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4. Under Stellar Protection
- University of Hawai'i Press
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c h a p t e r 4 Under Stellar Protection Who knows the names of the stars, their comestible offerings and the manner in which they are worshipped, will live forever in happiness and success. As is the case for the Yisuan jing, the principal objective of the talismanic tradition of the constellation of the Great Dipper, or Beidou 北斗, which is our concern in this chapter, is to assure the prolongation and preservation of the lives of the faithful. More complex in its formation than the Yisuan jing, the tradition of the Beidou is deeply embedded within the millennial fabric of Chinese culture and religion, in which the diverse threads of astrology and soteriology are intimately intertwined. Let us rapidly sketch out here some of the major lines. Human beings, as integral constituents of the cosmos, are submitted to its regulating principles, conceived as universal natural laws. Beginning with one’s birth, and even at the moment of conception, an individual’s destiny is set within the cosmic chart configured by the stars and planets, the indicators of temporal cycles, the Five Agents, and the sexagesimal binomials. One’s personality is thus “formatted,” the course of one’s life laid out together with one’s social and familial rank, as well as the potentialities and talents, inclinations and tastes, qualities and faults that predetermine a specific developmental pattern. Too, the evolution of each individual’s physical condition and manner of aging, besides key events and the duration of his passage on earth, are conditioned by Epigraph: Secret Instructions for Prolonging Life from the Purple Court of the Seven Principles of the Northern Emperor (Beidi qiyuan ziwei yansheng mijue 北帝七元紫微延生秘訣, Dz 265. b). . The sexagesimal binomials are formed of four pairs of two character-numbers, each pair associating one of the ten celestial stems (tiangan 天干) with one of the ten terrestrial branches (dizhi 地支). Sixty cycles are required in order to realize all of the combinations of the signs of the two series. To the ten terrestrial branches are associated twelve animals that serve, in current usage, to mark each of the years of the cycle. Under Stellar Protection 135 the implacable logic of that which the Chinese call personal destiny, or original destiny (benming 本命). The interpretation of this cosmic identity card, as revealed in one’s horoscope , is one of the points of emphasis among the divinatory arts that have developed since high antiquity and have never ceased to influence social and individual life. All had recourse to it, from the highest governmental dignitaries to the simple folk. Chinese religions, despite their often ambivalent relations with the occult arts and their experts, nevertheless borrowed certain fundamental tenets and beliefs from sophisticated horoscopic science, within which astrology occupied an outstanding place. The idea, which is as ancient as the earliest Chinese writings, that the heavens are in constant interaction with the human world, upon which they exercise punitive or favorable effects , has forever remained central, bringing in its train the conviction that the heavenly bodies, the twenty-eight lunar mansions,2 the planets and stars, variously help or hinder our endeavors. The Great Dipper, which precisely interests us here, occupies a position of the highest order in Chinese astrological theories. Seen as a cosmic pivot, governing time and space and regulating the natural rhythms and astronomical events, the Beidou stands also as the superintendent of human destiny. Cleaving to these secular Chinese astrological conceptions, Taoism held the constellation to be the abode of the One supreme, the Dao, the site of origination and return, as well as the arbiter of good and evil. The Great Dipper represents the north, seat of the Great Yin—Yin at its apogee—which engenders the Yang that is life. As the cosmic matrix, it presides over the nine transformations, the complete cycle of gestation. For, as noted in chapter , the constellation is composed of nine stars. To the seven, universally known stars forming the bowl and handle of the Dipper, two minor stars are attached: the eighth star, Fuxing 輔星, is the companion of the sixth star; and the ninth star, Bixing 弼星, is situated in the neighborhood of the constellation’s handle. Though the latter is entirely invisible , Fuxing is discernible at certain times. The belief is widespread among Taoist adepts that those who have the ability to see it with the naked eye draw from it great benefits and supernormal powers, extraordinary longevity above all. We have seen in the preceding chapter that the seven stars...