Instruments

This page lists the layers the engine computes, and under each one the points where the schools diverge. Every point of divergence is a parameter with a declared default. The table marks the value this engine takes, and it marks the values the engine declares and refuses, so that no choice is left unstated.

This list is longer than the navigation at the top of the site, because the two answer different questions: the navigation names the arts a consultation can be laid on, and this page names everything the engine computes. What it carries beyond them is the almanac, which is a page of a published book rather than a board; the calendrical layer, which stands under every board here; and 年命 niánmìng, which is a birth placed inside a chart already cast for a moment.

The calendrical layer

The solar terms, the lunar date and the four pillars: what every board below is built from. Two boundaries belong to this layer as well — where the counted year begins, and where the day turns over.

Computed from an instant and a place, read according to those two boundaries.

Parameter	Values
`trueSolarTime` Whether clock time is corrected to the Sun at the place.	`true` default `false`
`yearBoundary` Where the counted year begins.	`lichun` 立春 lìchūn default `chunjie` 正月初一 zhēngyuèchūyī
`dayBoundary` Where the day turns over.	`zishi` 子時 zǐshí default `midnight`

Qí Mén Dùn Jiǎ 奇門遁甲

Nine palaces: an earth plate fixed by the ju, a heaven plate turned onto the hour, and the stars, gates and spirits standing over them.

Computed from an instant and a place.

Parameter	Values
`method` How the ju is established.	`chaibu` 拆補 chāibǔ default `zhirun` 置閏 zhìrùn `maoshan` 茅山 máoshān
`plate` How the heaven plate is derived.	`zhuan` 轉盤 zhuànpán default `fei` 飛盤 fēipán refused
`centreLodging` Where the centre lodges, having no direction, no gate and no spirit of its own.	`kun` default `dun` refused
`system` Which family of chart: the hour’s, the day’s, the month’s or the year’s.	`shijia` 時家 shíjiā default `rijia` 日家 rìjiā refused `yuejia` 月家 yuèjiā refused `nianjia` 年家 niánjiā refused
`spirits` What names the fifth and sixth spirits.	`dun` 陰陽異名 yīnyángyìmíng default `fixed` `baihu` 白虎 báihǔ
`leap` Where 置閏 zhìrùn repeats its block.	`solstice` default `runyue` 閏月 rùnyuè refused
`strengths` What the five seasonal states are read from.	`season` default `star` refused
`earth` Where earth’s season begins.	`quarters` default `eighteen` refused
`centreTravel` Where the chief and the chief gate are read when they fall on the central palace.	`stay` default `travel`

Dà Liù Rén 大六壬

Twelve branches turned by the general of the month, the four lessons read off that turn, and three transmissions drawn from the four by nine named rules.

Computed from an instant and a place.

Parameter	Values
`yuejiang` When the Sun changes palace, which is what seats the general of the month.	`zhongqi` 中氣 zhōngqì default `jieqi` 節氣 jiéqì refused `true` 太陽實躔 tàiyángshíchán refused
`guiren` Which transmission of the verse seats the noble.	`chou` 丑 chǒu default `wei` 未 wèi
`zhouye` Where the day is cut, for the noble’s day and night seats.	`branch` default `solar` refused

Tài Yǐ Shén Shù 太乙神數

The board of a year: sixteen gods in nine palaces, and the counts of host and guest. Nobody is on it.

Computed from a year, and nothing else: no place, no hour, nobody.

Parameter	Values
`epoch` Which 上元積年 shàngyuánjīnián the count runs from.	`jinjing` 太乙金鏡式經 tàiyǐjīnjìngshìjīng default `taojin` 太乙淘金歌 tàiyǐtáojīngē refused
`ji` Which register the board is laid in.	`nianji` 歲計 suìjì default `yueji` 月計 yuèjì refused `riji` 日計 rìjì refused `shiji` 時計 shíjì refused
`yearBoundary` Where the counted year begins.	`lichun` 立春 lìchūn default `dongzhi` 冬至 dōngzhì refused `chunjie` 正月初一 zhēngyuèchūyī refused

Qī Zhèng Sì Yú 七政四餘

The seven governors and the remainders, placed against the twenty-eight lodges 宿 xiù and the twelve palaces.

Computed from a birth — an instant and a place.

Parameter	Values
`xiudu` Where the twenty-eight lodges 宿 xiù begin.	`juxing` 距星 jùxīng default `shixian` 時憲曆 shíxiànlì refused `shoushi` 授時曆 shòushílì refused
`ziqi` Whether 紫氣 zǐqì enters, and by which transmission.	`off` `yinianyisu` 一年一宿 yīniányīxiù default
`luohou` Which node bears the name 羅睺 luóhóu, the other taking 計都 jìdū.	`descending` default `ascending`
`minggong` How the palace of the self is found.	`yuejiang` 月將 yuèjiàng default `ascendant` refused
`gong` Where the twelve palaces are cut.	`zhongqi` 中氣 zhōngqì default `ci` 次 cì refused

Zǐ Wēi Dǒu Shù 紫微斗數

Twelve seats counted from the lunar month and the hour, the stars the book places in them, and the grade it gives each.

Computed from a birth, counted on the lunar calendar, and a sex where it decides the direction a ring is walked in.

Parameter	Values
`leapMonth` What a birth in an intercalary month counts as.	`following` default `current` refused `split` refused
`sihua` Which table of the four transformations.	`quanshu` 紫微斗數全書 zǐwēidǒushùquánshū default `zuofu` 左輔 zuǒfǔ
`huoling` How 火星 huǒxīng and 鈴星 língxīng are placed.	`fixed` default `hour` refused
`daxian` Where the first decade of the great limits opens.	`adjacent` default `ming` 命宮 mìnggōng refused
`yearBoundary` Where the counted year begins.	`lichun` 立春 lìchūn `chunjie` 正月初一 zhēngyuèchūyī default

Bā Zì 八字

The four pillars read out: the concealed stems, the ten gods, the twelve stages, the images of 納音 nàyīn, the luck cycles, and a count of the five elements.

Computed from a birth, and a sex where the luck cycles need one.

Parameter	Values
`luckGranularity` How finely the distance to the term is counted.	`shichen` 時辰 shíchén default `minute`

lìzhù 曆注

The page an almanac prints for a date: the officer of the day 建除 jiànchú, the lodge holding it, the twelve gods, the bearings the year fixes, and the 神煞 shénshà a day carries or does not.

Computed from a civil date, reckoned on 120°E as the lunar calendar is.

Parameter	Values
`shensha` Which register of 神煞 shénshà the almanac’s page carries.	`xieji` 協紀辨方書 xiéjìbiànfāngshū default

niánmìng 年命

Where a person stands inside a chart of a moment — the pillar of their birth year, and the pillar of the year they are living.

Computed from a birth, placed inside a chart already cast for a moment.

Parameter	Values
`count` How the years lived are counted.	`sui` 虛歲 xūsuì default `turns`