Formula of the Sword Thrust into Mud (from Jiang Dahong's Family Collection)

地理之道，以龍穴為本為宗，葬親求地尤當擇師為上矣。若然苟非非真人，為害不淺。古云得吉地不難，得明師難。今日得明師，明日得吉地矣。但名師多名於後世，而不名於當時，其中有理數存焉。

The learning of kanyu (堪輿) takes as its root and as its aim the incoming vein of the dragon (龍) and the gathering of the point (穴). When seeking ground in which to bury one's parents and elders, the first and most urgent matter is still more to choose the right master. If the one invited is not a true adept who has received transmission, the harm left behind will not stop at a little. The ancients said: to obtain an auspicious site is not in itself hard; what is hard is to meet a clear master who truly understands. Once today one meets a clear master, tomorrow the auspicious site comes to hand of itself. Yet through the ages masters of true ability have mostly been praised only after they were gone, and in their own lifetime they had no name. In this there is the working of heaven's principle and of allotted qi (氣): since the true formula will not be lightly transmitted, the people of the world have no way to recognise it, and so name and reality are always a generation apart.

如南昌托辜長老，著有《入地眼》書傳世，為友葬劍脊龍，被雷劫之災。永康劉氏、豐城范氏皆明師也。同時均，且遭謗於世，是道豈可輕洩也。

Take as an example the elder Tuogu of Nanchang in Jiangxi, who left the book Rudiyan, the Eye that Enters the Earth, circulating in the world. He was a man of true ability, yet because he sited for a friend a burial on a 'sword-ridge dragon'—a fierce dragon whose ridge is lean and hard as a knife-edge and will not shed itself and open a face—he suffered the retribution of being struck by thunder. The Liu of Yongkang in Zhejiang and the Fan of Fengcheng in Jiangxi were likewise clear masters; their situation at the time was the same, and both were slandered by the world. From this one can see that this learning concerns life and death, blessing and misfortune, and that retribution is before one's eyes: how could it be lightly leaked to others?

蓋龍穴乃天造地設生成之妙，不可假一毫勉強。為地師者不得以己之所憎而不輿，亦不得已之所愛而輕輿，惟體天眷有德之言，以行其術，自能為福於世而無遺謫矣。

For a true dragon and a true point are wonders generated of themselves by heaven and earth; not one part in a hundred, not one hair, may be forced by human effort. A master of sites must not, because he dislikes a certain house, withhold good ground and not give it (here '舆' stands for '与', to confer), nor, because he favours a certain house, lightly send good ground out. He should only take to heart the words 'Heaven looks with favour on those who have virtue', and practise his art in accordance with them; then he will naturally bring blessing to the world, and will not draw down heaven's condemnation. This is the professional precept laid down at the opening of the whole book: the ground is fixed by heaven; the master is only heaven's deputy in conferring and receiving it, and must not hold the ground in order to act out likes and dislikes.

天地有生成之龍，即有生成砂水，必有生成之福人受用。諺曰：福人等福地，人死地開花。此言信不誤矣。

Since heaven and earth have generated a true dragon, they will certainly generate, to match it, the sands (砂)—the hills that guard it on both sides—and the water, the streams that encircle and wind about it; and they will certainly have reserved a person of blessing to receive it. The proverb says: a person of blessing will of himself wait until the blessed ground; and there are also those who must wait until the last breath has stopped before that piece of ground happens to show itself, opening like a flower. These two sayings are indeed not wrong: they speak precisely of ground and person waiting for each other, and of their coming together only when the affinity has arrived.

昔杜後無齒，配周王而郎生；鉤戈手拳，匹漢王而自解，此乃見物各有主也。況天下大地深藏不露，鬼神所守以待有德，無論俗眼不能識之，即識之亦何敢妄用而輕洩哉。

Formerly the Empress Dowager Du was born without teeth, and only after she was matched with the Zhou king did she bear a noble son; Emperor Wu of Han's Lady Gouyi from childhood had both hands clenched and unable to open, and only when she met Emperor Wu did the two hands uncurl of themselves. These two old matters are cited to show that each thing has its own belonging, and that the meeting of person and thing has its fixed allotment. How much more, then, the great grounds under heaven, which lie deep and do not show themselves, and have spirits and ghosts besides to keep them, waiting only for a person of virtue to receive and use them. The eyes of common people of course cannot recognise them; and even if by luck one does recognise them, how would one dare to move and use them at random, or leak them from the mouth?

訣曰：大凡怪穴有蹊蹺，龍更十分奇。認得龍神真，怪穴始堪針。龍若真時穴更真，扦之吉自生。龍不真兮少真穴，莫把天機胡亂覓。

The formula says: wherever a point is strange in shape and does not fit the ordinary pattern, it is sure to have its hidden twist, and the incoming dragon is sure to be especially unusual. First one must recognise truly the 'dragon spirit'—the truth or falsehood of the mountain vein in its course—and only then may those strange points be needled and fixed. Since the incoming dragon is true, the point is naturally still more true; once it is sited and the burial made, good fortune will of itself arise. Conversely, if the incoming dragon is not true, there is little true point to speak of; one must by no means go hunting heaven's mechanism at random with a mind of luck. These few lines are the footing of the whole book: first examine the incoming dragon, then seek the site of the point; the order must not be reversed. To stare only at a point whose form looks well, and not ask from where the dragon comes, is precisely the common fault of vulgar masters.

