Tiānyuán fāwēi 天原發微
Subtle Disclosure of the Heavenly Origin by 鮑雲龍 (Bào Yúnlóng, Jǐngxiáng 景翔, late Sòng / early Yuán Sòng-loyalist, 宋, zhuàn 撰); with appended Gèlèi tú 各類圖
About the work
A 5-juan cosmological-philosophical treatise composed by Bào Yúnlóng during his early-Yuán retirement, in 25 chapters paralleling the Yìjīng’s Dàzhuàn statement “the heavenly numbers are 25”. The work surveys cosmological topics through Confucian-Daoist synthesis: Tàijí (Supreme Polarity), Dòngjìng / Jìngdòng (Motion-Stillness / Stillness-Motion), Biànfāng (Distinguishing Direction), Xuánhún (Mysterious-Sphere), Fēnèr (Dividing-into-Two), Yǎnwǔ (Extending-Five), Guānxiàng (Observing-Image), the four-symbols (Tàiyáng, Tàiyīn, Shàoyáng, Shàoyīn), Tiānshū (Heavenly Pivot — Polaris), Suìhuì (Yearly Conjunction — twelve cì), Sīqì (Governing-Pneuma — 72 hòu), Guàqì (Hexagram-Pneuma), Yíngsuō (Surplus-Shrinkage — intercalary computation), Xiàngshù (Image-and-Number), Xiānhòu (Pre-and-Post), Zuǒyòu (Left-and-Right), Èrzhōng (Two Centers), Yángfù (Yáng Recovery), Shùyuán (Number-Origin), Guǐshén (Spirits), Biànhuà (Transformation).
The work’s distinctive position: against the late-Sòng tendency to either (a) over-mathematize cosmology (the shùshù / shùxué school) or (b) over-spiritualize it (the Buddhist-Daoist xūwú / Empty-Nothing tendency), Bào Yúnlóng aims to “make the cause of Heaven-and-Man — neither obstructed nor unclear”. Each chapter first cites the various Confucian classical positions (xiānrú zhū shuō 先儒諸說) and then provides Bào Yúnlóng’s own critical-and-synthetic discussion. The methodological pattern parallels the kǎojù (evidential-research) practice of later Qīng scholarship, anticipating it by some 400 years.
The Sìkù 提要 commends the work without significant criticism: it is preserved as a substantive philosophical-cosmological synthesis. Particularly the work’s integration of Shào Yōng’s apparatus with the older Hàn-period Yì-tradition (Jiāo Gàn 焦贛, Jīng Fáng 京房) and the Tàixuán tradition is methodologically interesting.
For Bào Yúnlóng’s biography, see 鮑雲龍. For the parallel cosmological tradition, see KR3g0001 Tàixuán, KR3g0005 Huángjí jīngshì.
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 46 (1781).]
Translations and research
- Limited substantial secondary literature. Treated briefly in:
- Smith, Kidder Jr. et al. Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Links
- ctext.org: https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=569524 (Sìkù 提要 j. 108)