Free Qi Men Chart Tutorial: Read Your First Chart in Three Minutes

Many people are intimidated the first time they see a Qi Men Dun Jia chart, with its dense grid of stems, stars and doors. In fact, if you follow the right steps, you can cast your first chart and read its most basic information within three minutes. This article walks through the charting tool on this site step by step.

1. Step One: Enter Your Question

Open the homepage, where you will find a question input box. Qi Men Dun Jia works on the principle of "one chart, one question", so try to be specific — "Is this a good month for me to change jobs?" is far easier to read than simply typing "work".

The site is available in Chinese, English and Japanese; you can switch from the language menu, and the features are identical.

2. Step Two: Confirm the Chart Time

Qi Men Dun Jia is charted by the hour. On this site the chart time defaults to now, so you do not need to pick a date or hour yourself:

• If the question has only just come to mind, simply keep the default "now".
• If you already wanted to ask about this earlier (say, last night), change the intention time to the moment the question first came to you.
• The intention time is when you wanted to ask, not when the event starts or happens. Even for a specific event such as signing a contract or an interview, do not enter the event's date and time.

Once confirmed, the system automatically generates the corresponding nine-palace chart, including the placement of stems, stars, doors and deities.

3. Step Three: The Standard Full Reading, Add-on and Follow-ups

Every reading here is a Standard Full Reading covering the useful god, patterns, favourable and unfavourable factors, timing and practical advice. Two options can be added:

• Related-Person Year-Life Analysis (add-on): select the birth year of yourself and up to two related people (and confirm whether each was born before or after Lichun that year), and the reading includes an extra section comparing each person's position and interactions.
• In-depth follow-up: after the reading you can ask up to two further questions on the same chart without casting again.

The Stardust needed is shown for your region on the casting page, and an in-depth follow-up is charged the first time and free the second. Unregistered guests can try one full Standard reading for free and can still cast charts and see the basic analysis afterwards.

4. Step Four: How to Read the Nine Palaces

Once you have your chart, resist the urge to read every symbol at once. Follow this order instead:

1. First, find the palace containing the day stem — this represents your own current state.
2. Then, based on the type of your question, identify the relevant useful god (for example, Open Door for career, Liu He for love, Life Door for wealth).
3. Observe whether the useful god's palace produces, restrains, or matches the day stem's palace.
4. Check for special patterns such as Fu Yin, Fan Yin or emptiness, as these affect the pace and certainty of the matter.
5. Finally, look at the remaining stars, doors and deities as supplementary detail.

Following this order, even a first-time reader can grasp the key points within a few minutes instead of being overwhelmed by symbols.

5. Common Misreadings

The most frequent mistakes beginners make include:

• Equating an "unfavourable door" with "something bad will happen": a door's favourability is only a tendency and must be weighed against palace relationships and patterns as a whole, not read in isolation.
• Focusing only on favourability while ignoring timing: many people only want to know "good or bad" and overlook "when", but timing is often more practically useful than a simple favourable/unfavourable verdict.
• Asking multiple questions in one chart: Qi Men Dun Jia follows "one chart, one question". Asking about both love and wealth in the same chart causes the useful gods to interfere with each other, reducing accuracy.
• Relying entirely on the chart while ignoring real-world information: metaphysics is a decision-support tool. Any major decision should combine real circumstances and rational judgement, not a single chart alone.

6. Recommended Practice Routine

The most effective way to learn Qi Men Dun Jia is to alternate between theory and practice. Start by reading this site's other introductory articles to understand the nine palaces, eight doors, nine stars and the useful god, then return to the homepage and cast a few charts using questions you would genuinely ask, practising the reading principles from the articles. Casting several different types of charts — one about work, one about love — will build intuition far faster than theory alone.

Disclaimer: This article is an operational tutorial. Qi Men Dun Jia content is for reference only and does not constitute professional advice. Major decisions should still rely primarily on real-world information and rational judgement.