Zháijīng 宅經
The Residence Classic (foundational text of Chinese geomancy / xiàngzhái 相宅 — residence-siting) pseudepigraphically attributed to the 黃帝 (Huángdì / Yellow Emperor); actually a Tang-period composition
About the work
A 2-juan foundational text of the Chinese geomantic tradition for residence siting (xiàngzhái 相宅) — sister-discipline to the tomb-siting (xiàngmù 相墓) tradition exemplified by KR3g0020 Zàngshū. The work pseudepigraphically attributes itself to the Yellow Emperor (黃帝) but is in fact a Tang-period composition, per the Sìkù 提要’s careful textual-critical analysis: the work cites the Huáinánzǐ, Lǐ Chúnfēng’s geomantic work, Lǚ Cái’s geomantic work, and “*the Yellow Emperor’s two Zháijīng and 29 other zháijīng"" — establishing that the work was composed after these other works existed and could not be the foundational Yellow-Emperor text it claims to be. The pseudepigraphic attribution is “the spurious-attribution of the divinatory school, who wished to deify their teaching by falsely attributing it to the Yellow Emperor”.
The work’s geomantic methodology divides the residence-and-grounds into 24 directions (èrshísì lù 二十四路), with each direction examined for auspicious-or-inauspicious correspondence using the eight-trigram positions: Qián, Kǎn, Gèn, Zhèn + chén (East-North) classed as yáng; Xùn, Lí, Kūn, Duì + xū (West-South) classed as yīn; yáng with hài as head and sì as tail; yīn with sì as head and hài as tail; the principal aim is yīnyáng xiāngdé (yīn-and-yáng mutually-suited). The 提要 commends this technique as “having considerable principle, [its] textual style also suitably-elegant”.
The Sìkù-recension has the work classified in the shùshù lèisān (Numerological-Arts Class 3, xiāngzhái xiāngmù sub-category — geomancy proper). The work is the first full text of the residence-siting / tomb-siting tradition in the Sìkù sequence, opening the geomantic sub-division.
For the parallel tomb-siting foundational text, see KR3g0020 Zàngshū. For the foundational pseudepigraphic source, see 黃帝.
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 46 (1781), tenth month.]
Translations and research
- Limited substantial secondary literature in European languages. Treated in:
- Bruun, Ole. An Introduction to Feng Shui, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- Smith, Richard J. Fortune-tellers and Philosophers: Divination in Traditional Chinese Society, Boulder: Westview Press, 1991.