Every pattern and Reading on this site comes from the text of a single book: the Senji Ryakketsu, attributed to Abe no Seimei. It is a 36-chapter manual of Rikujin (Six Ren) divination.
About the original
What kind of book is the Senji Ryakketsu?
It is a book of 36 chapters written in classical Chinese. From how to cast a pattern, to the meanings of the Spirits and Generals, how to find the timing, and methods for each kind of question, it runs as a series of short rules.
- Compiled by
- Said to be Abe no Seimei. The end of the manuscript reads 「天文博士安倍晴明撰」 ("compiled by Abe no Seimei, Doctor of Astronomy").
- When it was written
- The late 10th century. The manuscript gives the year as 「天元六年」 (Tengen 6), but the stem-and-branch year written beside it, 「己卯」, matches Tengen 2 (979), so there are two views on the exact year.
- Length
- 36 chapters
| Chapters | What they cover |
|---|---|
| Chapters 1–3 | How to cast a pattern: the Four Lessons and Three Transmissions, the nine methods of choosing the Use, and how to place the Heavenly Noble |
| Chapters 4–5 | What each of the Twelve Heavenly Generals and the twelve Monthly Generals governs |
| Chapters 6–25 | Tables of stems, branches and the Five Phases, the "void" days, and how to find the timing of good and bad fortune |
| Chapter 26 | The 36 patterns, and what each one governs |
| Chapters 27–36 | Methods for each kind of question: illness, childbirth, the person you are waiting for, a lost item, an animal that ran away, something you heard, rain or shine |
The book was written more than 1,000 years ago, but what we can read today are later hand copies (manuscripts). The one this site read is held in the Seike Collection of Kyoto University Library. Its colophon (the notes at the end) records the years Hōgen 1 (1156) and Antei 3 (1229).
Why we chose this one book
Already in Seimei's time, the rules of Rikujin differed from one family of diviners to another. The original says so itself.
The original text (as written at the time)Closing words of Chapter 26
右卅六卦及九用次第、家々之說各不同。又有卅五卦・六十四卦之法。……然而事繁多煩、省而不載。具存本經、以智可覽。
The order of the 36 patterns above and of the nine methods of the Use differs from family to family. There are also methods with 35 patterns and with 64 patterns. … But the matter is long and tiresome, so it has been left out here. The details are in the original scripture; read them with wisdom.
Closing words of 卅六卦大例所主法第廿六 / Seike Collection manuscript, image 31, left page ("…" marks an omission)
If you don't know which rules produced an answer, you can't tell how to take the result. So this site fixed its standard to one book. We cast patterns as this book teaches, and where it sets no rule, we tell you so.
For example, the original says the following.
| Item | What the Senji Ryakketsu says |
|---|---|
| Monthly General | Set by the order of the months: Chōmei (Boar) for the 1st month, Kakai (Dog) for the 2nd, and so on. The word "solar term" does not appear anywhere in the 36 chapters |
| Day and night for the Heavenly Noble | From the Tiger to the Rooster is day; from the Dog to the Ox is night |
| Names of the Spirits | 「徵明」「勝先」「太一」. This site also uses them exactly as the original writes them |
Three labels
The text of each result carries labels showing how much comes from the book itself.
- Stated in the original
The words appear as they are in the main text or in the small annotations of the manuscript. - Derived from the original
Worked out from a table in another chapter, or by recalculating an example given in the original. We note what it was derived from. - Not in the original
The original sets no rule for this. Instead of filling the gap with plausible-sounding words, we show this label. Where this site has decided how to handle it, we write that separately as "This site's rule".
Checked against the original's own examples
Chapter 26 gives 36 examples with dates and hours. We cast each one with this site's rules and checked whether it comes out as the original defines it.
For the examples that don't match, we show which example and which part does not match. Where a copying error may be involved, we keep guesses clearly marked as guesses.
Note on this sample: these numbers are from the time of transcription. They will be updated once the main calculation is finished.
What we filled in where the original is silent
The original sets no rules for the following, so this site decided them and filled them in. The result screen also tells you on the spot.
- Calendar calculationsThe stem and branch of the day and similar values are found with modern calculations.
- Rules for turning clock time into the two-hour periods of the Twelve Branches(to be decided and written here before launch)
- Where one month ends and the next begins / when the day changes(to be decided and written here before launch)
- From which day to start counting daysThe day you divine counts as day 1.
How we handle the chapters on illness and childbirth
The Senji Ryakketsu has chapters for divining about illness (Chapters 27–28) and childbirth (Chapters 29–30). This site includes them only as an introduction, "Here is what the original says", and never gives them as a Reading about the person who cast the pattern.
If you have any concerns about your health, please talk to a doctor.
Manuscript images and source
Part of 《占事略决》 (held by Kyoto University Library)
Seike Collection / call number 8-82/セ/2貴
Published by: Kyoto University Rare Materials Digital Archive
https://rmda.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/item/rb00008037
This site read the original text character by character from the images of this manuscript, then compared it with a public digital text based on a copy from a different line of transmission. Some character forms have been changed to the ones in common use today, and the punctuation was added by this site. There may be misreadings. Where manuscripts use different characters, we note which one we chose.
The plain English readings and explanations were written by this site based on the original text.