# Da Liu Ren four lessons: how they are laid out

![Four plain bamboo slips side by side, each topped with a folded blank paper slip, one of them marked with a cinnabar wax dot](https://multifate.com/images/guides/daliuren/four-lessons/cover-v1-1536x864.webp)

> The Da Liu Ren four lessons come from the day stem's lodging palace and the day branch on the turned plate. One real moment, worked step by step.

Canonical page: https://multifate.com/guides/daliuren/four-lessons
Language: English. Content reviewed: 2026-10-17.
Also available in: [中文](https://multifate.com/zh/guides/daliuren/four-lessons/index.md), [日本語](https://multifate.com/ja/guides/daliuren/four-lessons/index.md), [한국어](https://multifate.com/ko/guides/daliuren/four-lessons/index.md)

The Da Liu Ren four lessons are four pairs read off the turned plate: the god above the day stem's lodging palace, the god above that god, the god above the day branch, and the god above that one. Each pair sets an upper god over a lower position. This guide builds all four from one moment.

**Key points**

- Lessons one and two come from the day stem, placed at its lodging palace; lessons three and four come from the day branch.
- Each lesson is a heaven-plate branch sitting over a lower position. Lessons two and four use the upper god before them as their seat.
- The day stem borrows a palace for its position but keeps its own element when the lesson's relation is judged.
- The classic Da Liu Ren Zhinan reads the day stem as the person and the day branch as the matter.

## What are the Da Liu Ren four lessons?

The four lessons, si ke 四课, are the first thing read from a Da Liu Ren plate once the heaven plate has been turned. Two belong to the day stem and two to the day branch. In each one, a branch on the heaven plate sits over a lower position, and the pair is written upper over lower.

- **Upper god** (上神 shang shen): The heaven-plate branch sitting over a position. It is the top half of a lesson.
- **Lower position** (下神 xia shen): What the upper god sits on: the day stem itself in lesson one, a branch in the other three.
- **Lodging palace** (寄宫 ji gong): The earth-plate branch where a day stem is placed, because the earth plate only has seats for the twelve branches.
- **Yin gods** (阴神 yin shen): The name for lessons two and four. Each is built on the upper god of the lesson before it.

If the two plates are new to you, start with [what is Da Liu Ren](https://multifate.com/guides/daliuren/what-is-da-liu-ren), which explains the month general and how it turns the heaven plate. This guide picks up from a plate that is already turned.

## The example plate: 21 October 2026, 10:30

Every guide in this series uses one moment: 21 October 2026 at 10:30, Tokyo time. Entered in the free tool, it gives a 戊辰 (wu chen) day and the 巳 (si) hour, the two hours from 9:00 to 11:00 on the clock.

The month general is 辰, called 天罡 Tian Gang. The free tool changes the general at each middle solar term, and the last one, 秋分 the autumn equinox, set it to 辰. Placing 辰 on the 巳 hour turns the heaven plate so that each earth branch carries the branch one place before it: 辰 over 巳, 卯 over 辰, and so on.

![Example heaven and earth plates: month general 辰 on the hour 巳, the heaven plate one seat behind the earth plate](https://multifate.com/images/guides/daliuren/figures/daliuren-plates-en-v1-1200x608.webp)

Large characters are the heaven plate, small corner characters the fixed earth seats\. The outlined seat, 巳 carrying 辰, is where lesson one starts\.

*The example plate: which heaven branch sits over each earth branch*

| Earth | Heaven | Earth | Heaven |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 子 | 亥 | 午 | 巳 |
| 丑 | 子 | 未 | 午 |
| 寅 | 丑 | 申 | 未 |
| 卯 | 寅 | 酉 | 申 |
| 辰 | 卯 | 戌 | 酉 |
| 巳 | 辰 | 亥 | 戌 |

> **What the tool shows** The free tool uses the clock time you enter as it is, with no time-zone or solar-time shift, and changes the month general at the middle solar term. A school that changes it at the start of the solar month would already use 卯 on this date, so its four lessons would differ.