真龍藏掩穴奇怪，俗眼何曾愛。天真地秘鬼神司，時輩豈能知。明師解得玄機訣，珍重不敢說。恐君緣福或輕微，指出反驚疑。（至言至理，世人皆中此弊。若輩用之，後世尚驚疑，則世間大地皆有發福之地矣。）

When a true dragon gathers a point, it often hides its head and covers its face; the form of the point is strange, and ordinary eyes have never liked it. Heaven's truth and earth's secret are in the charge of spirits and ghosts; how would the ordinary practitioners of the age understand? Even if a clear master has solved this layer of the mysterious formula, he treasures it and will not lightly let it from his mouth, fearing only that the host's affinity is thin and his blessing shallow, and that once it is pointed out he will instead be startled and refuse to believe. The interlinear note says: this is a most exact principle, and people of the world commonly fall into this fault; if this sort of person were willing to use it as a clear master points, later ages would still be startled and uncertain—would not then every great ground under heaven become a place that brings forth blessing? The implication is that even if the ground is true, a person without affinity and without blessing will in the end be unable to use it.

龍在山各有形，星體要分開。方圓尖秀不相倫，見者必須斟。金木水土皆堪取，無福休輕輿。（不言火者，以五結地，行巾火星多不也。）泥分五色取紅黃，葬後必榮昌。

A dragon vein (龍脈) walking in the mountains has each its own form; one must distinguish one by one the 'star-bodies'—the Five-Phase images of the peaks: a round head belongs to Metal, a straight upthrust to Wood, a waving curve to Water, a sharp point to Fire, a level square to Earth. Square, round, pointed, and elegant cannot be mixed as one class; when one sees them one must weigh them. The four star-bodies Metal, Wood, Water, and Earth may all be taken to gather a point; only a house without a share of blessing must not be lightly given them. The interlinear note explains why Fire is not mentioned; the wording is slightly corrupt and broken, but the gist is: among the five stars only the Fire star is dry and fierce, and Fire stars seen along the walking dragon mostly do not gather ground, so the text above lists only Metal, Wood, Water, and Earth. As for the soil within the point, when it is cut open the mud-colour divides into five colours, of which red and yellow are the highest; after burial there will certainly be glory and flourishing—this is the old method of testing the qi of the point by the colour of the earth.

一龍到頭只一穴，墳多真氣洩。一點靈光仔細看，人羨地中仙。恐見真龍人不識，故洩天機秘。龍虎交抱有兒孫，外獲始相親。干支爻象不淆混，發福何須問。

When one dragon vein reaches its end, the true proper gathering is only one point; if many graves are densely buried in the same place, the true qi is dispersed and leaked away. That one point of 'numinous light'—the place where living qi gathers at the heart of the point—must be examined with the utmost care; once it is seen truly, everyone will envy the one buried there as like an immortal in the earth. The author says he is willing to leak this layer of heaven's mechanism only because he fears that people of the world may meet a true dragon face to face and yet be unable to recognise it. If the left Azure Dragon (青龍) and right White Tiger (白虎), the two sands, embrace each other with feeling, it indicates descendants in plenty; if the outer guardian sands can hold it in, inside and outside may be counted as intimate and looking to one another. As for the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches and the hexagram-line images paired with the sitting direction, so long as they are pure and not mixed, the coming of blessing need not be asked again—form is read from dragon and tiger, the pattern of qi from the stems and branches; only when both sides are clear is it counted complete and fair.

朝拜重重見貴人，韋布到龍廷。旗鼓層層排左右，光前更裕後。三叉水口鎖羅星，積玉又堆金。覓祖求宗尋正脈，諸星詎能雜。不見煞矅是真龍，奇花滿地紅。寶貴龍神大帳尋，作墓福非輕。

If the facing mountains in front come bowing in layer upon layer, it indicates that the house will produce a noble person; a cold scholar in leather belt and cloth may rise all the way to the court. If flag-shaped and drum-shaped sand-peaks are arrayed in layers on left and right, they both glorify the ancestors and enrich those who come after. Where three waters meet, at the water-exit (水口), a Luo star (羅星) locks and guards the pass—a Luo star is a mound or rocky islet rising in the water, able to shut in the departing water—and this indicates heaping jade and piling gold. In seeking ground one must first trace back the ancestral mountain and the clan mountain, find the true proper vein, and the various star-bodies seen along the way must not be in disorder. Only a walking dragon that shows no 'killing lights' (煞曜)—those fierce sands that shoot in a point, are broken, or turn their backs—is counted a true dragon, and that is a fair configuration with strange flowers covering the ground. A dragon spirit of wealth and honour must be sought in a 'great canopy': a great canopy means guardian hills that open sideways on both flanks like a tent, and only a dragon that issues from within the canopy is a noble pattern; to make a grave in such a place, the blessing is not light. (In the original, '宝贵' is a corruption of '富贵', wealth and honour; '煞矅' is for killing lights.)

