Appearance
Da Liu Ren (大六壬)
See also: Mystery Gates (奇門遁甲) · Seven Governors (七政四餘) · Purple Star Astrology (紫微斗數)
The oldest and most complex of the three cosmic-board divination systems (三式 sanshi), 大六壬 constructs a miniature celestial model from the astronomical moment of inquiry and reads its symbolic layers to answer questions about human affairs. Where 奇門遁甲 emphasises spatial strategy and 太乙神數 addresses dynastic-scale fate, Liu Ren operates at the scale of individual events — lost objects, illness, litigation, travel — with a computational depth that exceeds its two sister systems[1].
The method takes its name from the Heavenly Stem 壬 (ren, the ninth stem, associated with Yang Water). Because six of the sixty stem-branch pairs begin with 壬 — 壬子, 壬寅, 壬辰, 壬午, 壬申, 壬戌 — the system is called the "Six Ren" (六壬)[2].
Liu Ren was practised within the Imperial Astronomical Bureau (欽天監) from at least the Song dynasty and remained part of the bureau's institutional competence through the Ming and Qing[3]. Its computational structure is entirely deterministic: given a date, hour, and the current monthly general (月將), the chart follows without interpretive discretion until the reading stage.
1. Historical Origins
Liu Ren descends from the cosmic-board (shi 式) tradition, one of the three related mantic systems that share the shi board as their ancestral instrument. All three employ the Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and Five Phases as foundational elements, but their computational architectures diverge significantly[4].
The three cosmic-board systems (三式)
| System | Chinese | Domain | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liu Ren | 六壬 | Events, persons, concrete affairs | Individual |
| Qi Men Dun Jia | 奇門遁甲 | Military strategy, spatial advantage | Tactical |
| Tai Yi | 太乙神數 | Dynastic fate, large-scale cycles | Cosmic |
The shi board (式盤)
The earliest physical evidence for the cosmic-board tradition comes from the Shuanggudui tomb (阜陽雙墩堆) in Anhui province, sealed in 165 BCE (Marquis of Ruyin (汝陰侯)). This tomb yielded a lacquered shi board (式盤) — a two-plate cosmographic instrument with heaven and earth discs — that predates all other known specimens[5].
Donald Harper's 1978 study of the Shuanggudui artefact established the shi as a physical cosmographic instrument — a rotatable two-plate device that modelled the relationship between heaven and earth at a given moment[5:1]. Christopher Cullen responded with further analysis of the instrument's astronomical function, proposing that the shi served as an analogue computer for calendrical astronomy as well as divination[6]. Harper's subsequent reply refined the argument for the shi's primarily mantic (divinatory) function in Han society[7].
This exchange in Early China remains the foundational English-language scholarly dialogue on the shi board.
The heaven plate (天盤) is circular, representing heaven. It rotates freely on a central pivot. Its face is inscribed with the twelve Earthly Branches and, in many specimens, with the 28 lunar mansions and other cosmological markers.
The earth plate (地盤) is square, representing earth. It remains fixed. Its surface carries the twelve Earthly Branches in their directional positions, together with the eight trigrams, the 28 mansions (in their terrestrial aspect), and calendrical markers.
The round-over-square design physically manifests the cosmological principle 天圓地方 — "heaven is round, earth is square" — that pervades Han cosmological thought[8].
Linking the shi to Liu Ren
Marc Kalinowski's 1983 monograph in the Bulletin de l'Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient provided the first systematic Western-language study connecting the archaeological shi boards to the Liu Ren computational method as attested in transmitted texts[9]. Kalinowski demonstrated that the branch arrangements on excavated boards correspond to the heaven-and-earth plate mechanics used in Liu Ren divination, establishing a continuous tradition from Han-dynasty material culture to the received textual corpus.
His later study on the notion of shi 式 in Qin-Han calendrical astrology traced the semantic evolution of the term itself — from physical instrument to abstract cosmological model — across the formative centuries of Chinese mantic practice[10].
Archaeological specimens
Additional shi boards have been recovered from other Han-dynasty tombs, confirming the instrument type's widespread use by the second century BCE[6:1]. No two specimens are identical in their inscriptions or decorative programmes. The archaeological record demonstrates that shi boards were elite burial goods, interred with their owners as instruments of ongoing cosmological significance[5:2].
