TL;DR: The four source books of Lục Hào do not share the same role: Hỏa Châu Lâm is the early layer of rules, written as rhapsody verses for each matter asked about; Hoàng Kim Sách is a set of rhapsodies that generalises the rules; Tăng San Bốc Dịch is a book of rebuttal and simplification; Bốc Phệ Chính Tông is a compendium. The biggest difference is that Tăng San Bốc Dịch directly refutes a number of Hoàng Kim Sách's laws, such as taking the Ứng line as the wife, or Tài moving meaning it overcomes the parents, while Bốc Phệ Chính Tông reproduces Hoàng Kim Sách.
What actually distinguishes these four books from one another?
The core difference lies in each book's role within the Lục Hào tradition: one is an early layer of rules written as short verses for each kind of question, one is a verse compendium distilling the rules, one is a critical and simplifying work, and one is a compilation. They are not four variants of a single work, but four different layers of one lineage. Hỏa Châu Lâm and Hoàng Kim Sách carry authors assigned by tradition; Tăng San Bốc Dịch and Bốc Phệ Chính Tông name their compilers on the book itself.
What is Hỏa Châu Lâm and what role does it play in Lục Hào?
Hỏa Châu Lâm is a text that tradition attributes to Ma Y đạo giả; the Wikisource edition files it under the Song dynasty and gives no year. The book presents six-line divination, using the eight palaces, the six relations and the five elements as its framework. In Hỏa Châu Lâm, the sections on divining houses, ploughing and sowing, silkworms, livestock, fishing and hunting, and graves are each written as separate entries, each opening with a short verse line followed by explanation.
For example, in the section on divining houses, the book says: "家宅吉占，专用财福" (divining a house as auspicious, exclusively use Cai and Fu), meaning that when divining household matters one gives weight to the The Tai line and the Tu Ton line. In the section on divining graves, the book says: "安坟立陵，福旺家兴" (securing the grave and raising the tomb, when Fu is prosperous the family thrives), meaning that when the Tu Ton line is prosperous the household flourishes. This style of writing shows that Huo Zhu Lin is a practical text, not a purely theoretical book.
One notable point: Hỏa Châu Lâm already has a section "Lục thân căn nguyên" (六亲根源) listing Phụ Mẫu, Huynh Đệ, Thê Tài, Tử Tôn and Quan Quỷ; asked why five items are called six relations, the book answers that the hexagram body counts as one. The book also already uses the terms Dụng Thần, flying spirit and hidden spirit. But this edition has no Nguyên Thần, Kỵ Thần or Cừu Thần, the set of terms to which Tăng San Bốc Dịch gives a chapter of its own.
What is Huang Jin Ce and which rules does it distill?
Hoàng Kim Sách bears the name of Lưu Cơ of the Ming dynasty: the Wikisource edition notes "題明劉基著", that is, the book is inscribed with his name by traditional attribution. The note of that edition calls the work the "great synthesis" of the Hỏa Châu Lâm method. The book opens with the Tong Doan Thien Kim Phu, then divides into chapters by the matter asked: weather, yearly fortune, personal destiny, marriage, childbirth, illness, seeking wealth, travel and many other matters.
The opening line of the Tong Doan Thien Kim Phu reads: "動靜陰陽，反覆遷變。雖萬象之紛紜，須一理而融貫" (movement and stillness, yin and yang, reverse and change; though the myriad phenomena are diverse, one principle must run through them all), meaning that despite all the myriad forms, everything must return to one principle. This is the book's methodological declaration: not to list countless scattered rules, but to seek one principle that runs through them.
The next passage reads: "日辰為六爻之主宰，喜其滅項以安劉。月建乃萬卦之提綱，豈可助桀而為虐" (the day is the master of the six lines, one delights when it destroys Xiang to pacify Liu; the month is the guideline of all hexagrams, how could it aid Jie in cruelty). The meaning is: the day is the master of the six lines, the month is the guideline of all hexagrams. These are the two most important time axes in Liu Yao divination.
Huang Jin Ce also sets out many specific rules that later books debate. For example the line "世為己，應為人，大宜契合" (the Shi is oneself, the Ying is the other, great suitability lies in harmony), meaning the Shi line represents oneself, the Ying line represents the other, and the two sides should be in harmony. Or the line "用神有氣無他故，所作皆成" (when the Dung Than has qi and no other obstacle, all that is undertaken succeeds), meaning that when the Dung Than has qi and is not broken, all matters succeed.
In form, Huang Jin Ce is a verse book, written in rhymed parallel prose, each line short and easy to remember. This is why the book spread widely and was copied by many later books.
What does Tang San Buo Dich criticize and simplify?
Tang San Buo Dich was compiled by Da He Lao Ren, expanded by Li Wen Hui, with no known specific year. This is the book with the clearest stance of the four: it does not merely present rules but also criticizes earlier books.
