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Chapter 3 of 3
六壬基本知识
What is an "origin"? An origin is a beginning. It marks the start and occurrence of a matter, or the point at which a matter initiates new movement at a certain stage of development.
If we treat the movement of all things as the movement of a particle, then the particle presents a curved trajectory in space-time. Take any point on the curve as the coordinate origin, with its space-time parameters denoted as O. Using this point as the center, draw a circle and intercept segments in two opposite directions, R and −R, along the curve. The sum of these segments still equals O (positive and negative cancel out, returning to equilibrium).
According to the laws of generation and development, any matter is composed of two opposing or hostile forces. For example: the new force ahead strives to emerge, while the old force behind refuses to perish, inevitably resulting in tit-for-tat struggle. Just like R and −R, they are forever opposite and antagonistic, yet can never exist independently—they must combine within a single origin, unified into one complete entity. This is what is commonly called 🌓 the "unity of opposites in contradiction."
The origin is O; moving forward it develops into 1, signifying a process of "creating something from nothing." O itself is "nothing," but this is relative to different reference frames—it is merely a point taken at a particular stage of a matter's development. Apart from that point, it becomes "something." Something can become all things, and all things can become nothing. From nothing to something, from something to nothing—all depends on our choice of different space-time points.
So, how do we determine the "O" and "1" of a matter's movement?
Treat the movement of any matter as particle motion, that is, turn the matter being divined into 1. This 1 is called the "Taiji" (Supreme Ultimate). Taiji exists between being and non-being; it has the potential to become all things, and all things can return to one. Therefore, any matter can be viewed as a "one"—just as astronomers regard stars of any size as mere points.
Liuren begins from Taiji. Taiji is one, and this one is the "Void One." The meaning of "Void One" encompasses all things while simultaneously containing nothing. The key from "Void One" to "Substantive One" lies in how to imbue matter into it.
When matter is transformed into one, this one is no longer the "Void One" but possesses real, substantial content—becoming the "Substantive One." The "one" of a matter is the origin or initial boundary of that matter at a certain stage of development. "One" contains the entire matter within itself—just as in elementary arithmetic: set the whole as 1, parts as fractions; no matter how fractions are added or subtracted, they cannot exceed 1 (except for mixed numbers).
For this substantive "one," the ancients gave it a name: the "Heavenly One" (Tian Yi) , or "Tai Yi," "Tai Ji" (Supreme One), among others. The Liuren texts state: "The Heavenly One governs all things and is the root of all things." This means that the Heavenly One is the center of all particles of matter; all things revolve around it, and it is the source of all change and generation.
Why is it called the "Heavenly One"? The ancients hypothesized the most primitive cosmic generation: the production and origin of physical matter. They conceived a most primitive "cosmic egg," within which was nurtured Pangu. Pangu vigorously split open the cosmos—light substances rose to become the heavens 🌌, and heavy substances descended to become the earth 🌏. Thus numbers were born: heaven is one and yang; earth is two and yin—two opposing substances came into being. From the Heavenly One and Earthly Two successively emerged water 💧, fire 🔥, mountains ⛰, lakes 🌊... Hence the "Heavenly One" became the starting point where physical matter began to arise. This "Heavenly One," imbued within Taiji, transforms the empty, void Taiji model into the starting point or origin of a matter's evolution.
From this, we can see that Taiji thought is a philosophical concept abstracted from the ancients' view of cosmic generation and the movement of matter. It can encompass everything—imbue it with any matter and it becomes that matter; it can also be ethereal and insubstantial—existing within all things while containing nothing. It is the supreme principle and mathematical model of the movement of all things.
However, the "origin of a matter" does not always begin with "Pangu splitting the heavens." It may be:
Thus, there exists a subtle relationship between the "Heavenly One" and "Taiji."
How do we connect specific matters with the "Heavenly One, Earthly Two" in the Taiji model? Or rather, how do we correlate the content reflected from Taiji to the Two Polarities, to the Four Images, to the Eight Trigrams with the matter we wish to divine?
What we encounter is an ever-changing chain of matters and conflicts. On the surface, these complicated affairs seem to have no connection whatsoever with the yin-yang, Five Elements, Eight Trigrams, etc., within the Taiji model. How can the transformations and developments of the Taiji model reflect the changes and developments of all things?
Modern natural science always seeks by every possible means to find the interconnections and internal laws of natural things, striving to use a complete set of mathematical models to describe and precisely calculate such connections and developments. Its most prominent characteristic is: comprehensively analyzing research subjects according to their different properties, categories, sequences, etc., substituting them with various letters or numbers, then performing calculations according to unique formula and axiom systems, and finally restoring the substituted letters back to the matter being divined.
