Five Movements and Six Qi: The Structure of a Year
Five movements and six qi come from the Huangdi Neijing, where they were a medical framework for discussing a year's climate and illness. The year stem fixes the movement, the year branch fixes the qi, and the year is cut into five movement steps and six qi steps whose host and guest layers are compared.
What This Method Looks At
The year stem sets the annual movement (excess or deficient) and its tone; the year branch sets the controlling qi and the in-spring qi. The year is then divided into five movement steps and six qi steps, each with a host and a guest layer, and the generating, controlling or same-phase relations between them are read, together with the illness-pattern notes of the traditional doctrine.
It describes a yearly structure. It is not a personal constitution reading, and it does not calculate day-by-day weather.
What You Need to Prepare
- A target year (1–9999 CE), or a year pillar such as “bingwu”.
- A question you care about (optional), to focus the reading.
What It Is Good For
- Whether the year's movement is excess or deficient, and which tone it corresponds to.
- What the controlling and in-spring qi are and how they relate to the annual movement.
- The step-by-step structure of the five movement and six qi layers, including the solar terms and dates at which they change.
- How the traditional doctrine describes the year's climate and illness tendencies.
What It Is Not Good For
- How my health will be this year: that needs personal health data and a doctor's judgement, which this framework cannot supply.
- The weather on a specific day: it stops at the year and its steps, with no daily calculation.
- Treating illness-pattern notes as a diagnosis or a prescription.
- Personal fortune, relationships or career.
What the Result Looks Like
- The annual movement: year stem, element, tone, yin-yang, excess or deficiency, and the basis.
- Controlling and in-spring qi: names, six-qi phase, element, their relation to the annual movement and the yearly classification.
- Five movement steps: host and guest movement, element, tone, strength, climate qi, solar terms and Gregorian start and end dates for each step.
- Six qi steps: host and guest qi, their relation, solar terms and start and end dates for each step.
- Illness-pattern notes: affected organs, climatic pathology and treatment principles in traditional wording.
- A reading that explains the year's structural features and what deserves attention.
Its Limits
Five movements and six qi are a traditional climate-and-medicine framework; physicians differ in how they divide the steps and phrase the pathology notes. This method uses one fixed engine convention and keeps the engine's own limitation notes. It cannot replace weather data, personal health records or medical diagnosis; if you feel unwell, see a doctor.
Where to Start
If you want to know the qi structure of a year, go into the process here and give the year or the year pillar; add a direction of interest if you wish. In the Zhanbu Mizhi process the steps and their change dates are listed one by one, so they can be checked against the solar terms.
Disclaimer: This article covers traditional culture and folk custom. It is for entertainment and self-reflection only, and does not constitute medical, psychological, investment, legal or marital decision advice. Please do not submit sensitive personal information such as ID numbers or detailed addresses. If you experience persistent insomnia, anxiety or physical discomfort, please consult a doctor or a qualified professional.
Sources
- Huangdi Neijing (Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor), Wikisource: https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/黃帝內經 (accessed 2026-10-25)
- Siku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao (Annotated General Catalogue of the Complete Library in Four Branches), juan 103 (Masters section, medical category), Wikisource: https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/四庫全書總目提要/卷103 (accessed 2026-10-25)