The Qi Men Dun Jia Guide

What Is Qi Men Dun Jia

Qi Men Dun Jia, together with Tai Yi and Liu Ren, forms the "Three Cosmic Arts" of classical China. It casts a chart from a moment in time: the asking moment is converted into the Four Pillars, which determine the layout of the earth plate, heaven plate, Nine Stars, Eight Doors and Eight Gods across nine palaces. The resulting board is read to judge the outcome, timing and strategy of a specific matter — historically it was called the "art of emperors".

The heart of a Qi Men chart is representation by stems: the Day Stem stands for the asker, the Hour Stem for the matter asked about, and the other stems each carry a role (Wu for money, Geng for obstacles, Ding for news). Reading a chart means locating the palace of the relevant stem, interpreting the pairing of its heaven-plate and earth-plate stems (the Ten Stems interactions), then refining the verdict with the doors, stars and gods.

How We Cast the Chart: the Full Algorithm

This site uses the mainstream hour-based rotating-plate method with Chai Bu formation. Here is the complete rule set — every step can be checked against the classics or any professional charting tool:

1. 1
   Four Pillars

   The year pillar changes at the exact moment of Start of Spring; the month pillar at the exact solar-term transition; the day pillar at 23:00 (late Zi hour belongs to the next day); the hour pillar follows the post-change day stem via the Five Rats method.

2. 2
   Formation (Chai Bu)

   Winter Solstice through Grain in Ear is Yang Dun; Summer Solstice through Major Snow is Yin Dun, judged by exact transition times. The Yuan is fixed by the day pillar's position in the sexagenary cycle (Jia/Ji as leaders: Zi-Wu-Mao-You upper, Yin-Shen-Si-Hai middle, Chen-Xu-Chou-Wei lower), then the formation number is read from the classical formation verse.

3. 3
   Earth plate

   The Three Nobles and Six Yi are laid in the order Wu-Ji-Geng-Xin-Ren-Gui-Ding-Bing-Yi, flying forward from the formation palace in Yang Dun and backward in Yin Dun.

4. 4
   Chief and Envoy

   The hour pillar determines the Xun head (Jia-Zi→Wu, Jia-Xu→Ji, …). The star of the palace holding the Xun-head stem is the Chief (Zhi Fu); its door is the Envoy (Zhi Shi). If the Xun head sits in the center palace, the Chief is Tian Qin and the Envoy is the Death Door.

5. 5
   Heaven plate

   The Chief follows the Hour Stem: the Chief star moves to the palace of the Hour Stem (using the Xun-head stem when the hour stem is Jia; the center palace lodges in Kun 2), and the remaining stars rotate in fixed ring order. Tian Qin travels with Tian Rui, carrying the center palace's earth-plate stem.

6. 6
   Eight Doors

   The Envoy follows the Hour Branch: starting from the Xun-head palace, step through all nine palaces (center included) by the hour's ordinal within the Xun — forward in Yang Dun, backward in Yin Dun. The landing palace holds the Envoy door, and the doors align in ring order.

7. 7
   Eight Gods

   Chief, Serpent, Great Moon, Six Harmony, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, Nine Earth and Nine Heaven are laid from the Chief's palace, clockwise in Yang Dun and counter-clockwise in Yin Dun.

Classical Sources

The verses and verdicts in our structure entries are compiled from these standard classics:

The Complete Dictionary

134 entries covering the Nine Stars, Eight Doors, Eight Gods, Three Nobles and Six Yi, and every common structure — each with formation conditions, classical verses, plain-language explanations and concrete readings across six life topics:

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