Qimen Dunjia Charting Steps

Qimen Dunjia charting is the process of placing the Eight Spirits, Eight Doors, Nine Stars, Heavenly Plate stems, Earthly Plate stems, and related markers into the Nine Palaces according to the time of the question. Once the chart is formed, it becomes the basis for Qimen analysis.

Many online tools can generate a Qimen chart automatically, but learning the manual process is still useful for beginners. By placing each symbol step by step, you can see where every part of the chart comes from instead of only reading the final result from software.

If you want to generate your own Qimen chart first and compare it with the steps below, you can use the AskQimen online Qimen Dunjia calculator. Enter the time and your question to create a chart, then use this guide to follow each placement.

This article uses January 1, 2024 at 12:00 as the example time.

1. Start with the Nine Palaces

A Qimen chart is built on the Nine Palaces. Their positions stay fixed:

Xun 4	Li 9	Kun 2
Zhen 3	Center 5	Dui 7
Gen 8	Kan 1	Qian 6

The main symbols placed into the Nine Palaces include four groups:

Group	Symbols
Eight Spirits	Chief, Snake, Moon, Harmony, Tiger, Warrior, Earth, Heaven
Eight Doors	Rest, Life, Harm, Delusion, Scenery, Death, Fear, Open
Nine Stars	Peng, Ren, Chong, Fu, Ying, Rui, Zhu, Xin, Qin
Heavenly Stems	Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui

In Qimen Dunjia, Jia is hidden and does not appear directly in the chart. The six Jia are represented by the Six Instruments: Jiazi hides under Wu, Jiaxu hides under Ji, Jiashen hides under Geng, Jiawu hides under Xin, Jiachen hides under Ren, and Jiayin hides under Gui.

2. Step One: Determine the Ju

Determining the Ju means finding whether the chart belongs to a Yin Dun or Yang Dun cycle, and which Ju number it uses.

The example time is:

Gregorian Time	Stem-Branch Time
January 1, 2024 at 12:00	Gui Mao year, Jia Zi month, Jia Zi day, Geng Wu hour

This time falls within the Winter Solstice solar term range, so it belongs to the Yang Dun range. After checking the solar term phase and the day pillar, the result is:

Item	Result
Solar term range	Winter Solstice
Dun type	Yang Dun
Ju number	1
Final Ju	Yang Dun 1 Ju

So this example begins with Yang Dun 1 Ju.

3. Step Two: Place the Earthly Plate Stems

The Earthly Plate stems follow this order:

Order	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Earthly Plate stem	Wu	Ji	Geng	Xin	Ren	Gui	Ding	Bing	Yi

There are two placement rules:

Rule	Explanation
The Ju number decides where Wu begins	In Yang Dun 1 Ju, Wu begins in Kan 1
Yang Dun moves forward, Yin Dun moves backward	This example is Yang Dun, so the order follows Kan 1, Kun 2, Zhen 3, Xun 4, Center 5, Qian 6, Dui 7, Gen 8, Li 9

For Yang Dun 1 Ju, Wu starts in Kan 1:

Xun 4 Xin	Li 9 Yi	Kun 2 Ji
Zhen 3 Geng	Center 5 Ren	Dui 7 Ding
Gen 8 Bing	Kan 1 Wu	Qian 6 Gui

4. Step Three: Place the Heavenly Plate Stems

To place the Heavenly Plate stems, first find the Xun Shou from the hour pillar.

In this example, the hour pillar is Geng Wu. Geng Wu belongs to the Jia Zi Xun. Jia Zi hides under Wu, so the Xun Shou is represented by Wu.

Item	Result
Hour pillar	Geng Wu
Xun	Jia Zi Xun
Xun Shou	Jia Zi
Hidden under	Jia Zi hides under Wu
Heavenly Plate starting point	Wu is placed above the Earthly Plate Geng

The Earthly Plate Geng is in Zhen 3, so Heavenly Plate Wu is placed above Zhen 3. Then place the remaining Heavenly Plate stems according to the outer-palace sequence of the Earthly Plate stems.

