Cast & Chart

Growth

A chart describes tendencies in a traditional system. It cannot decide health, money, law, marriage or children.

In the classical sources

四曰长生，万物发生向荣，如人始生而向长也

Fourth is Long Life: all things sprout and turn toward flourishing, as a person is first born and begins to grow.

三命通會 卷二

About this stage

長生 means long life, and the image is a sprout breaking ground and a newborn starting to grow, in a passage 三命通會 卷二 quotes from 三命提要. That passage counts it fourth after three stages underground, while the plain list of names puts it first, which is the order this site uses. As a position it marks the branch where a stem's life begins to show: 亥 for 甲, 寅 for 丙, 巳 for 庚, 申 for 壬.

Yin stems and earth are where the sources divide. 三命通會 has each yin stem begin where its yang partner dies, so 乙 starts at 午 and runs backward, and 滴天髓 grants the rule and still says 其論勿執, do not cling to it. On earth, this site follows the stem paragraphs of 三命通會 卷二 and lets 戊 and 己 ride with fire, at 寅 and 酉. Other passages of that book, with 神峰通考 and one poem in 淵海子平, start earth at 申 with water, and 五行大義 has separate schemes of its own.

Where this text comes from

The order of the twelve stages follows 五行大義 volume 2 and 三命通會 volume 2 on Wikisource. The calculator uses that order for wood, fire, metal and water. Works disagree about earth.

The English name follows common modern usage. The wording here is our own plain summary.