How to read a Da Liu Ren chart: which layer comes first?
The transmissions are taken from the four lessons, and the lessons need the plates first, so you read a chart in the order it was cast. The free result gives each layer its own place: a line under How this chart was built or What the chart already says, or the Four lessons table.
| Layer | Result line | The example shows | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casting moment | Hour, Day boundary | 戊辰 · 巳 | The day and hour are the moment you meant |
| Plates | Monthly general | 辰 天罡 | Which hour the month general sits on |
| Four lessons | Four lessons table | 辰/戊, 卯/辰, 卯/辰, 寅/卯 | Which lesson shows a control, and of which kind |
| First transmission | Cast by, Plate pattern | 贼克; 元首 | How the first transmission was taken, and the chart's name |
| Three transmissions | Three transmissions | 初传 卯 朱雀 · 中传 寅 腾蛇 · 末传 丑 贵人 | How the matter starts, runs and settles, by tradition |
| Generals | Noble | 丑 · 顺 | Where the twelve generals start and which way they run |
The full rules for each layer are in the topic guides linked below.
Follow along with the free tool.
Try the Da Liu Ren toolHow do you check the casting moment?
Da Liu Ren reads the moment a question is settled, not a birth. The free Da Liu Ren calculator casts from the date and clock time you enter, exactly as typed, with no time zone and no correction for place.
Check the day
The Hour line shows the day stem and branch, then the hour branch, for example 戊辰 · 巳. Make sure that is the day you meant.
Check the hour
The hour branch changes every two hours: 23:00 to 01:00 is Zi 子, 01:00 to 03:00 is Chou 丑, and so on round the day.
Check the day boundary
The free calculator turns the day at midnight on the civil clock. After 23:00 the hour is already Zi, but the day stem and branch stay on today. Schools that turn the day at 23:00 would give another day stem.
Check the edges
A time that sits on the line between two hours gives two different charts one minute apart.
For example, 22:59 and 23:00 on 19 October 2026 are one minute apart and share the day 丙寅, but the hour moves from Hai 亥 to Zi 子. Every lesson changes, the pattern goes from Zhi Yi to Chong Shen, and the transmissions change from 子, 巳, 戌 to 酉, 丑, 巳.
How do you read the heaven and earth plates?
The month general is a branch. The free calculator changes it on the day of each middle solar term; some schools change it at the term that opens the month. Which term brings which general is in Da Liu Ren month general.
To cast, the month general is set on the earth seat of the question hour and the whole heaven plate turns with it; the earth branches stay put. The example is 10:30 on 21 October 2026: day 戊辰, hour Si 巳, between the Autumn Equinox and Frost Descent, so the month general is Chen 辰, Tian Gang.
When the month general is the hour branch itself, heaven sits on earth unmoved: Fu Yin 伏吟. When the two branches clash, heaven faces earth from the opposite seat: Fan Yin 反吟. On those plates the result records the pattern as Fu Yin or Fan Yin.
Which of the four lessons shows a control?
Each lesson is a pair: a lower position and the heaven branch above it. The day stem is not a branch, so it lodges at an earth seat; in the example 戊 lodges at 巳. Where each stem lodges and how every lesson is built is in Da Liu Ren four lessons.
- Lesson one
- Also called: 干阳
- The day stem below, and the heaven branch over its lodging seat above. In the example 戊 lodges at 巳, and 辰 sits over 巳.
- Lesson two
- Also called: 干阴
- The upper of lesson one becomes the lower; take the heaven branch over its seat. Here 卯 sits over 辰.
- Lesson three
- Also called: 支阳
- The day branch below, and the heaven branch over its seat above. The day branch is 辰, so 卯 again.
- Lesson four
- Also called: 支阴
- The upper of lesson three becomes the lower; take the heaven branch over it. Here 寅 sits over 卯.
Finding the control means comparing the elements of the two halves. A lower that controls its upper is lower harms upper; an upper that controls its lower is upper controls lower. Feeding or matching elements do not count. In the example, lessons two and three are both Wood 卯 over Earth 辰, upper controls lower; lessons one and four are the same phase.
