General Song Distinguishing the Forgeries in the Jade Foot-Rule of Level Sands: Written by Jiang Yaoru of Kuaiji

萬卷地書總失真，平沙玉尺最堪嗔。二劉名姓憑伊冒，那有當年手澤存。開國伯溫成佐命，嘗將妙訣定乾坤。晚年一篋青囊秘，盡作天家石室珍。天寶不容人漏洩，曷忍隱禍中兒孫。片言隻字無留影，肯借他人齒頰名。

Of the ten thousand volumes of geomantic books in the world, most have lost the true transmission; among them the one most deserving of rebuke is the Classic of the Jade Foot-Rule of Level Sands. It pretends that Liu Ji (Bowen) composed the classic and Liu Bingzhong wrote the commentary, falsely borrowing the names of the “two Lius” out of thin air; where is there any ink they themselves wrote in those years that could serve as proof? Liu Bowen was a meritorious minister who assisted in founding the Ming, and he did indeed use the subtle formulas of geomancy in settling the realm; but that chest of secret Green Satchel texts from his late years was all surrendered and made treasures of the imperial stone chamber. The supreme treasure of Heaven’s mechanism must not leak outward; how then would he have the heart to leave a hidden calamity to implicate his own descendants? Therefore not even a single phrase or character was left as a trace, still less would he lend his reputation to others to display.

秉忠亦是元勳列，敢冒嫌疑著此經。世上江湖行乞者，祇貪膚淺好施行。戶誦家傳如至寶，興災釀禍害生民。幸遇我師垂憫救，苦心辨駁著斯文。竊恐愚夫迷不悟，括成俚句好歌吟。願君細察篇中意，莫負宗陽一片心。

Liu Bingzhong also ranked among the founding meritorious ministers of the Yuan; how would he dare, at the risk of leaking Heaven’s mechanism, to write such a classic? Those who truly elevated it are the itinerant practitioners of the world who go from door to door begging their living—they only covet that this book is shallow and easy to learn, convenient to put into practice. Thus every household recites it and holds it as a supreme treasure, and the result is disaster and calamity everywhere, harming the common people. Fortunately I met my teacher Master Jiang Dahong, who took pity and came to save the age; he painstakingly refuted it item by item and wrote the essay Distinguishing the Forgeries in the Jade Foot-Rule of Level Sands. I, Jiang Yao, only feared that the ignorant would still cling to their delusion and not awaken, so I condensed the teacher’s discourse into popular rhymed lines, convenient for singing. May the reader carefully examine the meaning in this piece, and not fail the painstaking heart of Master Jiang (hao Zongyangzi).

天下山山多順水，此是行龍之大體。真龍發足不隨他，定是轉關星特起。特起之龍變化多，渡水逆行不計裡。玉尺開章說順龍，順水直沖為大旨。水來甲卯兌不收，水來丁午坎不取。必要隨流到合襟，直瀉直奔名漏髓。全無真息蔭龍胎，山穴平陽皆失軌。勸君莫聽此胡言，誤向順流探脈理。

The mountains of the world in general extend along the direction of the flowing water; this is only the ordinary condition of a dragon vein’s walking. After a true dragon sets out, it precisely refuses to follow the water; it will certainly raise a star-peak specially at the place where the pass turns and the qi changes. Such a specially raised dragon has extremely many transformations; it may even cross rivers and go against the current, walking tens or hundreds of li without counting. Yet the Classic of the Jade Foot-Rule of Level Sands, from its opening chapter, speaks of the “compliant dragon,” taking a straight rush following the water as its great purport. On this it founds its doctrine: if water comes from the Jia and Mao directions, water of the Dui trigram’s path must not be received; if water comes from the Ding and Wu directions, water of the Kan trigram’s path must not be taken—always the dragon vein must follow the current all the way to the “joined lapel” where two waters meet before it is counted as forming a point (xue, 穴). In this way the water before the point pours and rushes straight, which is precisely the so-called “leaking marrow”: the generating qi has all leaked away. Such a site has no true fetal breath that can nurture the dragon’s fetus; whether a point in mountain land or a point on the open plain, both have lost the proper measure. I advise you all not to listen to this wild talk, and not to take following the current as the path for seeking the vein.

