At a glance
- Input
- Day pair plus plate mapping
- Jia lodging
- Yin
Definition and terminology
The lessons pair the day stem with its heavenly sign, that sign with its successor, the day branch with its heavenly sign, and that sign with its successor. Their traditional yin/yang names mark derivation roles, not male/female owners. Preserve upper and lower ordering because upward and downward control are treated differently.
Structure and rules
A common lodging table places Jia at Yin, Yi Chen, Bing/Wu Si, Ding/Ji Wei, Geng Shen, Xin Xu, Ren Hai and Gui Chou. Lodging gives a lookup address, not a new identity for the stem. Lessons may repeat, prompting special selection rules; do not alter repeated pairs to force four distinct signs.
Worked reading
Using the teaching Chen-over-Yin plate on a Jia-Zi day gives lower/upper pairs Jia/Chen, Chen/Wu, Zi/Yin and Yin/Chen. This demonstrates successive lookup and repeated correspondence. No initial transmission has yet been selected, so the lesson order cannot establish that a real situation unfolds in four temporal stages.
Context and limits
Construction precedes relationship, strength and general interpretations. Received mnemonic texts can contain orthographic or transcription errors, requiring checking; day and hour boundaries also alter lessons. Show inputs and derivation rather than claiming the signs directly measure social events or establish moral judgments about a person.
References & further reading
Historical sources document ideas and rules of their time, not empirical proof of predictive accuracy. Source notes identify the nature and scope of each reference.
- 《六壬大全》卷一：入手法Primary / tradition source
Public-domain rules for transmission selection; associated predictions are not modern evidence.
- 《六壬大全》（四库全书本）Primary / tradition source
Public-domain Liuren compilation; editorial account covers plates, lessons, transmissions and textual history.