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Chapter 2 of 5
大六壬探原
This chapter is the foundational deduction chapter of The Original Exploration of Da Liu Ren, detailing the complete procedure for setting up a divination chart: from fixing the time, determining the generals, to establishing the Four Lessons, selecting the Three Transmissions, arranging the Heavenly Generals, integrating the Hidden Stems, and ultimately producing the complete chart format. The core instructions of the entire text are as follows:
The entire deductive process operates like a precision astronomical clockwork, each link interlocking with exacting articulation.
This chapter reveals the core operational logic of Da Liu Ren: "The Heaven Plate flows with the seasons, the Earth Plate remains immovable for a thousand years." The interweaving of Heaven and Earth plates constructs a miniature model of the universe. The divination hour is "the moment the celestial mechanism activates," the month general is "the trajectory of solar movement," the stems and branches are "the body to which human affairs belong," and the Four Lessons and Three Transmissions are "the path of the evolution of events." The entire chart procedure, from fixing the divination time to arranging the life-year, essentially embeds a living person and concrete affair into the ever-circulating coordinate system of space and time, capturing that unique "slicing of energy."
The nine transmission-selection methods reflect the ancient people's taxonomic study of "event development trajectories":
① Spatio-Temporal Positioning Thinking: The chart-setting process of Da Liu Ren is essentially "precise positioning in a temporal sequence." Viewed through a modern lens, this resembles spatio-temporal coordinate annotation of events — when someone comes to divine, one first records "when it happens" (divination hour), then superimposes "where the Sun is at that time" (month general), next adds "the attributes of the event's subject" (stems and branches), and finally maps "the trajectory of event evolution" (Three Transmissions). This resonates remarkably with "contextual feature engineering" in modern data analysis.
② Classificatory Decision Tree: The nine transmission-selection methods form essentially a complete decision tree:
This structured inferential framework can be transformed in contemporary terms into a thinking model for event classification and path prediction.
③ The Deeper Significance of She Hai: The She Hai method requires "counting through the return home, enumerating layers of harm" — this is a deep-scanning methodology. It does not merely look at surface generation/overcoming relationships; it penetrates into the "hidden reservoirs" of each Earthly Branch, calculating all "obstacle points" and "support points" along a path. Modern decision analysis of program risk assessment should likewise proceed this way — examining not only direct effects but also chain reactions and hidden variables.
④ Individualized Life-Year: Da Liu Ren, based on the "general chart format," additionally incorporates the individual's natal year and moving year, achieving a dual-layer architecture of "generalized model + individualized adjustment." This aligns highly with the "global model + user profile" methodology in modern recommender systems.
① Decision-Path Analysis: The nine chart forms actually offer nine "templates of event development trajectories." Modern people confronting complex decisions can draw upon its taxonomic thinking:
| Scenario Type | Corresponding Chart Logic | Practical Operational Recommendations |
|---|---|---|
| Clear goal, single choice | Yuan Shou/Chong Shen | Act directly, no need to vacillate |
| Multiple options requiring selection | Bi Yong/Zhi Yi | Choose the option best matching your strengths |
| Complex path with layers of obstacles | She Hai | Conduct comprehensive risk assessment, eliminate variables layer by layer |
| Indirect effect, remote influence | Yao Ke | Pay attention to indirect factors and behind-the-scenes forces |
| No information available, must find alternative paths | Mao Xing/Bie Ze | Break out of conventional frames, leverage available forces |
| Repeating situations, back-and-forth tension | Fan Yin | Prepare for multiple rounds of negotiation; avoid impulsive direct confrontation |
| Stagnation and internal entanglement | Fu Yin | Set aside fixation, await timing maturity before acting |
② Divination Hour as "Decision Window": The original text emphasizes "saying it spontaneously, the celestial mechanism is lively." From a modern psychological perspective, this is the window period for intuitive decision-making. When information is insufficient but intuitive leanings exist, rapidly locking onto the decision point often strikes more effectively than repeated hesitation.
③ Practical Application of the Life-Year: The calculation of the natal and moving years reminds us that the individual life cycle's influence on decisions cannot be ignored. A 42-year-old making investment decisions is completely different from a 25-year-old. In consulting or coaching scenarios, first establishing the subject's "life coordinates" and then analyzing specific problems yields greater precision.
① The Mirror Relationship Between Heaven and Human Plates: The Earth Plate is "constancy," the Heaven Plate is "change," and humans exist between the two. The philosophical foundation of Da Liu Ren is "constancy-change mutual identity" — individual life (stems, branches, natal years) is embedded within the unchanging geographical space and the circulating astronomical time. So-called "fortune and misfortune, glory and disgrace" are not isolated events but products of the triple resonance of "time — space — person."
② Generation/Overcoming as Relationship Codes: The establishment of Five Elements and Six Relatives nomenclature (father-mother, older-younger brothers, wife-concubine, sons-grandsons, official-ghost) categorizes all interpersonal and event relationships into five fundamental patterns: "generating me, generated by me, overcoming me, overcome by me, mutual harmony." This is an early form of relational ontology — things do not exist in isolation but manifest their qualities and values through mutual generation and overcoming interplays.
③ The "Philosophy of Suffering" in She Hai: The imagery of She Hai's "traversing hardships and dangers" is especially profound. It tells us: when matters are not clearly resolvable (Bi Yong), but rather interlaced with multiple constraints, obscurity and clarity entangled, one must proceed like wading through water — probing the depth step by step, enumerating the harms of each path, and only then finding the true breakthrough. This is not pessimism; rather, it is a pragmatic spirit of reason — acknowledging complexity and then precisely calculating that complexity.
④ The Scholarly Insight of "Ancient Masters Named it with She Hai as the Treat of Principle": The author's criticism of works such as Jing Wei for "focusing on branches while discarding the essential principle" reveals a rigorous scholarly attitude. This reminds us: in preserving ancient wisdom, one should not privilege facility at the expense of systematic integrity. Within any structurally complete methodology, the "essential principle" is often the hardest to grasp, yet it is precisely the most vital part.
| Concept | Meaning | Function in the Chart |
|---|---|---|
| Earth Plate | Fixed orientations of the twelve Earthly Branches | The unchanging spatial background |
| Heaven Plate | Month general applied to the hour, distributing the twelve spirits | The circulating temporal dimension |
| Divination Hour | The twelve Earthly Branch time unit at chart inception | The activating moment of the celestial mechanism |
| Month General | The Sun's position in the twelve zodiac palaces | The anchoring point for Heaven Plate circulation |
| Day Nobleman/Night Nobleman | The Nobleman alternates based on day and night | Determines forward/reverse rotation of Heavenly Generals |
| Xun Concealment/Day Concealment | Layering Heavenly Stems onto Earthly Branches | Endows the six locations with Five Element attributes |
| Six Relatives | Father-mother, siblings, wife-concubine, descendants, official-ghost | Taking the day stem as self for interpersonal/event relationships |
| Moving Year | The peripatetic "moving life-year" advancing yearly | Individualized spatio-temporal coordinates |
The above comprises the vernacular translation and modern interpretation of the Deduction Chapter of Volume I of The Original Exploration of Da Liu Ren. The original text of approximately 700 characters has been expanded into a complete learning resource, designed to allow readers both to master the "technical operations" of the deductive system and to grasp its underlying "intellectual patterns" and "philosophical implications."