Spirits in clouds fortune-telling

Clouds and Astronomy were combined in ancient forms of divination: from Heaven to Earth.

As it is displayed in the Dunhuang map, a Chinese chart including 1,345 stars registered by the naked eye, and dated much earlier than such detailed observations became possible by the usage of telescopes (from the VII^th c., although it might be much older as it will be mentioned at the end of this article). The map also projects the sky sphere as a cylinder (a technique used in Europe just around the 15^th century), and had also become the oldest complete manuscript star map worlwide.

Made from pure expensive mulberry fibres, it's a thin ink paper scroll of 82" x 10" to be read from right to left. The first part is a set of 25 cloud drawings used for fortune-telling, and the second part is a set of 13 star maps. The first twelve maps correspond to the 12 solar seasons of the Chinese lunar year, with stars seen between 40° N and 40° S and drawn in cylindrical-type projection. The last map corresponds to the North circumpolar region (as seen from above), and is followed by a man's drawing in traditional clothes, holding a bow and arrow as well as being pointed by a bigger bow and arrow (although no figure holds the latter ones).

The paper length of the cloud divination section is as long as that of the first 12 maps, so a cylindrical display of each section makes it easier to find two clouds assigned to each map. Each one of them is a season, a region, an ancient Kingdom, a natural element, and an astrological sign. Those regions are the places where the vitalizing spirit of heaven dwells every month. Although there's no visible form of the spirit to behold, it can be discerned by the way three stars of the North Pole region point to each region on Earth every month: at evening twilight, midnight and dawn.

So the spirit is poured into the Earth on each Kingdom's dominion, in the ways indicated by the North Pole stars. And it will become visible in the ways indicated by each region: clouds will be seen in a specific location, colored, in motion and shaped. The appareance will tell of wealth and loses, dangers and weather changes, wars and other events to expect and be prepared for.

The texts of the first 8 clouds on the manuscript are missed, so the vitalizing spirit expressed on Earth through clouds, and by the regions of the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit and Dragon, cannot be desciphered.

On the right. When this cloud from sea moves at midnight and enters the land. A great flood, overflowing rivers, people losing their homes, the dead outnumbering the living. On the left. When this cloud from sea moves into villages and towns. A great mourning. Troops and weapons will fill the land, blood will flow like a river, and people won't be able to move. A cruel general or one of the highest ministers rises to the throne, or becomes the prince.

The spirit comes from SSE, and is Fire in winter. Chinese Zodiac's sign: Snake.

On the right. A five-color cloud above someone's house, remaining there steadily during the last days of the month and the 1^st day of the following one. If mostly blue, it means a dead body; if mostly red, gold and jade; if mostly white, copper and iron; if mostly yellow, the house will go through extensive renovation works; if mostly black, the house will serve as the abode of the divine spirit. On the left. An irregular cloud above someone's house. There's a treasure. If red, it means jade.

The spirit comes from South, and is Fire in cold winter. Mars the red star obscures the spirit's home on Heaven, as seen from Earth. Chinese Zodiac's sign: Horse.

On the right. A five-color cloud above someone's house. If mostly blue, there's a dragon; if mostly red, a thousand; if mostly yellow, it's hidden inside; if mostly white, there will be death and mourning. If gates are mostly black, a family is about to be annihilated by robbers and bandits within 1 year. On the left. A scattered white cloud inside of common people's houses. Grave illness; if murky black and covers the top, someone of the family will die in a battle. If not, then the whole family will be annihilated.

The spirit comes from SSW, and is Fire while Springtime is coming. Chinese Zodiac's sign: Goat.

On the right. In a mound on a plain, a yellow [366 yd] long cloud high into the sky, straight and vertical. It's the Son of Heaven (the Emperor); if blue, red, white and black, there will be tears and grief, and towns will have duke sand knights; if blue, it means illness; if white, an army is preparing for war; if black, expect for robbers and thieves. On the left. Colored clouds in towns. If blue, it's about the highest ministers; if mostly red, it's about the prefect.

The spirit comes from WWS, and is Wood while the myriad of things is fully prospering and permeated. Chinese Zodiac's sign: Monkey.

On the right. White cloud in town. Expect for a great worthy or a saint. If mostly black, there's a hidden dragon and if it does not come out, there will be a flood disaster in 100 days. On the left. A cloud inside of someone's home and garden, in the form of a leaping or crouching wolf or tiger. A son of the family will become a general and conferred a rank of nobility within three years.

The spirit comes from W, and is Wood while the myriad of things matures in Springtime. Chinese Zodiac's sign: Rooster.

On the right. A black cloud covering a mountain from the top as it is traversed. Look for a hidden current (a non-flowing spring); the spring will be found between [8.8 ft] and [22 ft] underneath. On the left. A red cloud seen in rivers and uncultivated territories as traversed. There's an old tomb of a monarch (it cannot be crossed) and wait for certain death within 3 years.

The spirit comes from WWN, and is Wood by the time of sowing. Chinese Zodiac's sign: Dog.

On the right. A white cloud rolling in and out as traversing a forest at the hill of a mountain. There are jade or gold ornaments underneath the place. On the left. A red vine-shaped cloud in between the trees of the forest creeping up the trees. Look for copper, coins or a golden treasure.

A sighing spirit comes from NNW, and is Water. Chinese Zodiac's sign: Pig.

