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Bushi Zhengzong · The Orthodox Tradition of Divination
Golden Counsels · Ghosts and Spirits
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
Ghosts and Spirits
Seeking blessing from ghosts and spirits is esteemed today. Praying to the powers above and below was likewise done in antiquity. Without testing it through the lines of the Changes, one merely performs the sacrificial rites in vain.
First examine the Officer line within the hexagram, and the condition of the ghost or spirit can be known.
Strong means a spirit, declining a ghost. Through directions, pairings, Qian and Xun one may infer yin female or yang male; through strength and decline decide older or younger.
In the Qian Palace, there must have been a vow of heavenly lamps or the Dipper. In a Dui hexagram, a spoken vow has offended a spirit.
Kan is the northern court. Gen is the City God and the dwelling’s earth. Li is the southern hall. Kun is the Earth God, graves and mausoleums. Zhen may mean a tree spirit or the ghost of a man injured by a staff. Xun must mean one who died by hanging or a yin person who fell.
Infer carefully from the eight trigrams, and the various ghosts naturally reveal their response.
With Gouchen, an earth spirit must be obstructing. With Vermilion Bird, curses must be invading.
White Tiger is a blood spirit. Dark Warrior is a ghost whose death was obscure. Green Dragon concerns a good vow. Soaring Snake concerns offending the spirit described as shixiang.
Reading note: Shixiang transliterates the supplied 施相. The corresponding old commentary also uses that expression; no different named deity is invented.
Metal is the office of injury. Fire determines a vow of incense to the Hearth God. Wood means cangue and fetters. Water is the River Earl’s spirit.
Reading note: The supplied 媵神 is read as the Hearth God through the corresponding classical verse’s 竈神. 河泊 is read through the River Earl context; the Chinese graphics remain unchanged.
If an Earth line appears, distinguish its kind. Ghost’s Tomb means a concealed corpse causing harm; Wealth’s Storehouse means a concealed spirit is uneasy.
Building and disturbing earth must mean a baneful influence meets Gouchen. Verbal conflict is the cause when Earth meets Vermilion Bird.
Offending the Well Spirit means Water at the first line meeting Ghost. Interfering with the hearth office means Fire at the second position meeting Officer.
Reading note: The supplied 司合 is read through the Fire-at-the-second-line hearth context, without adding a distinct named spirit.
At the doorway, one must have offended a member of the household spirit hall. At the road, seek the deities of the five routes.
The fourth meeting Self’s Clash means a ghost encountered on going out the door. The sixth meeting the month’s combination means a spirit connected with a distant place.
Ghost controlling Body means an enemy or creditor. The governing image controlling Ghost means wives, concubines or yin persons.
My going to generate it means juniors, children or Buddhist and Daoist clergy. Its coming to generate me means ancestral heads, seniors, father or mother.
Without generation, combination, control or penalty, it must be a brother or friend. Penalty means an unnatural end; Extinction means no one offers sacrifice.
Occupying day or month must mean a newly dead spirit. Entering its own Tomb with penalty must mean a prisoner in jail.
Wealth in another line combining must mean a lover beneath the moon. Brothers at Response generating must mean a good friend of the local association.
Changing forth into Ghost with Dark Warrior means a ghost of breaking through walls. Changing into Parents with Soaring Snake means a nightmare apparition.
Ghost with the Year Ruler is an old inherited practice. Officer joining the day is the original intention of a spoken promise.
Holding Self means an old vow not repaid. Hidden means words without sincerity. Changing into Wealth means an unfinished intention to fast; empty means a beginning without an end.
Ghost within the dwelling makes residence unsettled. Officer at Response means the facing direction is obstructed.
Metal Dragon in the Dui hexagram: a thousand Buddha images. Wood moving in the Kan Palace offends the boat-rowing rite.
Reading note: “A thousand” retains the supplied 千 rather than silently replacing it with another character.
Water and Earth intermingling in Qian means the Three Primordial Great Emperors. Fire and Metal mutually moving in Dui means the Five Ways’ officer of injury.
The third empty means a hall without incense offerings. Strange movement means an inauspicious calamity.
Reading note: 三 is read as the third line, following the old commentary’s line-position explanation, not as three new empty lines.
Dragon with documents moving alone permits judging from scripture texts. Snake with yin Officer and Ghost means unbearable dreams.
Movement entering Void with Ghost raises fear of missing a rite of filial remembrance. Wood still at the dwelling means the household keeps an exposed coffin.
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