Xīngmìng zǒngkuò 星命總括
Comprehensive Outline of Astral-Fate Divination pseudepigraphically attributed to 耶律純 (Yēlǜ Chún, allegedly Liáo Tǒnghé period); actually a Sòng-or-later composition
About the work
A 3-juan systematic xīngmìng divinatory compendium pseudepigraphically attributed to Yēlǜ Chún 耶律純, a putative Liáo-dynasty Hànlín scholar, with a self-preface dated Tǒnghé 2 (984). The preface narrates that Yēlǜ Chún was sent on a diplomatic mission to Goryeo (Korea) to negotiate a border issue, where he encountered a Korean guóshī (state-preceptor) who taught him the secret xīngmìng technique. The Sìkù 提要 (see 耶律純 for details) systematically dismantles this attribution: no Tǒnghé-2 Korean mission is recorded; no Yēlǜ Chún appears in any Liáo biographical source; the preface-narrative bears the marks of literary fiction rather than historical record.
Despite the spurious attribution, the work transmits substantive xīngmìng technical content. The 提要 commends “its discussions are refined-and-pointed; in dissecting the principle [it] often-and-often reaches the subtle — what the technique-practitioner ought to consult”. One specific position is questioned: the work distinguishes gōng (palace) into piān (slanted) and zhèng (correct) categories — a distinction the 提要 calls “extremely new” but reports as “frequently failing in verification — the Tiāndào (Heavenly Way) is very far, and not what humans can completely measure; therefore those who discuss fate should only obtain the great essentials and stop there”.
The 提要 identifies the work’s broader methodological vice as characteristic of the xīngmìng literature: “If one excessively produces clever-thoughts and twists-and-turns the conjectures, in hope of universal fitting, [one will] on the contrary [reach] the obstructed-and-unable-to-penetrate”. The careful reader is advised to “take its strengths and abridge its prolixity”.
For the (falsely-attributed) putative author, see 耶律純. For the broader Sòng-and-later xīngmìng tradition, see KR3g0033-KR3g0042.
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 46 (1781), ninth month.]