Qimen Dunjia is an ancient form of

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

from China. It is still in use in

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and the Chinese diaspora in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. It is one of the Three Styles () of Chinese divination, with

Da Liu Ren Da Liu Ren is a form of Chinese calendrical astrology dating from the later Warring States period. It is also a member of the Three Styles () of divination, along with Qi Men Dun Jia () and Taiyi (). Li Yang describes Da Liu Ren as the highe ...

and

Tai Yi Shen Shu Tai Yi Shen Shu is a form of divination from China. It is also one of the Three Styles () of divination, the others being Da Liu Ren and Qi Men Dun Jia. Tai Yi Shen Shu is used to predict macroscopic events like wars or the meaning of supern ...

History

Originally devised to help form

military strategy Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek word '' strategos'', the term strategy, when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow s ...

and tactics, Qimen Dunjia was in use as long ago as the period of Chinese history known as the

Warring States The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...

, and is believed by Chinese scholars to have been used at the

Battle of Red Cliffs The Battle of Red Cliffs, also known as the Battle of Chibi, was a decisive naval battle in the winter of AD 208–209 at the end of the Han dynasty, about twelve years prior to the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. T ...

in the defeat of

Cao Cao Cao Cao () (; 155 – 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde (), was a Chinese statesman, warlord and poet. He was the penultimate Grand chancellor (China), grand chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, and he amassed immense power in the End of ...

's ship-borne army.

Liu Bowen Liu Ji (1 July 1311 – 16 May 1375),Jiang, Yonglin. Jiang Yonglin. 005(2005). The Great Ming Code: 大明律. University of Washington Press. , 9780295984490. Page xxxv. The source is used to cover the year only. courtesy name Bowen, better kn ...

is believed to have secured the throne for the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

Hongwu Emperor The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398. As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...

by applying Qimen Dunjia to his strategic planning. Over the centuries of Chinese history, Qimen Dunjia grew in popularity and was expanded to include a number of other types of divination, including medical divination,

matchmaking Matchmaking is the process of matching two or more people together, usually for the purpose of marriage, in which case the matchmaker is also known as a marriage broker. The word is also used in the context of sporting events such as boxing, in ...

childbirth Childbirth, also known as labour and delivery, is the ending of pregnancy where one or more babies exits the internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section. In 2019, there were about 140.11 million births globall ...

travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

, personal fortunes, and today includes contemporary applications, most notably that of business and finance. Today Qimen Dunjia is especially popular in Singapore and other nations of Southeast Asia.

Technique

Qimen Dunjia is based on

astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies ...

observations, and consists of various aspects of Chinese

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

, including the doctrines of

yin and yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the c ...

, five elements, the

eight trigrams The bagua or pakua (八卦) are a set of eight symbols that originated in China, used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each li ...

, the ten

Heavenly Stems The ten Heavenly Stems or Celestial Stems () are a Chinese system of ordinals that first appear during the Shang dynasty, c. 1250 BC, as the names of the ten days of the week. They were also used in Shang-period ritual as names for dead family mem ...

and the twelve

Earthly Branches The twelve Earthly Branches or Terrestrial Branches are a Chinese ordering system used throughout East Asia in various contexts, including its ancient dating system, astrological traditions, zodiac and ordinals. Origin This system was built ...

, as well as the twenty-four

solar term A solar term is any of twenty-four periods in traditional Chinese lunisolar calendars that matches a particular astronomical event or signifies some natural phenomenon. The points are spaced 15° apart along the ecliptic and are used by lunisolar ...

s. The Qimen Dunjia cosmic board consists of a 3 × 3 magic square of nine palaces (), which includes a Heaven and Earth plate, a spirit plate, eight gates and a star plate. The various symbols rotate around the palaces with each double-hour of the day, making a total of 1,080 different configurations of the Qimen Dunjia cosmic board. These situations () are recycled four times per year, and are divided between the

Yin and Yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the c ...

halves of the year. Each type of Qimen Dunjia divination carries its unique set of Use Spirits (). For example, medical divination relies mainly upon the star plate. The task of the Qimen Dunjia analyst is to interpret and analyze the meanings of the symbols in relation to questions asked. Any Qimen Dunjia situation may be interpreted or analyzed to respond to a wide variety of questions, or to solve a multitude of problems. Examples of questions include understanding the underlying objective of the other party in a situation, looking for missing objects, and analyzing cause and effects. Qimen Dunjia is time-sensitive. The analyst makes reference to the configuration of the cosmic board at the time when a question is posed, or for birth times of individuals or corporate entities, such as businesses or nations. At times, the same or very similar configurations of the cosmic board will appear in relation to the same series of questions or problems.

In popular culture

Animation

Chinese Donghua/Comic

* Under One Person:Qimen Dunjia

Japanese Anime/Manga

Naruto ''Naruto'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. T ...

:Eight Gates *

Ya Boy Kongming! is a Japanese manga series written by Yuto Yotsuba and illustrated by Ryō Ogawa. The series was serialized in Kodansha's ''Comic Days'' website from December 2019 to November 2021 and later in ''Weekly Young Magazine''. It has been collect ...

Movie

The Thousand Faces of Dunjia ''The Thousand Faces of Dunjia'' ( zh, 奇門遁甲) is a 2017 Chinese fantasy-wuxia film directed by Yuen Woo-ping; scripted and produced by Tsui Hark. It is a remake of Yuen's 1982 film ''The Miracle Fighters''. The film stars Da Peng, Aarif Le ...

(2017) *

The Miracle Fighters ''The Miracle Fighters'' is a 1982 Hong Kong martial arts fantasy comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-ping and starring Bryan Leung, Yuen Cheung-yan and Yuen Yat-cho. The film's action sequences features various elements of fantasy which include ...

(1982)

External links

* {{cite web , url=http://www.ctcwri.idv.tw/ctcwri-mts/CMT07正乙部/CH07XX/九天上聖秘傳金符經.htm , archive-url=https://archive.today/20130419012652/http://www.ctcwri.idv.tw/ctcwri-mts/CMT07%E6%AD%A3%E4%B9%99%E9%83%A8/CH07XX/CH07075%E4%B9%9D%E5%A4%A9%E4%B8%8A%E8%81%96%E7%A7%98%E5%82%B3%E9%87%91%E7%AC%A6%E7%B6%93.htm , archive-date=2013-04-19 , title=九天上聖秘傳金符經 , access-date=2019-01-02 , url-status=live Chinese books of divination Chinese culture Divination Taoist divination