TLV mirrors
Michael Loewe proposed that the so-called TLV bronze mirrors of the Han dynasty — characterised by T-shaped, L-shaped, and V-shaped motifs surrounding a central boss — may be cosmographic replicas related to the shi board tradition[11]. The spatial organisation of these mirrors mirrors (in simplified form) the heaven-earth cosmology embodied in the shi instrument. The distinctive T-, L-, and V-shaped motifs share spatial organisation with the shi board's cosmographic layout, possibly serving as portable or decorative analogues of the functional instrument. The debate over whether TLV mirrors are directly derived from shi boards or share a common cosmological ancestor remains unresolved in the literature.
Dunhuang and medieval evidence
Kalinowski's 2003 edited volume on divination and society in medieval China drew on Dunhuang manuscript evidence to document Liu Ren practice during the Tang and Five Dynasties periods, filling a gap between the Han archaeological record and the mature Song-Ming textual tradition[12].
Chinese-language scholarship
Li Ling's Zhongguo fangshu kao (中國方術考) provides the most comprehensive Chinese-language treatment of the fangshu (technical arts) tradition, including detailed analysis of shi board cosmology, Liu Ren's place within the broader mantic landscape, and the relationship between excavated artefacts and transmitted texts[13]. Joseph Needham's earlier treatment in Science and Civilisation in China volume 2 placed the shi and its associated divination systems within the larger context of Chinese cosmological thought[8:1].
2. The Computational Method
Liu Ren divination proceeds through a fixed sequence of computational layers. Each layer transforms the astronomical input into increasingly specific symbolic structures. The method is entirely deterministic — no step admits subjective choice.
Step 1 — Heaven and Earth Plates (天地盤)
The foundational operation replicates the physical shi board in numerical form.
The earth plate is a fixed circular arrangement of the twelve Earthly Branches in their standard order:
子 丑 寅 卯 辰 巳 午 未 申 酉 戌 亥
This plate does not move. It represents terrestrial space, oriented with 子 (north) at the bottom and 午 (south) at the top in the traditional Chinese convention.
The heaven plate is an identical ring of twelve branches that rotates over the earth plate. Its position is set by aligning the current 月將 (monthly general) — a branch determined by the Sun's position along the ecliptic — over the 時辰 (double-hour branch) of the moment of inquiry. This single alignment produces a complete mapping: every earth-plate branch now has a heaven-plate branch sitting above it.
For example, if the monthly general is 亥 and the hour branch is 巳, then 亥 on the heaven plate is placed above 巳 on the earth plate. The entire heaven plate shifts accordingly, and one can read the heaven branch above any earth branch by counting the offset.
This operation encodes the astronomical moment — solar position and local time — into a branch-to-branch transformation that drives all subsequent steps.
Step 2 — Four Lessons (四課)
The four lessons extract specific relationships from the heaven-earth plate using the day's stem and branch.
Stem lodging (日干寄宮): Each of the ten Heavenly Stems is assigned a resident branch — its 祿 (emolument) position. This convention maps the stem into the branch domain so it can interact with the plate:
| Stem | 甲 | 乙 | 丙 | 丁 | 戊 | 己 | 庚 | 辛 | 壬 | 癸 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lodge | 寅 | 卯 | 巳 | 午 | 巳 | 午 | 申 | 酉 | 亥 | 子 |
The four lessons are then constructed as upper-lower pairs:
| Lesson | Upper element | Lower element |
|---|---|---|
| L1 (第一課) | Heaven branch above the stem's lodging branch | The stem's lodging branch |
| L2 (第二課) | Heaven branch above L1's upper | L1's upper |
| L3 (第三課) | Heaven branch above the day branch | The day branch |
| L4 (第四課) | Heaven branch above L3's upper | L3's upper |
Each lesson thus captures a two-layer relationship: what the plate says about a particular position (lower), and what the plate says about that answer (upper). The four lessons together represent the day stem's perspective (L1–L2) and the day branch's perspective (L3–L4) on the current cosmic configuration.
