Luck Cycle Forward/Reverse
Rule statement
With the month pillar already charted:
- Take the year stem’s yin/yang (Jia Bing Wu Geng Ren = yang; Yi Ding Ji Xin Gui = yin).
- Combine with sex:
- Yang year stem + male → forward
- Yang year stem + female → reverse
- Yin year stem + male → reverse
- Yin year stem + female → forward
- Forward: from the month pillar, take successive Jiazi pairs; reverse: take prior pairs.
Full steps and start-age conversion: Deriving Luck Cycles.
Applicability
- Four pillars fixed; month pillar correct (solar-term month change).
- Sex known.
- Year-boundary rule declared (often Lichun).
School differences
A few regions or schools differ on the “yin male / yang female” mnemonic; output must state the sentence adopted. “Three days ≈ one year” vs finer hour conversion is also optional precision.
Example
Year stem Jia (yang), male, month pillar Bing Yin: forward usually takes Ding Mao as the first luck step, then Wu Chen… (concretely, the next pair after the month pillar).