Luòlùzǐ sānmìng xiāoxī fù zhù 珞琭子三命消息賦註
Annotated Luòlùzǐ Three-Fates Growth-and-Decay Composition (foundational text of late-imperial Chinese eight-character fate-divination) by 徐子平 (Xú Zǐpíng / Xú Jūyì, traditionally Five-Dynasties / Northern-Sòng); the Luòlùzǐ itself by an unknown Northern-Sòng author
About the work
The foundational text of the late-imperial Chinese bāzì (eight-character) fate-divination tradition. The 2-juan work consists of (a) the Luòlùzǐ sānmìng xiāoxī fù 珞琭子三命消息賦 (the Luòlùzǐ author’s foundational verse on fate-analysis) and (b) Xú Zǐpíng’s annotation. Through this work, the bāzì methodology (year-month-day-hour eight-character analysis) became the dominant late-imperial Chinese fate-divinatory practice.
The Sìkù 提要 makes a careful authorship-attribution analysis:
(a) The Luòlùzǐ author: traditionally pseudepigraphically attributed (in different early sources) to either Zhōu Shìzǐ Jìn 周世子晉 (the Zhōu / Spring-and-Autumn Crown Prince Jìn) or Táo Hóngjǐng 陶宏景. Both attributions are dismissed by the 提要: the work cites Hàn-period hermits (Héshànggōng) and post-Hàn legendary figures (the Húgōng of Fèi Chángfáng) — incompatible with Zhōu ShìzǐJìn; and the bāzì methodology was not in use until the Northern Sòng — incompatible with Táo Hóngjǐng (Liáng dynasty). The work first appears in the Sòng Yìwén zhì; Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì records it circulating in the Xuānhé / Jiànyán period (1119-1130). It is therefore a Northern-Sòng composition.
(b) The Xú Zǐpíng annotator: per Liú Yù’s Yǐnnüè biān, the Zǐpíng tradition descends from a legendary Five-Dynasties recluse (Xú Jūyì) who allegedly studied with Mǎyī Dàozhě, Chén Túnán, and Lǚ Dòngbīn at Huáshān; but the actually-transmitted Zǐpíng tradition descends from Southern-Sòng Xú Yánshēng. The actual annotator may be either of these or some intermediate figure.
The work’s substantive content — the bāzì methodology — operates by analyzing the gànzhī values of birth year (天干 / 地支), birth month, birth day, and birth hour (8 gànzhī characters total), with their 5-phase generation-and-restraint relationships, chángshēng (long-life) cycle positions, and shénshà (spirit-ghost) correlations producing personal fate-determinations. The methodology became the standard reference for popular fate-divination throughout late-imperial China and is still extensively used in Chinese folk practice today.
The Sìkù 提要 commends the work’s substantive content despite its attributional complications: “its discussions of motion-pneuma facing-or-turning, metal-and-wood firmness-and-softness gaining-and-losing, blue-and-red father-and-son mutual-correspondence — words are mostly close to principle. Sometimes ancient methods do not fit the present, that depends on later [people’s] skill at distinguishing”. The work is preserved as the foundational bāzì reference, with the parallel recension by 曇瑩 preserved separately as KR3g0036.
For Xú Zǐpíng’s biography, see 徐子平. For the parallel commentary, see KR3g0036 Luòlùzǐ fù zhù by Tányíng.
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 46 (1781), third month.]