Thread by @edwardW2, 1/ A small rant about Chinese works in the Chinese mantic arts [...]

1/ A small rant about Chinese works in the Chinese mantic arts Recently, I compiled a small thread of Indian astrological and astronomical works. With a bit of searching there I easily found around 20 of them that have been translated into English.

2/ Many of them are primary sources. Some primary sources have been translated multiple times.
This made me think about translations for similar works in the Chinese astrological tradition-or rather the lack of them. Off the top of my head I only know of about 6 of them.

3/
1.Lord Dong’s date selection 董公擇日, By Joey Yap
2.“Earth Study Discern truth” = 地理辨正Dili Bianzheng, also by Joey Yap
3 The Imperial Guide to Feng Shui & Chinese Astrology, by Aylward; a partial translation of the Xie Ji Bian fangshu 協記辦方書

4/ 4.Five Classics of Fengshui, by Michael Paton
5. The Di Tian Sui (滴天髓, a work on Bazi.
6. The Qiongtong Baolan 窮通寶鑑, also on Bazi.

5/ No. 5 and 6 were pub& #39;d in Singapore in the 1990s; they are probably out of print. If I remember correctly 6 was transl. as "Inexhaustible treasure"

If you can add any more books to this list I will be most grateful.

6/ In turn, much of the popular literature on the Chinese mantic arts is simply off the mark. Take for example the “Blind” “Bright” and “Double bright” years:
#v=onepage&q=double%20bright%20year%20chinese&f=false">https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DPbx0-qgXu0C&pg=PA267&lpg=PA267&dq=double+bright+year+chinese&source=bl&ots=zN7E_21Fz7&sig=ACfU3U2OLfY-0WBmaqbCSFXBD4Jl2cNVaQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijgfGsw4_mAhXFuHEKHZ-PC-MQ6AEwCnoECAgQAQ #v=onepage&q=double%20bright%20year%20chinese&f=false
andhttps://books.google.co.uk/books... href=" #v=onepage&q=double%20bright%20year%20chinese&f=false">https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nyqGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT353&lpg=PT353&dq=double+bright+year+chinese&source=bl&ots=ZILFCyE6j0&sig=ACfU3U2Kg6WZ8BIbWu8lzXBUGYpTUhVKMw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijgfGsw4_mAhXFuHEKHZ-PC-MQ6AEwEHoECAoQAQ #v=onepage&q=double%20bright%20year%20chinese&f=false">https://books.google.co.uk/books...

The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DPbx0-qgXu0C&pg=PA267&lpg=PA267&dq=double+bright+year+chinese&source=bl&ots=zN7E_21Fz7&sig=ACfU3U2OLfY-0WBmaqbCSFXBD4Jl2cNVaQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijgfGsw4_mAhXFuHEKHZ-PC-MQ6AEwCnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=double%20bright%20year%20chinese&f=false

7/ Western works speak of these as if they were the primary form of electional astrology for the Chinese. However, when you look at the Chinese sources, this *Hardly factors at all*. It is at most some calendarical curiosity.

8. Even the simplest and crudest forms of electional astrology are more concerned with looking at the actual *day* the wedding is conducted than the year. More advanced forms of electional see how the day reacts with the “horoscopes” of the bride and groom.

9/ Or, as the proverb goes: 年吉不如月吉。月吉不如日吉。日吉不如時吉： "A Good month is better than a good year; a good day is better than a good month, and a good hour is better than a good day" #v=onepage&q=%E5%B9%B4%E5%90%89%E4%B8%8D%E5%A6%82%E6%9C%88%E5%90%89&f=false">https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=l5MtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT81&lpg=PT81&dq=%E5%B9%B4%E5%90%89%E4%B8%8D%E5%A6%82%E6%9C%88%E5%90%89&source=bl&ots=Oh2Cxcw4Ho&sig=ACfU3U3Xd_NDXWbrHq0Hd6NfG2wgRY3RYA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWotbJrJDmAhVLSsAKHbsaCLQQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ #v=onepage&q=%E5%B9%B4%E5%90%89%E4%B8%8D%E5%A6%82%E6%9C%88%E5%90%89&f=false">https://books.google.co.uk/books...

增補選吉探原

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=l5MtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT81&lpg=PT81&dq=%E5%B9%B4%E5%90%89%E4%B8%8D%E5%A6%82%E6%9C%88%E5%90%89&source=bl&ots=Oh2Cxcw4Ho&sig=ACfU3U3Xd_NDXWbrHq0Hd6NfG2wgRY3RYA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWotbJrJDmAhVLSsAKHbsaCLQQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=%E5%B9%B4%E5%90%89%E4%B8%8D%E5%A6%82%E6%9C%88%E5%90%89&f=false

10/ In turn, some of the simplest forms of Chinese electional astrology—the 12-day cycle called in Chinese 建除 is utterly unknown in the English literature, with the exception of a few books published in the 1970s by (I think) Martin Palmer...

11/ and some academic books published about almanacs unearthed from Han-dynasty tombs.

12/ I once read that the western world’s knowledge of Taoism is about a century behind its knowledge of buddhism. I would think the same can be said about the Chinese mantic arts. We have barely scraped the surface of this immense tradition...

13. Shoutout to @JeffreyKotyk. He has been doing some of the best work on this subject: http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp282_Indo-Iranian_Astrology_China.pdf">https://sino-platonic.org/complete/...
and https://archive.org/details/buddhistastrologykotyk">https://archive.org/details/b...

Latest Threads Unrolled: