Yǎnqín tōngzuǎn 演禽通纂
Comprehensive Compilation of Yǎn-qín Methodology author unknown; conventionally attributed to early-Míng Liú Jī 劉基
About the work
A 2-juan compilation of the yǎnqín 演禽 (extending-the-bird) divinatory methodology — a late-imperial Chinese fate-divination system that uses 36 qín (bird-symbols, actually a mix of birds, beasts, and mythical creatures) correlated with the 28 lunar mansions, the 12 zodiacal palaces, and various supplementary ones to derive personal fate-determinations.
The Sìkù 提要 traces the methodology’s complex genealogy:
(a) Pseudepigraphic ascription to the Yellow Emperor’s Seven-Origins discourse (黄帝七元之說) — apocryphal.
(b) Tang-period Dūlìyùsī jīng 都利聿斯經 in 5 juàn — derived from a Sanskrit (fàn 梵) original; in Zhēnyuán era (785-805) Lǐ Mígàn 李彌乾 brought it to the capital. Used 11 stars to compute fate.
(c) Sòng-period Chènxīng jīng 秤星經 — used 12 zodiacal palaces and lunar-mansion-degrees to compute auspicious-and-inauspicious; “also said to issue from Sanskrit learning”.
(d) Yuán-period Xiǎnè jīng 鮮鶚經 in 10 juàn (per Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì) — used star-bird divination, “said to be derived from immortal-saying, therefore [is] in the Daoist Canon”.
These earlier works are now all lost; the present Yǎnqín tōngzuǎn is one of the principal surviving Chinese-language sources for the broader yǎnqín tradition.
The 提要 makes a notable observation: “[The work’s] jiǎzǐ Bǎopíng (jiǎzǐ Aquarius) and similar [terms] are close to the Huíhuí lì (Islamic calendar) recorded names; suspected its source is also from the Western Region — i.e. the Chènxīng and Xiǎnè tradition’s branch-stream”. This identifies the yǎnqín tradition as descending from the broader Indo-Islamic-Chinese astrological tradition that also produced the KR3f0006 Qīzhèng tuībù (Bèi Lín’s Huíhuí lì compilation).
The work was popularly attributed to early-Míng Liú Jī (Liú Bówēn, 劉基) — but the 提要 dismisses this attribution as a folk-tradition error.
Structure: Upper juàn — 36 qín characteristics-and-correlations, 干支 取化 旬頭 胎命, 流星, 12-palace 行限 入手 methods. Lower juàn — Jiànxíng fù 鑒形賦 elaborating the techniques. The Sìkù-recension integrates both juàn into a single compilation despite the separate transmission as Xīngqín zhízhǐ 星禽直指 in some editions.
For the broader YuánMíng xīngmìng tradition, see KR3g0033-KR3g0042.
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 46 (1781), ninth month.]