行龍瘦削更雜亂，立穴多貧賤。砂水明堂簸又針，離散走天涯。四山高壓人丁少，英年難壽考。陽來陰受是真機，陰來陽穴機。貼身龍虎如蟬翼，門內多祥瑞。個字中抽三合明，財帛自豐盈。

If the walking dragon is lean, hard, and cut straight, and also disordered and without sequence, a point established on such a dragon mostly indicates poverty and baseness. If sands and waters will not encircle, and the bright hall (明堂) tilts and is uneven—'winnowing' describes it pouring outward like a winnowing-basket, 'needle' means a sharp straight shot—it indicates the family scattered and drifting to the ends of the earth. If peaks on all four sides tower high and press the point, it indicates few of the household, and even the young will hardly attain long life. The true mechanism of yin and yang lies entirely in their intercourse: if the incoming dragon belongs to yang, the site of the point must receive it with yin; if the incoming dragon belongs to yin, the site of the point must answer it with yang; a hollow matched with a bulge, the urgent with the slow, and only then is it a true gathering. If the two sands of dragon and tiger that cling close to the body of the point are thin as a cicada's wing and slightly embrace inward, there will naturally be many auspicious signs within the gate. If the incoming vein issues from the exact centre in the form of the character 'ge'—one proper vein in the middle, with cicada-wing sands branching on both sides—and if in addition the pattern of qi of the Triple Combination (三合) is clear, money and goods will naturally be abundant.

砂明水用人皆見，安墳福有限。形如金屋貯阿嬌，此地出賢豪。龍虎敬拳來抱穴，子孫多拂逆。龍在平陽結隊行，（餘少習遍大江南北，星體地理行易求，真龍難得。）廊廟有名臣。

A place where the forms of the sands and the methods of the waters can be known at a glance, and everyone can see them, will in the end yield only limited blessing when a grave is set there—a true gathering is never laid out in the open. If the four hills about the site of the point close in, hiding the wind and gathering qi, like Emperor Wu of Han building a golden house to keep Ajiao, so tight that no wind gets through, such ground produces worthies and heroes. If the two sands of dragon and tiger, like clenched fists, lean hard and embrace askew (the original '敬拳' should be read as '攲拳', leaning fists), descendants will mostly be unfilial and contrary. When a dragon vein walks into level yang ground, it often goes in low, level troops, and though it seems to have no force, it can equally produce famous ministers of the court—this line is to remind the reader not to recognise only high mountains and steep ranges. The interlinear note is the author's own account: in his youth he walked the length of the great river, north and south, and felt that distinguishing star-bodies and tracing geography were still easy; only a true dragon was hard to meet even once.

灣環之水悠悠去，金玉常常聚。開合迎送認須真，名師始可稱。不問吉凶即立穴，（無怪今日地師之多也。）枉把人財覓。散漫無收氣不全，莫戀達峰巒。生成星體不開口，到此須回首。行遍山原眼界寬，仙路許登攀。（不遇明師指點真訣，何時能得其路乎。）更能元運挨星熟，妙術稱奇絕。

If the water curves and encircles with feeling, and goes yet one does not see it go, it indicates that gold and jade constantly gather. The opening of a canopy and the gathering of qi, the sending sands and the welcoming sands, in the course of the dragon vein, must each be recognised truly; only such a person is fit to be called a clear master. There are those who do not even inquire into good and ill fortune, but as soon as they go up the mountain they set the compass and establish a point; the interlinear note mocks: no wonder there are so many masters of sites today—they are only cheating people of money. If the configuration is scattered and loose, and the water has no gathering-in, then the earth's qi is incomplete; even layered peaks that look well are not worth coveting (the original '达' should be read as '沓', meaning piled and overlapping). If a star-body generated of itself does not 'open its mouth'—if the mountain face does not open a hollow or a pincer, and does not put forth a lip or a felt—then at this place one should turn back and seek elsewhere. When one has walked the mountains and plains, the field of the eye naturally widens, and the road of the immortals will allow one to climb; the interlinear note adds again: without a clear master's personal pointing of the true formula, when will one ever find the door? If, beyond form, one further trains to fluency the methods of the three-epoch period luck (元運) and of matching stars (挨星), so that the pattern of qi and the form are both attained, this art may then be called strange and supreme—the first half of the piece discusses form; here it turns to the pattern of qi in the second half.

挨者，比也。星者，紫微坦外之貪、巨、祿、文、廉、武、破、輔、弼九星也。楊公以九星配巒頭之形，故用九星以明巒頭之氣。挨星者，與巒頭相比相併而立而行也。

'Matching' means to set side by side, to arrange in sequence. 'Stars' means the nine stars beyond the Purple Tenuity Enclosure (紫微垣): Tanlang, Jumen, Lucun, Wenqu, Lianzhen, Wuqu, Pojun, Zuofu, and Youbi (the original '紫微坦' is for the Purple Tenuity Enclosure). Yang Junsong used these nine stars to pair the forms of the mountain heads, and borrowed the names of the nine stars to make clear the qi contained in the mountain heads. So-called 'matching stars' means setting the nine stars and the mountain heads side by side, one against one, standing and walking together with the dragon vein. This sentence first makes the school-door clear: matching stars is not a matter of leaving the mountains and waters and arranging them empty on the plate; form and the pattern of qi are originally two faces of one thing.

此法乃玄女授赤松子秘文，赤松子授黃石公而作《青囊經》。黃石公授張子房，子房得傳而作《赤庭經》，雖有書而元真訣，遂失傳焉。

This method is said to be secret writing that the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens transmitted to Master Chisong, that Master Chisong transmitted to Huangshi Gong, and that Huangshi Gong used as the basis for composing the Qingnang Jing, the Green Satchel Classic. Huangshi Gong in turn transmitted it to Zhang Liang (style Zifang), and Zhang Liang, having received the transmission, wrote the Chiting Jing, the Red Court Classic. But though the books remained, the true oral formula was not written into them (the original '元' stands for '无', without), and so this true method was from then on lost. The author recounts this line of transmission to show that book and formula were originally transmitted apart; to read only the books without the oral formula is precisely the root from which later false methods sprang up in clusters.

