滴天髓 · Chapter translations with commentary
The Di Tian Sui is the text every BaZi lineage reasons from and almost none of them publish in full. English-language BaZi material is abundant at the level of calculators and concept glossaries, and empty at the level of primary sources: the text itself, line by line, with the terms pinned down.
Each page gives the traditional Chinese original, a sentence-level English translation, exact definitions for every technical operation named, and editorial commentary distinguishing what the text actually says from what later teaching has smoothed it into.
Di Tian Sui Ch.11 精神論 in English: Metal and Water as essence, Wood and Fire as spirit, and why a chart can be rich in qi and still be empty.
Di Tian Sui Ch.14, On Firmness and Yielding: why supplementing a strong Day Master with the yielding can reinforce it, and which element truly mediate
Di Tian Sui Ch.17 衰旺論 — full English translation and commentary: why an extreme chart must not be corrected, with drain, harm, support and reinforce d
Di Tian Sui Ch.18 生時論 — why the minute of birth changes the chart, and the classical answer to why people sharing a birth chart live different lives.
Di Tian Sui Ch.21: clarity is a settled order, not single-qi purity; turbidity is dysfunction, not mixture — and a lucky cycle can still scour it clea
Di Tian Sui Ch.22 真假論 in English: true and false turn on command of the season, not on presence — and why an undecidable chart stagnates for life.
Source: 《滴天髓》, attributed to 劉基 (Liu Ji, 1311–1375), edited by 陳之遴. Public domain, via Wikisource.
Translations and commentary © xmcsl.cn.