Zangshu 葬書 falsely ascribed — Song era (per Siku)
The Book of Burial — the short classic that coined the word "fengshui" 風水, and the register's textbook case of why attributed author and actual origin must be stated separately.
Classical Texts Register · ← all 28 titles
Identity card
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | 葬書 Zangshu, also transmitted as 葬經 Zangjing ("Book/Classic of Burial") |
attributed_author | Old tradition attributes it to Guo Pu 郭璞 (Jin dynasty, 3rd–4th c.) |
attribution_status | falsely ascribed 偽托 — Song-era composition (Siku examination, vol. 109: Guo Pu's biography never mentions a 葬書 and the Tang bibliography does not carry it under his name; only the Song bibliography does) |
| Received text | Surviving text was cut to eight chapters by the Song editor Cai Yuanding 蔡元定 and divided into inner/outer/miscellaneous chapters 內篇／外篇／雜篇 by the Yuan scholar Wu Cheng 吳澄 |
| School | Form school 形巒 — treated by the tradition as the common ancestor of both later dragon lineages (宗廟、江西兩宗) |
| Full text | ctext.org full text · Chongwen Shuju facsimile |
What it contains
The register records its key lines and structure:
- The definition that named the field: 「葬者原其起，乘其止」 ("in burial, trace the arising and ride the stopping") and 「乘風則散，界水則止」 ("qi scatter[s] on wind and stop[s] at bounded water") — the source of the term fengshui 風水 itself.
- Division into inner chapters 內篇, outer chapters 外篇 and miscellaneous chapters 雜篇 (in the received Wu Cheng arrangement).
What the Siku cataloguers concluded
郭璞本傳不言著《葬書》，《唐志》不云郭璞，惟《宋志》始載郭璞《葬書》一卷 — Siku Quanshu Zongmu, vol. 109 (shushu lei). Guo Pu's official biography nowhere credits him with the work; the Tang dynastic bibliography does not list it under his name; it first appears attached to him in the Song bibliography, as a single-juan Zangshu.
The collation register therefore records the author as doubtful, judged a Song-era composition bearing Guo Pu's name 作者存疑（宋人依托）. Writing "Guo Pu wrote the Book of Burial" is the exact error the dual-field format exists to prevent.
Where it sits in the tradition
The school matrix assigns it to the Form school 形巒 as its main body, with the register noting its special position: both the later 宗廟 and 江西 lineages claimed descent from it.
Related
青囊經 Green Satchel Classic · 青囊奧語 · full register · engine-level rule disagreements: School Dispute Register