厥後葛稚川遊王屋山，親遇左宮仙太乙真人，授書三卷，上皆蝌蚪文字，葛公不識。真人戒曰：天機玄妙，慎勿輕洩。歸以錦囊貯之，忽一夕雷電晦明，遂失首卷，二三倖存，書名《渾天寶照》，內寓看龍認氣秘訣。

Later Ge Hong (style Zhichuan), travelling on Wangwu Mountain, personally met the Left Palace Immortal, the Great One Perfected, and was given three rolls of writing, all in tadpole ancient script, which Ge Hong could not read. The Perfected warned him: heaven's mechanism is extremely mysterious; on no account leak it lightly. Ge Hong went back and stored the books in a brocade bag; unexpectedly one night thunder and lightning rose, now dark now bright, and the first roll was lost; only the second and third rolls luckily remained. This book is named Huntian Baozhao, the Precious Mirror of Mixed Heaven, and in it is hidden the secret formula for looking at the dragon and recognising qi. That the first roll was lost in thunder and lightning is also the old saying that heaven's mechanism must not be leaked in full.

晉郭璞得葛仙人口訣，演出《葬經》與玄空妙法。唐楊益得此術，以授黃妙應，復恐失傳，根源無考，又作《天玉》《寶照》諸經，以授曾公字。其中顛倒排星、雌雄相配、認巒頭取向水，一本先後天卦之作用。

In the Jin Dynasty, Guo Pu obtained the secret formulas from Ge Hong and developed them into the "Zang Jing" (Classic of Burial) and the Xuan Kong mystery method. In the Tang Dynasty, Yang Yunsong (also known as Yang Ji) acquired this method, passing it on to Huang Miao Ying. Fearing that the method might be lost in the future and its origin unknown, he wrote books such as the "Tianyu Jing" (Heavenly Jade Classic) and the "Baozhao Jing" (Treasure Illumination Classic), passing them on to his disciple Zeng Gong (the original text says "Zeng Gong's name," where "name" is likely a mistake for "An," meaning Zeng Qiu Ji, a disciple of Yang Yunsong, whose name was Gan). The principles discussed in these books, such as reversing the arrangement of stars, the mutual pairing of male and female energies, and determining direction by observing the terrain to collect water, all originate from the interaction between the Earlier Heaven hexagrams and the Later Heaven hexagrams.

大玄空五行今人不之其妙，妄立穿山透地七十二龍分金坐度，於是偽法分然，真法日隱。蔣子雖有注書之勞，究竟真未明，欲宣其義，而反其昧其義。

The subtlety of the Five Phases of Great Xuan Kong is something people of today do not understand (the original '不之' is for '不知', do not know); instead they have presumptuously set up the seventy-two dragons of 'piercing mountains' and 'penetrating earth', and the sitting degrees of divided metal, and so false methods have risen in confusion, and the true method is hidden day by day. Although Jiang Dahong put in the labour of annotating the books, he did not in the end make the true formula clear; meaning to proclaim its principles, he instead made the principles still more obscure. What is rejected here is precisely the seventy-two dragons of piercing mountains, the sixty dragons of penetrating earth, and the sitting degrees of divided metal, piled layer upon layer on the compass—those methods turn the taking of direction into a mechanical looking-up of tables, and run counter to the living method of Xuan Kong, which turns with the period luck.

目講師親遇仙人口授真訣，遂作序，發明玄空奧旨挨星秘訣，復傳秘旨，以定四十八局之禍福吉凶，與《玉函經》《玉鑰匙》《搖鞭賦》相為表裡，而地學之三元三運遂昭然若揭。

Master Mujiang (a Ming monk and kanyu master, known in the world as Chan Master Mujiang) personally met an immortal and received the true formula by word of mouth, and so wrote a preface, setting forth the hidden aim of Xuan Kong and the secret formula of matching stars; he further transmitted a piece called the Secret Aim, used to determine the blessing and misfortune, the good and ill fortune, of the forty-eight configurations. These writings and the Yuhan Jing, the Jade Casket Classic, the Yu Yaoshi, the Jade Key, and the Yaobian Fu, the Shaking-Whip Rhapsody, serve as the inside and outside of one another; and from then on the principles of the upper, middle, and lower three epochs and the nine periods in the learning of geography were set out plainly before people.

《天玉》之「開天劈地定雌雄，翻天倒地對不同，十二陰陽一路排，一個排來千百個，坎離水火中天過」之義，幽雅彰彰可考矣。

Those lines in the Tianyu Jing—'Opening heaven and splitting earth, one determines female and male; turning heaven upside down and the earth over, the pairing is not the same; twelve yins and yangs are arranged in a single road; arrange one and a thousand hundred follow; Kan and Li, water and fire, pass through the middle of heaven'—speak of distinguishing the heaven hexagram and the earth hexagram, and of fixing the pairing of female and male in mountain and water: for the same mountain and facing, once forward arrangement and reverse arrangement are turned over, good and ill fortune are entirely different; the twenty-four mountains, divided by yin and yang into twelve pairs, are each arranged as one road forward and one road reverse; once one is arranged through, a thousand hundred can be inferred by kind; and the pivot of the whole plate falls on this layer, that Kan and Li, water and fire, meet in the central palace. With Master Mujiang's elucidation, these words, once deep and hidden, can now all be clearly examined.

