The Luolu Zi Rhapsody on Waxing and Waning

元一氣兮先天，稟清濁兮自然；著三才以為象，播四時以為年。以干為祿，以向背定貧富；以支為命，詳順逆以循環。運行則一辰十載，折除乃三日為年。〔折除者乃一年二十四氣，七十二候。命有節氣淺深，用之而為妙。〕

The rhapsody says: Heaven and earth at first were only a single mass of primordial qi (氣), existing before form and substance; it receives the two divisions of the clear and the turbid, arising of itself as a matter of course. This one qi appears as the images of the Three Powers (三才)—Heaven, Earth and Man—spreads as the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and completes a year. In calculating a destiny one takes the Heavenly Stems of year, month, day and hour as "emolument," and looks at whether they face toward or turn away from the Day Master, to settle a person's poverty or wealth; one takes the Earthly Branches as "destiny," and examines in detail whether they travel forward or in reverse, and how they go round and begin again. Travelling a major luck cycle, one Earthly Branch governs ten years; starting the luck uses the method of "folding and subtracting" (折除), converting three days into one year. The commentary that follows: so-called folding and subtracting is because a year has twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two pentads; at a person's birth the distance from a solar term may be deep or shallow, and converting that number of days into years of the luck cycle for use is precisely the subtlety in it.

其為氣也，將來者進，成功者退；如蛇在灰，如鱔在塵。〔氣者，四時向背之氣也。〕其為有也，是從無而立有；其為無也，天垂象以為文。〔此五行臨於絕地而建貴也，五行絕處有祿馬。〕其為常也，立仁立義；其為事也，或見或聞。崇為實也，奇為貴也。

The rhapsody says: As for "qi," what is about to arrive is advancing, and what has already succeeded is about to withdraw, like a snake winding in ashes or an eel struggling in dust, bending and stretching, advancing and retreating, without a moment's pause. The commentary says: the qi here means the qi of the four seasons travelling forward and turning away. The rhapsody says further: as for "being," it is from within "non-being" that "being" is established; as for "non-being," Heaven hangs down the images of the stars and they become readable patterns of writing. The commentary says: this speaks precisely of the principle that when the Five Phases walk to the land of extinction they on the contrary establish noble qi; the place of extinction of the Five Phases often hides emolument and the Horse. The rhapsody says further: as for the constant side, it establishes humaneness and rightness; as for concrete affairs, they may be seen with the eyes or known by the ear. What is lofty is "substantial"; what is extraordinary is "noble."

將星扶德，天乙加臨，本主休囚，行藏汩沒。至若勾陳得位，不虧小信以成仁；真武當權，是知大才而分瑞。不仁不義，庚辛與甲乙交爭；或是或非，壬癸與丙丁相畏。故有先賢謙己，處俗求仙；崇釋則離宮修定，歸道乃水府求玄。見不見之形，無時不有；抽不抽之緒，萬古聯綿。是以何公懼其七殺，宣父畏以元辰；峨眉闡以三生，無全士庶；鬼谷布其九命，約以星觀。今集諸家之要，略其偏見之能，是以未解曲通，玅須神悟。