Step 3 — Three Transmissions (三傳)
The three transmissions (初傳, 中傳, 末傳 — initial, middle, final) form the algorithmic heart of Liu Ren. Selecting the initial transmission involves a priority cascade of nine classical methods, tried in strict order until one yields a result:
1. 賊剋 (Conquest) — Examine the four lessons for Five Phase conquest relationships between upper and lower elements. If exactly one lesson contains a conquest (upper conquers lower, or lower conquers upper), that lesson's upper element becomes the initial transmission.
2. 比用 (Comparison) — If multiple lessons contain conquests, filter by yin-yang polarity: the conquest whose upper element matches the day stem's yin-yang polarity is selected. If the day stem is yang, prefer yang-polarity branches; if yin, prefer yin-polarity branches.
3. 涉害 (Measuring Harm) — If comparison still leaves multiple candidates, count the number of conquest encounters each candidate's branch passes through when walking around the earth plate. The branch that accumulates the most harm (most conquest encounters) is selected.
4. 遙剋 (Distant Conquest) — If no lesson contains a direct upper-lower conquest, check whether any lesson's upper or lower element conquers the day stem's element at a distance. This relaxes the conquest requirement from within-lesson to stem-reaching.
5. 昴星 (Pleiades Star) — A special fallback method applied when no conquest relationship exists in any direction.
6. 別責 (Alternative Selection) — A last-resort selection rule for cases that escape all prior methods.
7. 八專 (Eight Specials) — Applied when all four lessons produce identical upper-lower pairs, collapsing the normal selection logic.
8. 伏吟 (Hidden Voice) — When the plate offset is zero (the heaven plate has not rotated — the monthly general equals the hour branch), normal plate mechanics produce identity mappings. The system resolves this by using 六衝 (six clashes) — the branch six positions opposite each candidate — to generate the transmission chain.
9. 返吟 (Returning Voice) — When the plate offset is six (each heaven branch sits directly opposite its earth branch), every position maps to its clash partner. The system uses 驛馬 (travelling horse) — a classical branch associated with movement and transition — to break the symmetry and generate the chain.
Once the initial transmission is found, the second and third transmissions follow mechanically. The middle transmission is found by looking up the initial transmission's branch on the earth plate and reading the heaven branch above it. The final transmission repeats this operation on the middle transmission's branch. This "plate-chasing" procedure — middle = plate[initial], final = plate[middle] — completes the three-step temporal narrative that Liu Ren practitioners interpret as the unfolding of the situation from beginning through development to conclusion.
Step 4 — Twelve Heavenly Generals (十二天將)
The twelve heavenly generals are symbolic agents overlaid onto the plate. Their placement begins with 貴人 (the Noble), whose position is determined by the day stem and a day/night distinction (based on whether the inquiry falls in daylight or darkness).
Once 貴人 is placed on a specific branch, the direction of the remaining generals depends on which half of the plate 貴人 occupies. If 貴人 lands in the southern semicircle (branches 巳 through 戌, counting clockwise), the remaining generals are assigned in ascending (clockwise) order. If 貴人 lands in the northern semicircle, they are assigned in descending (counter-clockwise) order.
The twelve generals, in their fixed sequence:
| # | General | Chinese |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Noble | 貴人 |
| 2 | Serpent | 螣蛇 |
| 3 | Vermilion Bird | 朱雀 |
| 4 | Six Harmony | 六合 |
| 5 | Hook Array | 勾陳 |
| 6 | Green Dragon | 青龍 |
| 7 | Heavenly Void | 天空 |
| 8 | White Tiger | 白虎 |
| 9 | Great Constant | 太常 |
| 10 | Dark Warrior | 玄武 |
| 11 | Great Yin | 太陰 |
| 12 | Heavenly Empress | 天后 |
Each general carries specific symbolic associations (auspicious or inauspicious qualities, elemental affiliations, domains of influence) that inform the practitioner's reading of the chart.
3. The Monthly General (月將)
The monthly general (月將) is the single point where Liu Ren's symbolic machinery connects to astronomical reality. It represents the Sun's position along the ecliptic, expressed as an Earthly Branch.