八方位位有真龍，爻象干支總一同。山脈陰陽分兩界，此是天然造化功。陽脈出身陽到底，陰脈出身陰為宗。從無偽來並偽落，豈有貴賤分雌雄。若是真胎成骨相，乾坤辰戌也崢嶸。若是穴亡無氣脈，巽辛亥艮盡為凶。品水評砂原一例，三吉六秀有何功。勸君莫聽此胡言，旺相孤虛理不通。

In all eight directions there are true dragons that can form; the images of the hexagram lines and the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches have in this no distinction of high and low. The yin and yang of mountain veins are divided into only two realms—one path belonging to yang, one to yin; this is the natural division of creation. A yang vein, from the place where it sets out, is yang all the way to the end; a yin vein, from the place where it sets out, takes yin as its ancestor all the way. There has never been such a thing as a “false incoming dragon” or a “false descending vein,” still less a dividing of directions into noble and base, female and male. So long as the fetal breath is truly formed and the bone-aspect is proper, even if it falls on Qian, Kun, Chen, or Xu—positions the vulgar books call base—it will still rise in distinction and produce nobility. If the point is not true at all and has no qi-vein whatsoever, then even if it falls on Xun, Xin, Hai, or Gen—the so-called “Three Auspicious and Six Elegant” of the vulgar books—it is all inauspicious. Judging water and reading sand are originally the same principle; of what use are the so-called Three Auspicious and Six Elegant? I advise you all not to listen to this wild talk; to force the set of prosperous, assisting, solitary, and empty onto directions is a principle that simply will not hold.

五行相生與相剋，此是後天粗糲質。山川妙氣本先天，生不須生克非克。木行金地反成材，火入水鄉真配匹。南離爐冶出真金，陰陽妙處全須逆。原說五行顛倒顛，庸師之輩何能識。先天理氣在卦爻，生旺休囚此中出。

The mutual generation and conquest of the Five Phases is only the coarse quality of Later Heaven (houtian, 後天) formed things. That subtle qi of mountains and rivers originally belongs to Prior Heaven (xiantian, 先天); in Prior Heaven, so-called “generation” is not necessarily truly generation, and so-called “conquest” is not necessarily truly conquest. When Wood walks onto Metal’s ground, being pared by Metal it instead becomes timber; when Fire falls into Water’s country, Water and Fire in already-crossing is the true pairing; the southern Li fire is like a furnace, and it is precisely by it that true Metal can be smelted. Thus the subtlety of yin and yang lies entirely in the one word “reverse.” The Profound Words of the Green Satchel long ago said, “Inverted and inverted again, the Twenty-Four Mountains have pearls and jewels”; the Five Phases were always meant to be used inverted. How would mediocre practitioners recognize this? The true principle-qi is on the Prior Heaven hexagram lines: whether a place is generating or prosperous, resting or imprisoned, is all deduced from the hexagram lines, not calculated from the generation and conquest of the Later Heaven Five Phases.

量山步水總一般，立向收砂非二格。安有長生及官旺，全無墓庫與死絕。卦若旺時路路通，卦若衰時路路塞。有人識得卦興衰，眼前盡是黃金陌。納甲本是卦中玄，用他配合皆無益。堪笑三合及雙山，玄空生出並克出。更有祿馬及赦文，咸池黃泉八曜殺。庸奴祇把掌上輪，誤盡天涯總慧客。

