Yuèbō dòngzhōng jì 月波洞中記
Records from Within the Moon-Wave Cave (foundational text of Chinese physiognomy / xiàngshù 相術) author unknown; pseudepigraphically attributed to Lǎojūn (the deified Lǎozǐ); transmitted via Tang Rén Xiāoyáo 任逍遥’s recovery from a Tàibái Mountain stone-stele
About the work
A 2-juan foundational text of the Chinese physiognomy (xiàngshù 相術) tradition. The traditional account: the work was inscribed by Lǎojūn 老君 (the deified Lǎozǐ) on a stone wall within the Yuèbō Cave (Moon-Wave Cave) at Tàibái Mountain (Shǎnxī); Tang Rén Xiāoyáo 任逍遥 recovered the inscription and transmitted the work to subsequent generations. Both the Sòng Tōngzhì Yìwén lüè (Zhèng Qiáo) and the Dúshū zhì (Cháo Gōngwǔ) record this account.
The Sìkù 提要 dismisses the Lǎojūn and Tang Rén Xiāoyáo attributions as pseudepigraphic but takes the work’s substantive physiognomic content seriously. The transmitted text’s preface mentions ZhōngLǚ èr zhēnrén 鍾呂二真人 — i.e., the Tang-Daoist immortals Zhōnglí Quán 鍾離權 and Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓 — as authoritative validators of the work’s methodology. The 提要 observes the chronological impossibility: the preface dates itself to Chìwū 20 (an impossible year — SūnWú’s Chìwū era ran only 13 years, 238–251 CE) and yet references Tang figures (Lǚ Dòngbīn). The preface is thus internally inconsistent and clearly post-Tang in actual composition.
The 提要 nonetheless commends the work’s substantive physiognomic content: “its discussion of the xiàngfǎ (physiognomic methods) compared with the later vulgar editions is rather refined-and-clear; must have had transmission [ chuánshòu ]“. The first 9 chapters (from Xiānjǐ to Yùzhěn) — corresponding to the 9-chapter recension recorded by Zhèng Qiáo and Cháo Gōngwǔ — are the original core; the remaining material is later supplementation.
The Sìkù-recension preserves both the original 9-chapter core and the later supplements, dividing the work into 2 juàn for ease of reading and to mark the original-vs-supplemented distinction.
For the broader physiognomic tradition, see KR3g0044 Yùguǎn zhàoshén jú, KR3g0045 Tàiqīng shénjiàn, KR3g0046 Rénlún dàtǒng fù.
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 46 (1781), ninth month.]