What Are Six Positions Multiplying (六位相乘) in BaZi?
Learn the five-pillar, Lu-Horse or Life-Palace completion scheme behind Six Positions Multiplying, its examples, ambiguities and OpenFate boundaries.
Overview
Six Positions Multiplying is the workbook’s English name for 六位相乘. It is not arithmetic multiplication. The brief source definition begins with year, month, day, hour and fetal pillar, then adds year/day Lu and Horse or a Life Palace convention to “raise” the twelve branches; it also asks the five stems to complete all ten Heavenly Stems. The text gives Jia-Zi, Ding-Mao, Wu-Yin, Xin-You with a Wu-Wu fetal pillar and a Life-Palace placement as one example, then records the author’s own Ren-Wu, Gui-Chou, Geng-Yin, Bing-Xu, Jia-Chen fetal-pillar example with Lu-Horse at Shen. The counting language is highly school-specific and underspecified for a modern deterministic implementation. OpenFate does not calculate this composite, add a fetal pillar or Life Palace, or treat derived Lu-Horse positions as missing chart characters.
At a glance
- Base positions
- Year, month, day, hour and fetal pillar
- Sixth layer
- Year/day Lu-Horse or a Life-Palace convention
- Branch aim
- Source claims completion of twelve branches
- Stem aim
- Five positions complete ten stems
- Evidence status
- Brief, school-specific and implementation-ambiguous
- Product boundary
- No OpenFate Six-Positions detector
“Multiplying” names a symbolic completion scheme, not a formula
The source combines five natal/fetal positions with derived Lu-Horse or Life-Palace positions and says the result completes twelve branches and ten stems.
It does not publish a full general algorithm for every chart. The two examples illustrate the convention but do not resolve all counting, duplication or conflict cases.
- List every actual and derived position used.
- Do not imply a mathematical formula the source does not give.
Five pillars, a Life Palace or Lu-Horse alone cannot establish the pattern
The elements are part of one compound method. A fetal pillar by itself, one Noble Horse, one Lu position or broad stem-branch coverage is insufficient.
Fetal pillar, Life Palace and Lu-Horse derivations vary by school. Unless one documented policy reproduces the complete example, the result should remain unclassified.
- Require one explicit source policy for every derived input.
- Treat ambiguity, duplication and missing positions as non-formation.
OpenFate does not materialize the source’s derived positions
The engine preserves the four calculated pillars and any separately implemented Lu, Horse or other marker evidence.
There is no Six Positions Multiplying detector. Fetal pillar, Life Palace and derived missing stems or branches are not injected into interactions, strength, reports or saved charts.
- Keep actual pillars and derived overlays separate.
- No virtual stem, branch, pillar, score or report mutation.
Symbolic completeness cannot prove rank or life outcomes
The source ends by calling the completed arrangement noble. Its two examples do not validate a general outcome prediction.
Do not infer wealth, office, exam success, social class, personality, relationships, health, safety, death or lifespan. Use direct evidence for consequential decisions.
- No wealth, office, exam or social-class guarantee.
- No personality, relationship, health, safety or lifespan prediction.
Sources and editorial basis
- 《三命通會》 (Sanming Tonghui)《三命通會》卷六「六位相乘」：年月日時胎五位配年日祿馬或命宮以起十二支、五干配十干，甲子丁卯戊寅辛酉戊午胎例與壬午癸丑庚寅丙戌甲辰胎、申處祿馬作者例A historical compilation covering stems and branches, Ten Gods, Nayin, Shen Sha, and multiple classical pattern systems.
- OpenFate Editorial Methodology本名按象徵補全法而非算術，原文算法短且重複衝突未盡故要求一套可重現來源政策；未實作則不加入胎元命宮祿馬或虛擬干支且不判，並排除財富官位考試階級性格關係健康安全死亡壽命推斷OpenFate separates deterministic chart calculation, traditional interpretation, and modern editorial explanation.