## Where does the day stem lodge?

The earth plate holds only the twelve branches, so a day stem is placed at a fixed branch, its lodging palace. The Da Liu Ren Zhinan lists them with a reason: a yang stem lodges at the branch of its lu 禄, and a yin stem one place ahead, so no stem sits on 子, 午, 卯 or 酉.

*Lodging palaces of the ten day stems*

| Day stem | Lodges at | Day stem | Lodges at |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 甲 | 寅 | 己 | 未 |
| 乙 | 辰 | 庚 | 申 |
| 丙 | 巳 | 辛 | 戌 |
| 丁 | 未 | 壬 | 亥 |
| 戊 | 巳 | 癸 | 丑 |

The example's day stem is 戊, a yang earth stem, so it lodges at 巳. Note the two shared seats: 丙 and 戊 both lodge at 巳, and 丁 and 己 both at 未.

## How to lay out the four lessons, step by step

1. **Lesson one**: Go to the day stem's lodging palace, 巳. The heaven plate puts 辰 over it, so lesson one is 辰 over 戊.
2. **Lesson two**: Treat that upper god, 辰, as a seat on the earth plate and look at what sits over it: 卯. Lesson two is 卯 over 辰.
3. **Lesson three**: Go to the day branch, 辰, on the earth plate. 卯 sits over it, so lesson three is 卯 over 辰.
4. **Lesson four**: Treat 卯 as a seat and look above it: 寅. Lesson four is 寅 over 卯.

![Da Liu Ren four lessons for the example, right to left: 辰 over 戊, 卯 over 辰, 卯 over 辰, 寅 over 卯](https://multifate.com/images/guides/daliuren/figures/daliuren-four-lessons-en-v1-1200x608.webp)

Arrows mark where an upper god becomes the lower position of the next lesson\. Green characters are wood and ochre ones earth; the relation under each lesson is read in the next section\.

> **Four lessons, 21 October 2026, 10:30**
>
> Lesson 1: 辰 over 戊 (the day stem, lodged at 巳)
> Lesson 2: 卯 over 辰
> Lesson 3: 卯 over 辰 (the day branch)
> Lesson 4: 寅 over 卯

Traditional manuals write the lessons from right to left, lesson one on the far right, with the upper gods on the top row.

*The same four lessons, written the traditional way*

| Lesson 4 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 1 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 寅 | 卯 | 卯 | 辰 |
| 卯 | 辰 | 辰 | 戊 |

Lessons two and three came out the same, and that is not a slip. The god over the stem's palace is 辰, which is also the day branch, so both paths climb from 辰 to 卯. It happens on any plate where lesson one's upper god is the day branch.

## How is each lesson's relation read?

Each lesson is also judged by the elements of its two halves. A lower position that controls its upper god is lower harms upper, 下贼上; an upper god that controls its seat is upper controls lower, 上克下. The others feed one way or the other, or share an element.

*The example's lessons with the relation labels the free tool uses*

| Lesson | Upper god | Lower position | Relation |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 干阳 (lesson 1) | 辰, earth | 戊, earth | same phase |
| 干阴 (lesson 2) | 卯, wood | 辰, earth | upper controls lower |
| 支阳 (lesson 3) | 卯, wood | 辰, earth | upper controls lower |
| 支阴 (lesson 4) | 寅, wood | 卯, wood | same phase |

> **Tip** The day stem sits at 巳, a fire branch, but lesson one still uses 戊's own element, earth. Judged against 巳 it would read lower feeds upper, so check this first when another chart disagrees.

Controls matter because the [Da Liu Ren three transmissions](https://multifate.com/guides/daliuren/three-transmissions) start from them. Here 卯 is the only god that controls its seat, so the free tool begins the transmissions from 卯.

## What does each of the four lessons stand for?

The Da Liu Ren Zhinan names the lessons by yin and yang. The stem is yang and the branch is yin, and within each pair the god on the seat is yang and the god above it is yin. Lessons two and four are together called the yin gods.