訣曰：若夫星有九而先用貪狼者，蓋天數生於一，地數生於二，一二為天地陰陽之大父，排星得之寶貴極品。首運用貪狼立極，取夫婦相應、水火既濟，則「龍從火裡逍遙出，虎在波中放浪行」。論星相則一八相生，語卦義則坎離交媾，此甲癸申三山之立，宜於本運坎龍也。

The formula says: there are nine stars in all; why does one first take and use Tanlang? Because the numbers of heaven begin from one, the numbers of earth from two; one and two are the general source of the yin and yang of heaven and earth, and if in arranging the stars one obtains it, that is the highest noble pattern. The first period of the upper epoch sets its pole by Tanlang, taking the image of husband and wife answering each other, water and fire After Completion, and so there are the two lines 'the dragon issues at ease from within the fire, the tiger runs in waves through the midst of the water'—One White belongs to Water yet lodges in the place of Li Fire, Nine Purple belongs to Fire yet communicates with the region of Kan Water; water and fire each store their dwelling in the other, and so dragon and tiger each find their place. In terms of star-image, it is One White and Eight White generating each other; in terms of hexagram-meaning, it is the two hexagrams Kan and Li in intercourse. This is precisely why the Tianyu Jing lists the three mountains Jia, Gui, and Shen as one road: in establishing a facing in the first period, one should take a dragon coming from the Kan direction.

既有旺龍，必有旺水。二運排巨門於水口，一生二，作本龍之庫，曰巨門，乃持守者也。壬丙之武曲、官旺之向，水口有巨門。經故曰：龍要合向向合水，水合三吉位。一二為龍水去來之天關地戶，得天得地而成位乎其中，故曰三吉。

Since there is a dragon in command, there must be water in command to pair with it. In the second period one arranges Jumen at the water-exit: one generates two, and two is then the storehouse-position of this dragon, so it is called Jumen, taking the sense that it can hold and keep, and can take in and hold. The two facings Ren and Bing belong to Wuqu, and are facings of official prosperity; their water-exit has precisely Jumen on guard. So the Tianyu Jing says, 'The dragon must accord with the facing, the facing with the water, and the water with the three auspicious positions.' One and two are the heaven-pass and earth-door through which dragon and water come and go; above one obtains the heaven hexagram, below the earth hexagram, and the point is established between the two: this is called the 'three auspicious'—only when dragon, facing, and water return to one road are they the three auspicious; it is not three auspicious directions casually put together.

山中生我水中長，性情直盪漾。水中生成我山行，鱗甲壬飛騰。黃壤青黎垂禹貢，衰旺宜珍重。祿文青宇闡元機，知者是仙師。此坤壬乙三山宜在二運也。

I am born on the mountain and nourished in the water, and my nature is naturally at ease and flowing; I am generated in the water and walk with the mountain's force, like a scaled creature that, finding water, leaps and rises—this is to say that the mountain governs the household and the water governs wealth and emolument; mountain and water are each the body and the use of the other, one still and one moving, generating each other. The Tribute of Yu in the Book of Documents ranks the fields and levies of the nine provinces by the colour of the soil; yellow earth and dark-green loam each have their grade. By the same principle, the waning and the prospering of period luck must be distinguished with care, and must not be spoken of as one. The mysterious mechanism that the two stars Lucun and Wenqu disclose between heaven and the vault—whoever can recognise it is an immortal master. The three mountains Kun, Ren, and Yi belong to one road, and should be paired with the second period.

一合二而成三，三無體，以一二為體，萬物發端肇始，虛而成實，故為祿存。祿者，天地之所以政養；存者，以無體而存有體也。純陰杳冥，存無存有，為陰極陽生之象。此星為地體，為坤卦，而中藏生氣。

One and two combine and become three; three itself has no form of its own, and takes one and two as its form. The ten thousand things take their start from this, condensing from the empty into the solid, and so it is called Lucun. 'Lu', emolument, is what heaven and earth use to nourish the ten thousand things (the original '政养' should be read as '正养', proper nourishment); 'cun', to preserve, means that though it has no form, it can preserve things that have form. The third period is of pure yin, deep and hard to fathom, coming and going between without and with, precisely the image of yin reaching its extreme and yang beginning to be born. This star takes the great earth as its body; its hexagram-position belongs to Kun; on the surface it looks dead and without life, yet in the middle it hides living qi.

亁遇巽時為月窟，玄機自我出；地逢雷處起天根，陰極則陽生。天卦下臨地卦中，向向合玄空；地卦翻臨天卦位，山山吉神會。此子未卯三山宜在三運也。

When the Qian hexagram meets the Xun hexagram, that is the 'Moon Cave' (月窟), and the mysterious mechanism issues from here; when Kun earth meets Zhen thunder, that is 'Heaven's Root' (天根), and when yin reaches its extreme, yang qi is born (the original '亁' is a vulgar writing of Qian). These two lines originally come from Shao Yong's verse; used here, they mean that the place where the heaven hexagram and the earth hexagram meet is precisely where the living mechanism lies. When the heaven hexagram falls and comes to the midst of the earth hexagram, then facing after facing accords with Xuan Kong; when the earth hexagram turns up and comes to the position of the heaven hexagram, then mountain after mountain meets an auspicious spirit. The three mountains Zi, Wei, and Mao belong to one road, and should be paired with the third period.