The 月將 shifts at each 中氣 (zhongqi, major solar term) — the midpoint of each of the twelve solar months. The twenty-four solar terms (二十四節氣) alternate between 節氣 (jieqi, node terms) and 中氣 (zhongqi, centre terms). It is the zhongqi boundaries, not the jieqi boundaries, that govern the monthly general's transitions.
This means the monthly general tracks the Sun's actual ecliptic longitude in approximately 30-degree increments, anchored to the solstices and equinoxes. The system does not use mean solar motion or calendrical month boundaries — it responds to the Sun's true position as defined by the solar term calendar, which is itself astronomically determined.
The monthly general values, keyed to zhongqi:
| Zhongqi | Solar longitude | 月將 |
|---|---|---|
| 雨水 (Rain Water) | 330° | 亥 (登明) |
| 春分 (Spring Equinox) | 0° | 戌 (河魁) |
| 穀雨 (Grain Rain) | 30° | 酉 (從魁) |
| 小滿 (Grain Full) | 60° | 申 (傳送) |
| 夏至 (Summer Solstice) | 90° | 未 (小吉) |
| 大暑 (Great Heat) | 120° | 午 (勝光) |
| 處暑 (End of Heat) | 150° | 巳 (太乙) |
| 秋分 (Autumn Equinox) | 180° | 辰 (天罡) |
| 霜降 (Frost Descent) | 210° | 卯 (太衝) |
| 小雪 (Minor Snow) | 240° | 寅 (功曹) |
| 冬至 (Winter Solstice) | 270° | 丑 (大吉) |
| 大寒 (Great Cold) | 300° | 子 (神后) |
Note that the monthly general runs opposite to the branch direction of the solar months — as the Sun advances through the zodiac, the 月將 retreats through the branches. The parenthetical names (登明, 河魁, etc.) are the classical designations of the twelve branch positions in Liu Ren terminology.
The monthly general is thus the system's astronomical anchor: it ensures that every Liu Ren chart is grounded in the Sun's real ecliptic position at the time of divination. Without it, the heaven plate cannot be set, and no computation can proceed.
4. Classical Texts
《六壬大全》 — Liuren Daquan (Complete Liu Ren)
The sole Liu Ren text included in the Siku Quanshu (四庫全書), and the most comprehensive traditional reference for the system. The work's authorship and compilation date are uncertain; the preface of the received version attributes commentary to Guo Dailai (郭載騋) of Huaiqing (懷慶). First printed during the Ming dynasty, the text systematises the complete Liu Ren method, including the four lessons, three transmissions, and heavenly general placement, together with extensive case collections and interpretive guidance[2:1].
Its inclusion in the Siku Quanshu — from which many mantic texts were excluded — attests to its perceived legitimacy within the Qing imperial scholarly apparatus.
《大六壬指南》 — Daliuren Zhinan (Guide to Da Liu Ren)
Written by Chen Gongxian (陳公獻) during the late Ming or early Qing period, this practical manual emphasises case-based instruction. Where the Liuren daquan is encyclopaedic, the Daliuren zhinan is pedagogical — it guides the practitioner through worked examples, demonstrating how the computational steps produce interpretive readings in concrete situations. It remains widely studied among contemporary practitioners.
Ho Peng Yoke (2003)
Chapter 5 of Ho Peng Yoke's Chinese Mathematical Astrology: Reaching Out to the Stars provides the first English-language systematic treatment of Liu Ren's mathematical structure[1:1]. Ho places the system within the broader context of the three cosmic-board methods and analyses its combinatorial logic, making the computational architecture accessible to readers without classical Chinese.
