Qi Men Dun Jia Calculator
Enter a moment and the chart is cast automatically: the solar term and day pillar fix the yang or yin escape and its round number, the three nobles and six instruments are laid on the earth plate, then the nine stars, eight doors and eight deities rotate into place. The duty star and duty door are marked along with void branches, the post horse and hidden stems, and classical patterns such as Green Dragon Returning Home or pressured doors are detected for you. Step forward or back an hour without leaving the page.
FAQ#
What is Qi Men Dun Jia?#
Qi Men Dun Jia (奇门遁甲, “Mysterious Gates Escaping Techniques”) is one of the three highest arts of classical Chinese divination, alongside Da Liu Ren and Tai Yi — the San Shi (三式, “Three Cosmic Boards”). Historically called the “art of emperors” and associated with military strategy, it converts a moment in time — solar term, day and hour pillars — into a nine-palace board with four layers: heaven (nine stars), earth (stems in fixed palaces), man (eight doors) and spirit (eight deities). The name refers to the Three Nobles (乙丙丁), the Eight Gates, and the six Jia stems “hidden” behind the six instruments.
How is a chart cast?#
An hour chart is cast in four steps. First, fix the round: the solar term and the day pillar’s place in its ten-day cycle determine a yang or yin escape and a round number from one to nine. Second, lay the earth plate: the six instruments and three nobles are distributed through the palaces, forward in yang rounds and backward in yin rounds. Third, rotate the heaven plate: the star standing over the hour’s lead stem becomes the duty star and rotates with the hour stem, carrying the nine stars and heaven-plate stems with it. Fourth, place doors and deities: the duty door moves with the hour branch, and the eight deities line up from the duty star’s palace. This tool performs all four steps the moment you enter a time.
Which school and conventions does this calculator follow?#
This is hour-family (shi jia) Qi Men with the rotating plate and the Chai Bu (“split and patch”) method: the three periods are read directly from the day pillar’s decade, without the intercalation (Zhi Run) adjustment, and it is not the Yin-plate (Maoshan) school. A consequence of Chai Bu worth knowing: the round changes at the exact instant a solar term arrives, so two casts within the same double-hour can legitimately show different rounds if a term boundary falls between them — that is correct behaviour, not a bug. Stems and branches follow solar-term boundaries, the same convention as this site’s Bazi calculator, and the day pillar advances at 23:00. The centre palace lodges in Kun-2, and the star Tian Qin travels with Tian Rui.
What are the duty star and duty door?#
The duty star (值符, zhi fu) and duty door (值使, zhi shi) are the officers on duty for the hour, and the hinge of the whole board. Find the palace holding the instrument that hides the hour’s lead stem: that palace’s star is the duty star, chief of the nine stars, and its door is the duty door, chief of the eight doors. When the plates rotate, the duty star follows the hour stem and the duty door follows the hour branch, and their landing palaces determine how every other star and door falls. In interpretation the duty star’s palace shows the governing force of the matter, and the duty door’s palace shows the path of action.
What patterns does the tool detect?#
Three families of structures are detected automatically: stem-pair patterns formed by the heaven-plate stem over the earth-plate stem (such as Green Dragon Returning Home or the flying palace clash), door-palace relations (a door generating its palace is harmonious, a palace generating its door is righteous — both favourable; a door striking its palace is “pressured”, a palace striking its door “restrained” — both unfavourable), and time-sequence flaws such as the Five Non-Encounters, when the hour stem strikes the day stem. Each palace also carries its star and door strength by season, the stem-response verdict, the hour stem’s twelve growth stage, and self-punishment and tomb markers — the raw material of interpretation, listed as structure rather than as a verdict.
Can this tool interpret the chart for me?#
The tool produces the complete hour-chart structure: nine palaces with deities, stars, heaven and earth stems, doors, hidden stems, void and horse markers, the duty pair, and the detected patterns. Interpretation in the Qi Men tradition then depends on choosing the right symbolic focus for the question asked, which remains the diviner’s craft. The output is presented as cultural heritage for study, checking hand-cast charts and researching classical examples — not as advice or prediction.
Also try the Bazi Calculator, the Da Liu Ren Calculator and the Chinese Almanac Calendar, or browse all divination tools.