Enter a date and hour and the classical method renders the nine-palace plate — four pillars, yin or yang dun, the ju number, the yuan, and the zhi-fu / zhi-shi. It is a frame for scheduling and reflection; the method reads the hour, and you keep the decision.
The method reads this hour as carrying the following structural notes. Each is a lens, not a verdict:
For a decision you are weighing: the classical method reads the zhi-fu star at palace 8 and the zhi-shi door at palace 9 as the two anchors of this window — supportive to work that matches their posture, quieter for work that fights it. Yours to weigh.
Nothing here is a verdict. These three steps are simply the order the classical method itself reads a plate in, applied to the chart above.
1 · Locate the Zhi-fu star
The Zhi-fu star on this plate is Heavenly Chong, sitting in palace 8 (Gen · Northeast). The tradition reads this palace as where the hour's chief momentum gathers — a description of the hour's posture, not a judgement of it.
2 · Read the Zhi-shi door
The Zhi-shi door is Injury Door in palace 9 (Li · South). A door names the kind of activity rather than its result — here it reads as: contest, exertion, repair. Work whose shape matches this posture is what the method calls a fitting window.
3 · Note where the three workable doors fall
The three doors the tradition reads as most workable — Opening, Rest and Life — sit on this plate at: Opening Door — palace 8 (Gen · Northeast); Rest Door — palace 3 (Zhen · East); Life Door — palace 4 (Xun · Southeast). Treat these as directions worth weighing first when you compare two candidates for the same task, not as orders to follow.
Every gloss below says which posture a symbol names — never whether it is good or bad. The classical Chinese titles are kept as proper nouns; the reading beside each is descriptive.
The eight doors| Door | Posture it names | Where it tends to fit |
|---|---|---|
| Opening Door 开门 |
opening, outward moves, first contact | launches, introductions, opening negotiations |
| Rest Door 休门 |
pause, recovery, relationship ease | rest, reconciliation, time with people you trust |
| Life Door 生门 |
growth, resourcing, cultivation | funding, hiring, planting something slow |
| Injury Door 伤门 |
contest, exertion, repair | competition, hard bargaining, fixing what broke |
| Obstruction Door 杜门 |
closure, concealment, technical depth | confidential work, research, closed-door sessions |
| Bright Door 景门 |
display, documents, visibility | presentations, publicity, written correspondence |
| Death Door 死门 |
ending, stillness, closing an old matter | wrapping up, retiring something, finalising |
| Shock Door 惊门 |
movement, speech, sudden change | conversations, clarification, handling surprises |
| Star | Theme it names |
|---|---|
| Heavenly Peng 天蓬 |
unconventional moves, appetite for risk, water-like flow |
| Heavenly Rui 天芮 |
review, study, tending what is worn down |
| Heavenly Chong 天冲 |
momentum, speed, initiating force |
| Heavenly Fu 天辅 |
instruction, method, orderly support |
| Heavenly Qin 天禽 |
the centre, coordination, holding several threads |
| Heavenly Xin 天心 |
planning, judgement, medical and technical craft |
| Heavenly Zhu 天柱 |
argument, structure, matters of speech |
| Heavenly Ren 天任 |
bearing load, steadiness, practical delivery |
| Heavenly Ying 天英 |
display, brightness, outward projection |
| Spirit | Theme it names |
|---|---|
| Zhi Fu 值符 |
the leading thread of the hour, the anchor everything else turns around |
| Teng She 螣蛇 |
winding paths, entanglements, things that change shape |
| Tai Yin 太阴 |
what works quietly and in detail, unobserved |
| Liu He 六合 |
joining, brokerage, agreements between parties |
| White Tiger 白虎 |
force and pressure, direct confrontation |
| Xuan Wu 玄武 |
what is unclear, hidden or not yet legible |
| Jiu Di 九地 |
sinking down, storage, ground that holds weight |
| Jiu Tian 九天 |
rising, expansion, high and visible ground |
Qi Men Dun Jia (奇门遁甲, also written qi men dunjia) is one of the three great classical timing systems of Chinese metaphysics, alongside BaZi (Four Pillars) and Da Liu Ren. Where BaZi reads the birth moment as a fixed chart of a person, qi men dun jia fixes a chosen hour and renders a moving nine-palace plate — a map of that specific stretch of time. The name breaks into "qi" (the three rarities, 乙丙丁), "men" (the eight gates), "dun" (hiding), and "jia" (the leading general hidden beneath the six yi). The product is a set of windows, directions and postures, not a verdict about a person.
