Shenbing Qimen in Practice: Three Cases

Translator's note. A guest piece by one of the author's students, Wang Xiuyin of Chongqing, written as testimony rather than argument. Its value is that all three cases were read before the event and reported afterwards, and the student shows his reasoning in full: the Four Ways of the Lü-school reading (the human way through the Eight Gates, the heaven way through the Nine Stars, the spirit way through the Eight Spirits, the ghost way through the stems). Three cases, three verdicts, all three borne out — including one that missed by half a mark. The original opens with a passage of personal gratitude and ends with the author's contact details; we have shortened both.

The Buddha said that it takes five hundred glances across five hundred lifetimes before two people pass each other in the street. My own connection with Mr Lü Wenyi must have taken rather more than that. What I have today — a seven-figure annual income among other things — came from it.

I am a person who takes a discipline seriously. To master a subject you must first be single-minded and focused, and only then can you be professional. Since I left school I have bought a great many books and journals on the Yijing arts. I remember 1998, when Mr Lü was working at the Li Hongcheng Qiaolu company in Hainan. The journal Qiaolu Consulting carried an article of his, “Reading the Annual Fortunes of the Twenty-Four Mountains,” and it shook me. In those years, theory that was both simple and able to survive live testing was very thin on the ground, and I knew I had found something rare. I sent a registered letter to the company to reach the author. By great good fortune it was Mr Lü himself who answered the correspondence. Every invention he produced after that, every volume he published, every course he ran — I studied first and put into practice first. And every time it was accurate, without exception. It still is.

I had studied several qimen systems before. Whichever school it was, the verdict on whether a matter would succeed or fail always came out murky. Recently I began reading everything with the Lü-school Shenbing Qimen system, and it is both fast and completely accurate. What follows are cases I read personally. I record them for anyone who is interested, and I welcome correction where I have gone wrong.

Case one: the architect's exam

On 18 May at 9:10 in the morning a woman came to my studio in person and asked whether she would pass the architect's certification exam on the morning of the 24th. I cast a qimen chart: yang, round eight.

Reading with Shenbing Qimen:

① The Open Gate (kai men) has arrived in the kan palace. From the human way, this is unfavourable to passing an examination.

② From the heaven-way energy: the tianying star belongs to fire and would ordinarily mean progress and development on every front. But ying fire is controlled by kan water, so the auspicious energy is weakened.

③ From the spirit-way energy: taiyin is metal and governs changes of feeling — a good change. But metal arriving in kan is drained by water, which again weakens the auspicious signal.

④ From the time: the yi-si hour falls in the zhen palace, also unfavourable to the exam. On the five-element relations, Open Gate is earth-and-water, and in zhen it is both controlled and drained by zhen wood. From the human-way energy this too is unfavourable.

b) From the heaven way: tianying fire meets tianzhu water, which indicates loss of money and drain of resources, plus injury or illness of body and mind — unfavourable to the earlier progress.

c) From the spirit way: taiyin metal in the zhen palace meets baihu metal in support — again a change of feeling, a good change.

Verdict: she will not pass. But in her career she will meet a benefactor, or a member of the opposite sex who is drawn to her, and there will be good developments there.

What happened: at about 11 a.m. on the 24th she messaged me. She had missed by half a mark.

Case two: the airport contract

On 21 May in the you hour the head of a construction company telephoned. He was flying to Beijing the next day to see a senior official — a friend had already bought the ticket — to ask whether he could get the contract for the Kunming airport works. I cast a chart: yang, round six.

Reading:

① The Life Gate (sheng men) palace has arrived in li and met emptiness. That is a clear signal that the contract cannot be obtained. Life Gate in li does drain some wood, but it turns and generates earth, which tells us the man's previous run of fortune was decent. From the heaven way, tianzhu water arriving in li fire is drained; the tianzhu formula reads: for a period, there will be nothing to do. From the spirit way, xuanwu water arriving in li is also drained by fire; the xuanwu formula reads: because one party to the transaction is being excessively calculating, and fears the outcome will turn bad, matters change.

② Beijing lies to the northeast of the man, so look at the gen palace. Life Gate in gen meets the Fear Gate (jing men), which is both controlled and drained — a signal of failure. From the heaven way, tianzhu water in gen meets tianfu wood; the tianfu formula reads: long journey, leisure, stability. From the spirit way, xuanwu water in gen meets taiyin metal; the xuanwu formula reads again: one party excessively calculating, fearing a bad outcome, matters change.

③ From the time, on the human way: yi wood falls into the kun palace and again meets emptiness — another signal that the contract cannot be obtained. On the five-element relations, Life Gate's earth-wood in kun meets the Harm Gate (shang men) wood; earth is controlled by wood, and the reading carries a note of contention. From the heaven way, tianzhu water in kun meets tianxin fire; the tianzhu formula: for a period, there will be nothing to do. From the spirit way, xuanwu water in kun meets jiudi earth; the jiudi formula reads: because one party to the transaction meets a disastrous event, matters change.

Verdict: the contract absolutely cannot be obtained. Spend as little as possible.

What happened: he went on the 21st and was back on the 22nd. From the old leader's tone it was all deflection — I'll let you know if there's news. He was not hopeful.

Case three: the thesis defence

On 23 May in the you hour a woman telephoned to ask whether her son would pass his graduation thesis defence on the 25th. I cast immediately: yang, round eight.

Reading:

① First, the son's present state.

From the human way: the Harm Gate (shang men) has arrived in the gen palace, unfavourable to passing an examination — and it meets emptiness, which is worse.

From the heaven way: the tianxin formula reads, a great change in emotional matters.

From the spirit way: the xuanwu formula reads, harmed physically or psychologically by another person.

From the ghost way: the wu formula reads, error, gap in knowledge, procedural mistake.

② The Open Gate is the gate of passage. It has arrived in the dui palace, unfavourable to the exam.

From the heaven way: the tianying formula reads, progress and development on every front.

From the spirit way: the taiyin formula reads, a change of feeling — a good change.

From the ghost way: the yi-ben formula reads, error.

Verdict: he will not pass. And I told her not to blame the boy, because it would put him in a bad state of mind.

What happened: a little after two in the afternoon on the 25th she messaged. He had not passed. The thesis was rejected outright by the panel chairman.

Wang Xiuyin, Chongqing