Da Liu Ren

What's in the chart

• The Earth Plate: the twelve branches, a fixed circle of directions. In the square, south is at the top, as in Chinese charts.
• The Heaven Plate: the same twelve signs, turned so that the Monthly General sits above the branch of the hour of the question.
• The Twelve Heavenly Generals: the Nobleman, the Flying Snake, the Vermilion Bird and others. Each takes its seat on its own sign of heaven and colors its meaning.
• The Four Lessons: what stands in heaven above the day stem and above the day branch, and what stands above those. The first two concern the person asking; the other two concern the other person or the matter.
• The Three Transmissions: initial, middle and final — how the matter will begin, how it will go and how it will end. Each comes with its own general, hidden stem and relative in relation to the day.
• The method used to choose the Initial Transmission, and the lesson type: by tradition, these alone already say a lot about the nature of the matter.
• The day's Void: the two branches left without a stem in the day's decade. A transmission in the Void is considered weakened.

How the chart is built

• Day and hour. The day pillar and the branch of the double hour, in the local true solar time, as in BaZi. By default, the next day begins after 23:00; you can change this.
• The Monthly General (yue jiang) is the sign the Sun is in. It changes at the moment of the principal term (zhongqi): after Rain Water it is 亥 Deng Ming, after the Spring Equinox 戌 He Kui, and so on, backward around the circle. Some schools change it at the start of the month, at the jie term; this option is in the form. The term times are calculated from astronomical tables.
• The Heaven Plate. The Monthly General is placed above the branch of the hour, and the other signs follow it around the circle.
• The generals. The Nobleman (tian yi gui ren) is found from the day stem: by the classical table, 甲 戊 庚 — 丑 by day and 未 by night, 乙 己 — 子 and 申, 丙 丁 — 亥 and 酉, 壬 癸 — 巳 and 卯, 辛 — 午 and 寅. The day Nobleman is used in the hours 卯–申, the night one in the others. If the Nobleman stands above 亥 子 丑 寅 卯 辰, the generals run clockwise; if above 巳 午 未 申 酉 戌, counterclockwise.
• The Four Lessons. The day stem “lives” in its own branch: 甲 in 寅, 乙 in 辰, 丙 and 戊 in 巳, 丁 and 己 in 未, 庚 in 申, 辛 in 戌, 壬 in 亥, 癸 in 丑. The heaven sign above that place is lesson 1, and the sign above it is lesson 2. The sign above the day branch is lesson 3, and the one above it is lesson 4.
• The Three Transmissions. The initial one is chosen by one of the nine methods (below); the middle one is the heaven sign above the initial one, and the final one is the sign above the middle one. “Hidden Groaning” and “Reverse Groaning” have rules of their own.
• The hidden stem of each branch comes from the day's decade (xun dun), and the relative from the element of the branch compared with the day stem.

We checked the calculation in three ways. The plates, generals and Four Lessons matched two independent programs, kinliuren and liuren-ts-lib, in all 8,640 combinations of day, hour and Monthly General, with the generals checked under both Nobleman tables. The calculator fully reproduces twenty-four examples worked through in textbooks, covering each of the nine methods, down to the depth-of-harm count. Against a published table of 720 lessons, the transmissions match in 97% of cases and differ only in “depth of harm”: the table was apparently compiled with the simplified “孟 仲 季” rule and contradicts the textbook examples in two cases. With that rule, which you can select in the form, the match is 99.6%.

