At a glance
- Label groups
- Parents, Siblings, Children, Wealth, Office/Ghost
- Reference
- Palace phase
Definition and terminology
The historical term can broadly mean kinship, while Six Lines practice commonly displays Parents, Siblings, Children, Spouse/Wealth and Office/Ghost groups. Do not invent a universal sixth line label to match the name. Nor does Ghost establish a supernatural being. The labels retain family and official metaphors but extend to other domains.
Structure and rules
Treat the palace phase as reference: producing it gives Parents, same gives Siblings, produced by it Children, controlled by it Wealth, and controlling it Office/Ghost. Date and moving lines add conditions. Unlike BaZi Ten Gods, these groups are not split by stem polarity. Establish the palace reference before classifying any branch.
Worked reading
In a water palace, metal labels Parents, wood Children and earth Office/Ghost. A document-filing exercise may select Parents as its relevant category, then examine an actual line. This shows the move from relation to question domain; it does not imply metal objects produce documents or establish facts about employment or health.
Context and limits
Because labels serve several domains, record the question and selection rule before interpreting results. Historical marriage and property associations reflect gendered institutions; modern revisions should be identified. Present the five relational groups clearly while keeping them distinct from judgments about family members or inevitable conclusions about real interpersonal relationships.
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.
- 《增删卜易》Primary / tradition source
Public-domain Six Lines text; page includes modern transcriber additions, so use the original numbered chapters for attribution.