlight gradually becomes direct, and the moon moves to the Qian position, exactly at noon. The sun is in the Kun–Zi direction, directly opposite above and below and shining straight upon it, so the moon is fully bright; this is called the full moon.

Again, from Li and Wu it turns left to between Chen and Si; what formerly faced Xu and Hai and generated brightness now turns to generating the dark part. The sun shines obliquely, Yin qi arises from the outside, and this becomes the image of the Dui trigram. Dui changes to Li; the moon is due east, half a day’s distance from the sun, and the dark part returns to the center—this is the last quarter. At midnight the moon is at the Mao position, rises from the west, and illuminates half the lunar face, hence the saying “within it there is a hare” (the hare belongs to Mao).

When it reaches the Zhen trigram, it again stands opposite the Xun trigram. At the Xun position one Yin line gradually fades and the moon becomes full; at the Zhen position two Yin lines gradually grow strong and the moon becomes dark. As it comes ever closer, the light remains only within; at midnight it is between Chou and Yin, in the interval between quarter and dark, and at the Kun position the moon is exhausted.

The trigrams are taken from north to west because the moon’s motion has degrees of retrogression and it turns to the right; the lines are taken from outside to inside because the moon receives sunlight from outside to inside. This account agrees with the “Lüli zhi” in the Hanshu and with the Former Heaven trigrams.

Some say: measure the sun at Wu, the moon at Zi, and the stars at dusk and dawn. The author of the Cantong qi did not understand the principles of the moon’s retrograde motion and its receiving light from outside, so he placed Kan and Li in the center, took Zhen as the generation of brightness and Dui as the first quarter, completely contrary to this account. The author believed he had discovered a subtlety not seen in a thousand ages, yet modestly claimed that this was only one principle among the meanings of the Yi. Zhu Xi’s textual research in the Cantong qi kaoyi is already extremely precise. Moreover, the doctrine transmitted by Wei Boyang has been handed down from the Han to the present for more than a thousand years, and none of the worthy men of earlier generations opposed it; therefore one dare not criticize it lightly.

Collation Note at the End of Juan 7: This passage lists the textual differences between the base edition and the Siku Quanshu edition (for example, yue is written as ye, and chu as ming). These are editorial variants belonging to textual collation and do not affect the doctrinal meaning of the main text.

Juan 8: Shaoyang

The astral phenomena are numerous and complex, and cannot be fully described one by one. The stars are the essence condensed from primordial Qi (the original Jing-Qi, or essence and vital energy, that constitutes all things in heaven and earth). Master Shao (Shao Yong of the Northern Song) said: "Shaoyang corresponds to the stars." Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han (referred to in the text as "Zhang Lingxian" because he wrote the Lingxian) recorded that among the celestial palaces and offices there are one hundred and twenty-four stars that are constantly bright and three hundred and twenty that can be named.

Background Note: Shaoyang is originally one of the Four Images in the Zhouyi, referring to Yang Qi as it first arises and gradually becomes vigorous. Shao Yong's Huangji Jingshi uses this to correspond to celestial phenomena: Taiyang corresponds to the sun, Shaoyang to the stars, Taiyin to the moon, and Shaoyin to chen; for this reason, "Shaoyang" is used as a general term for the stars and celestial bodies.

The patterns of the stars are manifold and difficult to describe one by one. Stars are the essence of original Qi. Master Shao (Shao Yong) said: the Qi of Lesser Yang transforms and becomes stars. Zhang Heng’s Lingxian records: there are one hundred twenty-four official stars that constantly shine in the central and outer celestial regions; three hundred twenty can be named; the total number of stars is two thousand five hundred; and if the faint stars are counted, there are eleven thousand five hundred twenty. Master Luo once told me that the doctrines of the astrologers are tedious and leave one unable to find a clue. If one wishes to understand the profusion of the myriad phenomena, without relying on the Five Phases as the guiding outline and essential key, there is no way to begin.

Taiji (the root of the universe) differentiates into Yin-Yang, and Yin-Yang flows and transforms into the Five Phases. The five planets are the Jing and Qi of the Five Phases. The sun, moon, and five planets together are called the “Seven Governors”; they are distributed among the four directions, with seven lunar mansions in each direction. If one includes the Northern Dipper at the center, there are thirty-five designations in all, but none can depart from the Five Phases. Thus Ban Gu said: Taiji revolves the three luminaries—sun, moon, and stars—and the five planets in the heavens above, while original Qi circulates the Three Sequences (the three calendrical epoch systems) and the Five Phases in the human world below. The Royal Ultimate (the centrally governing norm), the Three Virtues, and the Five Affairs occupy the center and are divided into the Three Talents of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity; how could anything lie beyond the Five Phases?

Master Ouyang (Ouyang Xiu) said: Yao commanded Xi and He to observe the culminant stars in order to determine the four seasons; their principle was still quite simple. In later ages their methods gradually became more precise; only by accumulating the wisdom of many could their subtleties be fully exhausted. After the Three Dynasties, the surviving texts were scattered and lost, yet within the Six Classics there is no confusion. The principles concerning Heaven and humanity are truly difficult to exhaust in words. What is preserved today mainly takes the Five Phases as its outline, and I do not dare compare it with the calendrical and mathematical learning of the astrologers.

Master Shao said: The doctrine of the five planets began with Lord Gan and Lord Shi (the Warring States astrologers Gan De and Shi Shen).

