卷八·第 524–526 问　本命的推算、纳穆达尔与落种之时

§524. How are nativities fixed and worked out?

第五百二十四问　本命如何确定、如何推算？

When the foetus comes out of its mother's belly, the altitude of the Sun is obtained, if it is daytime, and the ascendant with its degrees is computed from it, and that is the ascendant of that native. If it is night, take the altitude of one of the known fixed stars that are marked on the astrolabe and compute the ascendant from it. Do not use the wandering planets, for working with them is impracticable, nor the Moon, for working with her does not hit the mark, unless necessity calls for it. If something prevents taking the altitude, such as dust, cloud or the like, there is nothing for it but to know the hour and what has passed of the daytime or the night, and to compute the ascendant from that, as has been said before. Knowing what has passed is done in two ways. Either the knowledge and notice of the birth come beforehand, so that one watches for it and sets the bowl of the hours on the water, or one of the instruments by whose motions time is measured, at a known moment of sunrise or sunset or the like; then, when the birth takes place, one knows from the instruments how many hours have passed. The other way is that notice does not come beforehand: one sets the instrument going at the time of the birth and watches it until a time at which one can take the altitude of the Sun or of the star, and ascertains that time; then one goes back from it by the amount of the hours that were known by the instrument, and so arrives at the place of the birth in time and its moment. If no instrument is at hand, take any vessel that happens to be there at the time, of whatever substance, and pierce it at its bottom with a hole of any size you wish. When the child is born you have two courses: letting the water into it, or the other, letting it out of it. For letting it in, you set it on clear water; that is the first time. Whenever it fills and sinks in the water, take it out of it empty and set it on again, and count the sinkings and keep them in mind until the Sun or the stars become clear to you. Then measure, and know how many sinkings the vessel has sunk and the fraction of a sinking, and mark the level the water has reached. Then find what has passed of the daytime or the night, at whatever time it happens, set the vessel on the water again and watch it until it completes the like of the number of those first sinkings and the water reaches the mark of the fraction; then measure the altitude of the Sun and find what has passed between that time and the time when you set the vessel on the second time. When you know the hours, go back by the like of them from the time at which the Sun or the star became clear to you, and you arrive at the time of the birth. For letting the water out, you set the vessel on something like a trivet, take a jug, fill it with water and pour it into the vessel, so that it drips or runs out from it; when it has run out and is about to stop, pour that water into it again, and keep doing this, counting the number of pourings, until the Sun or the star becomes clear to you. If water remains in the vessel, note where it stands in it; then repeat the work in the manner described before.

胎儿从母腹出来时，若是白天，就取太阳的高度，由此算出上升点及其度数，那就是这个本命者的上升点。若是夜里，就取星盘上标出的某颗已知恒星的高度，由此推算上升点。不要用游星，因为用它们来做行不通；也不要用月亮，因为用她来做射不中目标，除非迫不得已。若有尘土、云或诸如此类的东西妨碍取高度，就只能知道时辰以及昼或夜已过去多少，由此推算上升点，如前面所说。知道已过去多少，有两种办法。一种是降生的消息与预兆事先已到，于是人守候着它，在已知的日出或日落之类的时刻，把计时之碗放到水上，或放上某种以其运动量度时间的仪器；然后降生发生时，就从仪器知道已过去几个小时。另一种是消息没有事先到来：人在降生之时启动仪器，守着它，直到可以取太阳或星的高度的时候，查明那个时刻；然后从那里按仪器所知的小时数往回推，就到达降生在时间中的位置与其时刻。若手边没有仪器，就取当时碰巧在那里的任何器皿，不论什么材料，在它的底部凿一个孔，大小随你。孩子生下时你有两条路：让水进去，或另一条，让水出来。若让水进去，你就把它放在清水上；那是第一次。每当它注满而沉入水中，就把它从水里取出、倒空，再放上去，数着沉没的次数记在心里，直到太阳或星对你显明。然后测量，知道器皿沉了几次以及一次沉没的零头，并标出水所到的高度。然后求出昼或夜已过去多少，不论碰上什么时候，再把器皿放到水上，守着它，直到它完成与先前同样次数的沉没，水也到达零头的标记；然后量太阳的高度，求出那一时刻与你第二次放上器皿之时之间过了多少。知道了小时数，就从太阳或星对你显明的那个时刻往回推同样多，就到达降生的时刻。若让水出来，你就把器皿放在三脚架之类的东西上，取一只罐，装满水倒进器皿，让水从中滴出或流出；水流尽、快要停时，就把那水再倒进去，一直这样做，数着倒水的次数，直到太阳或星对你显明。若器皿里还剩下水，就记下水在其中的位置；然后照前面所说的方式重复这番工作。

§525. If the observation of the time has not been ascertained, what is to be done?

第五百二十五问　若时刻的观测没有查实，该怎么办？

In truth, such a time has then passed into the knowledge of the unseen, to which there is no way of attaining. But the astrologers, since their conjecture seldom goes wrong about the sign of the ascendant when they grope for it, while they need the degree, have devised a method known as the namūdārs, which leads to some degree that they take as the degree of the ascendant. The one most used is the namūdār of Ptolemy, of which they say that if the degree of the ascendant does not come out of it, the degree that does come out is the first of the degrees after the degree of the ascendant, by inference. The method of this namūdār is that you strive to make exact the time that the informant reports, and set up the ascendant and the angles for it, and the places of the seven planets. Then you go to the degree of the conjunction preceding the birth, in the first half of the month, and seek the planet with most claim and testimony in it, then the one that follows it in this, one after another, and keep them in mind; and its aspect to the degree, and the best of the testimonies, is what puts one of two planets first when they are equal in portions. Then one looks at the degrees of the true position of the claimant of the degree, which of the angles is nearest to it and most in agreement with its degrees, and makes that angle equal in degrees to its degrees, and computes the ascendant from it. If its degrees are very far from the degrees of all the angles, one leaves it and takes the planet that follows it in claim, and considers in it too what we have mentioned, until the most suitable is obtained. Some astrologers in this matter take nearness of place, and make the degrees of the angle nearest in place to the claimant, not in agreement, like its degrees; but the learned hold to what we have set out.