The rhapsody says: If on the destiny the General Star (將星) comes to assist Heavenly Virtue (天德), and the Heavenly Yi Noble (天乙貴人) further alights, yet the Day Master itself occupies a place of rest, imprisonment and no qi, then this person's comings and goings through life will in the end be buried and not appear. As for one on whom Gouchen (勾陳) obtains its seat, he will not damage even a small matter of trust, and thereby achieves humane virtue; one on whom Zhenwu (真武) holds power may be known as a man of great talent, able to receive a share of auspicious omen. Those who are neither humane nor righteous have Geng and Xin Metal at war with Jia and Yi Wood in the chart; those whose rights and wrongs reverse without settling have Ren and Gui Water and Bing and Ding Fire fearing and avoiding one another. Therefore in former times there were worthies who modestly withdrew, remaining in the common world yet seeking the way of the immortals: those who honoured the Buddha practised meditation in the southern Li (離) palace; those who took refuge in the Dao went to the northern Water Office to seek mysterious principle. Those images that seem unseen are in fact never absent; those threads of silk that seem to yield no end yet stretch on through ten thousand ages without a break. Therefore He Gong feared the Seven Killings (七殺) in the chart, and Confucius (Xuanfu) dreaded Yuanchen (元辰); the Emei school set forth the doctrine of cause and effect through three lives, from which no scholar or commoner can wholly escape; Master Guigu laid out the method of the "Nine Destinies," using observation of the stars to restrain them. Now I gather the essentials of the several houses and leave aside the one-sided statements each clings to; where the matter has not yet been fully explained, it must rely on the reader to grasp it in the mind.

臣出自蘭野，幼慕真風；入肆無懸壺之玅，遊街無化杖之神；息一氣以凝神，消五行而通道。乾坤立其牝牡，金木定其剛柔；晝夜分為君臣，時節分為父子，不可一途而取，不可一理而推。

The rhapsody says: Your servant was born in a rustic place where secluded orchids grow, and from childhood looked up to the manner of the perfected. Entering the marketplace I have not the wondrous art of Master Hu hanging up his gourd to succour the world; walking the streets I have not the divine power of Fei Changfang turning his staff into a dragon. What I do is only to gather in this one breath of primordial qi to concentrate the spirit, and to wax and wane the coming and going of the Five Phases in order to reach the Great Way. Qian (乾) and Kun (坤) stand apart as female and male; Metal and Wood decide the hard and the yielding; day and night distinguish lord and minister; the festivals and the hours distinguish father and son—the principles of calculating destiny are so interwoven that one may not take them by a single road alone, nor infer them by clinging to a single principle.

時有冬逢炎熱，夏草遭霜；類有陰鼠棲水，神龜宿火；是以陰陽罕測，志物難窮。大抵三冬暑少，九夏陽多，禍福有若禎祥，術士希其八九。或若生居休敗，早歲空亡；若遇健旺之鄉，連年偃蹇。若乃初凶後吉，相源濁而流清；始吉終凶，狀根甘而裔苦。

The rhapsody says: In the seasons there are the anomalies of winter suddenly meeting warmth, and of summer's green grass struck by frost; among things there are the strange cases of the yin-ascribed rat dwelling by the water, and of the numinous turtle lurking in fire. Thus the transformations of yin and yang are extremely hard to measure, and the conditions of the ten thousand things hard to exhaust. In the main, midwinter has little summer heat and high summer has much yang qi, which is the constant principle; the appearing of misfortune and fortune is also like auspicious omens that have traces one may follow, and what the practitioner can calculate correctly is no more than eight or nine parts in ten. Some are born in a place of rest, imprisonment, defeat and extinction, and fall into emptiness already in early years; some clearly travel to a region of robust prosperity, yet for years on end are stranded and do not obtain their will. There are also those who are first inauspicious and later auspicious, like a water-source that is turbid while the current below turns clear; and those who are first auspicious and later inauspicious, like a tree whose root is sweet while the fruit on the branches is bitter.

觀乎萌兆，察以其元；根是苗先，實從花後。胎生元命，三獸定其門宗；律呂宮商，五虎論其成敗。無合有合，後學難知；得一分三，前賢不載。年雖逢於冠帶，尚有餘災；運將至於衰鄉，猶披少福。

The rhapsody says: To observe the first sprouts and tokens of a person's destiny, one must examine from his original root, that is, the year pillar. The root is always before the shoot, the fruit always after the flower; there is an order of earlier and later. To calculate the fetal origin, the birth month and the natal destiny, one relies on the "three beasts" of the Earthly-Branch triple combinations to settle their gates and lineage; to distinguish the Five Phases of the pitch-pipes, gong and shang, one uses the method of the Five Tigers Escape (五虎遁) to raise the Heavenly Stem of the month and discuss success and failure. That the chart seems to have no combination yet in fact hides a combination, that one position differentiates into three—these fine points later scholars do not easily understand, and worthies of former ages did not write down. Though the annual luck has walked to so auspicious a seat as "capping and girding," there remains leftover disaster from the step before; though the major luck cycle is about to enter a region of decline, one can still take a little leftover fortune.

