Learn · 奇门遁甲认识奇门遁甲
An old way
of reading a moment.读一个时刻，
一种很老的方法。
Where Qimen comes from,
how it was used, and how we use it.奇门遁甲从哪里来、怎么被用过，
以及这一页怎么用它。
The story,
as it's told.传说，
是这样讲的。
The traditional story begins with a war. The Yellow Emperor is said to have received the method from 九天玄女, the Mysterious Lady of the Nine Heavens, to fight the rebel 蚩尤. His minister 风后 is said to have worked it into 1,080 boards; 姜子牙 cut them to 72; 张良 cut them to the 18 still used today. That lineage comes from an old verse, 《烟波钓叟歌》. It is a story, not a record, and we tell it as one.传统的说法从一场战争开始：黄帝与蚩尤交战，得九天玄女所授之书，命风后演成一千零八十局；后来姜子牙删为七十二局，再传到张良，精简成今天用的十八局。这条传承出自《烟波钓叟歌》。这是传说，不是史料，我们也只当传说来讲。
What the records
actually show.史料里，
真正看得到的。
- Qimen Dunjia is one of the 三式, the “three styles” of Chinese court divination, beside 太乙 and 六壬.奇门遁甲与太乙、六壬并称“三式”。
- Books on 遁甲 are mentioned by 葛洪 in 《抱朴子》 (Eastern Jin). The 《隋书·经籍志》 lists more than fifty of them.东晋葛洪在《抱朴子》里提到遁甲之书；《隋书·经籍志》著录的遁甲类书有五十多部。
- Under the Northern Song, a 1102–1106 regulation made the three styles exam subjects for students of the court observatory.北宋崇宁年间（1102–1106）的算学令，把三式列为司天台学生的考试科目。
- In the Ming and Qing it was among the methods kept by the 钦天监, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, and some texts were reportedly restricted to court officials.明清两代，它是钦天监所掌的方法之一，据说有些书只限朝廷官员使用。
A tool for strategy,
before it was personal.它先是谋略的工具，
后来才用到个人身上。
Among the three styles, Qimen was the one for strategy and the situation at hand: where to move, when, and around what. Tradition credits it to famous strategists, 诸葛亮 and 刘伯温 among them. Historians treat those credits as part legend. The habit of mind is the part worth keeping: set out the whole field, find where you stand in it, then choose.在三式里，奇门偏重谋略与眼前的形势：往哪里动、何时动、绕开什么。传统把它归到诸葛亮、刘伯温这些谋士名下，史家认为这些说法半真半传。值得留下的是那种思路：先把整个局面摆出来，找到自己站在哪里，再做选择。
After 1912, Qimen, like other traditional divination, was officially called superstition and discouraged. It came back from the late twentieth century, especially in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, where people use it today for business questions and personal consultation.1912 年以后，奇门和其他传统术数一样，被官方视为迷信而受压抑。二十世纪后期它重新兴起，尤其在台湾、香港、新加坡与马来西亚，今天有人用它来看生意，也有人用它问个人的事。
This page reads
阴盘 Qimen.这一页读的，
是阴盘奇门。
Qimen has many schools that set the board in different ways. This page reads 阴盘奇门, the Yin-plate school. 阴盘 as it is taught today is a modern school, most closely tied to 王凤麟, who published on it in the 2000s. It presents itself as a folk and Daoist transmission. How old it really is, is argued over, and we'd rather tell you that than pretend otherwise. What sets it apart in practice: it reads the images of each palace closely, including stems hidden in the palace (暗干), where the older 阳盘 books lean on named patterns.奇门流派很多，起局方法各不相同。这一页读的是阴盘奇门。今天所教的阴盘，是一个近代流派，最常和王凤麟联系在一起，他在二〇〇〇年代出版过相关著作；它自称是民间与道家的传承，到底有多古老，至今有争论。与其装作没有争论，不如直接告诉你。实际读法上的不同是：阴盘重视每一宫的象意，也读宫里的暗干；较早的阳盘书，则更倚重格局。
How we use it now.我们现在怎么用它。
As something to think with. Your question picks its palaces before the board is read. The reading describes what sits there, in a fixed order, and stops. No verdicts, no dates, no remedies.当作想事情的工具。先由你的问题定下几宫，再读盘；解读按固定次序说出宫里有什么，然后停下。不下断语，不给日期，不给化解。
The palaces come first.
Then the board is read.先定下看哪几宫，
再读盘上所见。
So the reading follows the board,
not the other way round.解读跟着盘走，
不是盘跟着解读走。
The board is cast.起盘。
Qimen changes its board at the turn of each 时辰, the two-hour watches of the Chinese day. Yours is the board in force when you press the button, in your own time zone, and the minute is noted beside it. Nine palaces. In each: a door (how things move), a star (the nature of the matter), a deity (the unseen influence), and stems on the heaven and earth plates.奇门每个时辰换一盘，一个时辰两个小时。你按下按钮时，按你所在的时区，当时的那一盘就是你的，旁边记下几点几分。九宫之中，门看事情怎么动，星看事情的性质，神看暗中的影响，另有天盘、地盘之干。
Your palaces are chosen first.先定用神。
Before anything is read, your question picks its palaces: you (日干, the day stem), the matter (时干, the hour stem), and the ones your topic names.还没读盘，问题就先定下要看的宫：你（日干）、这件事（时干），再加上题目本身的用神。
- Work adds 开门 and 值符.问工作，加开门与值符；
- Money adds 生门, 戊 and 六合.问财，加生门、戊与六合；
- Love adds 乙, 庚 and 六合.问感情，加乙、庚与六合；
- A move adds 马星 and 伤门.问出行或搬迁，加马星与伤门；
- A decision adds 值使.问决策，加值使。
- Nothing is added later because it looks interesting.不会看了盘才挑一个“有意思”的宫。
图 · The nine palaces, with the two that are always read lit: you (日) and the matter (时).图 · 九宫之中，先点亮每次都读的两宫：你（日）与这件事（时）。 Read from the top down.由上而下读。
Each palace is read in the same order: the palace, its stems on the heaven plate (the present state), the door, the star, the deity, then any harm. When two of your palaces are the same palace, the reading says so. You get three short parts: what the board shows, where you stand, and what helps and what to watch.每一宫都照同一个次序读：宫位、天盘干（看当下的状态）、门、星、神，最后看四害。你的几个用神若落在同一宫，解读会直接点出来。你会读到三小段：盘面所见、你的位置、可助之处与需留意之处。
Where a colour falls,
look twice.有颜色的地方，
多看一眼。
Colours mark the four harms (四害):
how a palace sits, not luck.颜色标的是四害，
说的是这一宫的处境，不是吉凶。
- 墓
- 入墓 · Entombed
- A stem sits in its tomb: stored, held, not yet moving. Waiting, not gone.干落在自己的墓宫：被收着、藏着，还没动起来。是在等，不是没了。
- 刑
- 击刑 · Punished
- A stem meets its punishment here: friction, strain.干在此宫受刑：有摩擦、有拉扯。
- 迫
- 门迫 · Door pressed
- The door's element presses on its palace: the way through is squeezed.门克宫：出路被挤压。
- 兼
- 刑 + 墓 · Both at once
- Punished and entombed together.同时受刑又入墓。
- ○
- 空亡 · Empty
- The palace is void for now: what sits there is thinner than it looks.此宫暂时落空：这里的东西，比看起来要空。