Tai Yi Shen Shu: the year palace

Tai Yi Shen Shu (太乙神數) is one of the three great Chinese arts of prediction (三式), together with Qi Men Dun Jia and Da Liu Ren. It was originally used to forecast the fortunes of states and eras: years are counted from the start of a great cycle, and that count shows which of nine palaces the spirit Tai Yi occupies. Here we compare this year’s palace with the palace of your birth year.

About Tai Yi Shen Shu

Tai Yi (太乙, “the Supreme One”) was a stellar deity associated with the pole star. Court astronomers from the Tang dynasty onwards used Tai Yi charts to judge the weather, harvests, war and peace for the coming years. The year-count method used here gives the chart from a fixed epoch; month, day and hour charts and the full set of host and guest calculations belong to more advanced practice.

Sources: “Tai Yi Tong Zong Bao Jian” (太乙統宗寶鑑, Yuan dynasty) and “Tai Yi Jin Jing Shi Jing” (太乙金鏡式經, Wang Ximing, Tang dynasty).