二二為四，得地之陰而無陽，純陰多水而盪漾，故曰文水之之泫灣繞而去，故曲曲。此星只宜在向上作過脈，若向捱到，主生人聰明好色，貴顯多滛，人丁大旺，而有母明父暗之嫌。

Two plus two is four: one obtains only the yin of earth and has no yang. The number of pure yin has much water and it tosses and flows, so it is called Wenqu, Literary Curve—the water goes weeping and winding, its form bending again and again. Here the wording of the base text has corrupt additions; '文水之之泫' should be of the kind 'Wenqu, the weeping of water'; the sense is as above, and it is now recorded without being patched. This star should be used only as a passing vein on the facing; if the matching stars happen to match it to the head of the facing, it indicates that those born will be clever and fond of colour, and though they obtain honour they will be much given to licence; the household will be extremely prosperous, yet there is the suspicion of a strong mother and a weak father, bright within and dark without.

辭氣光芒射斗牛，風雅歌好求。豪華斗牛酒，詩千首，鶯語藏花柳。（此未當元運而遇水之文曲曲。）得元得今為英俊，鳳把經綸蘊。歸真返樸賴巨門，興國作干城。（土能制水而人正直不阿，非又當元，故出氾濫無歸。）此戌乾巳三山宜在四運也。

Literary talent and the force of words have a light that presses on people, shooting straight between the Dipper and the Ox; elegant songs are loved by all; in luxury one matches wine by the dipper, poems by the thousand, and oriole-voices are hidden among flowers and willows—this describes the scene, when Wenqu has lost the period, of talent overflowing and sliding into gallantry and licence. The interlinear note makes it clear: this is the case when Wenqu is not in command of the period luck and moreover meets water. If Wenqu obtains the period and is in command, it turns into the talent of the outstanding, with statecraft stored in the breast. To gather this tossing qi back to the simple and solid, one must rely on Jumen: Jumen belongs to Earth, Earth can control Water, and the person is then upright and not yielding, and may serve as a shield of the state. The interlinear note adds again: precisely because Earth can control Water, the person can hold his ground; if it is not in command of the period, it becomes a flood with no return. The three mountains Xu, Qian, and Si belong to one road, and should be paired with the fourth period.

二二加一為五，厚地成天，位居九數之中，內外生成界為至尊之所，故為廉貞。廉者，靜也；貞者，定也。靜定而後居中，得中皇之正氣。挨星山向遇之，必主損丁破財，而遭回祿之災，以位尊威重不可犯也。仙師於此運故將前十年寄巽，後十年寄幹，以避其威。

Two plus two plus one is five. The thick virtue of earth is completed above in heaven; five sits at the exact centre of the nine numbers; the bounds of generation within and without all gather here; it is the seat of the most honoured, and so it is called Lianzhen. 'Lian' is stillness, 'zhen' is fixity; still, and then one can be fixed; fixed, and then one can dwell in the centre, and obtain the proper qi of the central imperial pole. When in matching stars the mountain plate or the facing plate strikes Five Yellow Lianzhen, it is sure to indicate harm to the household, waste of money, and also fire—Huilu is the name of the ancient fire-god. This is not Five Yellow itself doing evil, but that its seat is honoured and its majesty heavy, and it will not bear offence. So the earlier immortal masters lodged the first ten years of the fifth period in the Xun palace, under the fourth period, and the last ten years in the Qian palace, under the sixth period, leaving the central Five unused, precisely in order to avoid its majesty.

五加一而成六，為成數之始，分三才而兩之，包羅萬象無往不利，故曰武曲，武者所向捷也。老總戌運籌帷幄，麟閣標名；大將攬□邊關，雁門著姓。文經武緯，用彰山水之奇；執筆操戈，克顯鍾靈之秀。此艮巽亥三山應排在六運也。

Five plus one is six, the beginning of the completed numbers; divide heaven, earth, and man, the three powers, each into two, and six then embraces the ten thousand images and is favourable wherever it goes, so it is called Wuqu, taking the sense that 'wherever it is directed it is sure to be swift'. A commander old in arms lays plans in the tent, and his name is marked on the Qilin Pavilion (the original '老总戌', where '戌' should be a corruption of '戎', arms); a great general holds the frontier passes, and his fame is known at Yanmen. The base text here lacks one character, printed as a blob of ink; a box is kept and not filled. Civil warp and martial weft are just what show forth the strange qi of mountain and water; the two roads of holding the brush and taking up the spear can both display the excellence that numinous earth has nourished. The three mountains Gen, Xun, and Hai belong to one road, and should be arranged in the sixth period.

五加二成七，五為至尊，二經純陰加之，有下犯上之象，故為七煞破軍，破中黃之氣而有煞象也。斗柄周旋，見天機之奧妙；洛書定位，微地德之含宏。山宜旺而得旺，室有簪纓；水宜零而逢零，家多粟帛。此艮丙辛三山宜排在七運也。

Five plus two is seven. Five is the seat of the most honoured; to add to it the two of pure yin has the sense of the below offending the above, so seven is Pojun, also called the Seven Killings: it is the qi of central Five Yellow broken, and brings out a killing image. The handle of the Northern Dipper turns through the twelve branches in a year, and from this one can see the wonder of heaven's mechanism; the nine palaces of the Luo Writing (洛書) each fix their place, and from this the encompassing vastness of earth's virtue is made plain (the original '微' stands for '徵', to make manifest). If the star arranged on the mountain plate should be in command and is indeed in command, the house will produce official caps and sashes; if the star arranged in the water should be in decline and indeed meets decline, the house will have much grain and silk—Xuan Kong takes qi in command as the proper spirit (正神) and qi out of command as the lingering spirit (零神); the proper spirit should go up the mountain and govern the household, the lingering spirit should go down to the water and govern money; only when mountain and water each obtain what is fitting is it counted as according to the method. The three mountains Gen, Bing, and Xin belong to one road, and should be arranged in the seventh period.