大段天元羸弱，宮吉不及以為營；日下興隆，月凶不能成其咎。若遇尊凶卑吉，救療無功；尊吉卑凶，逢災自愈。祿有三會，災有五期。凶多吉少，類大過之初爻；福淺禍深，喻同人之九五。聞喜不喜，是六甲之盈虧；當憂不憂，賴五行之救助。

The rhapsody says: In the main, if this "heavenly origin," the Heavenly Stem, is wasted and without force, even an auspicious palace does not have time to work out a good result; if beneath the Day Master the atmosphere flourishes, then even the inauspicious on the month pillar will not brew into harm. If one meets a noble position that is inauspicious and a humble position that is auspicious, it is like a disease in the head and medicine at the feet: the cure shows no effect. Conversely, if the noble position is auspicious and the humble position inauspicious, when disaster is met it can heal of itself. Emolument has three places of meeting and joining; disaster has five times of response. When the inauspicious are many and the auspicious few, it is like the first line of hexagram Daguo in the Book of Changes, the yielding below and a heavy weight above; when fortune is shallow and misfortune deep, it is like Nine in the Fifth of hexagram Tongren, which, though it occupies the noble seat, first wails and afterwards laughs. Hearing glad news yet unable to be glad is due to the waxing and waning of the numbers within the cycle of the sixty Jia; that one ought to worry yet need not worry is by the rescue among the Five Phases.

八孤臨於五墓，戌未東行；六虛下於空亡，自乾南首。天元一氣，定侯伯之尊榮；支作人元，運商徒而得失。若乃身旺鬼絕，雖破命而長生；鬼旺身衰，逢建祿而壽夭。背祿逐馬，守窮途而悽惶；祿馬同鄉，不三臺而八座。官崇位顯，定知夾祿之鄉；小盈大虧，恐是劫財之地。生月帶祿，入仕居赫奕之尊；重犯奇儀，蘊藉抱出群之器。

The rhapsody says: The sha called the Eight Solitaries alights upon the five tombs of Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei, counted eastward in the forward direction starting from Xu and Wei; the Six Voids fall at the places of emptiness, counted southward from the Qian position, that is, the northwestern Hai palace, as the head. If this "heavenly origin," the Heavenly Stem, is a pure single qi, one may judge a dignity like that of marquises and earls; the Earthly Branches acting as the "human origin" must be calculated for gain and loss along the road, like a merchant travelling. As for a Day Master whose body is strong while the "ghost" that overcomes me occupies the land of extinction, even if the chart has some damage it can still generate for a long time; conversely, if the ghost is prosperous and the body declining, even travelling to the place of established emolument governs a short life. One who in the chart turns away from the Emolument star and goes chasing the Postal Horse can only keep to a poor road in distress; one whose emolument and Horse are in the same palace, even if he does not hold the office of the Three Terraces, occupies a seat among the Eight. Those whose official rank is lofty and illustrious are certain to have a pattern of emolument flanked on both sides; those who have a surplus in small things and a deficit in great ones are, I fear, sitting on the land of Rob Wealth. If the month of birth carries emolument, one who takes office can occupy a dazzling noble seat; one who in the chart repeatedly meets the two kinds of noble spirits called the Odds (奇) and the Instruments (儀) is deep and reserved, holding a capacity that stands above the common.

