✦ By Imperial Tradition · Heritage of the Court ✦
BaZi (八字) is no recent fashion. From Li Xuzhong's year-pillar method through Xu Ziping's day-pillar reform to Shen Xiaozhan's pattern-theory refinement and Wan Minying's encyclopaedic synthesis, this knowledge has matured generation by generation. Minglitang carries that lineage forward — joined to the lived experience of the Chinese diaspora in Australia and New Zealand today.
BaZi reading takes its first form in the Han, with Huai Nan Zi's stem-and-branch correspondences. Tang's Li Xuzhong fixed the year-pillar reading. Northern Song's Xu Ziping made the Day Stem the pivot — the framework practitioners still use. Ming's Wan Minying compiled San Ming Tong Hui as a thousand-year encyclopaedia; Qing's Shen Xiaozhan refined pattern theory in Zi Ping Zhen Quan. These four canonical works ground the reading you receive today.
Every master-co-signed Mastery card we deliver carries a citation from one of these four texts. No citation, no sign-off.
Yuan Hai Zi Ping
渊海子平
Southern Song · compiled by Xu Sheng
The foundational text of Day-Master-centred BaZi. Pattern-from-month and Day-Master-driven yongshen selection both originate here.
When we say 'the Day is principal, Year is root, Month is the headline, Hour is supporting context' — we are quoting this text directly.
San Ming Tong Hui
三命通会
Ming · Wan Minying
The Ming-dynasty encyclopaedia of BaZi: Ten Gods, Shen Sha, palace mappings, spouse and children stars — gathered as one corpus.
The classical mapping 'for males, Officer = children, Wealth = spouse; for females, Officer = spouse, Output = children' comes from Volume Nine of this work.
Qiong Tong Bao Jian
穷通宝鉴
Qing · compiled by Yu Chuntai, annotated by Xu Lewu
The treatise on climate balance: how the season of birth interacts with the Day Master's warmth, cold, dryness, and damp — and what favours or burdens flow.
Our first diagnostic step — climate yongshen (调候用神) — uses the seasonal pairings codified in this book (e.g. spring wood needing fire, winter water needing Bing).
Di Tian Sui
滴天髓
Ming · attrib. Jing Tu, Qing commentary by Ren Tieqiao
Dense, terse, every line a hinge: Five-Element interactions, strength dynamics, follower-format inversions are all distilled here.
The 'follower-format yongshen inverts' rule — central to how we read 从财 / 从官杀 / 从儿 charts — is from this text's Cong Xiang Lun chapter.
Minglitang reads from two complementary authorities. From Xu Sheng's Yuan Hai Zi Ping textual line we take the classical strictness of pattern-from-month and yongshen selection. From Liang Xiangrun (梁湘润), the late twentieth-century Taiwan master, we take the practical mechanics — interlocks, clashes, twelve life-states, the working diagnostic order. Classical for depth, practical for usability — both threads run through every reading.
Marriages in Sydney, careers in Melbourne, weddings in Auckland — the decision context for Chinese families in Australia and New Zealand is not the mainland's. We've built Australian data residency and a master roster who hold both cultures fluently — so this knowledge can land where you actually live.
Guidance, not prophecy. For reflection, not decision.
BaZi is a mirror for reflection, not a substitute for decision. We render the disclaimer at the bottom of every page not as a courtesy but as a deliberate, standing commitment — your judgement remains yours. A reading can point to terrain; only you walk the path.
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