The theory of the Five Planets—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—was not mentioned by anyone in antiquity. The “Yu Shu” chapter of the Book of Documents only speaks of “attuning to the Five Chronograms,” meaning observing in accordance with the movements of the five major planets. It was not until Shi Shen and Gan De in the Warring States period that the study of astral imagery became fully and explicitly revealed.

Shi Shen was a native of Wei in the Warring States period and wrote the Star Classic. Gan De was his contemporary. On the star charts, stars were distinguished by three colors in order to distinguish the differences among three schools: those from Shi Shen were marked in red, those from Gan De in black, and those from Wu Xian—a legendary ancient astrologer—in yellow. The stars inside and outside the Purple Palace were likewise attributed separately to the three schools. Altogether there were three hundred eighty-three star officials, comprising seven hundred eighty-three stars in total.

Among these, those used by the Huntian school—the school that model and calculate celestial phenomena by means of the armillary sphere—were only the celestial pole, the Northern Dipper, and the Twenty-Eight Mansions, which were the essential points for divination and for observing the seasons. The remaining stars were recorded together in order to complete the full configuration of the heavens.

Master Zhang (Zhang Zai of the Northern Song) said: the five wei—the five major planets—are the essence of the five stars.

The Five Planets move eastward, while heaven rotates westward. The fixed stars are like the warp and the Five Planets like the weft, crossing and interweaving to form the patterns of celestial phenomena.

The Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) condense on earth into forms, namely Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. When they manifest in the heavens as astral phenomena, Wood corresponds to the eastern Sui Star (Jupiter), Fire to the southern Yinghuo (Mars), Metal to the western Taibai (Venus), Water to the northern Chenxing (Mercury), and Earth to the central Zhenxing (Saturn).

When they descend upon human beings, the Shen (spirit) of Wood is benevolence, presiding over appearance; the Shen of Fire is propriety, presiding over sight; the Shen of Metal is righteousness, presiding over speech; the Shen of Water is wisdom, presiding over hearing; the Shen of Earth is trustworthiness, presiding over thought and the heart.

The Five Phases flourish according to the four seasons: in spring Wood flourishes, in summer Fire, in autumn Metal, and in winter Water, each flourishing for seventy-two days per season. Earth flourishes in the four months of Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei, for eighteen days each time; the four segments together total three hundred and sixty days.

Each of the Five Phases has its color: Wood is blue-green, Fire red, Metal white, Water black, and Earth yellow. The terrestrial divisions (fenye) corresponding to each star each have their assigned domains, and the state of a star’s light changes with the Five Phases’ flourishing, assisting, resting, and declining. When flourishing, its radiance is full and abundant; when assisting, it is inwardly substantial; when resting, although radiance remains, it has no edges and does not waver; when declining, its radiance is sparse and loses its color and luster.

The colors of stellar halos indicate good and ill fortune: a white halo indicates mourning, a red halo military affairs, a blue-green halo heavy flooding in summer, a black halo much illness and death, and a yellow halo auspiciousness. The colors of stellar horns (rays) also carry indications: white rays indicate the sound of weeping, red rays indicate enemies attacking cities, and black rays indicate military action by water that falls into difficulty.

The Grand Historian said: When the Five Planets share the same color, weapons are laid down throughout the world, the common people are at peace, the five grains are abundant, spring winds and autumn rains come, winter is cold and summer hot, and the sun and moon do not suffer solar or lunar eclipses on the days of new and full moon. This is a state that possesses the Dao (the Way), with a sage occupying its throne.

Suixing (Jupiter)

Jupiter’s nature is gentle and upright, and the official historians held that it governs the faults of the ruler of the realm. It presides over the year’s harvest of the five grains. The sky is divided into four groups of seven lunar mansions and further divided into twelve stations. Jupiter advances one station each year. When Tai Sui (the year deity imagined by the ancients, moving in opposition to Suixing) is at zi, wu, mao, or you, Jupiter traverses one station each year; when at yin, shen, si, or hai, it traverses three lunar mansions each year; when at chen, xu, chou, or wei, it traverses two lunar mansions each year. Jupiter completes one circuit of the sky in about twelve years, which is called “one ji” (one cycle).

Tai Sui belongs to yin and moves leftward, counting from yin; Suixing belongs to yang and turns rightward, counting from chou. When Tai Sui is at mao, Jupiter is at zi; when Tai Sui is at chen, Jupiter is at hai, and so on. If Tai Sui is at yin, Jupiter first appears in the east in the first month; if at mao, it appears in the east at dawn in the second month. The remaining months can be inferred from this.

The state in which Suixing resides will enjoy good fortune. If Jupiter loses its normal order, the region opposed to it will suffer calamity. If it passes beyond one station, the calamity is greater; if it passes beyond one lodge, the calamity is smaller; if it does not pass beyond, there is no fault. Mr. Zhang’s commentary says: Jupiter governs the prosperity and decline of the year.

Yinghuo (Mars)

Fire’s nature is fierce, and so it governs the enforcement of law. It usually enters Taiwei (the name of an asterism) in the tenth month and only sets out after being restrained by it. If among the arrayed lunar mansions there are signs of misrule, it appears and disappears irregularly, completing a circuit of the sky in about two years. Mr. Zhang’s commentary says: Fire is of yin substance, yet it is a concentration of yang qi. Its rate of motion is similar to the sun’s, so the time it takes to complete one circuit is twice that of the sun. This is presumably because Mars passes from being into nonbeing and from nonbeing into being, and is thus affected by the qi of the transformations of heaven and earth.