On the right. A human-shaped white cloud on a mountain as traversed. Do not pass through or the cloud will kill you, although a treasure can be found underneath the mountain. On the left. A pagoda-shaped cloud seen in the wilderness as traversed. Silver can be found between [22 ft] and [33 ft] underneath.

The spirit comes from N, and is Water while the myriad of things is in darkness. Heaven and Earth are bare and empty. Chinese Zodiac's sign: Rat.

A cloud between the 11^th and 12^th regions, associated to the duration and end of the year. A sword-shaped white vapour on a mountain. There are weapons to be found underneath.

Since the Chinese sky is divided into 12 regions (12 solar seasons) and the calendar is a lunar one (13 months), the action of cutting might be related to synchronization, so there would not be a specific region or zodiacal sign related to this cloud.

About the manuscript

The Dunhuang map was found in the XX^th century in the Mogao Caves (also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas), which are part of UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1987 as the greatest and most consummate repository of Buddhist art worldwide. They form a complex of around 735 caves although only 12 of them are open to tourism.

Located at the modern Mogao City (Southeast Dunhuang City, Gansu province, Chine), the caves are emplaced where there was a strategic crossroad on the ancient Silk Road (or Jade Road) linking Asia, Eastern Africa and Southern Europe. South to Gobi Desert and East to Taklamakan Desert, it was the place where the Han Dynasty had established a frontier garrison outpost in 111 BD (Mogao may mean "peerless", "none higher" or "high in the desert").

It is said that the Buddhist monk Le Zun have had a vision of a thousand Buddhas bathed in golden light. And later, the vision inspired the excavation of the caves in 366 AD, by the time of the Liang Dynasty. The location became a place for Buddhist monks to meditate, store scriptures and artworks, and provide communication and knowledge to travellers and merchants, who found a meeting place in the area between the IV^th and XIV^th centuries.

Rocks cut into the side of an almost 1.25 miles long cliff made a soft gravel conglomerate covering an area of 450,000² ft. Although it's not suitable for either sculpture or elaborate architectural details, 487 caves in the Southern section of the cliff are decorated for travellers and worshipers with overhanging wooden eaves, giant sculptures and wall paintings of both religious and secular styles. Whereas 248 caves in the North area are mostly plain and include living quarters, meditation chambers, and burial sites for the monks.

As a whole, the artworks display numerous motifs depicted by people arriving at the location over a long time period and from different origins, mainly Chine, India and Central Asia. More than 10 major genres were covered throughout centuries, including architecture, sculpture, wall, paper and silk paintings, calligraphy, woodblock printing, embroidery, literature, music, dance, and popular entertainment. And as it was active for a thousand years, stylistic changes over time can be appreciated.

The most common motif is the seated Buddha, as it was Le Zun's original vision. The early caves show the rock-cut Indian chaitya style, with sculptures in niches and a square-sectioned central column where worshippers used to walk around in circles. Other original Indian influences are the characteristic nude figures and shading effects to achieve a 3D effect on paintings, although the technique can hardly be appreciated now due to time deterioration. Other caves are halls influenced by traditional Chinese and Buddhist architecture, with ceilings painted as if they were pyramids or like gable ceiling buildings. Some of them contain side-chambers large enough for a person to sit in for meditation.

After the Yuan Dynasty, no more caves were built. During the Ming Dynasty, the Silk Road was officially abandoned, and Dunhuang slowly became depopulated, so most of the caves were abandoned, too. But in 1900, the Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu followed a smoke drift from a cigarette and discovered a small hidden cave.

The cave originally contained Hongbian monk's statue, who died in 862 AD. But in the 11^th century, the statue was moved to another cave to place in a large number of disordered manuscripts dated from 406 to 1002 AC, as well as paintings, textiles, paper books and shorter texts rising nearly to 10 ft high, leaving a cleared out area inside of the cave just enough for two people to stand in. The cave was sealed up back then and, when opened again in 1900, it became better known as the Library Cave since it covered a wide range of topics such as literature, philosophy, art and medicine, in around 50,000 scriptures and documents written in several languages (Chinese, Tibetan, Uighur, Sanskrit, Sogdian, Khotanese).

The store also contained the Dunhuang scroll and the Diamond Sutra in woodblock printing. But most of the writings were sold in 1904 for the paltry sum of 220 pounds. Since the 1940's, the Research Institute of Dunhuang Art worked on the conservation of paintings and sculptures, later followed by the Dunhuan Academy since 1993, which offered digital records of the arts in public viewers.

The Dunhuang map is usually attributed to Li Chunfeng, between 649 and 684 AD. But, according to the Sun's positions registered in the texts next to the star maps, the emplacement of the sky objects might correspond to a time period between 40 BD and 220 AD, so the document might be a compilation of different authors. They might have looked at the stars from the Chinese Empire's Observatory (34° N) and colored them to distinguish the one who had registered them for the first time: red stars by Shi Shen, black ones by Gan De, and white and/or yellow ones by Wu Xian. It is believed Shi Shen and Gan De lived by the year 300 BD.

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Sources: Mogao Caves in Chine, Wikipedia (last accessed 08.26.24), The Soochow Astronomical Chart, Translation of the Dunhuang Star Chart, The complete Dunhuang Star Atlas (last section of the Or.8210/S.3326 British Digital Library), The Dunhuang Chinese sky: a comprehensive study of the oldest known star atlas.