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Chapter 3 of 15
奇门遁甲元灵经
This chapter, titled "Qimen Solar Terms and Eight Trigrams Diagram," systematically elaborates on the correspondence relationships among solar terms, the Eight Trigrams, and the Nine Palaces within Qimen Dunjia, as well as the starting positions of the Six Jia旬 (Six Jia Cycles) within the Nine Palaces. It concludes with verse formulas summarizing the auspicious and inauspicious natures of the Nine Stars and their appropriate applications.
The twenty-four solar terms are distributed among the Eight Trigrams, with each trigram governing three solar terms: Winter Solstice, Minor Cold, and Major Cold belong to the Kan Trigram; Beginning of Spring, Rain Water, and Awakening of Insects belong to the Gen Trigram; Spring Equinox, Pure Brightness, and Grain Rain belong to the Zhen Trigram; Beginning of Summer, Lesser Fullness, and Grain in Ear belong to the Xun Trigram; Summer Solstice, Minor Heat, and Major Heat belong to the Li Trigram; Beginning of Autumn, End of Heat, and White Dew belong to the Kun Trigram; Autumn Equinox, Cold Dew, and Frost's Descent belong to the Dui Trigram; Beginning of Winter, Light Snow, and Heavy Snow belong to the Qian Trigram.
Regarding the starting palaces of the Six Jia Cycles, the verse states: the Jiazi Cycle begins from the Gen Palace, the Jiaxu Cycle flies into the Li Palace, the Jiashen Cycle enters the Kan Palace (the ape enters the crystal palace), the Jiawu Cycle settles in the Kun Palace without movement, the Jiachen Cycle rises from the Zhen Palace (the dragon rises from the earth), and the Jiayin Cycle enters the Xun Palace (the tiger's roar gives rise to wind). The Nine Stars manifest their functions upon the Nine Palaces, with Taiyi (Supreme One) as the point of initiation.
The verse on the auspicious and inauspicious natures of the Nine Stars pronounces judgment one by one: Taiyi brings smooth success in all matters of seeking wealth; Sheti at the gate brings turmoil and unrest; Xuanyuan going out and coming in encounters frequent frights; Zhaoyao in motion portends the calamity of bloodshed; Tianfu is fitting for travel and hunting; Qinglong in motion brings abundant wealth; Xianchi primarily indicates official disputes and litigation; Taiyin benefits matters of women, marriage, and betrothal; Tianyi at the gate guarantees meeting noble benefactors.
In summary: Taiyi, Qinglong, Taiyin, and Tianyi are auspicious stars; Tianfu and Xuanyuan are moderately favorable stars; Sheti, Zhaoyao, and Xianchi are inauspicious stars.
This chapter constructs the three-tiered architecture of the spatiotemporal coordinate system of Qimen Dunjia:
The Solar Term—Eight Trigram—Direction correspondence establishes the spatial framework. The Eight Trigrams are no longer merely abstract symbols but spatial coordinates bound to specific time segments (solar terms). Kan is north, Li is south, Zhen is east, Dui is west—the four cardinal trigrams each paired with three solar terms; Gen is northeast, Xun is southeast, Kun is southwest, Qian is northwest—the four corner trigrams likewise each paired with three solar terms. This system embeds the "flow of time" into "spatial directions," enabling the Qimen chart to simultaneously reflect both heavenly timing and earthly advantage.
The starting palaces of the Six Jia Cycles reveals the "official rotation" mechanism of time advancement in Qimen Dunjia. Each cycle (of ten days) is governed by a different Jia, starting from a different palace, meaning that the "entry point" of heaven-earth qi alternates every cycle. Jiazi begins at Gen, Jiaxu enters Li, Jiashen enters Kan, Jiawu resides at Kun, Jiachen enters Zhen, Jiayin enters Xun—this path is not simply a sequential clockwise or counterclockwise circuit but conceals deeper logic of yin-yang waxing and waning and the generation-control relationships of the Five Elements.
The auspicious-inauspicious system of the Nine Stars constitutes the "layer of human affairs judgment" superimposed upon the aforementioned spatiotemporal framework. Each of the Nine Stars possesses its own disposition and governs its own affairs, with clear distinctions of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness, forming a complete event prediction model. The Nine Stars are endowed with personified functions: Taiyi governs wealth, Qinglong presides over prosperity, Tianyi attracts benefactors, Taiyin manages marriage, Xianchi governs official disputes, Zhaoyao presides over bloodshed calamities, etc., grounding abstract judgments of fortune or misfortune in concrete life affairs.
From a modern perspective, this system reflects ancient Chinese people's profound insight into the unity of time and space:
The Solar Term—Eight Trigram correspondence is essentially a spatiotemporal encoding system. From the viewpoint of modern information theory, the Eight Trigrams are eight "spatiotemporal labels," each carrying dual information of a specific time segment (solar term) and spatial direction (palace). This bears striking resemblance to the concept of "climate zonation" in modern meteorology—the dominant airflow directions in different seasons are closely related to barometric systems in different directions. For example, Winter Solstice paired with Kan (north) precisely corresponds to the meteorological pattern in the Northern Hemisphere where winter cold waves originate from the north; Summer Solstice paired with Li (south) corresponds to the phenomenon of warm and humid summer currents coming from the south.
