The origin of the ancient compass
The compass, also called the compass, is a tool used for Feng Shui detection and is a commonly used operating tool in the Liqi sect. The compass is mainly composed of a magnetic needle located in the center of the disk and a series of concentric circles. Each circle represents the ancient Chinese's understanding of a certain level of information in the large system of the universe.
The ancient Chinese believed that a person's aura is controlled by the aura of the universe. If a person is in harmony with the universe, it is good, and if there is disharmony between a person and the universe, it is bad. Therefore, based on their experience, they put all the information at all levels in the universe, such as the stars in the sky, everything on the earth represented by the five elements, the heavenly stems and the earthly branches, etc., on the compass. Feng shui masters use the rotation of magnetic needles to find the best location or time for a specific person or specific thing. Although the concept of "magnetic field" is not mentioned in Feng Shui, the coordination of the directions, orientations, and intervals between the circles on the compass implies the laws of "magnetic field".
Origin Evolution
Engels said in the book "Machines, Natural Forces and the Application of Science": "The compass (compass) opened the world market and established colonies." The ancient Chinese This invention was first used in navigation and indeed played a certain role in promoting the emergence and development of capitalism. The magnetic needle was used for navigation, making three-quarters of the earth's oceans accessible. Since the 15th century, Columbus sailed across the Atlantic to reach the American continent; in the early 16th century, Magellan's fleet successfully circumnavigated the world, etc., all of which are inseparable from the application of the magnetic needle. But when and how the magnetic needle was introduced to Europe has been debated by international scholars for hundreds of years. Engels made a scientific conclusion on this in his "Dialectics of Nature". He pointed out that "the magnetic needle was passed from China to Europeans by the Arabs" "around 1180."
The predecessor of the compass was called "Sinan", and the earliest record can be found in "Han Feizi Youdu Pian" in the third century BC. At that time, when people talked about the phenomenon of magnets attracting iron, they thought it meant "a loving mother bearing her son", so they once wrote "magnetism" as "kindness".
Sinan is like a household spoon, with a hemispherical bottom to reduce friction and make it easy to rotate when placed on a plate engraved with "stem and branch" scales. In the Song Dynasty in the 12th century AD, Zhu Yu mentioned the compass for navigation in his "Pingzhou Ke Tan" and Xu Jing's "Korea Illustrated Book". Some people say that the navigation compass is still early, because according to the records of Liang Shenyue in the Southern Dynasties, the "compass" had already appeared in the Jin Dynasty. (According to Japan, Volume 26 of the Secretary Volume 26, the fourth year of Emperor Qimei's reign (the third year of Emperor Gaozong's reign in the Tang Dynasty, AD 658), said: "Abe led Hirafu to attack Sushen (Bohai Kingdom) - Shaman Zhiyu built a compass. "The compass car system was used to sail against Su Shen. At that time, Hirafu led 180 boats on the expedition. In the same book, Emperor Tenji's sixth year (the second year of Qianfeng reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, 667 AD) said: "The Japanese warrior Samana Chiyu presented Compass. "Japanese monks" refer to Chinese monks who were naturalized in Japan.) By the Southern Song Dynasty, an independent instrument compass (a device that uses a compass to indicate the direction of the magnetic meridian is called a compass) was made and was widely used in navigation.
The first Western book introducing the compass appeared in the early 13th century, 100 years later than the records in books such as "Pingzhou Ketan". In "Mengxi Bi Tan" written by Shen Kuo of the Song Dynasty, the declination angle of the water floating needle and the magnetic needle was recorded. Columbus only discovered the declination of the magnetic needle when he first crossed the Atlantic Ocean, more than 400 years later than Shen Kuo's record. Liquid magnetic compasses are commonly used on ships of various countries in modern times, which is an important creation in navigation technology. This design is based on the traditional European dry compass and absorbs my country's 800-year floating needle technology to make the magnetic compass more and more perfect. This should be an important achievement of scientific and technological exchanges between China and the West.
——Li Erhe "Seven Thousand Years at Sea"
Before the invention of the compass, the ancients used the stars to determine the direction. They determined the direction by observing the North Star at night and the shadow of the sun during the day. to determine the direction. Very early on, our ancestors invented the compass and the sundial (gui) to determine the horizon. The sundial (gui) is the earliest compass.
Before the invention of the compass, it was impossible to divide the geographical position very finely. Directions and orientations can only be described using the eight broad directions of north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, and northwest.
In Feng Shui, they are represented by the Eight Trigrams: Kan Gua represents the north, Gen Gua represents the northeast, Zhen Gua represents the east, Xun Gua represents the southeast, Li Gua represents the south, Kun Gua represents the southwest, Dui Gua represents the west, and Qian Gua represents the northwest. square.
The positioning of the sundial (gui) divides the ground plane into twelve equal parts, using the twelve earthly branches: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai come to indicate the direction.
