Definition: Six Relations is a mapping layer

In Bazi, liu qin (Six Relations) is a traditional way to connect chart relationships with kinship and social roles. This article adopts Six Relations rather than Six Relatives or Six Kinships because the method can describe relational functions, not only biological family. The mapping is usually built from shi shen (Ten Gods), pillar positions, visibility, roots, season, and the question being asked. It is an interpretive translation layer, not a census of someone’s actual family and not a way to read another person’s mind.

A responsible reading separates three statements: a chart contains a technical relationship; a school often associates that relationship with a kinship role; and a real person may or may not experience that role in the same way. The gap matters. A yin (Resource) relationship can suggest support, learning, care, or inherited rules in a traditional model, but it does not prove that a parent was supportive. A cai (Wealth) or guan (Officer) relationship may be mapped to a partner in some lineages, but it cannot determine marriage or identify a real individual.

Textual and historical context

Classical Bazi works generally embed kinship analogies inside larger methods of stems, branches, Ten Gods, pillar positions, ge ju (Pattern), and timing. Yuan Hai Zi Ping (The Deep Sea of Zi Ping), San Ming Tong Hui (Comprehensive Collection of the Three Fates), Zi Ping Zhen Quan (The True Principles of Zi Ping), Di Tian Sui (The Marrow of Heaven), Qiong Tong Bao Jian (a seasonal Bazi manual), and Shen Feng Tong Kao (a later Bazi compendium) represent overlapping but non-identical layers of the Zi Ping tradition. Their commentaries and later teaching tables should not be collapsed into one timeless chart.

Independent reference catalogues identify San Ming Tong Hui as a twelve-volume Ming-period work associated with Wan Minying and note its later inclusion in the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Branches). That bibliographic fact helps place the compilation historically, but it does not make every kinship correspondence uniform or prove that all later tables came from the same author. Rather than quote a disputed line as a universal rule, this article treats classical text, later commentary, school-specific mapping, modern teaching synthesis, and Mystic Atlas editorial guidance as separate layers.

Prerequisites and the mapping workflow

Start with bazi-ten-gods, bazi-structure-and-function, bazi-roots-and-rooted-qi, bazi-stem-branch-configuration, and bazi-reading-order. Define the question before assigning a family role. A chart reading about a person’s own experience is different from a claim about a parent, partner, child, or colleague. Use consent and anonymized data when discussing real cases.

  • 1. Verify the birth data, month boundary, hour rule, and charting convention.
  • 2. Write the ri zhu (Day Master), yue ling (Month Command), visible stems, branch contents, positions, and major interactions before naming a relation.
  • 3. Convert each relevant stem or hidden stem to its Ten Gods relation from the stated Day Master
  • do not infer from a branch animal alone.
  • 4. Choose one Six Relations table and disclose its assumptions, including any gendered or lineage-specific rule.
  • 5. Test visibility, root, season, proximity, source, flow, support, restraint, and obstruction.
  • 6. Compare the technical evidence with at least one alternative mapping and with the person’s stated context.
  • 7. Translate the result into a question or theme, not a verdict about a real relative.
  • 8. Record what would count as confirming, disconfirming, or simply unknowable evidence.

Common mappings, stated cautiously

The following are frequent associations, not a universal table. bi jian (Peer) and jie cai (Rob Wealth) may be related to siblings, equals, collaborators, or competition. zheng yin (Direct Resource) and pian yin (Indirect Resource) may be associated with parents, care, instruction, protection, or inherited knowledge. zheng cai (Direct Wealth) and pian cai (Indirect Wealth) may be associated with material responsibility, exchange, or a partner role in some systems. zheng guan (Direct Officer) and qi sha (Seven Killings) may be associated with rules, authority, institutions, or a partner role in some gendered systems. shi shen (Eating God) and shang guan (Hurting Officer) may be associated with children, output, teaching, or what one brings into the world.

