Zi Ping Zhen Quan (True Commentary on Ziping)

In one line: The definitive work of the Pattern School — a systematic treatment of how to derive the favorable element and trace pattern transformations, and an essential classic for any student of BaZi.

Background

Written by Shen Xiaozhan (沈孝瞻), a Jinshi (presented scholar) of the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty. Building on earlier classics such as Yuan Hai Zi Ping (Deep Ocean of Ziping), San Ming Tong Hui (Comprehensive Treatise on Three Destinies), and Shen Feng Tong Kao, Shen offered a far more rigorous and standardized account of the rules for deriving the favorable element and analyzing pattern transformations.

Later scholars have praised it thus: "Among the old texts, Di Tian Sui (Drops of Heavenly Marrow) and Zi Ping Zhen Quan stand foremost — the most complete and refined of all. Every later school of BaZi, however verbose, cannot move beyond their scope. Like rivers flowing and the sun and moon shining, they are indispensable."

This project uses Zi Ping Zhen Quan Ben Yi (《子平真诠本义》, interpreted by Huang Dalu, completed in 2001): it contains Shen Xiaozhan's original text, Huang Dalu's verse-by-verse commentary, and practical case studies — closer to the "original meaning" than Xu Lewu's annotated edition.

Core Position (the "Backbone" of the Book)

Through meticulous, line-by-line analysis of Shen Xiaozhan's text, Huang Dalu advances a revolutionary claim:

Modern popular BaZi books — in their treatment of the favorable element, unfavorable element, supporting element, and Pattern — have almost entirely departed from the original meaning found in classics like Yuan Hai Zi Ping, Zi Ping Zhen Quan, and Shen Feng Tong Kao!

Huang Dalu's "Four Questions" challenging modern BaZi:

1. Why "focus on the Month Branch" when selecting the favorable element? Modern books dismiss this approach as rigid and pedantic.
2. Are the favorable element and the Pattern the same thing? Shen Xiaozhan treats them as one; modern books split them into separate chapters.
3. Should an inauspicious favorable element be "used in reverse"? Modern books treat the favorable element as sacrosanct — the very root of the chart — and never speak of an inauspicious favorable element at all.
4. Did the ancients ever mention Balance, Support and Restraint, Mediation, or Climate Adjustment? Not one of these terms appears anywhere in Shen Xiaozhan's original text.

Huang Dalu's conclusion:

The "favorable element" in classics like Zi Ping Zhen Quan is simply the usable element drawn from the Month Branch and the character that defines the Pattern. There is no such thing as the "favorable element" that modern books describe — one supposedly endowed with functions of balancing, supporting, mediating, and adjusting climate.

Book Structure (15 Chapters)

Chapter 1: On the Favorable Element (the Core)

Shen Xiaozhan's Original Text

The favorable element in BaZi focuses on the Month Branch. The Day Stem is matched with the Month Branch, and depending on the generating and controlling relationships, patterns are distinguished. Wealth, Officer, Seal, and Food God are auspicious favorable elements, to be used directly; Seven Killings, Hurting Officer, Indirect Seal, and Blade are inauspicious favorable elements, to be used in reverse. When direct, be direct; when reverse, be reverse. Properly combined, they all yield noble patterns.

Four Core Principles

1. Focus on the Month Branch — the favorable element must be drawn exclusively from the Month Branch
2. The favorable element is the Pattern — four auspicious favorable elements (Wealth, Officer, Seal, Food God) plus four inauspicious favorable elements (Seven Killings, Hurting Officer, Indirect Seal, Blade)
3. Auspicious: use directly; inauspicious: use in reverse — inauspicious favorable elements must be restrained or set aside
4. Proper combination yields a noble pattern — the key lies in the harmony of favorable and unfavorable elements

General Rules for Direct and Reverse Use of the Favorable Element

Auspicious — used directly:

• Wealth favors Food God to generate it, and generates Officer to protect Wealth
• Officer favors transparent Wealth to generate it, and generates Seal to protect Officer
• Seal favors Officer or Seven Killings to generate it, and Rob Wealth to protect Seal
• Food God favors a strong Day Master to generate it, and generates Wealth to protect Food God

Inauspicious — used in reverse:

• Seven Killings favors Food God or Hurting Officer to control it, and avoids Wealth or Seal lending it support
• Hurting Officer favors pairing with Seal to restrain it, or generating Wealth to transform the injury
• Blade favors Officer or Seven Killings to restrain it, and avoids having neither Officer nor Killings at all
• Month Robbery favors transparent Officer to restrain it, or Wealth with transparent Food God to transform the robbery

Shen Xiaozhan's Critique of Modern BaZi (Original Text)

People today do not know to focus on the Month Branch. Instead, they take every stem and branch in the Four Pillars and treat them all as falling under the Month Branch's jurisdiction, then observe favorable and unfavorable elements from there. When they see a Direct Officer paired with a Seal, they call it "Officer and Seal both complete" — lumping it together with a Seal pattern that employs an Officer. When they see transparent Wealth alongside a Food God, they fail to recognize it as Wealth meeting Food God, and instead call it "Food God generating Wealth" — treating it the same as a Food God-generates-Wealth case… All of this stems from not understanding the Month Branch and carelessly selecting the favorable element.

