Romance of the 3 Kingdoms 三國演義/三國志

[Ken]

I have been an avid fan of the Chinese Classic Novel, Romance of the 3 Kingdoms all these while.  I read the novel, played the computer games and watched their DVD version as well.  I certainly encourage anyone with interest in Chinese History and Chinese Metaphysics to get hold of the novel and read it.

Many of the new enthusiasts to Chinese Metaphysics may have only heard of Ba Zi or Feng Shui. In actual fact, outside of these 2 commonly known subjects of Feng Shui, there are many more other subjects within Chinese Metaphysics, some of which are more prestigious.

In fact, the undisputed most prestigious of them all are the 3 styles (三式) of Tai Yi Shen Shu 太乙神數, Da Liu Ren 大六壬 & Qi Men Dun Jia 奇門遁甲. Tai Yi Shen Shu is often used to divine military, political and disaster matters.  Da Lu Ren is used mostly to divine daily matters while Qi Men Dun Jia is used sparingly for warfare. 

What is the relevance of the 3 styles to the Romance of 3 Kingdoms?

[quills]

I used to play the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms as well when I was addicted to games.
They were awesome! I don't really remember it anymore though.

So what is the relevance?
Is it because they use the three styles to care for the people and make strategy for their battles? Like, how the emperors rule their kingdoms and so on?
Or something to do with the "3"?

[Ken]

Hi quills,

It is not so much of the "3".  But I cannot stop emphasizing the importance of the priority in consideration of the cosmic trinity of Heaven, Earth & Man.  For example, in the novel a lot of the advisors focussed too much on killing the enemy (Man) but forget to plan in accordance to Heaven and Earth.

The wisest strategist/advisor in the novel is Zhu Ge Liang 诸葛亮 and he has repeatedly said that the best strategies are those that take into consideration the weather and other environmental factors.

One of the classic scene is the battle of Red Cliff 赤壁 in which Zhu Ge Liang from Liu Bei 刘备 camp, persuaded Zhou Yu 周瑜 from rival Sun Quan 孙权 camp to form alliance against the invading but much stronger Goliath Cao Cao 曹操 troops.  They had devised an ingenious fire warfare to attack Cao Cao's troops but what is not in their favor is that the North and North-Easterly winds at that time of the year means that shooting fire arrows will only result in the fire arrows turning back by the winds to burn themselves!

It was the proverbial "almost but not yet ready" 万事俱备，只欠东风.  At this point Zhu Ge Liang volunteered to perform a ritual to the Heaven to borrow Easterly & South-Easterly wind.  While the rest of the people in their alliance could not believe he has the power to ask for winds from the Heaven, nonetheless, they can only pin their hope on it because there is no way they could have ward off Cao Cao's troops without the success of the fire warfare.  Eventually Zhu Ge Liang succeeded and they successfully defeated Cao Cao's troops to a retreat.

The moral behind of the story behind this scene is that Chinese Metaphysics may appear mystical and spritual but it really is not.  Chinese Metaphysics may look mysticial because it rides on the profound understanding of geography, astrology, meterology and other science and observational studies.  To enjoy success in Chinese Metaphysics,  one should never forget the environmental factors which is largely influenced by Heaven & Earth.

I will share other classic scenes in this novel when the opportunity arises in future.

[remoteviewer]

When i study bazi i notice that when there is a strong metal qi in that day it is likely going to rain... any comments on this???


So what form of Chinese Metaphysics do you think Zhu Ge Liang used to predicted the coming of  South-Easterly wind??? can zwds,QMDJ or bazi do that??? what qi is wind represent???

[Ken]

Hi remoteviewer,

Yes, usually in a day of rain, there will usually be abundance of water and metal elements.  Eg. the day when the lightning struck our Merlion.

Zhu Ge Liang most likely used QMDJ.  The QMDJ chart of the hour when this famous act of "borrowing wind" happened, shows the likelihood of strong winds coming from that direction.  Of course, I am not sure if the Tai Yi Shen Shu chart also will show the same since I do not know how to read Tai Yi Shen Shu.  It was said that Zhu Ge Liang is well versed in both QMDJ and Tai Yi Shen Shu.

If you are referring back to the Ba Gua representation of wind, it is represented by Xun trigram.

[remoteviewer]

Tks ken

Just like today it started raining around 5++pm when i ploted the chart it happen to be in the yi/you hour but i dont know how to combin with the Trigrams to see wind direction :

Any idea how to do it