With the development of the processing industry, the magnetic needle has changed from the original spoon shape to the needle shape, and from the water-floating magnetic needle to the thimble, which has caused a qualitative change in the measurement accuracy of the compass. In the Tang Dynasty, Yang Junsong combined the two major positioning systems of the Bagua and the Twelve Earthly Branches into one, and added the ten heavenly stems A, B, B, D, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui to indicate the position of the middle palace. Except for Wu and Ji, all of them are added to the earth direction system to express the direction. Therefore, the three hundred and sixty degrees around the ground and sky are divided into twenty-four equal parts, called twenty-four mountains, each mountain occupies 15 degrees. Three mountains constitute one hexagram, and each hexagram occupies 45 degrees. The Twenty-Four Mountains have been preserved since their creation in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the twenty-four mountains of the territory are one of the main levels of Yang Pan. The three mountains in the north, Ren, Zi, and Gui, belong to Kan Gua the day after tomorrow, and Kun Gua innately; the three mountains in the northeast, Chou, Gen, and Yin, belong to Gen Gua the day after tomorrow, and the Zhen Gua innately;
The three mountains in the east belong to Jia, Mao, and Yi , the day after tomorrow belongs to the Zhen Gua, and the innate one belongs to the Li Gua; the three mountains in the southeast are Chen, Xun, and Si, the day after tomorrow belongs to the Xun Gua, and the innate one belongs to the Dui Gua;
The three mountains in the south, Bing, Wu, and Ding, the day after tomorrow belong to the Li Gua, and the innate It belongs to the Qian hexagram; the three mountains in the southwest, Wei, Kun, and Shen, belong to the Kun hexagram the day after tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow belongs to the Xun hexagram; the three mountains in the west, Geng, You, and Xin, the day after tomorrow belong to the Dui hexagram, and the day after tomorrow belong to the Kan hexagram; the three mountains in the northwest, Xu, Qian, and Hai, belong to the hexagram the day after tomorrow. Qian Gua belongs to Gen Gua innately.
Yang Pan
As the founder of Yang Gong Feng Shui in southern Jiangxi, he not only created a complete Feng Shui theory, but also reasonably transformed the Feng Shui tool compass.
The twenty-four mountain disks of the territory were created by Yang Gong. Before Yang Gong, there was no complete twenty-four mountain disks, only the Bagua disk and the twelve earthly branch disks. Although the compass of the Han Dynasty also had the marks of Bagua, Earthly Branches and Heavenly Stems, it did not divide the degrees equally. Instead, the Heavenly Stems, Bagua and twelve Earthly Branches were divided into three layers, and the degrees they occupied were inconsistent. Yang Gong rearranged it and completely distributed the Bagua, Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in the plane orientation, which was an epoch-making creation.
The astrolabe on the twenty-four mountains of the land, that is, the seventy-two dragon disk, was created by Yang Gong in his later years. Through long-term practice in Kanyu, Yang Gong discovered that: Yin and Yang and the Five Elements are commonly found in all directions. The distribution of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements is determined based on the attributes of the Bagua and Five Elements, which is inconsistent with the actual situation. Using the Yin and Yang Dragon to divide the dragon is too rough. After repeated research, it is the upper limit of the twelve lands. Tiangan uses the five elements of Nayin to express the five elements of the dragon, which is called the "inverted" five elements. In "Qingnang Ao Yu", "Upside down, there are jewels on the twenty-four mountains; Upside down, there are fire pits on the twenty-four mountains". The "upside down" refers to the five elements of Nayin of the seventy-two dragons.
The compass of the Han Dynasty
The sky disk was also created by Yang Gong. In practice in Kanyu, Yang Gong found that there was a big error in using the land to collect water. According to the principle of left-hand rotation in heaven and right-hand rotation in earth, he created the double mountain in the sky to absorb sand and collect water. In the compass, only the sky disk has double mountains, and the other compasses do not have double mountains. The ancients believed that the dragon came from the sky, belonged to the heaven system, and was Yang. Water flows in the earth, belongs to the earth system, and is yin. Due to the displacement effect caused by the relative movement of left and right rotations of heaven and earth, the sky disk used to receive water should move to the right, so Yang Gong rotated it to the right in the direction of the site by 7.5°.
The Five Elements of Shuangshan are the three combined five elements. In Tianpan, Renzi is in the same palace, Guichou is in the same palace, Genyin is in the same palace, Jiamao is in the same palace, Yichen is in the same palace, Xunsi is in the same palace, and Bingwu is in the same palace. , Ding Wei is in the same palace, Kunshen is in the same palace, Gengyou is in the same palace, Xinxu is in the same palace, Qianhai is in the same palace. The center of the twin mountains faces the center of the twelve earthly branches of the territory. The twelve earthly branches are based on the three combined bureaus of Shengwang Tomb, namely the three combined water bureaus of Shen Zichen, the three combined fire bureaus of Yinwuxu, the three combined alloy bureaus of Siyouchou, and the three combined wood bureaus of Haimaowei. Chenxu Chouwei is the tomb of water, fire, metal and wood respectively. It is an important place for dragon water and yin and yang to have sex, and is called the four major water mouths.
Therefore, the earth pan, sky pan and seventy-two dragon pans together are commonly known as "Yang Pan".
Later in the Song Dynasty, Lai Buyi introduced the twenty-eight stars and five elements, and added a human tray, which was specially used to eliminate sand and bring out evil spirits. The twenty-four mountains on the human disk are rotated 7.5 degrees counterclockwise than the twenty-four mountains on the land disk.
Renpan is also called "Laipan".