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Sanming Tonghui · A Comprehensive Account of the Three Destinies
On Calculating the Month and Hour Stems
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In a natal chart, the year is root and father; month is siblings and colleagues; day is ruler, wife, and oneself; hour is children and grandchildren, imperial property, and foremost in lifelong honor and disgrace. Another saying calls year root, month shoot, day flower, and hour fruit. A shoot without root does not grow; fruit without flower does not form. Thus calculating the month proceeds from the year, and calculating the hour from the day. For Jia and Ji years, the first month starts at Bingyin, the second Dingmao, proceeding forward through twelve months.
An old song says: “Jia and Ji years take Bing as head; Yi and Geng years take Wu first; Bing and Xin seek Geng above; Ding and Ren flow forward from Ren. Where do Wu and Gui begin? Seek well upon Jiayin.” For hours, a Jiazi-day person born at Zi uses Jia and Ji still adding Jia: the Zi hour is Jiazi, Chou Yichou, proceeding forward through twelve hours.
An old song says: “Jia and Ji still add Jia; Yi and Geng begin with Bing; Bing and Xin begin from Wu; Ding and Ren occupy Gengzi. Where do Wu and Gui issue? Renzi is the direct path.”
Month and hour methods take the heavenly stems' combination numbers, the pairing of yin and yang. These combination numbers naturally produce transformation numbers. Month takes generation, hour takes conquest. Jia and Ji transform into Earth: Fire generates Earth, so the month begins at Bingyin; Water conquers Earth, as the source states, so the hour begins at Jiazi. The month begins at Yin, the meaning of humanity born at Yin and the eastern work first flourishing. The hour begins at Zi, heaven opening at Zi and one yang newly born. Ultimately all generate one another and rotate without end. In antiquity, the calendrical epoch had Jiazi year, Jiazi month, Jiazi day, and Jiazi hour. Starting Jia and Ji at Jiazi derives from this. After Jiazi, Yichou and Bingyin spread in sequence through twelve palaces, yang generating yang and yin generating yin, one position between them, the same kind becoming husband and wife. Thus the method for starting months lies entirely within that for starting hours.
Translator's note: Both five-group stem mnemonics and their distinct month/hour starting points are retained. The month verse has a variant graph for Ji, unambiguous from the preceding explanation. The statement Water conquers Earth is preserved exactly, despite differing from the conventional conquest direction. The calendrical epoch and imperial-property expression follow the source.
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