Nine systems, cast properly

Bazi turns the year, month, day and hour of birth into four pillars of stems and branches, and reads the configuration a person is born with: where the five phases run thin or thick, how the ten gods stand, which way the luck pillars run. It answers what someone is made of and which direction suits them — not whether to act on something today.

For reading a life pattern the assistant starts here. Every other system reads the energy of one moment or one matter; only the four pillars stay with a person for a lifetime. Without that ground, nothing the other systems say has anywhere to land.

The casting is done by deterministic algorithms: true solar time, solar-term boundaries and leap months all follow the received rules rather than an approximation, so the same birth data always yields the same chart. With the chart in hand the assistant works through the Bazi knowledge base and the Bazi library of classics, so a conclusion can be traced to the passage it rests on.

Ziwei Doushu lays a life out across twelve palaces and places the stars among them. It reads the same person as Bazi from a different angle: Bazi argues from the waxing and waning of the five phases, Ziwei from where the stars fall — which palace is crowded, which is bare, visible at a glance.

As soon as a question has a subject and a setting — this relationship, this relative, this job — the assistant reaches for Ziwei. Bazi can say how large a wealth pattern is; Ziwei can say which palace it comes through and which stars govern it. That resolution comes from the palace system.

The twelve palaces, the four transformations and the decade and annual cycles are all computed to the received rules. The reading is worked against the Ziwei knowledge base and the Ziwei library, so star natures, palace meanings and chart formations each have a source.

Qimen Dunjia lays out nine palaces for the moment a chart is cast, and seats the eight gates, nine stars, eight spirits and the heaven and earth stems among them. It does not ask who you are. It asks what configuration of time and space this matter sits in — where the gate is open, where the road leads, who is standing in the way.

When something is hanging unresolved, the assistant casts Qimen. A birth chart speaks to the long arc; Qimen speaks to the step in front of you — which palace it falls in, whether to move or hold, which direction runs clear. Commanders once used it to move armies, and for exactly that: direction and timing.

The pattern number, the duty-symbol and duty-envoy, the void branches and the horse star are all fixed by the received casting rules, not left to the model. The reading returns to the Qimen knowledge base and the Qimen library, where palace, gate, star and spirit each have their textual basis.

Da Liuren first raises the heaven and earth boards with their twelve generals, then derives three transmissions from four lessons. The three transmissions are its signature: initial, middle and final lay a matter out as a line — where it came from, where it stands now, where it is going — settled within a single casting.

How will this go, and when will it resolve? For that kind of question the assistant usually turns to Da Liuren. Qimen is strong on configuration and direction; Liuren is strong on the traffic of human affairs and on timing. Cast both on one matter and you get the situation from one and the schedule from the other.

The four lessons, three transmissions and the shensha follow the received casting rules, matched against the same reference table the charting service uses. The reading is worked against the Da Liuren knowledge base and library.

Liuyao casts a hexagram, then fits each of the six lines with stems, branches and a kinship role — parent, sibling, offspring, wealth, officer. Whatever is being asked determines which line is the subject, and the reading follows that line: is it strong, does anything support it, and where does it change to if it moves.

Will it come off, will it be got, can it be secured? For those the assistant casts Liuyao. Its strength is that it narrows a matter down to one identified line — not a general verdict on how things look, but a statement of where the crux sits and how that line stands right now.

Fitting the lines, assigning the stems and branches, and locating the subject, object and void branches all follow the received rules. The reading returns to the Liuyao knowledge base and library, where the standard texts sit passage by passage with a plain-language rendering beside them.

Meihua Yishu skips the elaborate fitting procedure. It casts from a time or from a number that was given, yields the primary, nuclear and changed hexagrams, and divides them into substance and function. What it reads is the image — the shape a matter has taken on right now, and the shape it is turning into.

When a question arrives in a hurry and is still vaguely put, the assistant casts Meihua first. Other systems need the matter stated clearly before they can be cast; Meihua can take an image from the prompting occurrence itself and give a direction. It is often paired with another system — one to take the image, one to pin it down.

Casting, the nuclear and changed hexagrams, and the substance-function relations all follow the received rules. The reading is worked against the Meihua knowledge base and library, where the source text itself is held.

Dayan Shifa is the casting method the Book of Changes carries in its own text: fifty yarrow stalks of which forty-nine are used, four operations to a change, eighteen changes to a hexagram. What comes out is not only a hexagram but the old or young yin and yang of every line — which line moves, and what it moves into, is decided across those eighteen changes.

When an answer needs to come back to the text itself, the assistant uses Shifa. Liuyao and Meihua are later interpretive traditions; Shifa runs straight to the hexagram and line statements and their commentaries. On questions of what to take up and what to let go, of advancing or withdrawing, of how to conduct oneself, nothing else carries that weight.

All eighteen changes follow the Great Expansion number set out in the Xici commentary, and each one can be reviewed. The reading rests on the Book of Changes itself alongside the Dayan Shifa knowledge base, with hexagram statements, line statements and commentary read together.

Jinkou Jue casts on four positions only: the ground division, the leading spirit, the noble spirit and the human stem. Once those four are up, the five-phase relations and the strength of each kinship role can be read straight off. It is the quickest to cast and the most direct to judge of all nine — one casting, many verdicts, an immediate answer.

When a question arrives urgently and needs a judgement usable right now, the assistant casts Jinkou Jue. It is not built for long-range patterns, but on “this moment, favourable or not, move or hold” it is fast and concrete — and it is often used to cross-check what another system has just concluded.

The stems and branches of the four positions, their strength, the void branches and the shensha are all fixed by the received casting rules. The reading is worked against the Jinkou Jue knowledge base and library.

Feng shui does not read the person. It reads the place the person is in. Flying Star arranges the period and the sitting-and-facing into nine palaces, seating the mountain star, the water star and the period star in each, so which quarter favours people, which favours money and which carries harm is laid out on one board.

The other eight systems read time and human affairs. Feng shui supplies the dimension they leave out: space. The same person lives differently in two different houses, and Bazi cannot account for that difference — it comes from the sitting and facing, the layout, and how the annual stars fall. That needs its own chart.

Periods, sitting and facing, and the flight paths follow the Jiang-school Xuankong tradition; Master Libo is a twenty-fourth-generation lineage holder of it. The reading is worked against the feng shui knowledge base and library, where the standard geomantic texts are held.