金口诀
Jin Kou Jue, also known as the Sun Bin method, casts from four positions: the direction, the Month General, the day stem and the hour. Its structure is simpler than Da Liu Ren, but it comes from the same idea of a general laid over a position.
What is distinctive about it is the weight given to the direction and to the omens present when the question is asked, that is, to the actual surroundings at the moment of casting. Few other systems write this into their formal rules.
How to read this branch
How the four positions are derived underpins everything else. Once it is clear how the direction is taken, the rest follows.
Charting guides
- Jin Kou Jue ChartJin Kou Jue shares its origin with Da Liu Ren but reduces the structure to four positions. Once they are set, the elemental relations and seasonal strengths can be read immediately, which is what the tradition means by casting and reading in one motion. This page explains where each position comes from.
- Da Liu Ren Chart CalculatorDa Liu Ren is one of the three canonical systems, alongside Qi Men Dun Jia and Tai Yi, and the one with the largest surviving literature. It turns a moment in time into a pair of stacked plates, then draws four lessons and three transmissions from them. This page follows the casting order.