Zhenxing (Saturn)

Here only the section title is present; there is no main text, so there is nothing to interpret for now.

Zhenxing (Saturn)

The nature of Earth is heavy and thick; it corresponds to the Heavenly Stems “Wu” and “Ji” and is located in late summer. It occupies the middle of the four seasons, just as the human heart governs the four limbs and hundred bones. Therefore, when the other four stars deviate from their normal behavior, Zhenxing also changes accordingly. Another account holds that it governs the “female image” and is also called the “star of the Son of Heaven”: when the Son of Heaven breaks faith with all under Heaven, Zhenxing swings violently. Zhenxing takes about twenty-eight years to move through the lunar mansions and complete one circuit of heaven. The longer it stays in a particular astral station (xingci), the greater the virtuous governance of the corresponding state. Mr. Zhang’s commentary says that Zhenxing moves most slowly and does not entirely correspond only to human affairs on earth.

Taibai (Venus)

The nature of Metal is hard and firm; it governs military affairs and is a Yin star. When it appears in the east, it then becomes invisible in the east; when it appears in the west, it then becomes invisible in the west (“fu” means being close to the sun and therefore invisible). Ban Gu records: beginning with the jiayin day of the first month, Venus and Mars (Yinghuo) appear together in the east for two hundred and forty days and are invisible for forty days. When they reappear, they rise in the yin and xu directions and set in the chou and wei directions. Roughly, it completes one circuit of heaven in a year, similar to the movements of the sun and moon.

Chenxing (Mercury)

The nature of Water is calm and plain; it governs the success or failure of laws and institutional forms and is used to rectify the four seasons. Its appearances have fixed times: at the spring equinox it appears at Kui and Lou, at the summer solstice at Dongjing, at the autumn equinox at Jiao and Kang, and at the winter solstice at Qianniu. It is observed in the east in the morning and in the west in the evening. If it is not seen in a given season, that season loses its harmony; if it is unseen in all four seasons, there will be a great famine under heaven. Chenxing also completes one circuit of heaven in a year, spreading throughout heaven and earth and being everywhere present. If rain and dew appear at improper times, cold and heat lose their regulation; therefore it is regarded as a symbol of “Taiyi” (the Great One, the deity of the source of heaven and earth revered in Daoism). Mercury and Mars complement each other: whether fire is present or absent, whether water is full or dry, all are Qi received from the transformations of heaven and earth.

Zhangzi’s Statement

Zhangzi (generally referring to Zhang Zai of the Northern Song) says: Venus and Mercury attach to the sun, advancing and retreating before and behind it in their movement. The principle therein is profound and exists within the ten thousand things, and their responses can be inferred.

The Xingjing says: Taibai (Venus) and the Chen [ ] star (Chenxing, i.e., Mercury) travel attached to the sun. The fast-moving one appearsbefore the sun; the slow-moving one falls behind the sun. Those that appear before the sun are seen in the west at dusk; those that fall behind the sun are seen in the east at dawn.

The Commentary on the Book of Odes (Kong Yingda's Mao Shi Zhengyi of the Tang) says: Before the sun rises, this star can lead the sunlight, so the bright star is called “Qiming” (Opening Brightness); after the sun has set it still has light, showing that it can prolong the sunlight, so the bright star is called “Changgeng.” The Han Ying Outer Commentary on the Book of Odes further says: Taibai seen in the east at dawn is called Qiming, and seen in the west at dusk is called Changgeng. Probably Venus and Mercury each received these two names, and the two names can also be used interchangeably.

Sun Yan (a Three Kingdoms Wei classical scholar) says: The bright star is Taibai. When it rises in the east at dawn and has risen about three she (the ancients used the “she” as a unit for measuring the positions of stars), it is what is today called the bright star; when it appears in the west at dusk and has risen about three she, it is today called Taibai. Then Qiming is Taibai. It is not known which star Changgeng is: perhaps it is the same star appearing in the east and west under different names, or perhaps it is two other stars; this cannot yet be determined.

Zhu Xi (Zhuzi) judged: Changgeng is Mercury, and Qiming is Venus. Venus is west of the sun, so when the sun is about to rise it appears in the east; Mercury is east of the sun, so when the sun is about to set it appears in the west. These words fully exhaust the principle.

Zhang Heng (courtesy name Pingzi) says: Sheti and Yinghuo (Mars) appear at dawn, attached to the sun; Taibai and Chenxing appear at dusk, attached to the moon. This statement should be examined separately.

Chengzi (referring to the Northern Song Neo-Confucians Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi) says: If the true primal Qi between heaven and earth accords with the numerical principles of the calendar, then the sun and moon are like joined jade discs and the five planets are like a string of pearls; thus they can conceive and nurture sages.

In remote antiquity, when reckoning the time when heaven and earth first opened from primordial chaos, the year was named “Yanfeng Shetige” (in the sexagenary cycle, Yanfeng stands for Jia and Shetige for Yin, hence a Jia-yin year). At midnight on the winter solstice, on the dawn of the jiazi new moon, the sun, moon, and five major planets all converged in the zi position; hence there was the auspicious sign of “joined jade discs and linked pearls,” corresponding to Zhuanxu’s establishment of the calendrical beginning.