陰男陽女，時觀出入之年；陰女陽男，更看元辰之歲，與地之相逢，宜退身而避位。凶會吉會，返吟伏吟，陰錯陽差，天沖地擊；或逢四殺五鬼，六害七傷，天羅地網，三元九宮。福臻成慶，禍並危凝；扶兮速速，抑乃遲遲；歷貴地而待時，遇比肩而爭競。

The rhapsody says: For a man born in a yin year and a woman born in a yang year, the major luck cycle travels in reverse, and one must look at the year of handover where luck enters and luck leaves; for a woman born in a yin year and a man born in a yang year, the major luck cycle travels forward, and one must further look at the year occupied by Yuanchen. If these years meet inauspicious positions on the Earthly Branches, one should of one's own accord withdraw and yield the place to avoid disaster. Meetings and joinings in destiny include inauspicious meetings and auspicious meetings, and also "reversed chanting" and "hidden chanting"—that is, the annual luck clashing with the natal destiny or being the same as it—and "yin error and yang discrepancy," and Heavenly Stems clashing and Earthly Branches striking; or one meets such names as the Four Killings, the Five Ghosts, the Six Harms, the Seven Injuries, the Heavenly Net, the Earthly Web, the Three Cycles and the Nine Palaces (九宮). When fortune gathers it becomes a cause for celebration; when calamities join they condense into peril. What obtains assistance comes urgently and fast; what is restrained is slow to issue. One who has walked a noble land must wait quietly for the time; one who meets a Companion of the same kind cannot avoid contention.

至若人疲馬劣，猶托財旺之鄉；或乃財旺祿衰，健馬何避。掩沖歲臨，尚不為災，年登故宜獲福。大吉主逢小吉，及壽長年；天罡運至天魁，繼生續壽。從魁抵蒼龍之宿，財自天來；天沖臨昴胃之鄉，人元有害。金祿窮於正首，庚重辛輕；木人困於金鄉，寅深卯淺。

The rhapsody says: As for a destiny in which the person is already weary and the Horse moreover inferior, one must still lodge in a region of prosperous wealth before there is a turn; there are also cases where wealth is prosperous yet the qi of emolument is declining, and even with a robust Postal Horse, where can one hide? When a clash is covered over and the Grand Year alights on the person, it still need not become disaster; when the year is abundant one naturally ought to obtain fortune. What follows is spoken in terms of the twelve spirit-generals of Liuren: "Great Auspiciousness," that is Chou, meeting "Lesser Auspiciousness," that is Wei, governs lengthened years and long life; the Heavenly Gang, that is Chen, travelling luck to the Heavenly Chief, that is Xu, can continue vital force and extend the span of years. The Follower Chief, that is You, walking to the mansion of the Azure Dragon, that is Jiao and Kang in the east, brings wealth from Heaven; the Heavenly Clash, that is Mao, alighting on the region of Mao and Wei lodges, that is You and Xu, means the human origin will suffer harm. Metal's emolument is exhausted at the head of due west, that is Shen and You, wherein Geng Metal has a heavy measure and Xin Metal a light one; persons of Wood are distressed in a Metal region, Yin Wood being overcome deeply and Mao Wood overcome shallowly.

玅在識其通變，拙說猶神；巫瞽昧於調絃，難希律呂。庚辛臨於甲乙，君子可以求官；北人運至南方，貿易獲其厚利。開朝懽而旋至，為盛火之炎陽；剋禍福之遙，則多因於水土。金木未能成器，聽衰樂以難明；似木盛而花繁，狀密雲而不雨。乘軒衣冕，金火何多；位窮班卑，陰陽不定。