The same role may be assigned differently by lineage. A traditional male-chart table may assign spouse roles through Wealth while a female-chart table may emphasize Officer; many contemporary readers reject that binary and treat both as school-specific metaphors for partnership and negotiation. Parent assignments can also split by Direct and Indirect Resource, by gendered convention, or by the actual question. Never combine the most favorable parts of several tables and present the mixture as classical consensus.

Do not confuse Ten Gods with pillar positions

A Ten Gods relation answers one question: how does a stem or hidden stem relate to the Day Master by phase and polarity? A pillar position answers another: where is that information placed in the chart’s traditional architecture? Some readers associate the year with ancestry or outer networks, the month with family and formative institutions, the day branch with intimate partnership, and the hour with children, projects, or later concerns. These are interpretive conventions. Position can qualify a relation, but it cannot repair a missing, weak, hidden, or obstructed relationship.

Fictional teaching example

This is a fictional teaching example, not a real family case or a prediction. Assume a jia (Yang Wood) Day Master with visible gui (Yin Water), xin (Yin Metal), and ji (Yin Earth), plus a branch containing yi (Yin Wood). Under the ordinary Ten Gods calculation, gui is Direct Resource, xin is Direct Officer, and ji is Direct Wealth; yi is Rob Wealth. A technical description can note Resource, Officer, Wealth, and Peer relationships, then check season, roots, tou gan (Stem Exposure), and interactions.

One lineage might use Direct Resource as a parent or learning-care indicator and Direct Officer as an authority or spouse indicator. Another might read both more generally as support and institutional expectation, refusing to assign a specific family member. If the person asks about family responsibility, the safer synthesis is: “The chosen table emphasizes support, rules, and resource management as relational themes; which experiences fit should be checked against your history.” It is not safe to say that a particular parent is controlling, a partner is guaranteed, or a child will behave in a certain way.

Commentator and school differences

Differences involve the division between Direct and Indirect forms, the use of year, month, day, and hour positions, gendered spouse rules, whether hidden stems count equally with visible stems, and whether a relation must be rooted or activated by timing. Some schools prioritize the Month Command and Pattern; others begin with Day Master strength, ti yong (Structure and Function), or the question’s practical context. A relationship can be present but not functionally available, or a timing layer can temporarily emphasize it without rewriting the natal chart.

Common errors

  • Treating one Ten God as a literal parent, spouse, child, or personality type.
  • Using the chart to diagnose a relative or infer a third party’s private thoughts.
  • Applying a gendered historical table without labeling its social assumptions.
  • Ignoring the Day Master and assigning relations from the animal sign or element count.
  • Reading a hidden stem as equal to a visible, seasonal, rooted, and unobstructed relationship.
  • Calling a partner, parent, child, wealth outcome, or family event inevitable.
  • Confusing a symbolic role with a legal, biological, or psychological fact.

Terminology translation note

This article adopts liu qin (Six Relations), shi shen (Ten Gods), and the site’s established renderings: Direct and Indirect Resource, Direct and Indirect Wealth, Direct Officer, Seven Killings, Eating God, Hurting Officer, Peer, and Rob Wealth. Six Relatives and Six Kinships are common English variants. Resource, Wealth, Officer, Killings, Eating God, and Hurting Officer are technical labels, not ordinary dictionary meanings. Direct and Indirect describe polarity-based categories, not moral value or certainty about a person.

Bazi is a traditional interpretive system, not scientifically validated prediction. Use Six Relations as a consent-based, self-reflective vocabulary for reviewing assumptions and communication patterns. Do not use it to expose family secrets, mind-read a third party, determine marriage, infer parentage, predict children, diagnose health, or replace medical, legal, financial, or mental-health advice. The preceding curriculum topic is bazi-conception-origin-life-body-palaces. Existing material to revisit includes bazi-ten-gods, bazi-structure-and-function, bazi-roots-and-rooted-qi, bazi-stem-branch-configuration, bazi-reading-order, and ethics-and-boundaries. The following curriculum topic is bazi-transitions-between-luck-pillars, which is planned rather than already published.