Again, in the tenth month of the first year of Han Gaozu, the five planets gathered in Dongjing (the Eastern Well, one of the twenty-eight lunar mansions), and this was regarded as an auspicious omen of Gaozu’s receipt of the Mandate. Again, in the third month of the fifth year of Qiande under Song Taizu, the five planets were arranged like a string of pearls and distributed through Jianglou (one of the twelve Jupiter stations); this was regarded as a sign of civilization flourishing throughout the world. Master Cheng (Cheng Yi) said: “The true primal Qi of heaven and earth cannot be adulterated by wandering Qi; therefore it can converge in harmony and give birth to sages.” Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius were all like this; all were born from this true primal Qi.

For now I shall cite only these three events to verify the auspicious correspondences of creation; I will not spell out the rest one by one. I have examined the matter: Emperor Wu of Han’s change of the era name to “Taichu” was out of admiration for Zhuanxu, using the era change to accord with this auspicious sign; it was not that such an astronomical phenomenon actually occurred in Emperor Wu’s time.

Su Shi of Dongpo said: Venus and Mercury are always near the sun, not far from it. In the tenth month the sun is in Ji and Wei (among the twenty-eight lunar mansions), and this is precisely why he suspected the account to be false. I have verified: Qin took the tenth month as the beginning of the year, and the tenth month corresponds to today’s eighth month. At that time the sun had already reached the solar node of the seventh month and was still between Zhen and Yi; Venus and Mercury gathered in the Jing mansion, so they were not far apart either. Su’s statement likewise merely derives from Han dynasty annotations.

The statement that the five planets gathered in the Kui mansion, which corresponded to the terrestrial division of Lu, and that from then on the world began to enjoy peace, is found in Dou Yi’s words.

Master Zhu (Zhu Xi) said: the weft stars (planets) are yang within yin, and the warp stars (fixed stars) are yin within yang. The five planets are all formed by the upward condensation of the Qi of Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, and Metal from the earth, yet they receive sunlight.

The Jing stars (fixed stars) are formed by the congealing of surplus yang qi; they flicker and open and close, and their radiance is not fixed. Around the Wei stars (the planets) there are rays and angular edges, and the light of their bodies does not change of itself; all of them shine by receiving the light of the sun. Master Zhu said: the Jing stars revolve once leftward in a day and night, with something still left over. Heaven is divided into twelve stations (the twelve regions of the sky). Now Vega stands beside the Milky Way, flickering uncertainly all day; from the mao hour to the you hour it should change position seven times. The commentary on the Erya says: the five planets all move rightward through the twenty-eight lunar mansions; those celestial bodies that do not move are the Jing stars. The five planets belong to the Wei stars, and by “warp and weft” one can distinguish them. Yet among the five Wei stars, only Chenxing (Mercury) is hard to see, like blood flowing among the muscles, extremely hidden. Chenxing belongs to the Kan trigram and is water by nature; it is good at hiding, like the waters of the Yuan, Ji, Tuo, and Qian, which must flow hidden for more than a thousand li before they appear. The Yingshi (Encampment) star is the palace of the Son of Heaven; all these are Jing stars of the central palace. The movement of the Wei stars belongs to yang, while Taibai (Venus) and Chenxing belong to yin; the immobility of the Jing stars belongs to yin, while stations such as Ximu and Chunshou belong to yang.

Master Shao said: stars are yang within yin, the most subtle of things; like dust and sand, when they fall they become mounds of earth. He also said: when stars fall to the earth, they become stones.

Stars are the surplus of yang qi. The five planets correspond to the five viscera of a person, and the various stars are like a person’s four limbs and hundred bones. As for the four—Jing, blood, Shen, and Shou—when essence and qi are present, they attach to their functions and give forth light; when spirit and qi disperse and essence and qi are exhausted, it is like a person’s death. Therefore when stars fall they become stones. Zhu Hanshang said: when essence and qi are exhausted and breath declines, the power of Kan (Water) reaches its extreme and the light of Li (Fire) appears; thus there are falling stars. Its light illuminates the earth, and the light of the Li trigram manifests. What falls as stones, mounds of earth, or dust and sand belongs to the Gen trigram (Mountain, Stillness). After the radiance disperses, qi condenses into stone, just as a person’s body and po-soul descend to the earth.

The sun, moon, and five planets all begin their movement from the position of the Qianniu (Oxherd) star.

This passage says that the Han dynasty Taichu Calendar fixed the early morning of the first day of the eleventh month as the winter solstice. The statement that “what falls becomes stone, becomes mounds, dust, and sand” belongs to matching the myriad things by the Bagua (Eight Trigrams): the Gen trigram symbolizes mountain and stillness, and stones, earthen mounds, dust, and sand are all assigned to it. When brilliance disperses and Qi (vital energy) condenses into stone, it is like the bodily form and vital force of a human being descending to the earth.

The sun, moon, and five planets all begin their movement from the initial position of the Qianniu mansion.

This paragraph is a commentary. The Taichu Calendar takes the winter solstice as the first day of the eleventh month. The Han dynasty Liu clan scholar held that because the sun and moon are recorded from the initial position of Qianniu (one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions), it is called Xingji (one of the twelve stations, that is, the sequence formed by dividing the sky into twelve sections). The five planets are reckoned from the initial position of Qianniu, while the sun and moon move through the stations. The starting point of each station is called a “node” (jie), and the midpoint, aligned with the direction pointed to by the handle of the Northern Dipper, is called an “establishment” (jian); together the two are called the twelve chen. By observing which chen position the Dipper handle points to, one knows which station it is.

