On the Origin of the Qishu Theory in the Daoist Concepts of Five Directions, Three Spheres, and Heavens Shiau Deng Fu 97
Abstract The Heavens in Taoism are discrepant, usually there are two parts, such as :Da Luo Tian and San Jie Tian ; all Heavens are consist of Yang Chi,its creation has Chi Shu. San Chin San Tian are composed of thre Chis such as :Shr,Yuan, Shiuan. San Jie includes 32 Heavens belonging to four directions, every direction has eight Heavens, respectively speaking,there are Nine Chis of East, Three Chis of South, Su Chi of West, Five Chis of North, One Chi of Center. The Heavens of San Jie are created by Chi Shu,following as East Nine, South Three, West Seven, North Five, Center One. The arrangement of direction and number are different from those books Liu Shr Chuen Chiou Twelve Ji etc which are East Eight, South Seven, West Nine, North Six, Center Five. To investigate the origin, it must inherit the theory of Yue Wei ---- a book of Chen Wei in Han dynasty,it is said Wu Shing have Sheng Shu, Juang Shu, Lau Shu and adopted lau Shu to arrange it. The Daoist concept of Heavens (zhutian, ) has different interpretations. Among whose which are more well-known now are the Great Net Heaven (daluotian ) and the Three Spherical Heavens (sanjietian, ). Heavens are composed of the material force of yang and each of their existence matches a certain qishu (number of material force). The Three Purities (sanqing ) and the Three Heavens (santian ) are composed of three kinds of material force: shi (beginning), yuan (origin), xuan (profoundity). The Three Spheres and the Thirty-two Heavens are distributed to the four directions. Each direction has eight heavens. Respectively, Nine is in the east, Three the west, Seven the west, Five in the north and One the middle. The match pattern between number and direction is different from what is recorded in the Twelve Cords section in the Spring and Autumn of Mr. Lyu (Lüshi 98
chunqiu, ): Eight in the east, Seven the south, Nine the west, Six the north, and Five in the middle. Tracing the difference back to the early period, I find that the Subsidiary Classic of Music (Yuewei, ) of the Han says, The Five Phases (wuxing, ) have numbers of generation, numbers of maturity, and numbers of decadence. The Daoist match pattern between number and direction should have its origin in the record for the Subsidiary Calssic of Music. Key wordstaoism, San Jie Tian, gods of Five Direction, Ju Tian Chi Shu, Juang Shu, Lau Shu. 99
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