Qimen Dunjia Chart Explained, Layer by Layer
A Qimen Dunjia chart looks crowded because it stacks four layers of information into nine squares. Once you know what each layer answers, the crowding turns into detail.
The grid: nine palaces
The chart is a 3×3 grid called the nine palaces (九宮). Each palace corresponds to a compass direction and a five-element (五行) quality — water in the north, fire in the south, wood in the east, metal in the west, earth in the corners and centre. The palace is the environment: the conditions in which the matter sits.
Layer one: the eight gates
The gates (八門) occupy the "human" layer and describe action and posture. Each gate has a home direction, but on any given chart it has moved somewhere else.
| Gate | Character |
|---|---|
| Open (開門) | Career, opening, officials, helpful people |
| Rest (休門) | Rest, harmony, marriage, patience |
| Life (生門) | Wealth, business, growth, profit |
| Harm (傷門) | Conflict, drive, hunting, damage |
| Block (杜門) | Obstruction, concealment, technique, defence |
| Scenery (景門) | Documents, messages, publicity, the insubstantial |
| Death (死門) | Ending, stillness, stagnation, funerals |
| Fear (驚門) | Alarm, disputes, litigation, anxiety |
Open, Rest and Life are traditionally called the three auspicious gates; Harm, Death and Fear the three inauspicious ones. But the label is a quality, not a verdict: a Death gate reading "should I shut down a losing business?" is exactly on topic.
Layer two: the nine stars
The stars (九星) are the "heaven" layer — the nature of the situation as it actually is, independent of what anyone intends. They carry their own images: risk and opportunism, documentation and teaching, medicine and planning, illness and learning, and so on. Read the star for the kind of thing you are dealing with; read the gate for how you can act.
Layer three: the eight spirits
The spirits (八神) describe invisible support or opposition: the Chief (值符) as the leading force, Six Harmony (六合) for unions and agreements, Great Yin (太陰) for quiet planning, Serpent (螣蛇) for entanglement and repetition, White Tiger (白虎) for sharp force, Dark Warrior (玄武) for concealment and loss, Nine Heaven (九天) for height and reputation, Nine Earth (九地) for stability and hiding.
Layer four: the stems
Every palace carries two stems: the earth-plate stem (地盤) laid by the ju number, and the heaven-plate stem (天盤) carried in when the plate rotated. The Earth Plate always contains nine symbols exactly once — Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui, Ding, Bing, Yi.
Their combination is the classical basis for pattern names, and more practically: which stem stands for you, which for the matter, and whether one generates or controls the other. The day stem generally represents the asker, the hour stem the question or the counterpart.
The two markers worth checking
- Void (空亡). Two branches are "empty" in every ten-day cycle. A palace in void is not doomed; it is hollow — favourable indications struggle to materialise, and unfavourable ones lose force.
- Horse (馬星). Derived from the hour branch, it marks movement: travel, relocation, change of plan, acceleration. It says nothing about good or bad on its own.
How the layers combine
- Pick the significator for your question, and find its palace.
- Read the gate (action), star (nature) and spirit (hidden factor) in that palace.
- Compare the five elements of gate and palace: harmony supports the matter, control creates friction.
- Bring in the second significator — the other party or the matter — and compare the two palaces.
- Finish with void and horse: solid or hollow, still or moving.
That is the whole method at its core. Everything else — pattern names, seasonal strength, the finer correspondences of each star — makes the reading more precise, but the shape of the answer is already visible after those five steps.