Verse Formula and Essential Words of Heaven's Mechanism

詩曰：有書無訣是青囊，詎別山光與水光。作此挨星真妙法，乾坤滿地桂花香。千秘訣《玉函經》，點破天中七個星。江左凡師未有見，會知不得授非人。五行顛倒一行師，偽法平砂世莫知。洩破天機真奧旨，人間有路到雲衢。

The verse says: if one has only the book of the Green Satchel and no oral formula, how can one tell the light of the mountain from the light of the water—the mountain governs the household, the water governs wealth and emolument; how can the two roads of form and qi be mixed and looked at as one? Once this true wondrous method of matching stars is made, between heaven and earth it is as if osmanthus scent fills the ground. A thousand kinds of secret formula are all in the Jade Casket Classic; it points through those seven stars in the heart of heaven. Ordinary practitioners east of the river have never seen this book; even if someone understands it, he will not transmit it to those who ought not to receive it. As for the saying of the Five Phases inverted, it is said to come from the Tang Chan master Yixing, that he made a false method to confuse foreign lands, and that later the stream of the Pingsha Yuchi, the Jade Foot-rule of Level Sands, came from this, yet people of the world cannot tell them apart—what is rejected here is precisely that set in the Pingsha Yuchi Jing which fixes the storehouse, the tomb, and the water-exit by the double-mountain Triple Combination and the twelve stages of long life. Now that the true hidden aim of heaven's mechanism has been leaked and broken open, there is at last a road in the human world that can reach the blue clouds.

交成器天機要語：一二三兮七八九，山情水意要相守；七八九兮一二三，山情水意要相關。五貢起巽兩邊堆，坎離寄旺八神歸。巽位連天水收地，（水口排在地卦也。）乾宮連地水收天。（水口排在天卦也。）

The transmitted essential words of the Heaven's Mechanism from the Jiao Cheng Qi say: first, second, and third correspond to seventh, eighth, and ninth; the sentiment of the mountains and the intention of the water must remain fixed with each other; seventh, eighth, and ninth correspond to first, second, and third; the sentiment of the mountains and the intention of the water must be connected with each other. The upper three periods and the lower three periods are paired with each other, one corresponds to nine, two corresponds to eight, three corresponds to seven; the main deities and the auxiliary deities are thus paired. The five yellow, in the ten years before and after, are divided into the Xun and Qian directions (the original text says 'five贡' which should be 'five宫'); the Kan and Li directions receive the prosperous qi, and the eight directions each have their respective deities. The Xun position receives the heavenly trigram, and the water is collected in the earthly trigram, with the marginal note stating: the water mouth is arranged in the earthly trigram. The Qian palace receives the earthly trigram, and the water is collected in the heavenly trigram, with the marginal note stating: the water mouth is arranged in the heavenly trigram.

上下中各二十年，推餘一百八十全。中兼上下三元旨，五為餘年掌上輪。天星地曜由人布，三元不敗局能成。又宜隨局參正變，四凶四吉交互見。中有黃婆意氣親，南北東西為一片。

Of the upper, middle, and lower epochs, each period governs twenty years; when the nine periods are pushed through they make one great circuit of a hundred and eighty years. The middle epoch takes in the aims of the upper and lower two epochs; the remainder of those twenty years of the central Five is then, on the palm formula, divided and wheeled to the periods before and after. The stars of heaven and the lights of earth are left to man to infer and dispose; if they are disposed as they should be, one can make a configuration that does not fail through the three epochs. One must also, with each configuration, look at the proper pattern and the changed pattern; the four inauspicious stars and the four auspicious stars appear by turns, and one must not hold dead to one side. In the midst there is the central Wu-Ji 'Yellow Dame' harmonising, their intents close, and only then are south and north, east and west, blended into one stretch.

先天卦臨後天中，後天卦臨先天面。（真機鼓盪生氣，非仙法孰能有此。）龍神山水不相論，排星又宜零正辨。當元得運為正神，正用山龍零用水。萬里河山一掌分，順行乾宮逆行巽。

The earlier-heaven hexagram comes to the midst of the later-heaven hexagram, the later-heaven hexagram comes to the face of the earlier-heaven hexagram; the two layers of hexagram-positions are each the body and the use of the other. The interlinear note praises: the true mechanism drums and stirs living qi here; if it were not the method of the immortals, who could have such means? The dragon spirit on the mountain and the dragon spirit in the water originally cannot be discussed as one place; when arranging the stars one must still more distinguish lingering spirit and proper spirit: what obtains the period and is in command is the proper spirit; the proper spirit is to be used on the mountain dragon, the lingering spirit on the water—the mountain should be high and solid, the water low and empty; if the two are turned the other way, it is inauspicious. Ten thousand li of rivers and mountains are decided in one division of the palm; the Qian palace runs forward, the Xun palace runs reverse, and the two roads of forward and reverse take their start from this.