Measuring mountains and pacing waters are originally one and the same rule; establishing the orientation and receiving sand are not two formats. Where is there any “Birth,” “Approaching Office,” or “Imperial Prosperity” to speak of? Still less are there the names “Tomb,” “Storehouse,” “Death,” and “Extinction”—these were all fabricated by the Three Combinations school by arranging the Twelve Stages of Life onto the Twenty-Four Mountains. What truly works is only trigram-qi: when the trigram is in prosperity, every road is open; when the trigram declines, every road is blocked. Whoever can recognize the rise and fall of trigram-qi will find that everywhere before the eyes is a road paved with gold. As for “Matching Stems” (najia, 納甲), it is originally a layer of mystery within the body of the trigrams; to take it to match mountain, orientation, and water-mouth is of no use at all. Laughable are the Three Combinations water method and the Double-Mountain Five Phases, which further claim they can distinguish Xuan Kong’s “generating-out” and “conquering-out.” Beyond these there is the heap of spirit-killers—Stored Emolument, Courier Horse, Pardon Text, Salty Pool, Yellow Springs, the Eight Luminaries’ sha (煞)—and the mediocre only pinch their fingers and turn them on the palm to calculate, leading all the intelligent people under Heaven astray.

勸君莫聽此胡言，五行別有真消息。雌雄交媾大陰陽，月窟天根卦內藏。此是乾坤造化本，會時便號法中王。曾公說個團團轉，一左一右兩分張。明明指出夫和婦，有個單時便是雙。二十四山雙雙起，八卦之中定短長。

I advise you all not to listen to this wild talk; the Five Phases have another, true message. This true message is the great yin and yang of the intercourse of female and male: what Shao Yong called the “Moon Cave” and the “Heavenly Root”—the places where yin and yang are each the root of the other—are both stored within the hexagram lines. This is the foundation of the creation of Qian and Kun; whoever comprehends it may be called a king within the method. Zeng Wenchuan’s Preface to the Green Satchel says “one to the left and one to the right, the two divide and spread,” speaking precisely of the principle that mountain and water walk as two paths, each turning in a circle. He points out plainly which is husband and which is wife: what seems to be only a single one in fact necessarily has another behind it that matches it; therefore it is said “the Twenty-Four Mountains arise in pairs”—each mountain brings with it the mountain that stands opposite it, and they are arranged together, and then within the eight trigrams one determines their mutual length and shortness, waxing and waning.

豈料庸奴多錯解，干支字上去商量。誤起長生分兩局，會同墓庫到其鄉。未曾曉得真交媾，那裡懷胎喚父娘。我即汝言來教汝，陰陽指氣不指方。甲庚丙壬是陽位，有時占陰不喚陽。乙辛丁癸是陰位，有時占陽即喚陽。陰陽亦在干支上，不用排來死煞方。眼前夫婦不識得，卻將寡婦守空房。

Who would have thought that the mediocre mostly misread these two lines, and only weigh them on the literal surface of the stems and branches. They mistakenly raise the Twelve Stages of Life onto the stems and branches, divide them into two configurations of yang-direct and yin-reverse, and further gather all water-mouths onto one and the same tomb-storehouse, saying something like “meeting together at the tomb-storehouse and arriving at its village.” Since they do not even understand the true intercourse of female and male, how can one speak of conceiving a fetus, and how are they fit to be called father and mother? I will use your own words to teach you: yin and yang are spoken of with respect to qi, not with respect to fixed directions. Jia, Geng, Bing, and Ren are, by the vulgar saying, yang positions, yet sometimes what they occupy is yin qi, and then they cannot be called yang; Yi, Xin, Ding, and Gui are, by the vulgar saying, yin positions, yet sometimes what they occupy is yang qi, and then they should be called yang. Yin and yang do indeed appear on the stems and branches, yet one cannot, by a rigid arrangement, designate where the sha direction is. A living husband and wife before the eyes cannot be recognized, and instead one keeps an empty room of a widow—all the matching is dead formulas, and the qi does not communicate at all.