Its most prominent criticism concerns the use of the Dung Than in marriage divination. In the chapter on marriage, Giác Tử (the style name of Lý Văn Huy) writes: "男家占女，不拘父母親朋而代占者，無不以財為用。女家占男，皆以官為用" (when the man's family divines about a girl, whether parents or close friends divine on their behalf, none fail to use Cai as the Dung Than; when the woman's family divines about a man, all use Quan as the Dung Than).
The book then takes up a line of Hoàng Kim Sách itself: "黃金策云，翁姑不睦，皆因妻位交重" (Hoàng Kim Sách says: when parents-in-law are not in harmony, it is always because the wife's place is in motion, that is, the Tài line moves), together with two similar lines from Hải để nhãn and Dịch mạo. Giác Tử presses the point: if a moving Tài can harm Phụ Mẫu, does a strong Tài not harm them? A strong Tài is taken as good for the marriage, yet a Tài in command attacks a weak Phụ line, so the two rules collide. His way out is "separate divination" (分占之法): first the Tài and Quan must be strong, and only after a good hexagram is obtained does one cast a separate hexagram to ask whether the parents are harmed.
The book also criticizes the use of the Ying line to represent the wife: "黃金策專以應為妻位，易冒亦以應為妻" (Huang Jin Ce exclusively takes Ying as the wife's position, Yi Mao also takes Ying as the wife). Tang San Buo Dich holds this method to be wrong because one cannot infer that a virtuous wife must necessarily come from a wealthy family. The book writes: "執此論，則旺相賢良之女皆出於富貴之家？種種悖謬，予不知何以千百年來竟無一人道破" (holding to this reasoning, are all prosperous and virtuous girls from wealthy families? Such absurdities, I do not know why in a thousand years no one has pointed them out).
In practice, the book records many specific divination examples. For instance, a marriage divination on the Gui You day in the Zi month, obtaining the Heng hexagram changing to Ding: "酉官持世，戌土財爻動而生世，又得世應相生，戌土雖值旬空，動不為空，明日出空之日，求之必允" (the You Quan holds the Shi, the Xu earth Cai line moves and generates the Shi, and again Shi and Ying generate each other; though Xu earth meets the decade void, when moving it is not counted as void; on the day it leaves the void tomorrow, the request will surely be granted). The result recorded: on the very next day the request was granted.
What kind of book is Bốc Phệ Chính Tông?
Bốc Phệ Chính Tông is a work in fourteen volumes; the woodblock edition on Wikisource names Vương Hồng Tự (王洪緒) of the Qing dynasty as author and was printed in the Giáp Thìn year of Quang Tự (1904). The book includes Hoàng Kim Sách: according to the note in the Wikisource text of Hoàng Kim Sách, that work was taken into Bốc Phệ Toàn Thư, Tăng San Bốc Dịch and Bốc Phệ Chính Tông, and the Wikisource text is transcribed in full from the version in Bốc Phệ Chính Tông.
How do the four books compare in a table?
| Criterion | Hỏa Châu Lâm | Hoàng Kim Sách | Tăng San Bốc Dịch | Bốc Phệ Chính Tông |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Author named on the book | Ma Y đạo giả (traditional attribution) | Lưu Cơ (inscribed, traditional attribution) | Dã Hạc lão nhân; revised by Lý Văn Huy (Giác Tử) | Vương Hồng Tự |
| Date | Filed under Song on Wikisource, no year | Inscribed as Ming | No year in the source | Qing; the edition used here was printed in 1904 |
| Genre | Short verses with notes and questions and answers | Verse on hexagram divination | Critical book with many verified cases | Compilation in fourteen volumes |
| Focus | Six relations, flying and hidden spirits, divination by matter | General rules | Criticism and simplification | Compilation, includes Hoàng Kim Sách |
| Notable feature | The section Lục thân căn nguyên | Tổng đoán thiên kim phú | Refutes Hoàng Kim Sách and Dịch mạo; has a chapter revising Thiên kim phú | Reprints Hoàng Kim Sách in full |
How do the four books refer to one another?
The four books refer to one another, so they are hard to read in isolation. Tăng San Bốc Dịch has a whole chapter 34 titled "Tăng san Hoàng Kim Sách thiên kim phú" (增刪黃金策千金賦), which copies the verse line by line and adds or removes, and many other chapters argue directly against Hoàng Kim Sách and Dịch mạo; to follow the argument one needs Hoàng Kim Sách at hand. The Wikisource text of Hỏa Châu Lâm is also more than a bare main text: under each verse line come notes ("chú vân") and questions and answers.
Note that all four books fall within the scope of metaphysical interpretation. The rules in the books are not scientific laws but the conventions of one school. Their value lies in their systematic quality and their ability to transmit experience, not in any ability to predict actual events.
