The Authentic Classic of the Spirit Chess
Abbreviated as The Classic of Spirit Chess.
According to the textual research by Yu Jiaxi, it was written by Fawei, a monk of Xiangcheng Temple in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The Book of Sui · Bibliography recorded The Twelve Spirit Chess Divination Classic in one volume, a work that later became an important text associated with Taoist Five Elements divination traditions.
The Authentic Classic of the Spirit Chess
The existing edition in The Daozang has two volumes and is included in the Taixuan Section.
The book is annotated as "Annotated by Yan Youming, Director of the Ministry of Works of the Jin Dynasty; Supplementarily Annotated by He Chengtian, Censor-in-Chief of the Song Dynasty". Both Yan and He were scholars of the Southern Dynasties. The scripture elaborates on the art of spirit chess divination, a practice rooted in the cosmological concepts of Taiji and yin-yang. The method uses twelve specially crafted chess pieces inscribed with the characters Shang (Upper), Zhong (Middle) and Xia (Lower), four pieces for each character. After burning incense and offering prayers, one casts the twelve pieces, and forms a hexagram according to the sequence of the Shang, Zhong and Xia characters when they land; then one consults the line verses in the scripture for interpretations to predict good or bad fortune, and misfortune or auspice.
The scripture lists the names of the divination hexagrams and their four-character line verses, with a total of one hundred and twenty-four hexagrams. All the line verses were composed in imitation of The I Ching. The annotations by Yan and He mainly interpret the good and bad fortune in human affairs indicated by the line verses, and their explanations also follow the style of The I Ching. Following the annotations are additional sections of "Explanations", which expound on the principles of the hexagram images and are more lucid than the annotations themselves.
Prefaces written by Li Yuan and Han Yun of the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Shi of the Southern Song Dynasty, as well as an anonymous author, are included at the beginning and the end of the book. These prefaces investigate and verify the origin, transmission, divination methods and rituals of this classic. From this, it can be concluded that the edition included in The Daozang was printed in the Southern Song Dynasty.
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