*The four lessons as the Zhinan names them*

| Lesson | Tool label | Built from | In the Zhinan |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 干阳 | God over the day stem's palace | Yang within yang |
| 2 | 干阴 | God over lesson one's upper god | Yin within yang |
| 3 | 支阳 | God over the day branch | Yang within yin |
| 4 | 支阴 | God over lesson three's upper god | Yin within yin |

Its second volume gives the pairing most readers start from: the day stem stands for the person and the day branch for the matter, and a question about a household is read from the branch side. So lessons one and two are read as the asker's side and lessons three and four as the matter's. Finer meanings per lesson differ from teacher to teacher.

> **Where the reading stops** These are traditional associations, offered for reflection. They describe the plate, not you, and they do not settle the outcome of anything you ask.

## Why do other charts show different four lessons?

When two charts for the same moment disagree, the arithmetic is rarely the cause. Check these points in order.

1. **Month general**: Does the source change it at the middle solar term, as the free tool does, or at the start of the solar month?
2. **Hour**: Was the same clock time used? The free tool takes the time you enter, with no time-zone or solar-time correction.
3. **Day boundary**: The free tool turns the day at midnight. A school that starts the day at 23:00 gets another day stem in that last hour.
4. **Lodging palaces**: Do 丙 and 戊 both lodge at 巳, and 丁 and 己 at 未, as in the table above?
5. **Lesson one's element**: Is the relation of lesson one judged with the stem's own element or with the element of its palace?

## Lay out the four lessons for your own moment

Build a plate in the [free Da Liu Ren calculator](https://multifate.com/tools/daliuren) with Chart only. The result page lists the four lessons in a table: the names 干阳, 干阴, 支阳 and 支阴, then the upper god, the lower position and the relation, in the order used above.

Every heaven branch on the plate also carries one of the [Da Liu Ren twelve generals](https://multifate.com/guides/daliuren/twelve-generals), which colour how a lesson is read. For the method from the start, see the [Da Liu Ren guide](https://multifate.com/guides/daliuren).

## Four lessons: common questions

### Why does lesson one show 戊 and not 巳?

The stem is placed at its lodging palace 巳 only to find which god sits over it. The lesson keeps the stem itself as its lower half, so it counts as earth, not fire.

### Can two of the four lessons be the same?

Yes. When the god over the day stem's palace is the day branch, lessons two and three repeat, as in the example. The free tool still lists all four.

### Which lesson comes first?

The god over the day stem's lodging palace. Traditional manuals write it on the far right; the free tool's table puts it in the first row.

### Do I need a birth time for the four lessons?

No. Da Liu Ren is cast for the moment of a question, not for a birth. The four lessons come from the day and hour of that moment and the month general in force.

## Sources and scope

- [Multifate Da Liu Ren tool](https://multifate.com/tools/daliuren): The plate, the four lessons table and the relation labels this guide describes, as the tool computes them today.
- [Da Liu Ren Zhinan, volumes one and two (Chinese text with notes)](https://libokang.com/guji/liuren/%E5%A4%A7%E5%85%AD%E5%A3%AC%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/): Source of the lodging palace list and its reason, the yin and yang naming of the lessons, and the pairing of the person and the matter.

## Continue with Da Liu Ren

- [Try the Da Liu Ren tool](https://multifate.com/tools/daliuren)
- [Twelve heavenly generals of Da Liu Ren: meanings](https://multifate.com/guides/daliuren/twelve-generals/index.md)
- [Three transmissions in Da Liu Ren: how they form](https://multifate.com/guides/daliuren/three-transmissions/index.md)
- [What is Da Liu Ren and how do you start?](https://multifate.com/guides/daliuren/what-is-da-liu-ren/index.md)
- [All Da Liu Ren articles](https://multifate.com/guides/daliuren)
- [Fortune telling guides: BaZi, tarot and more](https://multifate.com/guides/index.md)

These guides describe traditional symbolic frameworks and the current Multifate tools, not verified predictions. The chart tools are free; optional AI questions have separate limits. Check the pricing page for current terms. Interpretations do not replace medical, legal, financial or safety advice.