玄空妙法語分明，諸法無如此法貴，無形山水能相對。（若云非貴，何習輔星水法、長生水法之人，色人取富貴、添丁、聚財，竟無一言之效。）急來人此訪名師，悟徹玄空方不愧。河車運轉法輪高，須明換象與抽爻。千言萬語難全憶，只要飛宮記得牢。

The words of the wondrous method of Xuan Kong could not be plainer; of all the school-methods none is more to be valued, because it can set formless qi and formed mountains and waters in correspondence, one by one. The interlinear note asks in reply: if one says it is not to be valued, then how is it that those who practise the 'assistant-star water method' and the 'long-life water method', taking wealth and honour for people, adding to the household, gathering money, have not even one sentence that is fulfilled—what is rejected here is precisely the assistant-star water method that fixes the water-exit by turning the nine-star hexagrams, and the Triple Combination school's talk that fixes water by the twelve stages of long life. So one who has the mind for it should hurry here to seek a famous master; only when one has seen through Xuan Kong has the labour not been wasted. The river-chariot turns, the dharma-wheel hangs high; one must understand the handling of changing the image and drawing out the line. A thousand words and ten thousand sayings are hard to remember in full; so long as one remembers firmly the arranging of the flying palaces (飛宮), the outline is in one's hand.

文成器曰：地理之理，即無極而太極之理也。諸書言理氣形勢之用，即天根月窟之謂也。智者不肯道，愚者不能言，其道遂流於術數之中，而不重於世。非不重也，未有真傳也。

Wen Chengqi says: the principle of geography is that very principle of which Zhou Dunyi spoke, 'the Ultimateless and then the Great Ultimate'. What the various books say of the use of the pattern of qi and of form is also what Shao Yong meant by Heaven's Root and the Moon Cave—that pass where yin and yang come and go and meet. The clever understand and will not speak; the muddled wish to speak and cannot; this learning has thus sunk into the heap of arts and numbers, and is not held in weight by the world. In fact it is not that the world does not hold it in weight; it is that there has never been a true transmission.

則玄空妙法既失真傳，而偽書偽法流遍於世。奸詐之徒反執偽書，為天真地秘之寶、神欽鬼敬之奇，論色莊，其言巧以惑罘聽，且自於能點穴矣、能運矣、能取富貴如反掌。

Once the wondrous method of Xuan Kong has lost its true transmission, false books and false methods flow through all under heaven. Treacherous men instead hold up the false books and take them for the utmost treasure of heaven's truth and earth's secret, a strange art that spirits respect and ghosts revere; their faces are made grave, precisely the sort that the Analects mocks as 'severe in countenance and weak within'; their words are also spoken cleverly, to confuse those who hear, and they boast that they can site a point, can infer the period luck, and can take wealth and honour as easily as turning the palm.

夫既能點穴矣，能探運矣，能取寶富貴矣，何所葬之墳尚多無富貴哉？從可之其術偽，其所讀之書亦偽。於是偽書日布，偽法日彰，以訛化訛，使大道昏如長夜，世受其害，慘者兵戈。

Since they claim they can site a point, can sound the period luck, and can take wealth and honour, why is it that of the graves they have buried with their own hands, most do not produce wealth and honour? From this one can know (the original '从可之' is for '从可知', from this one can know) that their art is false, and the books they read are also false. And so false books are spread day by day, false methods are displayed day by day, error is transmitted as error, and this great way is made dark as a long night; the people of the world suffer its harm deeply, and in severe cases even, through fighting over ground and seizing points, they draw down the disaster of arms.

蔣子雖能著書，徒費唇舌，無一言切於玄空，則讀青囊之人無門可入，遂舍難而曲趨易。元運之不明，其天心之使然也，抑人世之無福也。

Although Jiang Dahong was able to write books, it was a wasting of tongue and lips; not one sentence actually speaks to Xuan Kong. Those who read the Green Satchel therefore find no road into the door, and can only leave the hard path and go round to take the easy false methods. That the learning of period luck is to this day unclear—whether it is that heaven's heart has arranged it so on purpose, or that the human world has from the first no blessing to receive it—the author here does not decide, and only utters a sigh.

試恩天不滿西北，地不滿東南，天地且留缺陷，人事胡可萬全。即《玉函經》《玉鑰匙》《天機鈐訣》《插泥劍》《目講青囊序》《目講秘旨》《元運跋》《河圖搖鞭賦》等書能明言其法，而萃於一時，則天地之精英終不洩矣。

Try to think (the original '试恩' should be read as '试思', try to think): heaven is not full in the northwest, earth is not full in the southeast; even heaven and earth still leave a defect, so how can the affairs of the human world be complete in every particular? Even if the Jade Casket Classic, the Jade Key, the Sealed Formula of Heaven's Mechanism, the Sword Thrust into Mud, Mujiang's Preface to the Green Satchel, Mujiang's Secret Aim, the Colophon on Period Luck, the Shaking-Whip Rhapsody of the River Chart, and these books can all make the method clear, and even if for a time they are gathered complete, the refined qi of heaven and earth will in the end not be leaked away in full—always a portion must be left for the person of affinity to work out for himself.

後有志者能求得諸書，晨夕參閱，朝暮鑽研，領會玄空奧旨，造福人間，是亦不幸中這一幸也，能無望哉。

If those of later times who have the will for this can seek out all the books named above, look them over morning and evening, drill them without pause dawn and dusk, grasp the hidden aim of Xuan Kong, and use it to bring blessing to the human world, that too may be counted as one stroke of fortune in the midst of misfortune (the original '这一幸' is for '之一幸', one fortune among them)—can one still not hold to this one hope? The whole book closes here, and still takes the six words 'seek the true transmission, distinguish false methods' as its conclusion.