How a reading is made

Phase 1 — classical calculation (no AI judgement)

Before any written text is produced, the engine performs the full classical calculation set, drawn from canonical sources:

• The four pillars of birth (年柱·月柱·日柱·時柱)
• The eight characters (八字) and the hidden stems (藏干) within each branch
• The ten gods (十神) — each of the ten classical relationships your day-master holds with the other characters in the chart
• Self-strength baseline (旺衰) — whether the chart's centre of gravity has internal support or runs at a deficit
• All branch relationships — six-combinations (六合), six-opposites (六沖), three-conflicts (三刑), six-harms (六害), three-harmonies and their halves (三合 / 半合 / 三會 / 三會半)
• Stem combinations (天干五合) and whether they transform
• Empty pillars (空亡) and whether they are full or hollow
• Sound-elements (納音) — the sixty-pillar tonal correspondences for each pillar
• The decade cycles (大運) for your whole life
• The annual cycle (流年) for the next ten years, and where each year sits against your chart
• The current twenty-year era (九運 — 2024–2043) and how its dominant elemental quality meets your day-master
• Seasonal needs (調候) — what elemental work the chart wants for its season of birth
• Pattern candidates (格局) — the classical pattern the engine reads from your month-pillar

All of this is enumerated as an auditable list at the top of every detailed reading. You can read every classical relationship the engine detected, line by line.

Phase 2 — written rendering (guided by classical commentary)

The engine then writes the reading in four passes, each drawing from a curated body of classical commentary:

1. Four-pillar observation — structural reading, in classical voice

2. Five life domains — family, partnership, children, vocation, resources, each bridged from classical structure into present-day frames

3. Decade cycles and reflection — your life's chapters, plus questions to sit with

4. Whole-chart synthesis — a flowing prose reading that integrates the structure into one piece, anchored by a fresh image drawn from your particular chart

A separating principle holds across every reading: the whole and its opposite. When the reading speaks of any time period — a decade, a year, the current twenty-year era — it shows both sides. There is no era that is unambiguously good or bad for any chart; there is always the dominant motion, and the counter-current within it. This is the principle the classical sources call 太極 (the whole-and-its-opposite).