The rhapsody says: The subtlety of calculating destiny lies in recognising the accommodations and transformations within it; even if the wording is homely it is as if a spirit assisted. It is like a blind musician who does not understand tuning the strings: one can hardly expect him to accord with the pitch-pipes. When Geng and Xin Metal alight upon Jia and Yi Wood, Metal overcoming Wood is the Officer star, and a gentleman may seek office thereby; a person of the north, which belongs to Water, travelling luck to a land of the south, which belongs to Fire, Water and Fire exchanging and obtaining thick profit, can gain great profit in trade. Morning gladness arrives in the blink of an eye: that is the image of blazing yang when Fire qi is at its height; as for misfortune and fortune coming slowly, it is mostly because Water and Earth are slow in nature. When Metal and Wood have not yet been smelted into vessels, it is like hearing a decaying tune whose measures are hard to tell; or like a tree that, though lush and thick with blossom, bears no fruit, like dense clouds that do not rain—having only the outward show. Those who can ride a splendid carriage and wear a coronet have so much Metal and Fire in the chart; those whose office is poor and whose rank in the line is low have yin and yang paired without settling.

所以龍吟虎嘯，風雨助其休祥；火勢將興，故先煙而後焰。每見凶中有吉，吉乃先凶；吉中有凶，凶為吉兆。禍旬向末，言福可以近推；才入衰鄉，論災宜其逆課。男迎女送，否泰交居；陰陽二氣，逆順折除。占其金木之內，顯於方所分野；標其南北之間，恐不利於往來。一旬之內，於年中而問月；一歲之中，求月中而問日。向三避五，指方面以窮通；審吉查凶，述歲中之否泰。

The rhapsody says: Therefore when the dragon hums, clouds rise, and when the tiger roars, wind is born; wind and rain come precisely to assist its auspicious omen. When a fire is about to prosper, smoke always appears first and flame is seen afterwards. One often sees the auspicious hidden within the inauspicious: that is a stretch of the inauspicious before the auspicious arrives; and the inauspicious hidden within the auspicious: that is the inauspicious becoming precisely the token that turns to the auspicious. When the ten-day period of disaster has walked to its end, one may calculate nearby that fortune is about to arrive; when one has just stepped into a region of decline, in discussing disaster one should reverse and calculate backward. A man's destiny travels forward as if welcoming, a woman's in reverse as if seeing off; the two situations of Pi and Tai exist interleaved; the two qi of yin and yang, one reverse and one forward, are folded and subtracted by this when starting the luck. If the divination falls within the scope of Metal and Wood, it appears in the corresponding quarters and fields; if it is marked between south and north, I fear going out and coming and going will not be favourable. Within the same ten-day period one must ask of the month within the year; within the same year one must ask of the day within the month. Inclining toward the triple combination and avoiding the Five Ghosts, one points out the quarter to judge poverty or success; examining the auspicious and inauspicious, one makes clear the forward and reverse within that year.

丙寅丁卯，秋天宜以保持；己巳戊辰，度乾（亥）宮而脫厄。值病憂病，遲生得生；旺相崢嶸，休囚絕滅。論其眷屬，憂其死絕，墓在鬼中；危疑者甚，足下臨喪，面前可見。憑陰察其陽福，歲君莫犯於孤辰；恃陽鑑以陰災，天元忌逢於寡宿。

The rhapsody says: Bing-Yin and Ding-Mao have nayin (納音) belonging to Fire; when autumn comes Fire qi declines, and it is fitting to be careful and conservative. Ji-Si and Wu-Chen have nayin belonging to Wood; walking past the northwestern Qian palace, that is the Hai position, Wood obtains changsheng (長生, the stage of birth) at Hai and can then shed its distress. The original text notes a "Hai" under "Qian," referring precisely to the Hai palace. If the destiny occupies the land of illness one must worry about illness; though it comes slowly one can in the end still obtain life. When the star-luck is prosperous and in command it is eminent and illustrious; when at rest and imprisoned it is extinguished and without achievement. In discussing the household's kin, what is most feared is that they fall in a land of death and extinction, while the tomb-store is moreover within the "ghost" that overcomes the body; this image of peril and doubt is heaviest, with mourning already at the feet and visible before the eyes. Examining yang fortune by the yin side, the spirit of the Grand Year must on no account clash with Isolated Chen (孤辰); distinguishing yin disaster by leaning on the yang side, this heavenly origin, the Heavenly Stem, abhors meeting the Widow Lodge (寡宿).

