Xiao Liu Ren Cast
Three figures, the lunar month, day and double-hour, counted from Da An around six palaces, with the chain, the palace ring and the falling palace.
Six Palaces And The Falling Palace
Xiao Liu Ren takes three figures: the lunar month, the lunar day and the double-hour. Da An, Liu Lian, Su Xi, Chi Kou, Xiao Ji and Kong Wang sit in a fixed ring. The month is counted from Da An, the day continues from the palace the month landed on, the double-hour continues from the palace the day landed on, and wherever that last count stops is the falling palace. The result page has three parts: the Counting Chain, which prints the start palace, the count and the landing palace for each step; the Six Palaces, which mark which step touched each cell and which one is the falling palace; and the reading, with element, direction and fortune, plus the original text and the old verses kept inside that palace.
Ask one matter at a time and read only the cast just made. Birth pillars and luck cycles belong to the BaZi Chart; loading a hexagram with self and other lines belongs to the Liu Yao Hexagram Calculator; nine stars turning through the Luo Shu palaces are the Taiyi Nine Star Cast, and the four lessons and three transmissions are the Da Liu Ren Cast.
Worked Example
Solar 25 October 2026, 14:00. The date converts first: ninth month, day 16 of the Bingwu year. 14:00 is the Wei hour, the eighth double-hour. The month, 9, counted from Da An lands on Su Xi; the day, 16, counted on from Su Xi lands on Kong Wang; the hour, 8, counted on from Kong Wang lands back on Da An. Falling palace Da An: Wood, East, Auspicious.
One Double-Hour Every Two Hours
The double-hour comes from the clock: 23:00 to 00:59 counts as the Zi hour, then one change every two hours. Without a city the minutes cannot move the falling palace, so any clock time inside the same double-hour gives the same three counts.
With a city the clock time is converted to true solar time by longitude first, and that is where the minutes matter: if the correction crosses a double-hour boundary, the cast follows the double-hour it lands in. The same day at 23:00 is the Zi hour, count 1: the month and day steps do not move, the hour counts a single place and stops on Kong Wang, so the reading becomes Earth, centre, Inauspicious.
Element, Direction And Fortune
Each palace carries a fixed set: Da An Wood, East, Auspicious; Liu Lian Water, North, Inauspicious; Su Xi Fire, South, Auspicious; Chi Kou Metal, West, Inauspicious; Xiao Ji Water, North, Auspicious; Kong Wang Earth, Centre, Inauspicious.
The original text says what the palace governs, and the old verses are divided into lines for lost things, travellers, litigation, illness and the house, so the line matching what you asked is the one to read.
FAQ
How is this different from Liu Yao or Da Liu Ren?
Xiao Liu Ren counts three figures around six palaces and stops at one falling palace, read by its phase, fortune and old verses. Liu Yao builds a primary and a changed hexagram and loads stems, branches, self and other lines onto it. Da Liu Ren sets four lessons and three transmissions first, then spreads the twelve palaces and their deities. The inputs and the boards are not the same.
Where is a cast record stored?
A record holds only the values entered for this cast: calendar, leap-month mark, year, month, day, hour, minute, city (only when chosen) and the question. The result link rebuilds the same cast from that record; no page lists records: the link is the only way back to it and is not shown elsewhere; to keep it from others, do not share it.
What if the double-hour is unknown?
The last count of the cast runs on the double-hour, so without it there is no falling palace. Use the clock time the cast is made at: 23:00 to 00:59 counts as the Zi hour, then one change every two hours, so the minute inside one double-hour gives the same palace. If a city is chosen, true solar time is applied first and the cast follows the double-hour it lands in.
Same month, day and hour for everyone, so why do readings differ?
Given the same three figures the chain and the falling palace are fixed; nothing there is up for debate. What changes is the matter asked about: Da An favours staying over moving, so a question about a journey and a question about a house take different points out of the same palace. The old verses inside the palace spell out lost things, travellers, litigation and illness line by line, and the line matching the question is the one to read.