Within qi men dun jia there are several schools. This page renders the shi-jia (time-based) chart, the most common modern default: the plate is cast from the hour you enter. Two further choices define the flavour. First, zhuan-pan (rotating plate) versus fei-pan (flying plate): here the stars, doors and spirits rotate as a circular plate rather than flying through palaces. Second, the ju-setting rule: we use chai-bu fa (the split-and-bridge method), which reads the solar term and the day's fu-head directly, without inserting an intercalary month — a simpler, deterministic rule used by most modern calculators. The combination — shi-jia, zhuan-pan, chai-bu — is the textbook setting of Zhang Zhi-chun's modern standard.
Every chart begins with four pillars (year, month, day, hour), where the month pillar changes at the solar term, not on the first day of the lunar month. To set the ju, the method first decides yin or yang dun: everything from Winter Solstice to the Summer Solstice axis is yang dun (the yi spread forward through the luoshu numbers), and the other half of the year is yin dun (the yi spread backward). Next it walks the day's gan-zhi back to the nearest 甲 or 己 day — the fu-head — and reads its branch: 子午卯酉 is the upper yuan, 寅申巳亥 the middle, 辰戌丑未 the lower. The solar-term table then gives one of eighteen ju numbers (nine yang, nine yin). From there, 甲子戊 is placed at the ju palace and the sequence 戊己庚辛壬癸丁丙乙 is laid out in order. The xun head of the hour pillar fixes the zhi-fu star and zhi-shi door; the star then follows the hour stem, the door follows the hour branch, and the eight spirits follow the zhi-fu. Every step is arithmetic — two people entering the same hour always receive the same plate.
Used as a planning aid, the plate is a checklist rather than a command. The zhi-fu star marks where the method reads the chief momentum of the hour; the zhi-shi door marks the activity that fits it; the three auspicious doors (Opening, Rest, Life) read as more supportive for starts and conversations, while patterns such as Fu-yin read as steadier and more inward. The honest use is to prefer a window whose posture matches what you are doing, and to treat a quieter window as a reason to pause, not as a warning that something will go wrong. Nothing here foretells an outcome; it simply names the shape of the hour so you can schedule with intention. For a deeper look at the boundaries of this lens, read the Method & Boundaries page.
No. BaZi fixes a moment of birth and reads a chart about a person — temperament, elements, the Day Master. Qi Men Dun Jia fixes a chosen hour and reads a moving nine-palace plate about that stretch of time. One describes the person, the other describes the window the person is planning inside. They are separate classical systems, which is why this site keeps them on separate pages.
This page renders the shi-jia (time-based) chart, where each of the twelve double-hours carries its own plate. The hour pillar turns over at the double-hour boundary, and both the zhi-fu star and the zhi-shi door are derived from the hour pillar — so the plate you see is specific to that stretch of time, not to the whole day.
Chai-bu fa sets the ju directly from the solar term and the day's fu-head, without inserting an intercalary month. The alternative, zhi-run fa, inserts a leap month to keep the plate aligned with the lunar calendar. Chai-bu is simpler and fully deterministic: the same date and hour always produce the same ju, which is what makes the output checkable by hand against published tables.
No. Date and time alone determine the plate. The category only changes the wording of the reading sentence beneath it. Two people entering the same hour with different categories receive an identical plate — which is the point of a deterministic method.
No, and it is not designed to. The plate is descriptive: it names the posture of an hour, not the outcome of an action. It is a scheduling lens for reflection, not professional advice, and not a prediction of any kind. Decisions, due diligence and expert counsel remain yours.