Ask Fei QingYi

Your full date of birth and your gender, then the question itself.

The Oracle locates you in the chart through your Nian Ming [年命] — the stem and branch of your birth year. Give the whole date rather than just the year, because the Chinese year turns at Li Chun [立春], around 4 February — not 1 January. Someone born on 20 January 1983 still belongs to the previous year's pillar, and a year alone would place them in the wrong palace.

Male, 6 September 1983. I've been offered a role at a new firm starting next month — should I take it?

One that names a real decision, is bounded in time, and could plausibly go either way. Vague questions produce vague readings.

• Weak: “Will I be rich?” · “What does my future hold?” · “Is he the one?”
• Strong: “Should I sign the lease on the shop unit before the end of this month?” · “Is this quarter a good time to raise my prices?” · “Which direction should I base my new office in?”

Best not to. One chart is cast for one matter — the Yong Shen [用神], the symbol standing in for your subject, is chosen for that question alone. Bundling career, marriage and money into one message forces the reading to split its attention and all three answers get weaker. Ask them separately.

Yes — profoundly. The chart above is cast for this moment, and it redraws as the hours turn. That is the whole premise of Qi Men Dun Jia: the same question asked at a different hour sits in a different energetic landscape. Ask when the matter is genuinely live for you. Use the date and time control on the chart if you want to read a specific past or future moment instead.

Qi Men Dun Jia was built for strategy, so it is strongest on timing (when to act, when to wait), direction (which way to travel, where to site something), whether to proceed with a specific move, and who to involve — partners, negotiators, counterparties. It reads the shape of a situation and where its openings and obstructions lie.

It does not give medical, legal or financial advice, and it cannot diagnose, prescribe or guarantee an outcome. Readings are guidance for your own judgement, not a substitute for a qualified professional — and not a fixed fate. Qimen describes the terrain and the timing; the choice, and the responsibility for it, stay yours.

Nearly always this means the question was broader than the chart could focus on. “How is my career?” has no single answer; “Should I hand in my notice this month?” does. Narrow it to one decision with a timeframe and ask again — you will usually get something you can act on.

Readings aren't stored anywhere — closing the tab clears the conversation, and we don't keep a copy either, so it can't be recovered afterwards.

To keep one, use the download icon at the top of the Oracle panel. It opens your browser's print dialog, where you can choose Save as PDF. The file holds both the reading and the chart it was cast from.

Save it soon after the reading. The Paipan is live — it re-casts whenever the page reloads — so the chart you save is the one on screen at that moment, not necessarily the one your answer was drawn from.

(If the chart prints pale, switch on “Background graphics” in your print dialog's options.)

Not at all. Ask in plain language — the reading names the Ba Men, Tian Gan and Jiu Xing it is drawing on and explains what each one means for your situation. If you would like to understand the system behind the answers, the About Qimen page walks through the Nine Palaces, the Eight Doors and the Five Elements.

Every term on the Paipan is tinted by its Wu Xing [五行] element — the stems, the doors, the stars and the deities all carry their element's colour.

Two colourings are at work. The palace name at the bottom of each cell takes the colour of that palace's own element, while everything inside it takes its own. So the colours let you see at a glance whether what has landed in a palace feeds it or fights it — which is exactly what the reading is weighing up. Each element generates the next (Wood → Fire → Earth → Metal → Water → Wood) and controls the one after that; the Wu Xing section on the History page covers both cycles.

The colours also separate the two Jing doors. Both read “Jing Men” in Pinyin, so on the chart you tell them apart by glyph and colour: 景門 is Fire, 驚門 is Metal.