Which lesson starts the three transmissions?
The first transmission comes from a control. Any lower harms upper is taken first; only without one is upper controls lower used. With one such lesson its upper god starts the chain, and two lessons with the same upper count once.
The middle transmission is then the heaven branch over the first one's seat, and the final is the branch over the middle's seat. When several lessons compete, or none shows a control, a fixed order of methods takes over, set out in three transmissions.
The result gives this step two lines: Cast by names the method, such as 贼克, and Plate pattern names the chart it produces. How to recognise each of the twelve patterns is in Da Liu Ren lesson patterns.
What do forward and reverse mean on the Noble line?
The twelve generals are laid out from the Noble One, in a fixed order. That order and what each general stands for is in twelve heavenly generals; to read the Noble line you need three steps.
Pick the Noble One's branch
It depends on the day stem and on day or night. The free calculator counts the hours 卯 to 申 as day and 酉 to 寅 as night; schools divide day and night differently.
Find its seat
Find that branch on the heaven plate and read the earth seat under it.
Read the direction
From the seats Hai to Chen the generals run forward; from Si to Xu they run in reverse.
In the example the day stem is 戊 and Si is a day hour, so the Noble One rides 丑. Heaven 丑 sits over earth 寅, a forward seat: the Noble One stands at 寅, the Serpent at 卯, the Vermilion Bird at 辰. The Noble line reads 丑 · 顺, the branch it rides and the direction, not its seat.
Read each transmission together with its general, the one standing on its seat. Copy branch and general as a pair, never the three branches alone.
The example's three transmissions
- First: 卯 with the Vermilion Bird 朱雀
- Middle: 寅 with the Serpent 腾蛇
- Final: 丑 with the Noble One 贵人
Where are the class gods and the timing?
Class gods follow the matter you ask about. Money, illness and exams each look to a different relation and general on the chart, set out in Da Liu Ren class gods.
Timing comes from the three transmissions and the empty branches as Da Liu Ren timing explains.
You can work out the empty branches yourself. 戊辰 falls in the 甲子 ten-day group, whose ten stems never reach 戌 and 亥, so those two are empty. None of the example's transmissions is empty, and the middle one, 寅, is also the Post horse 驿马 of a 辰 day.
The chart is free; AI questions have separate limits. For the system as a whole, the Da Liu Ren guide explains what each layer is for.
Reading a Da Liu Ren chart: common questions
If I cast at 23:30, which day does the chart use?
Today, in the free calculator. The hour after 23:00 is already Zi, but the day stem and branch change at midnight on the civil clock, and the Day boundary line says so. Schools that turn the day at 23:00 would use tomorrow.
Should I read the four lessons or the three transmissions first?
The four lessons. The first transmission is taken from a control in the lessons, so without them you cannot say why it is that branch. The School line in the result says the same: four lessons first, then the three transmissions.
Why does the free result show no class gods or timing?
The free result never shows them, with or without a question; the complete reading reads them.
What do forward and reverse mean after the Noble One?
They give the direction the twelve generals run. From earth seats Hai to Chen they go forward, from Si to Xu in reverse, in the fixed order from the Noble One to the Heavenly Empress.
Sources and scope
- Multifate Da Liu Ren tool: The result lines this guide describes (Hour, Cast by, School, Day boundary, Monthly general, Three transmissions, Noble, Plate pattern, Four lessons) and the rules behind them.
- Da Liu Ren sample reading: A complete reading for one question, showing where class gods, transmissions and timing appear.
- Da Liu Ren guide: The Da Liu Ren hub: how the plates, the four lessons and the three transmissions relate, and what time to enter.
- Hong Kong Observatory: The 24 Solar Terms: The order of the 24 solar terms by the Sun's longitude, used to check which middle terms change the month general in the free calculator.
- Hong Kong Observatory: Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches: The twelve two-hour periods against clock time, such as Zi from 23:00 to 01:00, for the hour rules above.