When the Month Branch Contains No Usable Favorable Element

Yet there are also cases where the Month Branch offers no usable favorable element — what then? If Wood is born in a Yin or Mao month and the Day and Month Branches are the same, the Day Master itself cannot serve as the favorable element. One must then examine the Four Pillars for transparent Officer, Seven Killings, Output, or Wealth, and select the favorable element separately.

Order of selection:

1. If Officer is present, start with Officer (Officer pattern)
2. If no Officer, consider Output (Output or Wealth pattern)
3. If Output and Wealth do not apply → Seal and Friend both strong pattern
4. If none of these six applies → the Day Master is strong with nothing to rely on — the native retreats into monastic life

Chapter 2: On the Transformation of the Favorable Element (the Subtle Part)

Shen Xiaozhan's Original Text

The favorable element is governed by the Month Branch. Yet the Month Branch conceals more than one stem, and so the favorable element undergoes transformation. Among the twelve branches, Zi, Wu, Mao, and You excepted, all contain hidden stems — not only the four storage branches. Take Yin as an example: Jia is its main qi, like a prefecture having its prefect; Bing is its long-life qi, like a deputy prefect; Wu is likewise long-life, like an assistant official. If the Yin month is the governing branch and Bing emerges in the stems rather than Jia, then we know the prefect is absent and the deputy holds authority. This is the source of transformation.

Four Types of Transformation

When transformation is favorable, the pattern grows more beautiful; when it is unfavorable, the pattern is broken.

Practical Example (Gui Water Woman's Chart)

Friend · Wealth · Day Master · Seal Yi · Wu · Yi · Ren Hai · Yin · Mao · Wu Major Luck Cycles: Ji Mao, Geng Chen, Xin Si, Ren Wu, Gui Wei, Jia Shen

Analysis: Yi Wood born in the Yin month forms the Month Robbery pattern. Because the branches contain Wu, Yin and Wu combine into Fire, and the Month Robbery pattern transforms into an Output pattern. The Month Stem is Wu — Earth, the Wealth Star — and Output generates Wealth. Result: The native entered business early in life, amassed a fortune of a million, enjoyed a harmonious marriage, and raised four distinguished sons.

Chapter 3: On Purity and Mixture of the Favorable Element (Practical Fortune and Misfortune)

Shen Xiaozhan's Original Text

Once the favorable element undergoes transformation, within those transformations we further distinguish purity and mixture. The pure is auspicious; the mixed is inauspicious.

Pure (Auspicious) — Two Elements in Harmony

Mixed (Inauspicious) — Two Elements at Odds

The ancients said: "One pattern, two patterns — minister or chancellor; three patterns, four patterns — condemned to the common ranks."

Chapter 11: On the Favorable Element and Climate Adjustment (Integrating Climate)

Shen Xiaozhan's Original Text

Thus, when Seal meets Officer, we speak of Officer and Seal both complete — and none fail to be noble. Yet winter Wood meeting Water, even with transparent Officer, can scarcely be counted noble; for Metal turns cold and Water freezes all the more, and frozen Water cannot nourish Wood — such is the logic. When the Day Master and Seal are both strong, transparent Output confers nobility — this holds for all Seal patterns. But applied to winter Wood, it is especially elegant, for winter Wood meeting Fire not only drains the Day Master but also adjusts the climate.

The Relationship Between Climate Adjustment and Patterns

• Summer Wood: climate adjustment first, pattern second (excessive heat calls for Water)
• Winter Wood: climate adjustment first, pattern second (excessive cold calls for Fire)
• Spring and Autumn Wood: pattern first, climate adjustment second (moderate climate)

Five Classic Practical Examples (Selected from Huang Dalu's Interpretation)

Example 1: Wu Wu Wu Wu · Jia Yin (Original Example from the Blade Section)

Wu Wu · Wu Wu · Wu Wu · Jia Yin

Analysis: This chart possesses both Blade and Seven Killings in full, and takes Wu Fire as the Seal — hence its nobility. Original source: Xi Ji Pian (《喜忌篇》) — "Wu day in the Wu month: do not treat as Blade; when the hour meets Jia Yin, treat it instead as Seal."