说实话，这样的时刻那时已经落入隐秘之知，没有通往它的路。但星占家们，因为他们摸索上升星座时揣测很少出错，而他们需要的是度数，就设计了一种方法，称为纳穆达尔，它引出某一度，他们就取作上升点的度数。最常用的是托勒密的纳穆达尔，关于它他们说：若由它得不出上升点的度数，那么得出的那一度，按推断，是上升点那一度之后的第一度。这个纳穆达尔的方法是：你尽力把报信人所报的时刻弄准，为它立起上升点与诸角，以及七颗行星的位置。然后你到出生之前那次合的度数——在月的前半——去，找在其中最有主张与见证的行星，然后是在这方面紧随其后的，一颗接一颗，记在心里；它对那一度的照，以及见证中最好的，是当两颗行星份额相等时使其中一颗居先的。然后看这颗对该度有主张之星真位置的度数，四角之中哪一角离它最近、在度数上与它最相合，就让那一角的度数与它的度数相等，由此推算上升点。若它的度数离一切角的度数都很远，就舍弃它，取在主张上紧随其后的行星，也照我们所说的考察，直到得出最合适的。有些星占家在这件事上取位置的远近，让在位置上离那主张者最近的角——而不是在度数上相合的角——的度数像它的度数；但有学问的人坚持我们所陈述的。

§526. How is the fall of the seed known?

第五百二十六问　落种之时如何得知？

It is a first beginning for man, from which are known his temperament, his build, his form and his circumstances while he is a foetus. The excellent have ordered that it be used, but only on the word of the father or the mother, if they knew of it. They have made the beginning of management in pregnancy belong to Saturn, then Jupiter, following the course of the orbs, sometimes a month at a time and sometimes a week. What the astrologers use is built on two principles that are interchangeable, so that if one of them holds, the work holds. One of them is that the degree of the ascendant of the birth is the place of the Moon at the time of sowing; the other is its converse, I mean that the ascendant of the fall is the place of the Moon at the birth. If you want what they use, learn first from the mother whether it was of seven, eight, nine or ten months of pregnancy. If the Moon is at the degree of the ascendant that you set by estimate, make the degree of the ascendant the degree of the Moon; the native has completed whole revolutions of the Moon, and was born, if of seven months [corrected: MS has 'nine months'], in 191 days and 6 hours; if of eight months, in 218 days and 13 hours (and never mind here that a child of eight months does not live); if of nine months, in 245 days and 21 hours [corrected: MS has 20 hours]; and if of ten months, in 273 days and 5 hours. If the Moon is not at the degree of the ascendant, she is either above the earth or below it. If she is above the earth, take the degrees from the degree of the Moon to the degree of the ascendant, and reckon one day for every 12 degrees and 11 minutes, and take for each one degree an hour and five-sixths of an hour, and for each minute of a degree a minute of an hour and five-sixths of it [sic]. Whatever days and hours you collect, subtract them from the days we have mentioned for the month they reported. If the Moon is below the earth, take the degrees from the degree of the ascendant to the Moon and do with them as we have set out; whatever days and hours you collect, add them to the days we have mentioned for the month they reported. What results after the addition and subtraction is the stay of that native as a foetus; go back by it from the time of the birth until you reach the time of the fall of the seed, and ascertain the place of the Moon. Then make the degrees of the ascendant of the native like the degrees of the Moon; and it has then been ascertained, according to what we have related of their principles.

它是人的第一个起点，由它可知他的气质、体格、形貌，以及他还是胎儿时的境况。贤达者曾吩咐使用它，但只凭父亲或母亲的话，如果他们知道的话。他们把怀胎中的管理之始归于土星，然后是木星，依循诸天球的次序，有时一月一换，有时一周一换。星占家所用的，建立在两条可以互换的原则上，所以其中一条成立，这番工作就成立。其一是：降生时上升点的度数，就是播种之时月亮的位置；另一条是它的反面，我是说：落种时的上升点就是降生时月亮的位置。你若想要他们所用的，先从母亲那里问明怀胎是七个月、八个月、九个月还是十个月。若月亮正在你按估计所定的上升点度数上，就让上升点的度数等于月亮的度数；本命者已满了整数个月亮的周转而出生：若是七个月〔抄本作九个月，据算改正〕，在一百九十一日又六小时；若是八个月，在二百一十八日又十三小时（这里且不管八个月的孩子活不成）；若是九个月，在二百四十五日又二十一小时〔抄本作二十小时，据算改正〕；若是十个月，在二百七十三日又五小时。若月亮不在上升点的度数上，她就或在地上，或在地下。若在地上，就取从月亮的度数到上升点度数的度数，每十二度十一分算一日，每一度取一小时又六分之五小时，每一度的一分取一小时的一分又它的六分之五〔原书如此〕。所集得的日与时，从他们所报那个月数的日数中减去。若月亮在地下，就取从上升点度数到月亮的度数，照我们所说的去做；所集得的日与时，加到他们所报那个月数的日数上。加减之后所得，就是本命者作为胎儿的停留；从降生之时按它往回推，直到落种之时，查明月亮的位置。然后让本命者上升点的度数像月亮的度数；按我们所述他们的原则，它就查明了。