挨星用七，（北只有七星，八九兩運用斗輔弼者，在中宮相近也。）而八九二數居中宮左右，號曰輔弼。輔在廉之左右，其卦屬艮，火地氣脈相類。廉貞位中，不能隨運轉移，故以輔代廉職，主政於八運。

The matching stars that are actually put in motion are only seven. The interlinear note explains: the Northern Dipper originally has only seven stars; Zuofu and Youbi, used in the eighth and ninth periods, are two hidden stars attached near the Dipper's handle, close to the central palace. The two numbers eight and nine dwell left and right of the central palace, and are styled Fu and Bi, Assistant and Aide. Zuofu is to the left and right of Lianzhen; its hexagram belongs to Gen, and it is of a kind with the qi-veins of Fire and Earth. Lianzhen dwells in the central Five and cannot shift with the period luck, so Zuofu acts in Lianzhen's office, and governs in the eighth period—this also shows that the method, in the previous section, of lodging Five Yellow in Xun and in Qian, and the using of the Assistant in place of Lianzhen here, are one and the same principle.

皎潔一灣新月，虎嘯潭中；輕盈滿樹奇花，龍游嶺上。去死就生，獨見巍巍之時；將賓作主，惟瞻浩浩之流。此寅庚丁三山故配在八運也。

A bend of water is bright and clean as a new moon, and the White Tiger sand crouches roaring above a deep pool; a tree full of strange flowers is light and lovely, and the Azure Dragon vein walks on the mountain ridge—this describes the beauty of form when, in the eighth period, a Gen mountain obtains a configuration. Leave the directions of decline and death, and go to the directions of birth and prosperity; look only at that place that towers up; take the guest's seat and use it as the host's, and look only at that water that comes and goes in a vast flow. Xuan Kong fixes guest and host by incoming water and departing water; the dragon spirit on the mountain and the dragon spirit in the water each return to their place; when the period luck turns, waning and prospering change places, and guest and host can also be swapped. The three mountains Yin, Geng, and Ding belong to one road, and so are paired with the eighth period.

九運右弼居北斗之右，其卦屬離，與廉貞易位，代貪狼之職。貪狼屬震為長子，開九運之先聲；弼星屬巽為長女，收三元之功效。星辰在天形在地，動靜宜合氣。挨排臨水復臨山，禍福盡相關。

The Youbi star of the ninth period sits to the right of the Northern Dipper; its hexagram belongs to Li; it exchanges place with Lianzhen who dwells in the centre, and acts in Tanlang's office. Tanlang belongs to the Zhen hexagram, and is the eldest son, opening the first sound of the ninth period; Youbi belongs to the Xun hexagram, and is the eldest daughter, gathering in the efficacy of one circuit of the upper, middle, and lower three epochs. The stars hang high in heaven, form is accomplished under the earth; movement and stillness must have their qi-veins in accord. When arranging the matching stars one must look once as they come to the water, and look again as they come to the mountain; the blessing and misfortune of the mountain plate and the water plate pull upon each other, and one cannot attend to one side only.

從茲永俱靈根，詎有陰差陽錯；自此全參妙諦，何難倒海移山。精神操於一掌之間，元奧闢於毫釐之際。此午酉丑三山排在九運，以終天地人三元之卦義也。

From this one forever holds this one point of numinous root, and how would there still be yin and yang out of place; from this one wholly penetrates the wondrous truth within, and what difficulty is there in overturning the sea and moving mountains? The spirit of the whole plate is worked in the turn of a palm—meaning the arranging of the Nine Palaces (九宮) by the palm formula; the mystery opens in the taking and leaving of a hair's breadth. The three mountains Wu, You, and Chou belong to one road, and are arranged in the ninth period; when the discussion reaches this point, the hexagram-meanings of heaven, earth, and man, the upper, middle, and lower three epochs, may be counted as finished, and the pairing of the nine stars with the nine periods also goes round and begins again.

總訣曰：坐正朝零語不明，遺誤禍非輕。縱危害，識得零和正，雌雄要捉定。龍差局錯穴情乖，變出火坑來。天星地曜能推布，認得桃源路。

The general formula says: if the words 'sit the proper, face the lingering' are not made clear, they mislead those who come after, and the harm is not light—Xuan Kong takes qi that obtains the period and is in command as the proper spirit, which should sit solid on the mountain, so the sitting mountain must be proper; qi out of command is the lingering spirit, which should meet emptiness and water; when the lingering is met in the water it instead indicates prosperous wealth, so the facing takes the lingering. Even if harm lies ahead, so long as one recognises the boundary between lingering spirit and proper spirit, and holds firm the two slices of female and male in mountain and water, one need not fear. Conversely, if the dragon is recognised wrongly, the configuration arranged wrongly, the feeling of the point goes contrary with them, and even good ground will turn into a fire-pit. Since the stars of heaven and the lights of earth can be inferred, arranged, and disposed by man, once this road is recognised truly, the Peach Spring is before one's eyes.