The calculation methods of these formulas and axioms must be established on the basis of equivalence relations where type A matters and type B matters are similar or equal. It has a precondition: the unknown must be sought through the known; formulas and axioms must undergo rigorous proof and verification; and the calculation process must never deviate in the slightest. This is rigorous scientific logic.
However, in our world, not everything conforms to this logic. Things that are either-or are always replaced by things that are both-and; precision and order are always mixed with more ambiguity, chaos, and disorder; equivalence relations cannot satisfy humanity's need to understand the world.
So, more scientists turned their gaze back to their ancestors, dusting off ancient artifacts that have been in circulation for thousands of years. Here, they seemed to discover a new world.
People discovered China's earliest algebra. Only the symbols were not ABCD, but the mystique-laden Zi Chou Yin Mao (Earthly Branches) and Jia Yi Bing Ding (Heavenly Stems). They are not merely ordinal markers—they can clearly reflect space-time, yin-yang, Five Elements information, energy, and many more attributes. Moreover, their greatest characteristic is—being the most effective tool for handling set and fuzzy group probability problems.
The Chinese people's special symbols are fully expressed through the Taiji model, while the substitution forms of matter (or the sequential generation relationships of matter) are reflected through the order of the He Tu Luo Shu (River Chart and Luo Writing). How is this reflected? The ancient Chinese found the intermediate link connecting matter and the Taiji model—"Image" (Xiang) .
"Image" means phenomenon, appearance, abstraction, virtual image, concrete image, etc., belonging to the realm of experience. "Image" also carries meanings of nature and attributes. Attributes have a direct relationship with temperament. For example:
- A person with resolute, persevering temperament → shares the attribute of Metal ⚙️
- A person who is slender and elegant → approximates the attribute of Wood 🌳
Everything has its image. The images (or attributes, natures) of things can be equal or similar. Thus, between matter and the fixed Taiji model, there exists a basis for correspondence and equivalence, and the substitution of matter becomes valid!
Viewing the entire matter as 1 creates correspondence with the 1 of Taiji. Thus, the complete situation of that matter can be expanded by intercepting a certain point in its spatial movement trajectory and applying Taiji's space-time and mathematical model, and through the principles of image correspondence and restoration, the present condition and developmental trend of the matter can be calculated. This is one of the most fundamental principles of Da Liu Ren divination.
So, in practical divination, how do we intercept that crucial point? This brings us back to the question of Taiji's origin.
The origin of Taiji is the origin of the Heavenly Mechanism.
What is called the "Heavenly Mechanism"? The ancients often said, "The Heavenly Mechanism must not be divulged"—the inevitable principles of a matter's development will advance according to certain procedures and standards, yet ordinary people fail to perceive such laws and often act contrary to natural law, inevitably suffering setbacks and punishment. Such natural laws often do not change according to human will. If people know them but do not know how to use natural principles to adapt to and change matters, they will act blindly or passively, further violating nature's will and suffering even greater setbacks and disasters. Therefore, things should follow nature, seeking balance and development within it.
However, for those who devote themselves to the study of numerology, the "Heavenly Mechanism" is no longer a mystery. This heavenly mechanism is the turning point for us to perceive the probability of development of all things between heaven and earth, or what we might call the "point of mechanism change."
So, how do we discover the Heavenly Mechanism? The Heavenly Mechanism lies in the instant or fleeting thought when a person or matter begins to undergo change. Why? Because everyone exists within certain matters; the natural changes of matters act upon human consciousness, and human mental activity also exerts important influence upon matters. Movement is the mechanism; the change of the mechanism is movement. People often say "a flash of inspiration"—this is precisely the appearance of the "Heavenly Mechanism." Those who can capture the Heavenly Mechanism truly understand divination.
When the Heavenly Mechanism moves, the signal to divine a specific matter flashes forth. At this moment, a "mechanism" exists—this "mechanism" is the matter's "Heavenly One," "Tai Yi," or "Supreme One." Substituting it into the Taiji model forms a complete divination. ✨
To see clearly the entire development and present state of a matter, it is far from sufficient to merely study it as a single particle. It must be broken down, with every component and every element brought to light, in order to reach more precise conclusions.
How do we break it down? The ancients discovered with great wisdom: everything in the world exists only in relation to other things. Without a beginning, there can be no so-called end; without goodness for comparison, badness cannot be discussed. And in the space we inhabit, nothing can escape the realm of heaven and earth. Thus, the earliest two components of all things are heaven and earth—everything is contained within them. From the 0 or 1 of Taiji, the earliest differentiation produces two, the movement of the Two Polarities.