Song Zhong of the Han dynasty said that on the day of the winter solstice the sun is located in Qianniu, occupying one degree among the Twenty-Eight Mansions, and the handle of the Northern Dipper points to the zi position. Du Yu said that the twelve stations begin with Xingji and rotate to the right. The Erya says that Xingji begins at Qianniu, and Qianniu is the Dou mansion. Guo Pu’s commentary explains that Qianniu and the Dou mansion are the starting and ending points of the movements of the sun, moon, and five planets.

The transmitted text does not say “winter solstice” but says “the sun reaches its southernmost point,” probably meaning that the sun comes moving from the Chunwei position and arrives at Qianniu. At noon the sun’s shadow is longest; from this one knows that it has reached the southernmost endpoint at the Dou mansion, connects with Yingshi, and marks the position of the Nü mansion. The Yizhou Shu says: in the winter eleventh month, when the sun has already reached its southernmost point, at dusk the Dipper handle points north. At this time the sun and moon start together; Qianniu turns to the right, and the moon, going once around heaven, meets the sun each time it passes through a station. For every station the sun traverses, the moon makes one circuit of heaven, and the calendar brings them together at the twelve chen. Ending and then beginning again, this is called “the sun and moon’s quanyu” (that is, the beginning of the sun’s and moon’s movement).

The author holds that the creative transformations of heaven and earth are profound and subtle; unless several explanations are combined, it is not possible to elucidate them.

The Xingjing raises a question: judging from the shape of a chariot canopy and its spokes, the pole (axle) and hub (wheel center) near the center are arranged closely, and the farther out they go the sparser they become. Now if the North Pole is taken as the pole and hub in heaven, and the Twenty-Eight Mansions as the spokes in heaven, yet the spacing in heaven is not uniform—what is the reason for this?

The theory of the canopy ribs and wheel spokes (liaofu) is taken from the “Wheelwright” chapter of the Rites of Zhou (the original text reads “jiaoren,” which should refer to the official in charge of cart manufacture). The twenty-eight curved ribs on a carriage canopy symbolize the twenty-eight lunar mansions, while the spokes of the carriage wheel symbolize the sun and moon. When the sun and moon conjoin, they complete one circuit of heaven in about a month; afterward each advances one station, and then they meet again and lodge in the same mansion.

The author uses the carriage canopy as an analogy for heaven: heaven is round like two canopies fitted together, with the north and south poles as the hubs of the canopies, each supporting the other; the twenty-eight mansions are like the bow-shaped ribs on the canopies. The equator—the great circle on the celestial sphere corresponding to the plane of the earth’s equator—runs horizontally around the belly of heaven, like the seam where the two canopies join. North of the equator is the inner enclosure, like an upper covering canopy; south of the equator is the outer enclosure, like a lower, upturned canopy. The ecliptic—the path the sun travels in a year—crosses between them, lying partly within and partly outside the equator.

Accordingly, the intervals between the twenty-eight mansions are narrower near the two poles and gradually widen with distance, becoming widest at the equator; the density and spacing of star degrees are exactly like this. If one draws a flat circular diagram, the star degrees toward the south are distorted; if one draws a horizontal chart, both polar regions appear too wide, and neither accords with the actual shape of heaven. Therefore one should cut the form of heaven into two circular diagrams, one covering downward and one upturned, with the center of each diagram as the pole: north of the equator is the star chart of the northern inner officials, and south of the equator is the star chart of the southern outer officials. The two charts combine to form a three-dimensional celestial globe (hunxiang), and only then can they correctly reflect the width and narrowness of star degrees, so that astrological prognostication will not err.

The circle at the North Pole is called the “upper rule,” that at the South Pole the “lower rule,” and that at the equator the “middle rule.” The middle rule is the widest, while the upper and lower poles are the narrowest.

Master Ou says: The Gaitian (canopy-heaven) theory holds that the degrees toward the south gradually narrow, while the Huntian (spherical-heaven) theory holds that the region of the North Pole is instead higher. Both theories are open to question and should be left in doubt pending further investigation.

The “xingtu” method of the Rites of Zhou mentioned at the end correlates the enfeoffed territories of the Nine Provinces with the celestial mansions, each territory having a corresponding “fenxing” (that is, field allocation, the ancient doctrine that links celestial phenomena to terrestrial provinces and states). This doctrine is recorded in the ritual classics, and the author regards it as an established and immutable truth.

The doctrine of fenxing (star-field allocation), as recorded in the Li jing (Ritual Classic), is an imperishable truth. Traditionally there have been three accounts of it.

The first is that of Ling Zhoujiu (given in the original as “Ling Zhoujiu”), who held that the position occupied by the Year Star (Jupiter) is the fenye (field allocation) of our region. But after the ancient kanyu (geomancy) books were lost, the fenye corresponding to the various commanderies and kingdoms were no longer the positions indicated by the Year Star in antiquity. Some lie in the north, some in the west, and they do not match the orientations of the lands enfeoffed in ancient times. This is the first doubt.

The second view is this: in the times of Tang and Yu and the three dynasties of Xia, Shang, and Zhou, myriad states stood like a forest, totaling 1,773 kingdoms. All were attached to the twelve polities (the twelve fenye) and correlated with the stars of the twelve ci (the twelve divisions of the ecliptic, each corresponding to a region). According to the original intent of the former kings in enfeoffing kinsmen, the most important aspect of this correlation was presiding over sacrifices. For example, Ebo was enfeoffed at Shangqiu, with the Chen star (Great Fire, i.e., the Heart mansion) as the Shang star, and the Shang people took their name from this. Shishen was enfeoffed at Daxia, with the Shen star as the Xia star, and the Tang people thereby had this fenye. After Tang, the name was changed to Jin, and the Shen star again became the fenxing of Jin. This is the second point.

