Huángdì jīnguì yùhéng jīng 黃帝金匱玉衡經
Book of the Jade Scales and Golden Casket, Transmitted by Huangdi
Anonymous Six-Dynasties manual on liùrén 六壬 calendrical divination, one juan in twenty-three folios, attributed (programmatically) to Huángdì 黃帝, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0284 / CT 284 = TC 284), 洞真部 眾術類.
About the work
The second of three liùrén 六壬 treatises in the Daozang. The term jīnguì 金匱 (“Golden Casket”) of the title points up the esoteric dimension of the work (cf. 22a); yùhéng 玉衡 (“Jade Scales”) refers here to the constellation of the Northern Dipper (1a). The book has a short introduction (1a–2a) where the magical and ritual aspects of the mantic method are emphasized, followed by two parts: Jīnguì zhāng 金匱章 (2a–14b) and Yùhéng zhāng 玉衡章 (14b–23a). Each zhāng 章 contains ten numbered headings. Like [[KR5a0295|DZ 283 Huángdì lóngshǒu jīng]], the text is a treatise on liùrén divination, but, unlike its sister-work, it presupposes the basic theory and limits itself to a catalogue of typical examples, mostly one example per heading.
Prefaces
Brief frame in the introduction (1a–2a): “I [Huángdì] transmit to you this Jīnguì yùhéng jīng in two parts, my two sons. Keep it secret. Were it not the right person, the Way will not move in vain. With folded sleeves, doing nothing, one yet knows; without going outside the chambers, one penetrates the unmanifest…”
Abstract
Marc Kalinowski, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:85–86 (§1.A.2, Divination), observes that the Huángdì jīnguì yùhéng jīng does not appear in the ancient bibliographical catalogues, but contains internal evidence pointing with near certainty to a date of composition in the Six Dynasties (220–589). The term liùrén 六壬 used by Yán Zhītuī 顏之推 (531–591) is accompanied by a reference to a Jīnguì yùlíng 金匱玉靈 (Yánshì jiāxùn 顏氏家訓, “Záyì 雜藝”); the variant character is congruent with the slightly modified form Jīnguì yùfáng 金匱玉房 used in the present introduction (1b). The Wúyuè chūnqiū 吳越春秋 (second to fourth century) quotes from both parts of the work — yùhéng there appears in the modified form yùmén 玉門 (5.57b; 7.17b and 22a; 10.65a) — and mentions the heading number to which each example belongs, suggesting that the Wúyuè chūnqiū author drew either on the work as preserved here or on a closely related treatise. The shared list of twelve equatorial constellations on 17a (cf. DZ 283 commentary 1.3a) confirms a relationship of transmission. The frontmatter brackets composition between the early third century and the close of the fourth, by which time the Wúyuè chūnqiū must have drawn on it. A good critical edition by Sūn Xīngyǎn 孫星衍 is in the Píngjīnguān cóngshū 平津館叢書.
Translations and research
No full English translation. Standard scholarly entry: Marc Kalinowski, “Huangdi jingui yuheng jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.A.2, 85–86. On the liùrén method: Marc Kalinowski, “Les instruments astro-calendériques des Han et la méthode liu ren,” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 72 (1983), 309–419.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0296
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.A.2, 85–86.