This is the most well-founded basis for Liuren's establishment of the Heavenly and Earthly Plates as the standard for initiating transformation. Once heaven and earth are established, the outline of the matter emerges, and the matter's first layer is opened.
The emergence of "two" represents an advancement of one level, but it is still quite crude. Mao Zedong often said: "Everything divides into two." When we examine problems, we must always look from two angles—listening to one side leads to confusion; listening to both sides leads to clarity. Two opposing forces of yin and yang can, in general terms, reflect a matter's fundamental contradiction. This is also the first-level differentiation of the matter's particle.
The two opposing sides of a matter's contradiction have only one overall focal point of opposition, but the focal points within each side can continuously differentiate. The contradictory movement of a matter is an extremely complex movement; it can be infinitely subdivided or infinitely expanded. Just as the proletariat and bourgeoisie have only one overarching contradiction, the internal focal points within each side are countless.
Each differentiation of contradiction penetrates one level deeper into the matter:
- From one center → differentiating into two centers
- From two centers → differentiating into four centers
- From four centers → differentiating into eight centers
- From eight centers → differentiating into sixty-four centers
When a matter has differentiated into sixty-four levels, even its most minute developmental links can be seen clearly.
The differentiation process of matter possesses inevitability. As an important conclusion of modern genetics demonstrates: a single DNA macromolecule can split into four nucleotides, and these four nucleotides form the four base pairs of the genetic code. Any three bases among them constitute one set of genetic codons, thereby forming the sixty-four genetic codons of molecular genetics. Genetic codons constitute genes—just as English letters form words—composing living organisms' cells, and genes are arranged in an orderly fashion on chromosomes.
This important discovery tells us: all organic things in nature are orderly. Disorder cannot constitute a concrete and complete entity, and this orderliness manifests precisely through continuous contradiction differentiation.
🏢 Example: I want to establish a company. When none of the conditions are met, it can only be called virtual, or chaotic—it has no substantive content, leaving the matter of "establishing a company" in a scattered, disorderly state of development. But once the company is established, everything operates along its normal track—finance, industry and commerce, management, and various departments all participate in its management and oversight, operating according to set procedures every day. This is an orderly state. The "company" itself becomes a concretely existing "organic entity."
The existence of an organic entity necessarily entails contradiction differentiation; such differentiation is the concrete manifestation of orderliness. This order is the infinite subdivision of contradictions from two to four, from four to eight, from eight to sixty-four, and so on. This process of contradiction subdivision is also a process of ordinal evolution.
So what results does disorder produce? This is the famous "principle of entropy increase."
Entropy increase: everything is constantly moving from order to disorder, tending toward chaos and scattering, and matters gradually move toward extinction.
However, we need not fear the constant increase of entropy. There is an even more important principle—the existence of the principle of entropy decrease.
Entropy decrease: when things are continuously supplied with energy, they constantly move from disorder to order, such as human metabolism. Disorder moves toward dissipation and death; order moves toward aggregation and growth. 🌱
Modern molecular biology also tells us that organic molecules are in a state of continuous differentiation:
From one molecule → differentiating into two molecules → from two molecules → differentiating into four molecules → from four molecules → differentiating into eight molecules... Thus, dividing altogether 50 times, after which division can no longer continue.
When molecular division reaches an extreme point, it moves toward death. But new molecules are then born—just as old contradictions disappear and new ones follow in succession.
This number 50 is precisely the "Great Expansion Number" (Da Yan Zhi Shu) often mentioned in numerology, constituting the cycle of life and death alternation for all things. Therefore, from the Taiji diagram, we can clearly see this circular trajectory of yin giving birth to yang's death, yang giving birth to yin's death.
Entropy decrease and entropy increase, though describing trends of orderliness and energy fluctuations in things, are from another perspective the watershed between a matter's success and dissolution:
Therefore, in the art of numerology, great emphasis has always been placed on the flourishing, resting, imprisonment, and death of elements and the growth, maturity, and extinction of vitality, for these are all symbolic indicators of the increase and decrease of an entity's energy.
Where there is order, there must be number. Number embodies the sequence, hierarchy, and quantitative relationships among things. When there is order, number is clear and manifest; when there is disorder, number is hidden and obscure. Why is it that in Six Ren divination, when affairs are scattered or not yet accomplished, the number does not manifest and the lesson cannot be formed, hence the rule "do not ask after three attempts"? It is precisely for this reason.