The third view is this: nowadays fenye are matched one by one with the cishe (stations and lodges, i.e., the twelve ci): Qingzhou is in the east and Xuanxiao in the north; Yongzhou is in the west and Chunshou in the south; Yangzhou in the southeast corresponds to Xingji; Jizhou in the northeast corresponds to Daliang; Xuzhou, to the east, corresponds to Jianglou; Yuzhou and the Sanhe region occupy the center and correspond to Great Fire, which lies due east. Of the three accounts, this correlation deviates the most. This is the third point.

The three accounts differ from one another, and people of discernment should decide for themselves.

The commentary states: “The Five Wefts (the five planets: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth) flourished, and the Zhou dynasty arose because of this.” The Guoyu records: when King Wu attacked Shang, the Year Star was in Chunhuo (one of the twelve ci), the moon was in Tiansi (the Fang mansion among the twenty-eight lodges), the sun was in Ximu (one of the twelve ci), the chen (the position of the sun-moon conjunction) was at the first degree of the Dipper mansion, and the star was at Tiandian. The author, speaking modestly, says: I once examined and verified this matter and believe that the rise of the Zhou was precisely brought about by the flourishing of the Five Wefts.

The Guoyu says: When King Wu of Zhou attacked Shang, the Year Star (Jupiter) was in the Chunhuo (Quail Fire) station, the moon was in Tiansi (the Fang mansion), the sun was in the Ximu station, the chen position indicated by the handle of the Northern Dipper fell at the beginning of the Dou mansion, and the Tiandian (Heavenly Lightning) star also appeared at this time. I have examined this matter. When the Zhou dynasty arose, the Chunhuo position was directly opposite the Xu mansion of the Xuanyuan constellation, and the Ji star (the star governing agriculture) was connected with it. The Fang mansion and the Year Star intersected and belonged to the deity Weiling Yangshen; Hou Ji was born in response to this astral configuration. The Chunshou position was also on the right side of the mountains and rivers; King Tai therefore was able to rise, and Hou Ji therefore received his fief.

By the time the Zhou army set out, the sun was at the tenth degree of the Ji mansion, exactly the ford of Ximu; the moon was at the fourth degree of the Fang mansion, exactly the Tiansi of ascending yang. Three days later, it happened to be the gengyin day of the first month in the Zhou calendar. On the first day, the sun and moon met at the first degree of the Southern Dipper, and the chen position fell on the Dipper’s handle. At this time Mars advanced together with the Zhou army, while Mercury hid within Tiandian; this foretold that the water-virtue destiny of Emperor Zhuanxu was about to end. The Year Star moved from the Tiandian region to Ximu, then to Chunhuo; afterward it retrograded, halted at Chunshou, and then advanced to Niaonu (the name of a star). That the stars and luminaries thus moved back and forth, and in this way wove the Mandate of Heaven for the Zhou house—could this have been accomplished by human power? Therefore the Zhou dynasty was able to pass down thirty generations and last eight hundred years, becoming the longest-lasting dynasty that possessed the Dao (the Way) in ancient and modern times. Are the astral signs not clear and credible? If later ages wish to reverse the Mandate of Heaven by human effort, that cannot be done.

The commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals says: The twenty-eight lunar mansions are distributed among the four directions, seven in each, together forming one image. Where there are creatures and beasts on earth, there are corresponding astral images in heaven. The east is the Azure Dragon and the west the White Tiger, both with heads facing south and tails north; the south is the Vermilion Bird and the north the Dark Warrior, both with heads facing west and tails east. The astral images begin with the Jiao mansion and are arranged in a leftward rotation.

The Erya associates Shouxing (Longevity Star) with the Jiao and Kang lodges. Guo Pu’s commentary explains that the celestial cycle begins with the Jiao lodge; since Jiao is the head of the lodges, it is called “Shouxing.”

The sky is divided into four quarters, each with seven lodges: from Dou to Bi is the north, called “Star Martial” (Xingwu, that is, Xuanwu); from Kui to Shen is the west, called “Star Tiger” (Xinghu, that is, the White Tiger); from Jing to Zhen is the south, called “Star Crow” (Xingwu, that is, Zhuque); from Jiao to Ji is the east, called “Star Dragon” (Xinglong, that is, the Azure Dragon). These four groups of lodges surround the four quarters and revolve with the celestial vault from east to west. Each quarter has its fixed stars, but the stars themselves have no fixed dwelling place, so their concealment and appearance each have their proper seasons.

Master Lin says: the four lodges Wu, Huo, Xu, and Mao (that is, the Mao lodge) all appear at dusk at the two equinoxes and two solstices, are seen at the due south meridian position, and are the central stars of their time.

In the middle month of spring, the seven lodges each occupy their directional positions: Huo in the east, Wu in the south, Mao in the west, and Xu in the north. When the sun travels to Mao and at dusk sets in the You direction, Chunhuo (Quail Fire) appears at the due south meridian position. At this time day and night are each fifty ke (in antiquity a day and night were counted as one hundred ke, so fifty ke means each took half); this is the qi of the spring equinox.