勸君莫聽此胡言，玄竅相通別主張。四大水口歸其位，此是卦之真匹配。如何說到墓庫方，左旋右旋來附會。四水四卦逐元輪，一元一卦乘旺氣。周流八卦逐時新，會者楊公再出世。今將墓庫作歸原，失運失元迎殺氣。

I advise you all not to listen to this wild talk; the mysterious aperture lies in the communication of trigram-qi, and there is another assertion. The so-called “Four Great Water-Mouths” of Yi, Xin, Ding, and Gui originally mean that the four water-mouths each return to the trigram position to which they belong; this is the true matching of trigram with trigram. How can one drag it onto the “tomb-storehouse,” and then forcibly attach the dragon’s leftward and rightward turning? The correct explanation is: the four water-mouths belong to four trigrams, and they rotate with the period of the cycle, one period after another; a given period is then presided over by a given trigram riding prosperous qi. The eight trigrams circulate without cease, new with each time—whoever can comprehend this layer is as if Yang Yunsong had been born again. Now the Three Combinations school gathers all water onto the tomb-storehouse, and further says this is called “returning to the origin”; the result is that once the period is lost, what is welcomed in is all killing qi.

勸君莫聽此胡言，陽錯陰差非斯義。公位亦自卦中來，長少中男各有胎。不論干支並龍脈，如何亦取三合推。胎養生沐乃云長，仲子冠臨及旺衰。少子病死並墓絕，若然多子作何排。世人信此爭房分，停喪不葬冷為灰。

I advise you all not to listen to this wild talk; what they call “yang error and yin discrepancy” is not this meaning at all. As for “public positions”—that is, which branch of the family is verified in which line—these also come from the trigrams: Zhen is the eldest son, Kan the middle son, Gen the youngest son, each with its own fetal origin. How can vulgar teachers, without asking to which trigram the stems and branches belong or from where the dragon vein comes, also force the Twelve Stages of Life of the Three Combinations to calculate it? They say the four positions Fetal, Nurturing, Birth, and Bathing answer to the eldest branch; the four positions Capping, Approaching Office, Imperial Prosperity, and Decline answer to the second son; the four positions Sickness, Death, Tomb, and Extinction answer to the youngest son. If a household has five or six sons, how then should they be arranged? People of the world precisely believe this set, wrangle endlessly over dividing the branches, and even halt the coffin without burial, leaving the remains of their kin until they grow cold as ash.

更起陰謀相賊害，傷倫滅理召天災。陷人不孝並不睦，此卷偽書作禍胎。我願今人祇求地，得地安親大本培。親安眾子皆蒙慶，休把分房出亂猜。試看閱閥諸名墓，一祖枝枝甚眾材。分房蓋為分陽宅，莫論偏倚到夜臺。

Worse still, brothers thereby secretly raise plots and harm one another, wounding the human relations and extinguishing Heaven’s principle, and inviting disasters sent down by Heaven. To trap people in the condition of unfiliality and discord—this volume of a forged book is precisely the root of calamity. I wish people of today would only seek a true site: obtaining a true site and burying one’s parents properly is to cultivate the root. Once the kin are at peace, all the sons together receive blessing and celebration; there is no need to guess wildly about which branch is verified. Look at the famous tombs of the great hereditary houses through the generations: under one and the same ancestral grave, branch after branch produces talent; when has there been a withered side? So-called dividing the branches originally refers to the several rooms living separately in a yang dwelling, and ought not to be taken to the grave-ground to discuss who leans this way and who that (“night terrace” means the grave).

平沙一卷何人作，批註翩翩尤醜惡。添圖添局死規模，強把山川牢束縛。從謙失著布衣宗，之鏌直是追魂鑿。嘉隆以上無此書，萬曆中年方樸朔。由此家家無好墳，迄今徧地成蕭索。焉得將書付真龍，免使蒼生遭毒藥。

Who after all composed this volume, the Classic of the Jade Foot-Rule of Level Sands? The later commentaries that flow on at length are even more ugly. They add diagrams and add configurations, fabricating a set of dead measures, and forcibly bind living mountains and rivers. Xu Shike (courtesy name Congqian), in annotating it, in vain disgraced the ancestral style of the cloth-robed school; the notes of Li Guomu (courtesy name Zhimo) and his like are simply chisels that chase the soul and seize the life. One should know that before the Jiajing and Longqing reigns this book did not exist at all; only in the middle years of Wanli did it suddenly appear. Since it has existed, every household has failed to bury in a good grave, and to this day the land is desolate and cold everywhere. How can the true book be transmitted to those who have a true-dragon site, so that the common people need not again suffer this dose of poison?