Xīngmìng sùyuán 星命溯源
Tracing the Source of Astrological-Fate author unknown; assembled compilation incorporating multiple separately-titled works
About the work
A 5-juan composite compilation of xīngmìng (astrological-fate) divinatory writings, of unknown editor. The 5 juàn contain 5 distinct works:
(1) Tōngyuán yíshū 通元遺書 — miscellaneous record of Tang Zhāng Guǒ 張果’s sayings, in 3 sections (2) GuǒChéng wèndá 果憕問答 — purported dialogue between Zhāng Guǒ and Lǐ Chéng 李憕 (actually a Míng pseudepigraph; the dialogue allegedly took place in Jiājìng 2 (1523), some 800 years after Zhāng Guǒ’s actual lifetime) (3) Yuánmiào jīng jiě 元妙經解 — by Zhāng Guǒ (attributed); annotated by Yuán Zhèng Xīchéng 鄭希誠 (4) Guānxīng yàojué 觀星要訣 — anonymous editor (likely Zhèng Xīchéng) (5) Guānxīng xīnchuán kǒujué bǔyí 觀星心傳口訣補遺 — anonymous, Bǔyí (supplementary remarks) by later diviner
The work is conventionally regarded as the foundational late-imperial reference for the Wǔxīng 五星 / Guǒlǎo Wǔxīng 果老五星 divinatory school — the late-imperial Chinese five-planet astrology system pseudepigraphically attributed to the Tang immortal Zhāng Guǒ. The Sìkù 提要 carefully analyzes the historical evidence:
(a) Hán Yù’s tomb-inscription for Lǐ Xūzhōng records that the late-Táng Yuán-hé-period xīngmìng practice used only year-month-day (three trunks), not the four-trunk bāzì — and no indication of Wǔxīng (five-planet) astrology. So the Wǔxīng tradition was not in use in early-Tang fate-divination.
(b) But Hàn-period Wǔxīng-correlated fate-attributes are documented in Wáng Chōng’s Lùnhéng (1st cent. CE): “Heaven extends pneuma, and the multitudinous stars distribute the essence; the multitudinous stars’ pneuma is within the Heaven-extended pneuma. Man receives pneuma at birth and breathes pneuma in growth; if obtaining noble he is noble; if obtaining base he is base…” — establishing the Hàn-period origin of the Wǔxīng fate-correlation.
(c) Hán Yù’s own poem Sānxīng xíng explicitly mentions stellar-position influence on his birth-fate. Dù Mù’s self-composed tomb-epitaph also gives detailed stellar-position analysis. So Wǔxīng fate-divination was practiced in the Tang — though apparently not by Lǐ Xūzhōng’s school.
(d) The Zhāng Guǒ attribution is pseudepigraphic: although the Mínghuáng zálù records Zhāng Guǒ as a famous Tang Daoist immortal, no contemporary source records his practice of xīngmìng divination.
The work belongs to the broader late-Míng / early-Qīng Wǔxīng literature; subsequent works (the Guǒlǎo xīngzōng 果老星宗 and the Tiānguān Wǔxīng 天官五星) expand on this foundation. The 提要 distinguishes two main Wǔxīng sub-traditions: Tiānguān (Heavenly-Officer) — using huàqì (transformed-pneuma); Guǒlǎo — using zhèngqì (correct-pneuma). Both are preserved as substantively-distinct methodologies.
For the parallel Mìngshū literature, see KR3g0033 and KR3g0034. For the broader xīngmìng tradition, see the next several KR3g entries (KR3g0036-0042).
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 46 (1781), twelfth month.]