Free online tool
Qi Men Dun Jia — cast a plate online
An hour plate with the cycle number set from the solar term and the three yuan, the Three Wonders and Six Yi placed on the nine palaces, and the full Eight Doors · Nine Stars · Eight Gods layers.
What Qi Men answers
| System | Input | Question answered |
|---|---|---|
| Zi Wei · BaZi | Date and hour of birth | What is this person’s fate and the shape of their life cycles |
| Qi Men Dun Jia | The moment of asking, plus direction | How this matter stands right now; when to act and which way to face |
So a Qi Men plate belongs to the moment you cast it. Two people asking the same question at different times get different plates — that is correct, not a fault.
The four layers
- Earth plate — the Three Wonders (Yi, Bing, Ding) and Six Yi (Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) fixed by the cycle number. This is the ground.
- Heaven plate — Nine Stars: Tian Peng, Tian Rui, Tian Chong, Tian Fu, Tian Qin, Tian Xin, Tian Zhu, Tian Ren, Tian Ying.
- Human plate — Eight Doors: Rest, Life, Injury, Obstruction, Scenery, Death, Fright, Open.
- Spirit plate — Eight Gods: Chief, Serpent, Great Yin, Six Harmony, White Tiger, Dark Warrior, Nine Earth, Nine Heaven.
Reading a plate means reading the relationship between the four layers inside one palace, never a layer on its own.
Where hand-cast plates go wrong
Three places, and the tool handles all three:
- The cycle number comes from the solar term, not the lunar month — and the term also decides yang or yin escaping.
- Three yuan — each term splits into upper, middle and lower yuan of five days each. Wrong yuan, wrong cycle, wrong plate.
- Chief and Envoy — misidentify these and the heaven and human plates rotate incorrectly.
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Frequently asked questions
Why “escaping Jia”?
Because the stem Jia never appears on the plate directly. It hides within the Six Yi according to the six Jia pairs — Jia Zi in Wu, Jia Xu in Ji, Jia Shen in Geng, Jia Wu in Xin, Jia Chen in Ren, Jia Yin in Gui. “Dun” means to hide.
What are the Three Wonders and Six Yi?
The Three Wonders are the stems Yi, Bing and Ding — the Sun, Moon and Star wonders. The Six Yi are Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui. These nine stems are placed on the nine palaces of the Luo Shu to form the earth plate.
Is Qi Men used for fortune-telling?
Classically it was a strategist’s tool — choosing a time and a direction to act, and judging how a situation is configured. It is not a birth-chart system.
Do I need to know the direction as well as the time?
Time alone gives you a valid plate. Direction is what lets you use it for choosing which way to travel or face, so add it when your question is spatial.