Huángdì shòu sān zǐ Xuánnǚ jīng 黃帝授三子玄女經
Book of the Dark Maiden, Transmitted by Huangdi to His Three Disciples
Anonymous Six-Dynasties manual on liùrén 六壬 calendrical divination, one juan in four folios, attributed (programmatically) to a transmission from Xuán nǚ 玄女 to Huángdì’s 黃帝 three disciples, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0285 / CT 285 = TC 285), 洞真部 眾術類. Bound together with [[KR5a0298|DZ 286 Tàishàng dēngzhēn sānjiǎo língyìng jīng]] in a single juan headed èr jīng tóng juàn 二經同卷.
About the work
The third of the three liùrén 六壬 treatises in the Daozang, after [[KR5a0295|DZ 283 Huángdì lóngshǒu jīng]] and [[KR5a0296|DZ 284 Huángdì jīnguì yùhéng jīng]]. The presentation and style closely resemble those of DZ 284. The text carries a few rare commentaries. All the prognostications are devoted to determining the lucky or ill-fated character of matrimonial unions. From the fragmentary character of this short opuscule, one can suppose that the present text is an extract from a larger work devoted to the liùrén method, such as the Xuánnǚ shìjīng 玄女式經 or the lost works on liùrén under the patronage of the Dark Maiden attested by Wǔxíng dàyì 五行大義.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with a position-and-hour table for the liùrén board: “Tiānyī is wherever it is on a jiǎwùgēng day; in the morning Dàjí 大吉, in the evening Xiǎojí 小吉. On yǐjǐ days, in daytime Shénhòu 神后, in evening Chuánsòng 傳送…”
Abstract
Marc Kalinowski, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:86–87 (§1.A.2, Divination), notes the close presentation-and-style relation to DZ 284 and observes that the technical formula stated in the first lines of 1a is also found in an inscription on a divinatory shì 式 board dating from the end of the Six Dynasties (cf. Wénwù cānkǎo zīliào 文物參考資料 7 [1958]: 20–23), and appears further in Wǔxíng dàyì 5.2b — which considers it to come from a Liùrén shìjīng 六壬式經. Sìkù tíyào 111.947c establishes a connection between the present text and a Xuánnǚ shìjīng yàofǎ 玄女式經要法 mentioned in Suí shū 34.1029. Before the Táng (618–907), the existence of liùrén treatises placed under the patronage of the Dark Maiden is attested by Wǔxíng dàyì 5.4b; part of the Wǔxíng dàyì description of the liùrén method draws on extracts from a Xuánnǚ shìjīng, but the quoted passages are not found in the present version. The frontmatter brackets composition broadly to the later Six Dynasties (400–589). Other editions are in the Jìndài bìshū 津逮秘書 and Píngjīnguān cóngshū 平津館叢書.
Translations and research
No full English translation. Standard scholarly entry: Marc Kalinowski, “Huangdi shou sanzi xuannü jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.A.2, 86–87. On the liùrén method and its Six-Dynasties forms: 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 KR5a0297
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.A.2, 86–87.