5. Open Questions
Several areas of Liu Ren scholarship remain uncertain or contested, and would benefit from further textual and archaeological research:
| Question | Current state | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Stem lodging conventions | Multiple traditions attest different stem-to-branch assignments; the 祿 (emolument) convention is most common but not universal | Would alter all four lessons and cascade through the entire chart |
| Variant three-transmission rules | Regional and lineage-based traditions preserve alternative priority orderings or additional selection methods beyond the standard nine | Could produce different initial transmissions for the same input |
| Noble (貴人) placement tables | Day stem to Noble branch mappings vary between textual traditions | Changes the starting point for all twelve heavenly generals |
| Day/night boundary definition | Some texts use 卯-酉 (sunrise/sunset branches), others use specific solar altitude criteria | Affects whether a chart uses daytime or nighttime Noble placement |
| Monthly general transition timing | Whether the 月將 shifts at the exact zhongqi moment or at midnight of the zhongqi day | Could change the monthly general for divinations near term boundaries |
| Shuanggudui board interpretation | The exact inscription programme and functional details of the 165 BCE specimen remain partially debated | Affects understanding of how the earliest shi boards relate to transmitted Liu Ren methods |
| Pre-Han origins | Whether the computational method predates its first archaeological attestation, or whether the Han shi boards represent a new synthesis | Determines whether Liu Ren has Western Zhou or Warring States antecedents |
Ho Peng Yoke, Chinese Mathematical Astrology: Reaching Out to the Stars (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003; Needham Research Institute Series). Chapter 5 provides the first English-language systematic treatment of Liu Ren's mathematical structure. Routledge. ↩︎ ↩︎
《六壬大全》 — The sole Liu Ren text in the Siku Quanshu; most comprehensive traditional reference for the complete Liu Ren method. Authorship uncertain; received version attributed to commentary by Guo Dailai (郭載騋). First printed Ming dynasty. ChinaKnowledge entry. ↩︎ ↩︎
Richard J. Smith, Fortune-tellers and Philosophers: Divination in Traditional Chinese Society (Boulder: Westview Press, 1991). Broad survey of Chinese mantic traditions including institutional contexts for the three cosmic-board systems. DOI: 10.4324/9780429039799. ↩︎
Marc Kalinowski, "Typology and Classification of the Mantic Arts in Traditional China," in Michael Lackner & Zhao Lu (eds.), Handbook of Divination and Prognostication in China (Leiden: Brill, 2022). Systematic classification of the three cosmic-board systems within the broader Chinese mantic tradition. DOI: 10.1163/9789004514263_006. ↩︎
Donald Harper, "The Han Cosmic Board (Shih)," Early China 4, 1978–1979, pp. 1–10. The foundational study identifying the Shuanggudui tomb artefact as a cosmic-board divination instrument. DOI: 10.1017/S0362502800005836. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Christopher Cullen, "Some Further Points on the Shih," Early China 6, 1980–1981, pp. 31–46. Responds to Harper with additional analysis of the shi board's astronomical and computational function. DOI: 10.1017/S0362502800007549; Cambridge Core. ↩︎ ↩︎
Donald Harper, "The Han Cosmic Board: A Response to Christopher Cullen," Early China 6, 1980–1981, pp. 47–56. Refines the argument for the shi's primarily mantic function. DOI: 10.1017/S0362502800007550. ↩︎
Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 2: History of Scientific Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956). Places the shi board and associated divination systems within the broader context of Chinese cosmological thought. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511816994. ↩︎ ↩︎
Marc Kalinowski, "Les instruments astro-calenderiques des Han et la methode Liu Ren," Bulletin de l'Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient 72, 1983, pp. 309–419. The foundational Western-language study linking excavated shi boards to the Liu Ren computational method. DOI: 10.3406/befeo.1983.1463; full text on Persee. ↩︎
Marc Kalinowski, "The Notion of Shi 式 and Some Related Terms in Qin-Han Calendrical Astrology," Early China 35–36, 2012–2013, pp. 327–360. Traces the semantic evolution of shi from physical instrument to abstract cosmological concept. DOI: 10.1017/S0362502800000535. ↩︎
Michael Loewe, Ways to Paradise: The Chinese Quest for Immortality (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1979). Proposes the relationship between TLV bronze mirrors and shi board cosmography. Taylor & Francis. ↩︎
Marc Kalinowski (ed.), Divination et societe dans la Chine medievale: etude des manuscrits de Dunhuang de la Bibliotheque nationale de France et du British Museum (Paris: Bibliotheque nationale de France, 2003). Dunhuang manuscript evidence for medieval Liu Ren practice. ↩︎
Li Ling (李零), Zhongguo fangshu kao 中國方術考 (修訂本) (Beijing: Dongfang chubanshe 東方出版社, 2000). The most comprehensive Chinese-language study of the fangshu (technical arts) tradition, including shi board cosmology and Liu Ren's place within the mantic landscape. ↩︎