Six Relations: people and matters in a hexagram
Parents, Siblings, Descendants, Wife/Wealth and Officer/Ghost are Liu Yao’s five categories for people and matters. Selecting the category relevant to the question is called choosing the focal significator (取用神).
Where do the Six Relations come from?
Compare each line’s element with the palace element: what generates self is Parents; the same element is Siblings; what self generates is Descendants; what self controls is Wife/Wealth; and what controls self is Officer/Ghost. Though there are five categories, the traditional collective name is Six Relations (六亲).
The logic resembles BaZi’s Ten Gods, but BaZi uses the Day Master as its reference, while Liu Yao uses the hexagram palace.
What each category represents
| Six Relatives | People represented | Matters represented |
|---|---|---|
| Parents | Parents, elders and teachers | Documents, contracts, certificates, homes, vehicles, news and studies |
| Brothers | Siblings, friends, colleagues and competitors | Competition, expenditure and financial loss |
| Descendants | Children, younger people and students | Joy, peace, medicine and relief from pressure |
| Spouse and wealth | Wife (in the traditional convention for a male querent) | Money, assets, possessions, food and drink |
| Official/Ghost | Husband (in the traditional convention for a female querent), superiors and authorities | Jobs, appointments, admission, lawsuits, illness and pressure |
Match the focus to the question
Begin by selecting the Six Relations category corresponding to the question, a step called choosing the focal significator (取用神). That line’s strength, movement and relationships of generation or control then form the main thread of the traditional reading.
| Subject of the question | Primary focus |
|---|---|
| Money, investment or recovering a debt | Spouse and wealth |
| Finding a job, promotion or admission | Official/Ghost |
| Signing a contract, buying a home or exam results | Parents |
| Questions about illness | Officer/Ghost symbolizes illness; Descendants symbolizes medicine |
| Questions about children | Descendants |
| Questions about relationships or marriage | Traditionally, male querents use Wife/Wealth; female querents use Officer/Ghost |
For example, a traditional reading of Qian about recovering a debt focuses on Wife/Wealth: Yin Wood (寅木) at the second line. Its strength in that month and day, whether it moves, and which lines generate or control it provide the main interpretive basis.
If the relevant relation is absent, this is called “the focal significator does not appear in the hexagram” (用神不上卦). Traditionally it is sought in the palace’s pure hexagram, where it is called a hidden spirit (伏神).
This page introduces traditional culture knowledge for reference only; it makes no predictions or guarantees about fate, health, relationships or wealth.