一運之星何以必在貪狼？蓋天一生水，始於坎北，為發源之處，陽賴陰生，一氣交通之根源基於此也，經所謂「朱雀發源生旺氣」是也。

Why must the star of the first period be Tanlang? Because heaven's one generates Water, and Water arises in the northern Kan position, which is the source from which the ten thousand things issue; yang must depend on yin in order to be born, and the root of one qi in circulation is set here. What Guo Pu's Burial Classic says of the Vermillion Bird's water issuing from living qi, the so-called 'the Vermillion Bird's source generates prosperous qi', speaks precisely of this principle—the incoming water in the Vermillion Bird direction before the point must issue from the direction of birth and prosperity of the period in command; when the source accords with the period, the whole configuration has living qi to speak of.

艮屬巨門，一陽極於上，至是而止，水於是乎歸縮，山於是乎涵萃。山水聚會之處，如玄牡之門，直陽出入之所，靈秀所鍾之地，故此星去來皆吉也。

The Gen hexagram belongs to Jumen. Gen is mountain; one yang accumulates to the very top line and stops, so when water walks to this place it contracts and gathers, and when the mountain walks to this place it stores and condenses. The place where mountain and water meet is like what the Laozi calls the 'gate of the mysterious female' (玄牝) (the original '玄牡' should be read as '玄牝'); it is the pass through which yang qi goes in and out, the place where numinous excellence is concentrated. Precisely because it can both take in and store, this star Jumen, whether met in the direction of incoming water or in the direction of departing water, is judged auspicious.

北斗七星打劫之法，以巨門之二守龍庫，破軍之七守局庫，為二七離宮相合之法，用此立向收水方為全局。

The method called 'the Northern Dipper's seven stars plundering' uses Jumen's two to guard the dragon's storehouse-position, and Pojun's seven to guard the configuration's storehouse-position; two and seven both belong to the Fire number and accord with the Li palace: this is the method of two and seven according with the Li palace. Establish the facing by it, gather water by it, and only then is the whole configuration counted complete—so-called plundering is not another set of flying stars; it is settling the two stars two and seven on the dragon's storehouse and the configuration's storehouse.

打劫者，北斗七星捱到水口。凡立穴之處，四圍若有煞煞曜屹為營壘，取北斗以破其軍，破即打也。劫者，劫此水口內尊貴之物，皆為我之龍向所有，故曰劫。何以能為龍穴所有？離宮要相合，則為我有矣。

So-called 'plundering' is the arranging of the Northern Dipper's seven stars to the water-exit. Wherever a point is established, if on the four sides there are killing lights standing like the enemy's camp facing the site (the original '煞煞曜' has one extra '煞'), one takes the force of the Northern Dipper to break their battle-array; 'to break' is 'to strike'. 'To plunder' is to seize all those honoured things within the water-exit and bring them over, so that they belong to this dragon and this facing of mine; hence it is called plunder. By what can they belong to the dragon and the point? The key is that the head of the facing accords with the Li palace; once it accords, the noble qi within the water-exit is mine.

諸書不傳之奧妙，數語分明。得此書者，不惟解得玄空奧旨，且於九星合命名之義昭然不紊，真元運家之模楷也，非緣福亡厚者安得此妙法哉。

The wonder that the various books have been unwilling to transmit is set out clearly in these few sentences. One who obtains this book not only solves the hidden aim of Xuan Kong, but also has the principles of the pairing and naming of the nine stars in clear order and not in confusion: this is truly a model for the school that speaks of period luck. The original '亡' stands for '无', without; the sense of the sentence is: if one were not a person of deep affinity and thick blessing, how could one obtain this wondrous method?

合離宮者，向首也。大玄空三卦，合龍、合向、合局、合水，皆取象坎離，為先天日月合壁，後天水火中天過也。故凡龍穴向上皆屬離宮，不必一定離之在南、坎之在北也。

So-called 'according with the Li palace' refers precisely to the head of the facing. Among the three hexagrams of Great Xuan Kong, according with the dragon, according with the facing, according with the configuration, and according with the water all take the image of Kan and Li: in the earlier heaven it is sun and moon as a joined jade disc, in the later heaven it is water and fire meeting in the central palace. So every upward facing of a dragon and point is counted as the Li palace; one need not hold that Li must be in the south and Kan must be in the north. What is rejected here is precisely the dead view of vulgar masters: if one takes Kan and Li as two fixed positions, south and north, one does not know that the Kan and Li of Xuan Kong are living positions that turn with the period luck; wherever the head of the facing is, that is Li, and it has nothing to do with south and north on the compass.

且二十四山之中，九星五行不一而有，戊己黃婆為之調合，自能金木相親，水火相戀，則挨星運用之妙已窺其堂奧矣。堪輿之道，此為真衣缽、真薪傳，予非好為辨論也。（虛蔣子注書辭誤之人貽害不淺，意朦混，恐其自志此以醒迷。）

Moreover, among the twenty-four mountains the nine stars and the Five Phases are mixed and present together; all depends on the central Wu-Ji Earth—what the alchemists call the Yellow Dame (黃婆)—to harmonise from the midst, and only then can Metal and Wood be close to each other, Water and Fire attached to each other; if one can do this, the subtlety of using matching stars may be counted as having glimpsed the inner hall. In the way of kanyu, this is the true robe and bowl, the true transmission of the firewood; I am not one who loves to argue with others. The interlinear note says: Jiang Dahong's annotations of the books are vague in wording and mislead people not a little, the sense dim; perhaps he meant it so. The author here records a few sentences in order to wake those who have been lost in false methods.