Huángdì Tàiyǐ bāmén rùshì jué 黃帝太乙八門入式訣
Yellow-Emperor’s Formula for Entering by the Eight Gates of the Supreme Unity
About the work
A three-juǎn anonymous Tang-Sòng manual of Tàiyǐ bāmén 太乙八門 divination — the geomantic-divinatory system based on the eight cardinal gates (the bāguà directions) under the patronage of the Tàiyǐ 太乙 (Supreme Unity) star. The title presents itself as bearing the imprimatur of the Huángdì 黃帝 (Yellow Emperor), in the canonical Daoist pattern of attributing esoteric techniques to the cultural-hero monarch.
Abstract
The work is one of the three principal Tàiyǐ bāmén manuals in the Daozang, together with KR5b0292 (Huángdì Tàiyī bāmén rùshì mìjué, DZ 587 — the alternate “Tàiyī” spelling) and KR5b0293 (Huángdì Tàiyī bāmén nìshùn shēngsǐ jué, DZ 588). The three texts share a common technical idiom: each jiǎ-day in the liùjiǎ duodenary cycle (jiǎzǐ, jiǎxū, jiǎshēn, jiǎwǔ, jiǎchén, jiǎyín 甲子甲戌甲申甲午甲辰甲寅) is paired with one of the eight gates (xiū 休, shēng 生, shāng 傷, dù 杜, jǐng 景, sǐ 死, jīng 驚, kāi 開), with yángdùn 陽遁 and yīndùn 陰遁 forming the directional reversal-pair. The rùshì (entering-by-pattern) protocols specify, for each cyclical day and each cardinal direction, which gate is good and which bad for various activities (military expeditions, marriage, building, burial, etc.).
The system descends from the earlier Liùrén 六壬 and Dùnjiǎ 遁甲 divinatory traditions of the Hàn through Táng. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 772–773, John Lagerwey / Marc Kalinowski) date the Bāmén corpus to the late Táng / Northern Sòng, with the three Daozang manuals representing parallel recensions of a single tradition. The technical apparatus underwrites both Daoist exorcistic practice and the wider tradition of yīnyáng 陰陽 official-divination at the imperial court.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Vol. 2: 772–773 (DZ 586, John Lagerwey).
- Kalinowski, Marc. Cosmologie et divination dans la Chine ancienne: Le compendium des Cinq Agents. Paris: EFEO, 1991 — the principal Western-language treatment of the Dùn-jiǎ / Tài-yǐ divinatory traditions.
- Ho Peng Yoke. Chinese Mathematical Astrology. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003 — chapter on Tài-yǐ.