先論二氣，次課延生；父病推其子祿，妻災課以夫年。三宮元吉，禍遲可以延推；始末皆凶，災忽來如迅速。宅墓受殺，落梁塵以呻吟；喪吊臨人，變宮商為薤露。干推兩重，防災於元首之間；支折三輕，慎禍於股肱之內。下元一氣，同居去住之期；仁而不仁，慮傷伐於戊己。

The rhapsody says: In calculating destiny one first discusses the two qi of yin and yang, and next computes the method of extending life and continuing vitality. If the father is ill, one must calculate from the son's emolument; if the wife has disaster, one must compute it by the husband's year-destiny. If the original roots of the three palaces of year, month and day are all auspicious, the misfortune comes slowly and may be postponed; if beginning and end are both inauspicious, disaster comes urgently and fast. If the palaces of fields and dwellings and the tomb-store receive inauspicious killings, they will shake down the dust from the beams and make one groan, meaning the house is not at peace; when the two sha of the Mourning Gate and the Condoling Guest alight on the person, the festive music of gong and shang turns into the funeral song "Dew on the Shallots." Calculation by the Heavenly Stems looks at two layers; preventing disaster should be prevented at such a primary place as the head. Folding and subtracting by the Earthly Branches has three weights of gravity; cautiously preventing misfortune should be prevented at such auxiliary places as the four limbs. This one qi of the lower origin concerns the time when those who dwell together will go or stay; one who seems humane on the surface and is in fact not humane must beware of being hewn by Wu and Ji Earth.

至於寢食侍衛，物有鬼物，人有鬼人；逢之為災，去之為福。就在裸形夾殺，魄往酆都，所犯有傷，魂歸岱嶺。或乃行來出入，抵犯凶方，嫁娶修營，路登黃道；災福在歲年之位內，發覺申日時之擊揚。五神相剋，三生定命。

The rhapsody says: As for daily rising and resting and eating and drinking, and the attendants and guards at one's side, there are things that work mischief and people who harm people; meeting them becomes disaster, removing them becomes fortune. If one falls precisely on the land of "naked form," that is bathing, and is moreover flanked by inauspicious killings, the hun and po must go to Fengdu; if the place offended against has injury, the hun and po return beneath Mount Tai (the Dai ridge)—both are images of death. Or in going out and coming in one offends against an inauspicious quarter; or in marrying and in building and constructing one must choose a day of the Yellow Path to proceed. Disaster and fortune are both hidden within the position occupied by the Grand Year of the annual luck, and in the end show themselves in the clashing and spreading of the day-branch and the hour. The five spirits of the Five Phases overcome one another, and the three generations of cause and effect thereby settle the allotted number.

每見貴人食祿，無非祿馬之鄉；源濁伏吟，惆悵歇宮之地。狂橫起於勾絞，禍敗發於元亡。宅墓同處，恐少樂而憂多；萬里回還，乃是三歸之地。四殺之父，多生五鬼之男；六害之徒，命有七傷之事。眷屬情同水火，相逢於沐浴之間；骨肉中道分離，孤宿猶嫌於隔角。須要制其神煞，輕重較量；身剋殺而尚輕，殺剋身而尤重。

The rhapsody says: One often sees nobles enjoying emolument, not one of whom does not have the destiny sitting in a region of emolument and the Horse; while one whose source is turbid and who further meets "hidden chanting" can only be downcast in a place of rest, extinction and no qi. Reckless and violent temperament arises from the two sha of Hook and Strangle; calamity and ruin issue from Yuanchen and the Death Spirit. When the palaces of fields and dwellings and the tomb-store are in the same place, I fear there will be little joy and much sorrow; one who drifts ten thousand li and then returns has the destiny sitting on the land of the Three Returns. A father who carries the Four Killings often begets a son who carries the Five Ghosts; one who offends by the Six Harms has in the chart the affairs of the Seven Injuries. Among family and kin, feeling like water and fire is because they meet at the position of bathing; bone and flesh parting midway is because Isolated Chen and the Widow Lodge further dislike them falling on a land of separated corners. In all one must subdue these symbolic stars and weigh their heaviness against one another: if the Day Master can restrain the inauspicious killings, the harm is still comparatively light; if the inauspicious killings in turn restrain the Day Master, the harm is especially heavy.