The Heavenly Plate stem result is:

Xun 4 Bing / Xin	Li 9 Geng / Yi	Kun 2 Xin / Ji
Zhen 3 Wu / Geng	Center 5 Ren	Dui 7 Yi / Ding
Gen 8 Gui / Bing	Kan 1 Ding / Wu	Qian 6 Ji / Gui

In the table, “upper / lower” means Heavenly Plate stem / Earthly Plate stem. For example, “Wu / Geng” means Heavenly Plate Wu above Earthly Plate Geng in Zhen palace.

5. Step Four: Place the Earthly Eight Spirits

The Earthly Eight Spirits begin from the Earthly Plate Xun Shou. In this example, Jia Zi hides under Wu, and Earthly Plate Wu is in Kan 1. Therefore, the Earthly Chief is placed in Kan.

The Eight Spirits follow this order:

Order	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Eight Spirits	Chief	Snake	Moon	Harmony	Tiger	Warrior	Earth	Heaven

This example is Yang Dun, so the spirits move clockwise from Kan:

Xun 4 Harmony	Li 9 Tiger	Kun 2 Warrior
Zhen 3 Moon	Center 5	Dui 7 Earth
Gen 8 Snake	Kan 1 Chief	Qian 6 Heaven

6. Step Five: Place the Heavenly Eight Spirits and Nine Stars

1. Place the Heavenly Eight Spirits

The Heavenly Eight Spirits begin from the Heavenly Plate Xun Shou. In this example, Heavenly Plate Wu is in Zhen 3, so the Heavenly Chief is placed in Zhen.

This example is Yang Dun, so the rest are placed clockwise:

Xun 4 Snake	Li 9 Moon	Kun 2 Harmony
Zhen 3 Chief	Center 5	Dui 7 Tiger
Gen 8 Heaven	Kan 1 Earth	Qian 6 Warrior

2. Place the Nine Stars

To place the Nine Stars, first check the native star of the palace where the Earthly Chief sits. The Earthly Chief is in Kan, and the native star of Kan is Tian Peng. Place Tian Peng in the palace where the Heavenly Chief sits, which is Zhen in this example. Then place the remaining stars clockwise.

The native positions of the Nine Stars are:

Palace	Native star
Kan	Tian Peng
Gen	Tian Ren
Zhen	Tian Chong
Xun	Tian Fu
Li	Tian Ying
Kun	Tian Rui
Dui	Tian Zhu
Qian	Tian Xin
Center	Tian Qin

The Nine Stars in this example are:

Xun 4 Tian Ren	Li 9 Tian Chong	Kun 2 Tian Fu
Zhen 3 Tian Peng	Center 5	Dui 7 Tian Ying
Gen 8 Tian Xin	Kan 1 Tian Zhu	Qian 6 Tian Rui, Tian Qin

Tian Qin follows Tian Rui. Since Tian Rui is in Qian in this example, Tian Qin is also placed in Qian.

7. Step Six: Place the Eight Doors

The Eight Doors follow this order:

Order	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Eight Doors	Rest	Life	Harm	Delusion	Scenery	Death	Fear	Open

The native positions of the Eight Doors are:

Door	Native palace
Rest Door	Kan
Life Door	Gen
Harm Door	Zhen
Delusion Door	Xun
Scenery Door	Li
Death Door	Kun
Fear Door	Dui
Open Door	Qian

In this example, the Earthly Chief is in Kan, and the native door of Kan is the Rest Door. Start counting Jia Zi from Kan, then follow the Yang Dun palace order until the current hour, Geng Wu:

Order	Stem-branch	Palace
1	Jia Zi	Kan
2	Yi Chou	Kun
3	Bing Yin	Zhen
4	Ding Mao	Xun
5	Wu Chen	Center
6	Ji Si	Qian
7	Geng Wu	Dui

So the Rest Door moves to Dui. Then place the remaining doors clockwise in their fixed order:

Xun 4 Death Door	Li 9 Fear Door	Kun 2 Open Door
Zhen 3 Scenery Door	Center 5	Dui 7 Rest Door
Gen 8 Delusion Door	Kan 1 Harm Door	Qian 6 Life Door

8. Step Seven: Place Void and Traveling Horse

1. Place Void

Geng Wu belongs to the Jia Zi Xun. In the Jia Zi Xun, Xu and Hai are void. Xu and Hai belong to Qian, so Void is marked in Qian.