In the middle month of summer, Wu turns to the west, Huo to the south, Xu to the east, and Mao to the north. When the sun travels to the corresponding lodge and at dusk sets in the Xin direction, Great Fire (the Xin and Fang lodges) appears at the due south meridian position. At this time the day is long and the night short: day sixty ke, night forty ke. This is the qi of the summer solstice.

In the middle month of autumn, Huo turns to the west, Xu to the south, Mao to the east, and Wu to the north. When the sun travels to the Xin lodge and at dusk sets in the You direction, the Xu lodge appears at the meridian position. At this time day and night are again fifty ke each; this is the qi of the autumn equinox.

In the middle month of winter, Xu turns to the west, Mao to the south, Wu to the east, and Huo to the north. When the sun travels to the Xu lodge and at dusk sets in the Shen direction, the Mao lodge appears at the meridian position. At this time the day is short and the night long: day forty ke, night sixty ke. This is the qi of the winter solstice.

Once the qi of the two equinoxes and two solstices is determined, the seasonal nodes of the twelve months of the year are all determined as well. The star Wu is named for its image, the star Huo for its order, and Xu and Yi for the lodges they occupy; these three principles supplement one another.

The author holds that the qi of heaven and earth and the four seasons never departs from the single word “center.” Zi and Wu are respectively the centers of the winter and summer solstices (the two solstices) and also the center of heaven and earth; Mao and You are respectively the centers of the spring and autumn equinoxes (the two equinoxes) and also the center of Yin-Yang. Taking the central star of the twenty-eight lodges as the standard, one stops once the center is observed. When a sage appears in the world and brings about centrality and harmony to stabilize heaven and earth, this is no more than what the Analects calls “holding fast to the center.”

Star Counts of the Seven Lodges

The Twenty-Eight Mansions are divided among the four directions—east, north, west, and south—with seven lodges in each direction: the Azure Dragon of the East (Xinglong), the Dark Warrior of the North (Xingwu), the White Tiger of the West (Xinghu), and the Vermilion Bird of the South (Xingque). Each direction has its own star count: Xinglong has thirty-two stars, Xingwu thirty-five, Xinghu fifty-one, and Xingque sixty-four. Together the four directions total 182 stars.

Degree Measures of the Seven Lodges

The degrees occupied by the four directions are: Xinglong 75 degrees, Xingwu 98¼ degrees, Xinghu 80 degrees, and Xingque 120 degrees. Adding the figures as recorded in the original text actually yields 373¼ degrees, which does not agree with the stated 365¼ degrees of the celestial circuit; the figures in the original book may therefore contain errors. Each degree corresponds to approximately 2,933 li. The celestial circuit is further divided into twelve ci—that is, twelve celestial stations.

Fenye (Field Allocation) of the Seven Lodges

From the eleventh degree of the Dou lodge to the seventh degree of “Ponü” (“Ponü” is suspected to be the Nü lodge; the Nü lodge is also called Xu Nü), the region belongs to the Xingji station. Xingji corresponds to the Chou position among the earthly branches and is called Chifen; the degree recorded is “one quarter of a degree.” Fenye refers to the ancient practice of correlating celestial stations with terrestrial provinces and states.

(“The fenye of the seven lodges” appears repeatedly in the original text, but beneath it there is only the record from the preceding paragraph; this section contains no additional content.)

This passage explains how the ancients divided the twenty-eight lunar mansions—the twenty-eight stellar regions arranged along the ecliptic—into twelve “ci” (celestial sectors), and then correlated them with the feudal states on earth through “fenye” (field-allocation), with the twelve earthly branches (chen), and with the twelve pitch pipes (lülü).

Xingji runs from the eleventh degree of the Dipper mansion to the seventh degree of the Girl mansion; it corresponds to the chou position, its year-name is Chifenruo, its pitch pipe is Huangzhong, and its field-allocation is Wu and Yue.

Xuanxiao (also called Tiandian) runs from the eighth degree of the Girl mansion to the sixteenth degree of the Rooftop mansion; it corresponds to the zi position, its year-name is Kundun, its pitch pipe is Dalü, and its field-allocation is Qi.

Juzi (also called Zouzi) runs from the seventeenth degree of the Rooftop mansion to the fourth degree of the Legs mansion; it corresponds to the hai position, its year-name is Dayuanxian, its pitch pipe is Taicu, and its field-allocation is Wei.

Jianglou runs from the fifth degree of the Legs mansion to the sixth degree of the Stomach mansion; it corresponds to the xu position, its year-name is Yanmao, its pitch pipe is Jiazhong, and its field-allocation is Lu.

Daliang runs from the seventh degree of the Stomach mansion to the eleventh degree of the Net mansion; it corresponds to the you position, its year-name is Zuo’e, its pitch pipe is Guxi, and its field-allocation is Zhao.

Shichen runs from the twelfth degree of the Net mansion to the fifteenth degree of the Eastern Well mansion; it corresponds to the shen position, its year-name is Tuntan, its pitch pipe is Zhonglü, and its field-allocation is Jin and Wei.

Chunshou runs from the sixteenth degree of the Well mansion to the eighth degree of the Willow mansion; it corresponds to the wei position, its year-name is Zhaoqia, its pitch pipe is Ruibin, and its field-allocation is Qin.