至於循環八卦，因河洛以為文，略之為定一端，究之翻成萬緒。若值扳鞍踐祿，逢之則佩印乘軒；馬劣財微，遇之則流而不返。善惡相伴，搖動遷移，夾殺持丘，親姻哭送；兼須察其操執，觀其秉持。原薄論其骨狀，成器藉於心源。木氣盛而仁昌，庚辛虧而義寡。吉曜而有喜，疑其災器；福星臨而禍發，以表凶人。

The rhapsody says: As for the cycling of the eight trigrams, it is a pattern of writing based on the River Chart and the Luo Writing; said briefly it is a single thread, pressed deeply it turns out a thousand threads and ten thousand ends. If in the chart one occupies "climbing the saddle" and moreover treads on emolument, meeting this pattern one can wear the seal-cord and ride a carriage in nobility; if the Postal Horse is inferior and the qi of wealth slight, meeting it one will drift abroad and not return. Good and evil travel together and govern stirring, wandering and moving; flanked by inauspicious killings and leaning on a grave-mound, it governs kin and marriage weeping and seeing one off to burial. Besides this one must still examine the person's integrity and watch how he holds himself. One whose endowment is originally shallow can only be discussed by the form of the bone-phase; whether one can become a vessel depends in the end on this source, the mind. A person whose Wood qi is prosperous has humane virtue shining; a person whose Geng and Xin Metal is damaged has little sense of right. If an auspicious radiance shines and there is still something doubtful, one should suspect he is a vessel that bears disaster; if a fortune-star alights on the destiny and misfortune on the contrary breaks out, that precisely shows this person is by nature an inauspicious man.

處定求動，剋未進而難遷；居安慮危，可以凶中而卜吉。貴而忘賤，災自奢生；迷而不返，禍從惑起。殊當易從變處為萌，福善禍淫，吉凶異兆。至於公明、季玉，尚無變識之文；景純、仲舒，不載比形之妙。詳其往聖，蓋以前賢；或指事以陳謀，或約文而切理。多或少利，二義難精。今者參詳得失，補綴道蹤，規為心鑑，永掛清瑩，引列終緒，十希得九。

The rhapsody says: Dwelling in stability and wishing to make a move, if one is restrained one cannot yet advance and is also hard to transfer; dwelling in ease and able to foresee peril, one can divine the auspicious from within the inauspicious. After becoming illustrious, forgetting former meanness, disaster naturally arises from luxury; clinging in delusion and not knowing to turn back, calamity arises from perplexity. One should understand especially that the sprouts of change always first stir in places easy to alter; Heaven grants fortune to those who do good and sends down misfortune to the licentious and evil, and the auspicious and the inauspicious each have different tokens. As for the generation of Guan Lu (Gongming) and Zhuge Liang, they still left no writings of responding to circumstance and judging without end; Guo Pu (Jingchun) and Dong Zhongshu never recorded the subtlety of taking images by analogy. Examining the sages of former times in detail, they for the most part took their models from worthies of earlier ages: some stated strategies in terms of concrete affairs, some struck the principle with spare wording. What was obtained was more or less; the principles on both sides are hard to make pure. Now I have weighed and collated the gains and losses of the several houses, patched together the traces of this one road, and set it as a mirror that reflects the human mind, hung for long in a place of clarity and lustre; from beginning to end I have drawn out and arrayed all the threads, hoping only that in ten calculations nine will hit the mark.