The starting palaces of the Six Jia Cycles can be understood as a periodic system reset mechanism. Changing the starting palace every cycle is analogous to the "rotation system" in modern management or "pointer rotation" in computer systems. It ensures periodic renewal of the energy entry points within the Nine Palace system, preventing any single palace from monopolizing dominance in the long term. Extending this thinking to modern life, it can inspire us to establish regular rotation and renewal mechanisms in work arrangements and resource allocation.
The auspicious and inauspicious nature of the Nine Stars should not be simply understood as fatalism. A more reasonable interpretation is that the Nine Stars represent nine types of situational tendencies or energy patterns. Taiyi (auspicious) signifies a "harmonious and unobstructed" energy field, suitable for initiating ventures and seeking wealth; Zhaoyao (inauspicious) signifies a "turbulent and conflicted" energy field, where stillness is preferable to action. Modern people can regard the Nine Stars as classification labels for decision timing—advancing critical affairs when "auspicious stars are on duty" and adopting conservative strategies when "inauspicious stars are on duty" is essentially a traditional form of risk management.
In ancient times, the content of this chapter served as the fundamental chart-setting guide for Qimen Dunjia divination operations:
In modern applications, these principles can be transformed as follows:
| Ancient Principle | Modern Transformation | Application Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| Determine trigram by solar term | Identify the overall energy characteristics of the current time window | Project cycle planning, seasonal life adjustments |
| Determine palace by cycle head | Periodically review changes at "starting points" | Review and adjust strategy every cycle (ten days) |
| Judge affairs by Nine Stars | Classify and assess the auspicious-inauspicious tendency of situations | Multi-dimensional risk assessment before major decisions |
Specifically, a "hypothesis—action—review" methodology can be established:
The system presented in this chapter fundamentally represents the concrete technical unfolding of the ancient Chinese philosophy of "unity of heaven and humanity."
Solar terms come from heaven (the sun's movement), the Eight Trigrams come from earth (spatial directions), and the Nine Stars serve as "mediating energy" between heaven and humanity. The combination of the three constitutes a decision-making model integrating heaven, earth, and humanity. This is not simple superstition but an attempt to establish an ordered frame of reference amidst the chaos of worldly affairs—when humanity faces uncertainty, aligning one's decisions with the greater cosmic rhythms (solar terms), spatial structures (Eight Trigrams), and energy patterns (Nine Stars) to thereby gain a sense of certainty and direction.
On a deeper level: the division of auspicious and inauspicious among the Nine Stars reflects a dialectical worldview. None of the Nine Stars is absolutely good or absolutely bad. Tianfu is "fitting for hunting, auspicious"—even in its moderate status, it still has its proper use; Sheti "creates turmoil at the gate"—though an inauspicious star, it may also signify the gathering of crowds, which is not entirely negative in certain commercial scenarios. This implies that auspiciousness and inauspiciousness are not inherent properties of things but the result of interaction between spatiotemporal conditions and human circumstances. The same energy may produce entirely different effects in different scenarios.
This coincides with the "context-dependence" thinking of modern complexity science—a system's behavior cannot be judged apart from its environment. An "inauspicious star," at the right time and in the right matter, might be the key force that breaks a deadlock.
Later Heaven Eight Trigrams and Solar Terms: The theoretical foundation of the solar term—Eight Trigram assignment in this chapter lies in the correspondence between the directional attributes of the Later Heaven Eight Trigrams and the apparent annual motion of the sun. Kan (north) corresponds to the Winter Solstice, when one yang begins to arise; Li (south) corresponds to the Summer Solstice, when one yin begins to arise. This is consistent with the cosmogony of "Qian and Kun are the gateways of Change" in the Zhouyi Cantong Qi.
Six Jia Cycles: In the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch timekeeping system, every ten days constitutes one cycle, with the cycle head being Jia, named sequentially Jiazi, Jiaxu, Jiashen, Jiawu, Jiachen, and Jiayin. The rotation of the Six Jia Cycles is the key node for calculating the switching of "spatiotemporal qi mechanisms" in such divination systems as Qimen Dunjia and Da Liu Ren.
Qimen Nine Stars: Traditional Qimen Dunjia typically employs the nine stars Tianpeng, Tianrui, Tianchong, Tianfu, Tianqin, Tianxin, Tianzhu, Tianren, and Tianying. The nine stars used in this chapter—Taiyi, Sheti, Xuanyuan, Zhaoyao, Tianfu, Qinglong, Xianchi, Taiyin, and Tianyi—belong to a different system, related to the spirit-deity system in Taiyi Divine Calculation or the nine spirits of ancient divination boards, reflecting the diversity of Qimen school traditions.
Taiyi Divine Calculation: One of the Three Methods (Qimen, Liu Ren, Taiyi). The "Taiyi" in the phrase "Taiyi initiates its use" in this chapter is not only the foremost of the Nine Stars but may also suggest cross-fertilization between this classic and the Taiyi Divine Calculation system.