Chunhuo runs from the ninth degree of the Willow mansion to the seventeenth degree of the Extended Net mansion; it corresponds to the wu position, its year-name is Dunzang, also called Dalu, its pitch pipe is Linzhong, and its field-allocation is Zhou.

Chunwei runs from the eighteenth degree of the Extended Net mansion to the eleventh degree of the Chariot Platform mansion; it corresponds to the si position, its year-name is Dahuangluo, its pitch pipe is Yize, and its field-allocation is Chu.

Shouxing runs from the twelfth degree of the Chariot Platform mansion to the fourth degree of the Root mansion; it corresponds to the chen position, its year-name is Zhixu, its pitch pipe is Nanlü, and its field-allocation is Han.

Dahuo runs from the fifth degree of the Root mansion to the ninth degree of the Tail mansion; it corresponds to the mao position, its year-name is Danyan, its pitch pipe is Wuyi, and its field-allocation is Song.

Ximu runs from the tenth degree of the Tail mansion to the tenth degree of the Dipper mansion, a total of 135 du (degrees); it corresponds to the yin position, its year-name is Shetige, its pitch pipe is Yingzhong, and its field-allocation is Yan.

In an authorial note, the author cites Zheng Xuan: the twelve divisions in heaven are the regions through which the sun and moon move; the twelve divisions on earth are the regions where kings and feudal lords were enfeoffed. Thus the twenty-eight mansions are paired with the twelve branches and interlace with the movements of the sun, moon, and five planets (the Seven Governors), one to the left and one to the right, like warp and weft woven together. In this way the Five Phases are harmonized, and the creative transformations of heaven and earth and the four seasons are brought to completion.

Among the seven mansions of the Eastern Azure Dragon, the Jiao Mansion is the court of the Five Emperors (“Zuoting” refers to the place where a ruler holds court and deliberates affairs). The Kang Mansion is the ancestral temple; the Di Mansion is the Heavenly Root; the Fang Mansion is the Heavenly Treasury; the Xin Mansion is the Bright Hall; the Wei Mansion is the People’s Son; and the Ji Mansion is Aoke (the Arrogant Guest). (The character ji here should be an erroneous form of kang.) The Lingxian (Spiritual Constitution), an astronomical work by Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han, says: the Azure Dragon coils and crouches on the left.

The left is the Azure Dragon, belonging to Wood and situated in the east. There is another account, dividing them according to the minor images, from the “Seven Stars school” of astrological calculation: the Jiao Mansion belongs to Wood and is called the jiao dragon; the Kang Mansion belongs to Metal and is called the Dragon (the original text’s “Douji” should be “Kang”); the Di Mansion belongs to Earth and is called the raccoon dog; the Fang Mansion corresponds to the Sun and is called the Rabbit; the Xin Mansion corresponds to the Moon and is called the Fox; the Wei Mansion belongs to Fire and is called the Tiger; and the Ji Mansion belongs to Water and is called the Leopard. The Sun and Moon reside in the center, while the Five Planets (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth) move around the periphery. Ximu corresponds to the yin position, Dahuo to the mao position, and Shouxing to the chen position. (Yin, mao, and chen are the twelve Earthly Branches, used to mark directions and hours.)

Jiao Mansion: It consists of two stars and is the Heavenly Pass. Between them is the Heavenly Gate; inside the gate is the Heavenly Court. The ecliptic passes through it, and it is a necessary route for the movements of the Sun, Moon, and Five Planets. The left star of Jiao is called the Heavenly Field and governs penal justice; the right star is called the General and governs military affairs. If the stars are bright and large, it indicates that the kingly way flourishes and that worthy men are at court. If Yinghuo (Mars) invades the Heavenly Field, it foretells drought. The Treatise on Suburban Sacrifices records that Emperor Gaozu of Han established the Lingxing Shrine for sacrifices.

Kang Mansion: It consists of four stars and is the inner court of the Son of Heaven. The Kang Mansion is Shumiao (the Sparse Temple), governing diseases and epidemics, overseeing all memorials and reports under heaven, and being in charge of hearing cases, pronouncing judgments in criminal matters, and recording merits.

Di Mansion: It consists of four stars and is the star of the ruler’s subordinate officials and the residence of empresses and consorts. The first two stars are the principal consort; the last two are concubines. Duke Xiang of Shan of the Zhou dynasty said: “When the Heavenly Root star appears, water will dry up.” The Erya (an ancient dictionary) also says: “Di is the Heavenly Root.” The power of the Jiao and Kang Mansions extends downward to the common people, just as a tree has roots.

Fang Mansion: Only the heading is present here; the main text is not recorded, so no further interpretation can be made.

The four stars of the Fang mansion are called the Mingtang (Bright Hall); it is the office where the Son of Heaven promulgates government orders. Its central star region is named Tianqu (the celestial thoroughfare), where the sun, moon, and five planets—the seven luminaries—pass through, symbolizing peace under Heaven. Fang is also called Tiansi (Heavenly Team of Four) and Tianma (Heavenly Horse), and it governs carriages and equipage. The Guoyu calls Fang the “auspicious sign for agriculture”: at dawn, when the sun and moon are directly aligned with the Heavenly Temple (referring to the location of Fang), the earth’s Qi begins to stir, and plowing may begin. The Sui zhi (Treatise on Astronomy in the Book of Sui) says that when the five planets enter Fang, it foretells that the Zhou house of the Ji clan will rise from this.

Xin

“Xin” is one of the twenty-eight lunar mansions; here only the heading is present, and no discussion has yet been developed.