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 history ...
from China. It is still in use in
Mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...
,
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 no ...
,
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 List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
,
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 federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...
,
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, bor ...
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 south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
. It is one of the Three Styles () of Chinese divination, with
Da Liu Ren 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 ...
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 ...
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 of the Eastern Han dynasty, and he amassed immense power in the dynasty's final years. As one o ...
'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 ...
's
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 i ...
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 glob ...
,
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, galaxi ...
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 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 cycles of yin and ya ...
,
five elements, the
eight trigrams, 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 lunisola ...
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 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 cycles of yin and ya ...
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
''Under One Person'' () with subtitle ''The Outcast'' is a Chinese webcomic by Dong Man Tang (), illustrated by Mi Er (Chinese: ), and published by Tencent Animation and Comics, Tencent. It was first published under the title 异人 (''Yi Ren'', l ...
: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 collected ...
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 ...
(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)
See also
*
Chinese astrology
Chinese astrology is based on the traditional astronomy and calendars. Chinese astrology came to flourish during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD).
Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the ...
*
Chinese astronomy
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the tw ...
*
Chinese classical texts
Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confuci ...
*
Da Liu Ren
*
Feng shui
*
Flying Star Feng Shui
Xuan Kong Flying Star feng shui or ''Xuan Kong Fei Xing'' is a discipline in Feng Shui, and is an integration of the principles of Yin Yang, the interactions between the five elements, the eight trigrams, the Lo Shu numbers, and the 24 Mounta ...
*
Hypernumbers
*''
I Ching
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zh ...
'' &
I Ching divination
I Ching divination is a form of cleromancy applied to the '' I Ching''. The text of the ''I Ching'' consists of sixty-four hexagrams: six-line figures of '' yin'' (broken) or '' yang'' (solid) lines, and commentaries on them. There are two ma ...
*
Wen Wang Gua
*
Jiaobei
Moon blocks or ''jiaobei'' (also written as ''jiao bei'' etc. variants; ), also ''poe'' (from ; as used in the term " ''poe'' divination"), are wooden divination tools originating from China, which are used in pairs and thrown to seek divine gu ...
&
Poe divination
Poe divination (from the 'poe' (桮) in the Hokkien , Min Dong BUC: buăk-bŭi, "cast moon blocks", also called as "bwa bwei", Mandarin ) is a traditional Chinese divination method, in which the divination seeker throws or drops two little w ...
*
Kau Cim
''Kau Chim'' or ''Kau Cim'', also known as Lottery poetry (), is a fortune telling practice that originated in China in which the querent (person asking the question) requests answers from a sacred oracle lot. The practice is often performed in ...
*
Jiutian Xuannü, Powerful female Deity in
Chinese folk religion
Chinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled ...
*''
Shaobing Song
The ''Shaobing Song'' (), also known as ''Pancake Poem'' or ''Pancake Song'', is a poem purported to be written by Liu Bowen during the Ming dynasty. He supposedly presented the poem to the Hongwu Emperor.Windridge, Charles. 999(2003) Tong Sing T ...
''
*
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 ...
*
Tie Ban Shen Shu
*''
Tui bei tu
''Tui bei tu'' () is a Chinese prophecy book from the 7th-century Tang dynasty. The book is known for predicting the future of China, and is written by Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang (袁天罡), and has been compared to the works of famous wes ...
''
*
Tung Shing
''Tung Shing'' () is a Chinese divination guide and almanac. It consists primarily of a calendar based on the Chinese lunar year.
History
''Tung Shing'' originated from ''Wong Lik'' (, the "Yellow Calendar"), which legend attributes to the ...
*
Yuan Hai Zi Ping
Further reading
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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