The differentiation of contradictions within a matter is the foundation for us to delve deeper and track clues layer by layer, and also the basis for judging changes in events. When an event does not change, it does not manifest; once it changes, the mechanism emerges, the subtle signs become apparent, and divination becomes possible. 🔑
With the dual relationship of yin and yang, things further differentiate into the relationship of the Four Images (Xiang). The central axis of primary contradiction is likewise differentiated. The positive and negative aspects of a matter decompose into the respective yin-yang oppositions of both the host and the guest parties. The internal contradictions within the matter deepen further. At this point, the Four Images present the current state of the matter with relative completeness.
Let us look again at the Taiji model. The movement from the state of Taiji to unfolding is a kind of cyclical movement that repeats itself. Each time Taiji unfolds another layer, it divides this circle into a number of equal parts. These equal parts, in turn, represent the different positions (or capacities) occupied by different entities. These positions have primary and secondary, first and last—just like the Confucian classics' depiction of parents and children in the Eight Trigrams, i.e., the father–son and mother–daughter relations at six positions．How cleverly the entire matter moves within the interplay of such countless contradictions.🙌
The ancients astutely combined the Taiji relations of phenomena with the relations of space and time surrounding them, and connected every kind of thing to its corresponding time and place. In particular, the critical link between phenomena and the Taiji model is the corresponding or common attributes between things. They used eight fundamental kinds of substances of universal property, matched them with the qi attributes of the four seasons, and confronted them with these eight attributes in the eight directions, therewith constructing a cyclical model of motion. 🌐
However far a thing may unfold, it can only be divided into more equal parts of this circle—it can never truly escape the scope of this Taiji realm.
The differentiation of contradictions gives rise to the ordinal relations inherent in Taiji. Accordingly, and following the division of the circle into equal portions, they designed below:
Heavenly stems and Earthly branches were originally only ordinal sequences, but later, because of their different fixed positions, they were each assigned a variety of special meanings. These meanings include universal properties of all palpable things, through which potentially all may be matched by relevant to the association by accordance.
The correspondence relations The establishment of the fourfold is also means by example (象) — representations.
**Fourfold symbolically standing not merely for the circle-four-section zones, can additionally borrow.
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Therefore, the accuracy of numerological prediction lies in the distance between the calculated point and the actual point of the matter (setting aside for now entirely the content of empirical judgment and technical handling of the lesson format). However, as long as the calculated point and the actual point fall within the same interval range, the correspondence between the matter and the model can proceed, and can basically reflect the movement trends of the matter. This is just like the fuzzy sets in fuzzy mathematics — as long as the fuzzy information groups correspond, the probability of occurrence of the matter's fuzzy group can be calculated from the covariant effects produced by the fuzzy group.
Therefore:
Numerology calculates matters merely as the probability of their occurrence. The higher the calculated probability, the more accurate the prediction; conversely, the accuracy is very poor.
A vivid analogy can be drawn 🎯:
Prediction is like shooting at a target. The point of the matter is the target, and the point we calculate is the bullet. If the bullet hits the target, the prediction can be said to be successful; if the bullet misses, the prediction has failed. As for which ring it lands on, that is a matter of the approximate degree of accuracy.
The key now lies in: how to initiate the numbers and establish correspondences, and how to judge the gap between the two points. These are problems that numerology itself resolves, while also containing elements of experience and skill.
However, if one operates according to the prescribed methods of initiating numbers in Da Liu Ren, one generally will not escape the broad scope. Whether it is specifically accurate or not still requires accumulating more knowledge and experience, as well as the philosophical thought of numerology, the laws of fortune and change in the destiny of matters, and various techniques for handling information.
The predictive methods of ancient Chinese Da Liu Ren embody the profound mysteries of all numerological prediction. They constitute a very scientific means of prediction. Through repeated practice, the success rate is extremely high, some even reaching the level of prophetic discernment. The more proficient one becomes, the more accurate the judgments.
This inevitably makes one think: Do the movements of all things in the world inevitably escape some necessary law? Any matter seems as if it has long been predetermined. This in turn propels deeper research and understanding of the ancient Chinese study of destiny, granting it entirely new intellectual content.
Study Suggestions: This chapter is highly theoretical in nature. It is recommended to first establish a holistic framework of Taiji—Two Modes—Four Symbols—Three Transmissions, then gradually understand the role and position of each concept within this chapter. This framework also serves as the foundation for subsequently learning specific chart operations and judgment techniques. 🌱