Sānmìng tōnghuì 三命通會
Comprehensive Synthesis of Three-Fates [Divination] by 萬民英 (Wàn Mínyīng / Yùwú shānrén, jìnshì 1550, 明, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
Wàn Mínyīng’s monumental 12-juan Zǐpíngshù (eight-character fate-divination) compendium — the principal late-Míng systematic reference for the bāzì fate-divination tradition. Together with KR3g0041 Xīngxué dàchéng (Wàn Mínyīng’s parallel Wǔxīng astrological compendium), the two works constitute the foundational late-imperial reference set for Chinese fate-divination practice.
The Sìkù 提要 records that the Míng Yìwén zhì attributes the work to “Wàn Mínyù 萬民育, Sānmìng huìtōng 三命會通 12 juàn” — both name and title are corrupted: the Yùwú shānrén sobriquet led to confusion of Yùwú with Mínyù; tōnghuì and huìtōng are inverted in transmission. The actual author and title are confirmed by internal evidence as Wàn Mínyīng / Sānmìng tōnghuì.
The work’s institutional position: “From the Míng over 200 years, those who discuss star-fate all take this recension as the comprehensive-collection — almost ‘every house has it’ ( jīhū jiā yǒu qí shū )“. The work is the universally-consulted reference of late-imperial Chinese popular fate-divination.
The 提要 articulates a balanced evaluation:
(a) The work systematically expounds the Zǐpíngshù methodology under topical headings: guān (officials), yìn (seals), cái (wealth), lù (salary), shí (food), shāng (wounding) — the standard Zǐpíng category-system; with detailed analysis of yòngshén (use-spirits — the determinative gànzhī in each chart) light-and-heavy values; and the various shénshà (spirit-ghost) auspicious-and-inauspicious correspondences.
(b) The 提要 identifies two substantive limitations:
(i) “[The work’s] argument mostly takes correct-officials, correct-seals, correct-wealth [zhèngguān, zhèngyìn, zhèngcái] and does not know that side-officials, side-seals, side-wealth can also become fortunate” — the work’s preference for the zhèng (correct) determinations over the piān (deviated) categories is too absolute.
(ii) “[The work] knows that the food-spirit can spit-out grace; but does not know that the wounding-officer can also produce strangeness” — i.e., the work over-praises shíshén (food-spirits) configurations and under-appreciates shāngguān (wounding-officer) configurations.
(c) The work’s tāiyuán (gestational-origin) computations “applied today have many failures” — the assumption-of-fixed 10-month gestation produces incorrect determinations for non-standard pregnancies (the same critique the 提要 made of KR3g0038).
(d) Where the work cites the Luòlùzǐ, the citations diverge from the Yǒnglè-dàdiǎn-preserved complete recension — indicating Wàn Mínyīng worked with a corrupted later derivative rather than the original; the 提要 does not blame Wàn Mínyīng for this.
(e) Some entries reference Míng-period officials’ birth-charts — these are 坊刻 later booksellers’ interpolations not in the Wàn Mínyīng original.
The Sìkù preserves the work as the principal Míng-period Zǐpíngshù reference, with the xuémìng learner advised to “obtain its great meaning and adapt-it [ biàntōng ] flexibly” rather than mechanically apply its specific category-preferences.
For the parallel Wǔxīng compendium by the same author, see KR3g0041. For Wàn Mínyīng’s biography, see 萬民英. For the foundational Zǐpíngshù texts the work compiles, see KR3g0036, KR3g0037, KR3g0038.
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 44 (1779), ninth month.]