Item	Result
Hour pillar	Geng Wu
Xun	Jia Zi Xun
Void	Xu and Hai void
Palace	Qian

2. Place Traveling Horse

Traveling Horse is determined by the earthly branch of the hour. The rule is:

Branch group	Traveling Horse
Shen, Zi, Chen	Yin
Yin, Wu, Xu	Shen
Si, You, Chou	Hai
Hai, Mao, Wei	Si

The hour branch in this example is Wu. Wu belongs to the Yin-Wu-Xu group, so the Traveling Horse is Shen. Shen belongs to Kun, so the Horse is marked in Kun.

Item	Result
Hour branch	Wu
Branch group	Yin, Wu, Xu
Traveling Horse	Shen
Palace	Kun

9. Step Eight: Handle Center Palace Placement

This step handles the symbols in the Center Palace.

In this example, the Center Palace has the stem Ren. During this step, Ren is placed in two positions:

Symbol	Placement
One Ren	Placed in the Earthly Plate position of Kun
The other Ren	Follows Tian Rui to the Heavenly Plate position in Qian

Tian Qin also follows Tian Rui. Since Tian Rui is in Qian in this example, Tian Qin is placed in Qian as well.

Item	Result
Tian Qin	Follows Tian Rui to Qian
One Ren from the Center	Placed in Kun’s Earthly Plate position
The other Ren from the Center	Follows Tian Rui to the Heavenly Plate position

10. Complete Chart for This Example

The table below brings the main symbols together. Each palace is shown in the order of “Heavenly Eight Spirit / Nine Star / Eight Door / Heavenly Plate stem / Earthly Plate stem / special marker.”

Xun 4 Snake Tian Ren Death Door Bing / Xin	Li 9 Moon Tian Chong Fear Door Geng / Yi	Kun 2 Harmony Tian Fu Open Door Xin / Ji Horse Earthly Plate Ren placement
Zhen 3 Chief Tian Peng Scenery Door Wu / Geng	Center 5 Ren	Dui 7 Tiger Tian Ying Rest Door Yi / Ding
Gen 8 Heaven Tian Xin Delusion Door Gui / Bing	Kan 1 Earth Tian Zhu Harm Door Ding / Wu	Qian 6 Warrior Tian Rui, Tian Qin Life Door Ji, Ren / Gui Void

11. Summary of the Qimen Dunjia Charting Steps

Step	What to do	Result in this example
1	Determine the Ju	Yang Dun 1 Ju
2	Place the Earthly Plate stems	Wu begins in Kan 1, then the stems move forward
3	Place the Heavenly Plate stems	Geng Wu belongs to Jia Zi Xun; Jia Zi hides under Wu; Wu is placed above Earthly Plate Geng
4	Place the Earthly Eight Spirits	Earthly Plate Wu is in Kan, so the Earthly Chief is in Kan
5	Place the Heavenly Eight Spirits and Nine Stars	Heavenly Plate Wu is in Zhen, so the Heavenly Chief is in Zhen; Tian Peng moves to Zhen
6	Place the Eight Doors	The Rest Door moves to Dui, then the other doors are placed clockwise
7	Place Void and Traveling Horse	Xu and Hai void in Qian; Traveling Horse in Kun
8	Handle Center Palace placement	Tian Qin follows Tian Rui; Ren is placed in Kun and also follows Tian Rui

12. How Beginners Can Practice Qimen Charting

When learning Qimen Dunjia charting, you do not need to memorize all symbolic meanings at the beginning. Start with three basic exercises.

First, memorize the Nine Palace positions: Kan 1, Kun 2, Zhen 3, Xun 4, Center 5, Qian 6, Dui 7, Gen 8, and Li 9.

Second, practice placing symbols in order. Begin with the Earthly Plate stems, then move on to the Heavenly Plate stems, Eight Spirits, Nine Stars, and Eight Doors.

Third, use the same time repeatedly for practice. After you finish the chart, you can use the AskQimen Qimen Dunjia calculator to compare the result. If the chart differs, check the Ju, Xun Shou, Chief position, Eight Door starting point, and Center Palace placement first.

Once you can complete these eight steps on your own, it will be easier to continue learning how the Doors, Stars, Spirits, and Heavenly Stems work together in Qimen analysis.