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Intrigued by the glimpses into the art of Xuan Kong Da Gua (玄空大卦), blessed clients from all walks of life have sought out Imperial Harvest for deeper insights into this cherished tradition. In this article, Master David takes readers through the fundamental tenets behind selecting dates for significant personal or corporate events. These may include moving into a new home, incorporation of new business ventures or home renovations. While one’s choice of date may vary according to the nature of the intended event or activity, there are overarching principles that one should not stray from in selecting auspicious dates. Regardless of the specifics, Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection seeks to activate auspicious mountain and water stars to achieve breakthrough results in domains such as career, business, wealth, health and relationships.

The name of the Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection process is in fact a bit of a misnomer, and somewhat understates the precision of this ancient technique. In truth, it not only provides insight into suitable dates but may also be employed to narrow the selection process down to a window of two hours, making it a highly accurate tool in the Imperial Feng Shui master’s arsenal.

Before practising Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection, one requires a sound grasp of the 10 Heavenly Stems (天干) and 12 Earthly Branches (地支). These form some of the most fundamental concepts in the realm of Chinese metaphysics and are commonly encountered in applications as diverse as Bazi readings, home orientation and placement of auspicious ornaments.

10 Heavenly Stems

As the term suggests, the 10 heavenly stems consist of 10 metaphysical structures, each bearing a positive (+) or negative (-) polarity. These diametrically opposed polarities in fact represent the yin-yang polarities of the five universal elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

12 Earthly Branches

The 10 Heavenly Stems go hand-in-hand with the 12 Earthly Branches, which, while similar to the stems, are separate structures associated with time, as measured by the distance between Jupiter and Earth throughout its orbit.

Like the stems, the branches each bear a polarity and are also associated with the five elements of the universe.

60 Combinations (甲子)

As complementary metaphysical structures, the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches undergo a process of pairing, in which each of the stems is read and interpreted alongside a branch coupled with it. As the stems pair only with branches of the same polarity, the total possible number of pairings is 60 — these pairings are collectively known as the 60 Combinations.

As shown, the 60 Combinations are organised into six groups, each consisting of ten pairings. These six groups are named after the six stem-branch pairings undergone by the Jia (甲) stem — Jia-Zi (甲子), Jia-Xu (甲戌), Jia-Shen (甲申), Jia-Wu (甲午), Jia-Chen (甲辰) and Jia-Yin (甲寅).

When used in the Xuan Kong Da Gua Almanac, the 60 Combinations are mapped onto the 64 hexagrams discussed in our previous article, in that they each present with two accompanying numbers – one above the Heavenly Stem and the other below the Earthly Branch. As is the case with the 64 hexagrams, the number above is termed the element number, also known as the Xuan Kong Wu Xing (玄空五行), while the one below is the period number, or Ai Xing Gua Yun (挨星卦运). Both the Combinations and hexagrams therefore present with two accompanying numbers – one above the Heavenly Stem and the other below the Earthly Branch.

It is important to note that the pair of numbers – element and period – is always the same for each specific combination of Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch. Referring to the sample almanac below, the combination Yi (乙)-Mao (卯), for instance, always bears an element number of 1, and 4 as the period number. This applies to all Four Pillars – Year, Month, Date and Hour.

The Four Pillars

With the Xuan Kong Da Gua Almanac in hand, the Imperial Feng Shui practitioner is ready to establish the Four Pillars of date selection, which indicate the auspicious Year, Month, Date and Hour to accomplish an activity or conduct an event.

As reflected above, the Year, Month, Date and Time are each represented by the four abovementioned identifiers – Heavenly Stem, Earthly Branch, element number and period number. These are derived from the Xuan Kong Da Gua Almanac.

Consider the 5 to 7 pm window on 1 June 2023. With reference to the Xuan Kong Da Gua Almanac, the Four Pillars may be established as follows:

From the resulting set of Element Numbers and Period Numbers, the Imperial Feng Shui master then determines if this proposed 2-hour window on this particular date bodes well for the intended activity or event. Recommendations for adjustments to the Hour, Date, Month, or less commonly Year, may then be made to alter the number combinations, thereby increasing auspiciousness for participants. In this regard, the Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection process is sometimes dubbed the Reverse Date Selection method – involving shortlisting a few dates, then relying on Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection to verify the auspiciousness of each.

At Imperial Harvest, Master David leverages his tri-generational Imperial Feng Shui expertise to advise blessed clients on their intended activities and events. With his firm grasp of the Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection method, scores of Singapore-based and international clients have maximised the auspiciousness of their new ventures, celebratory events and more, furthering the Imperial Harvest cause of prospering every generation.

• Fundamentals of Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection (玄空大卦)
• Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection: The Making of an Auspicious Date