The Nine Methods

• Overcoming (zei ke). If in a lesson the lower sign overcomes the upper one (“overcoming from below”) or the upper overcomes the lower (“overcoming from above”), that upper sign is the Initial Transmission. Overcoming from below takes priority: it is called “Reexamination” (chong shen), while overcoming from above is called “Head” (yuan shou).
• Comparison (bi yong). If there are several overcomings, take the sign with the same polarity as the day stem: yang with yang, yin with yin.
• Depth of Harm (she hai). If comparison does not settle it either, each sign is “walked” around the Earth Plate from its position to its own branch, counting how many times along the way it is overcome by the branches and by the stems that “live” in them. The Initial Transmission is the sign that has gone through more harm. In a tie, take the sign above an “initial” branch 寅 巳 申 亥, then above a “middle” one 子 卯 午 酉; if that does not settle it either, take the sign on the stem side on a yang day and the one on the branch side on a yin day.
• Distant Overcoming (yao ke). There are no overcomings within the lessons, so the upper signs are compared with the day stem. A sign that overcomes the stem is a “mugwort arrow”; if there is none, a sign that the stem overcomes is a “slingshot.”
• Pleiades (mao xing). There is no distant overcoming either, and all the lessons are different. On a yang day, take the sign standing above 酉; on a yin day, the branch above which 酉 stands.
• Seeking Elsewhere (bie ze). There are only three distinct lessons: on a yang day, take the sign above the “dwelling” of the stem that combines with the day stem; on a yin day, the next branch in the Three Harmony group of the day branch.
• Eight Exclusives (ba zhuan). On eight days — 甲寅, 庚申, 丁未, 己未 and four more — the stem lives in the day branch, and there are only two lessons. Count three signs forward from the sign above the stem on a yang day, or three signs backward from the top of the fourth lesson on a yin day.
• Hidden Groaning (fu yin). The Monthly General coincides with the hour, and heaven has not moved. The transmissions follow the “punishments” of the branches, not the plate.
• Reverse Groaning (fan yin). Heaven stands opposite earth. If there is no overcoming, the Initial Transmission is the Travelling Horse of the day branch.

How to Read the Chart

Practitioners start with the method and lesson type: “Overcoming” points to a clear cause, “Depth of Harm” to a difficult path, “Hidden Groaning” to stagnation. Then they look at the Initial Transmission: its general and relative show how and through whom the matter will begin. The middle one shows how the matter develops, the final one the outcome.

The relative answers the question “what is this about”: Wealth means money and property, Officer means work, the authorities or worry, Parents means documents and home, Offspring means children and relief, Siblings means friends and rivals. The general colors the meaning: the Azure Dragon and the Nobleman point to good luck, the White Tiger and the Flying Snake to difficulties.

The Four Lessons are compared: the first two concern the person asking, the other two the other party or the matter. A transmission in the Void is traditionally weak: what is promised may not come.

An Honest Look at the Method

Da Liu Ren is one of the oldest Chinese systems: shi “boards” with a heavenly circle above an earthly one are known from Han times, and the rules by which lessons and transmissions are derived today were compiled in treatises from the Song to the Qing dynasties. Its calculation is rigorous, based on the solar terms and the sixty-day cycle, but the predictive power of the method has not been tested.

The schools differ on several points: the Nobleman table, the way “depth of harm” is counted, the moment the Monthly General changes, and the boundary between day and night. By default, the calculator follows the Complete Six Ren (六壬大全) and the most common practice; the other options are in the form.

Use the chart as a traditional way to look at a question from another angle. Decisions about health, money and safety are not made this way.

Related in This Section

• Qi Men Dun Jia
• I Ching
• Chinese Calendar

Frequently asked questions

How is Da Liu Ren different from Qi Men Dun Jia?

Qi Men lays the moment out across nine palaces and the directions and is mostly used to choose a time and a direction. Da Liu Ren works with the twelve branches and answers a specific question: who is involved, how the matter will begin, how it will go and how it will end. Together with Tai Yi, both systems make up the “three boards” (san shi).

Which time should I enter — the time of the question or of the event?

Traditionally, the moment the question is asked or reaches the diviner. By default, the calculator takes the current time; for a past question, enter its date and time.

Why does the location matter?

The hour is counted in true solar time: in Moscow, solar noon comes at about 12:30 clock time. Near the boundary of a double hour, the correction changes the hour, and with it the whole chart. You can turn the correction off.

Why did another program give a different Initial Transmission?

Most often because of one of three disputed points: the Nobleman table, the way “depth of harm” is counted, or the moment the Monthly General changes. All three can be switched in the form. If the plates or the Four Lessons don't match, check the hour and the Monthly General: everything else depends on them.

Can I build a chart for any date?

Yes, from 1902 to 2099: choose the date and time in the form. The link to the chart saves all the settings.