Example 2: Gui Water Woman's Chart (Amassed a Fortune)

Yi · Wu · Yi · Ren Hai · Yin · Mao · Wu

Analysis: Yin month Yi Wood — the Month Robbery pattern. The Wu character half-combines into Fire, transforming Robbery into Output. Wu Earth is the Wealth Star, and Output generates Wealth. Amassed a fortune of a million; four distinguished sons.

Example 3: A Man Abandoning the Day Master to Follow Wealth

Wu · Jia · Yi · Bing Xu · Yin · Chou · Zi

Analysis: Yi Wood born in the Yin month forms the Month Robbery pattern. Transparent Bing Fire appears as the Hurting Officer, but among the branches Xu is present while Wu is absent — so transformation into Fire cannot occur. Only in the Wu Wu Major Luck Cycle does it transform into Fire → wealth surged to more than a million.

Example 4: Li Houqi (Author of 100 Methods of Fortune-Telling)

Wu · Jia · Jia · Jia Yin · Yin · Xu · Zi

Analysis: Jia Wood born in the Yin month forms the Month Robbery pattern; the branches form a Water frame.

Example 5: Vastly Wealthy but Not Noble

Gui · Xin · Bing · Ji Mao · You · Chen · Hai

Analysis: Gui Water born in the Mao month; Mao Wood serves as Seal — normally an Officer-Seal pattern. But Ji Earth sits atop Hai Water and restrains it, shifting the chart toward abandoning Officer in favor of Output. It takes on the character of a Wealth-favoring-Output pattern, and so the native was vastly wealthy but not noble.

Five Major Contributions (to Later BaZi Study)

1. Focus on the Month Branch — elevating the Month Branch to the central position in selecting the favorable element
2. Auspicious and inauspicious, two distinct paths — dividing the eight favorable elements into the auspicious (Wealth, Officer, Seal, Food God) and the inauspicious (Seven Killings, Hurting Officer, Indirect Seal, Blade)
3. The favorable element is the Pattern — favorable element and Pattern are unified, not separated
4. The theory of favorable element transformation — how transparency or combinations in the Month Branch cause the pattern to transform
5. The theory of success, failure, and rescue — whether a pattern succeeds or fails hinges on the presence of a rescuing element

Shen Xiaozhan's Four Major Critiques (Restored from the Original Text)

1. Critique of "not knowing to focus on the Month Branch": "People today do not know to focus on the governing Month Branch; instead, they take every stem and branch in the Four Pillars and treat them all as falling under the Month Branch's jurisdiction, to observe favorable and unfavorable elements."
2. Critique of "carelessly selecting the favorable element": "When they see a Direct Officer paired with a Seal, they call it 'Officer and Seal both complete'" — a misattribution.
3. Critique of "the favorable element must not be harmed": Yue Tan Fu (《月谈赋》) — "A pattern may be taken or not taken; a favorable element may be set aside or not set aside."
4. Critique of "climate adjustment and support-and-restraint": Shen Xiaozhan's original text contains not a single word about balance, support and restraint, mediation, or climate adjustment.

Relationship to Other Classics

Learning Path Recommendations

Step 1: Read the Original Text of "On the Favorable Element" Repeatedly (Seven Times)

The opening 200 characters of Shen Xiaozhan's text are extraordinarily dense with information.

Step 2: Master the Four Types of Favorable Element Transformation

Wealth to Officer / Seven Killings to Seal / Hurting Officer to Wealth / Month Robbery to Output

Step 3: Master the Judgment of Purity versus Mixture

Two elements in harmony = pure (auspicious); two elements at odds = mixed (inauspicious)

Step 4: Consult Chapters 11–12 for Practical Application

The relationship between climate adjustment and patterns + the importance of the Supporting God

Step 5: Cross-Reference the Other Three Classics

• Cross-reference Qiong Tong Bao Jian for Month Branch climate adjustment
• Cross-reference Di Tian Sui for Day Master strength
• Cross-reference San Ming Tong Hui for practical case studies

Study Recommendations

• ✅ Best for: Beginners starting BaZi from scratch — the ideal first classic
• ⚠️ Difficulty: ★★★☆☆ (a complete system, and beginner-friendly)
• 📖 Recommended edition: Huang Dalu's Zi Ping Zhen Quan Ben Yi (the project's digital edition is included)
• 🎯 Learning path: Read alongside Di Tian Sui — one for Pattern, one for Qi-Li

🔗 Related reading: Di Tian Sui (Qi-Li School) · Qiong Tong Bao Jian (Climate method) · San Ming Tong Hui (Case library)