Instructions for running "Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia" DVD

MENUS
This DVD is menu-driven. All the videos can be activated using only one menu. But you need to click the “up-arrow or down- arrow” to scroll the menu. In order to return to the menu, always exit the video player or PDF reader after you are done reading or viewing.

PRE-REQUISITES ON THE STUDENT:
- Knowledge of “stems and branches” (read the main manual)
- Know how to find the binomial of a date and specific hour (read the main manual or use the 4P Calculator program enclosed)
- Know how to distinguish the 4 cardinal directions (N, S, E, W) and the sub-cardinal directions (NW, SW, NE, SE) using a simple compass
If you have taken Feng Shui class or Bazi (4-Pillars) class before, then you should have no problem with these pre-requisites. If not, simply read the main manual a few times.


BEFORE YOU BEGIN…
1. You should go to the “SUPPORTING FILES AND PROGRAMS” menu page, click on “Chinese For QMDJ: learn how to read and write” entry and print out a copy of the file. It helps you greatly if you can at least recognize the 100 or so Chinese characters used in QMDJ. We also have provided you with an “instant translation ruler” to help you with this task. If you have Feng Shui or 4P background, you already knew the stems/ branches and 24 mountains characters. The most frequently used characters in Imperial QMDJ are less than 35.
2. You read the manual once quickly to get an idea of what QMDJ is about.
3. Watch the “Overview” video.
4. Before you watch any other video segment, always read the related chapter once first.


LEARNING SCHEDULES
This DVD contains over 9 hours of compressed video. It is equivalent to 9 DVDs or the equivalent of over 3 days of live class. It has more case materials than the 5-days live QMDJ class.

If you have purchased the “Advanced Case Studies” CD, then you have more case materials than a 5-days live class student!

With this DVD, you can learn QMDJ in a day because there will be no time-killers like interruptions, coffee breaks, lunch breaks or unrelated stupid questions or teacher’s jokes.

With the learning schedules below, everyone can learn at his/ her own pace. People who have Chinese metaphysics background do not need to “learn” what are stems/branches for the 10th time and can jump chapters whereas beginners can learn at his/her own pace without dragging down the advanced students!

You can take as many notes as you want or not take any. You don’t need to choose between taking notes or listening to the teacher. You can also play or replay a chapter until you understand it. You will not miss a thing!

If you have questions, you can send it to the private discussion group for this course.

SCHEDULE 1: INSTANT
This schedule is for the super impatient or people who just want to use QMDJ in the shortest possible time. You may take this route first and then try another schedule.
Prerequisites: knowledge of stems and branches, how to calculate the binomials of a date and hour.
* Overview (17:34 min.)
* What are included in this course (11:12 min.)
* Learn QMDJ in 5-minutes? (26:50 min.)
Recommended:
* How to read QMDJ charts (52:07 min.)

SCHEDULE 2: EXPRESS
This schedule is for people who just want to use QMDJ in the shortest possible time but with more background knowledge.
Prerequisites: knowledge of stems and branches, how to calculate the binomials of a date and hour.
* Overview (17:34 min.)
* What are included in this course (11:12 min.)
* Learn QMDJ in 5-minutes? (26:50 min.)
* Ch. 2: Basic & related concepts (20:42 min.)
* Ch. 6: Ba-Men (8-Gates) (15:31 min)
* Putting all dimensions together (32:51 min.)
* How to read QMDJ charts (52:07 min.)
* Restricted Manual: Ch.1 to 3 (30:54 min.)
* Restricted Manual: Ch.4 (17:55 min.)
* FAQ1 (39:18 min.)
* FAQ2 (39:00 min.)

SCHEDULE 3: STANDARD
This schedule is for people who want to learn QMDJ from the very beginning. Simply follow the order listed in the DVD menu for this schedule.
Prerequisites: knowledge of stems and branches, how to calculate the binomials of a date and hour (study main manual before watching video).



Ken Lai

"Practical Imperial QMDJ" with 9 hr. video
"4-Pillars Bootcamp" with 8 hr. video now available
"Daoist Talisman for FS and Blessing" w/ 13 hr video
"Practical Door FS for wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

QMDJ and other Chinese Metaphysics software-- FREE?

A student asks me if he should buy a Chinese QMDJ
software from Hong Kong.

I've tested over 20 QMDJ programs, mostly in Chinese.

The one published by Juxian Guan is not up to par yet.
All it gives you is just the hour pans plus some
basic descriptions-- not recommended for the price or
functions.

There are a few good ones published in mainland China,
but you need to have at least college level Chinese
knowledge to read the Chinese in the program.

There is one in English sold as part of a diary type
program, but its calculations are incorrect.

There is another English version QMDJ program.
Observing from the screen shots, it seems to be a
glorified electronic version of the 1080 tables.

Most English versions of Chinese metaphysics software,
are nothing more than electronic versions of the
charts of the subject that you can find online
software to do it for free.

These programs or javascripts just do the mechanical
calculations for you.  Ultimately, human brain power
is still a requirement.

It is easy to check if the programmer knows his/her
stuff--- by checking how many years of QMDJ chart
calculation the program can handle. If it is around 10
years or so, it means s/he may have problem figuring
out a major problem in QMDJ--- how to handle the QMDJ
10k cal.  So all s/he can do is retype existing QMDJ
10k Cal manually into the program.  It is a lot of
typing, so s/he has to limit the number of years.

Here is a link to get charts of all sorts, from QMDJ,
ZWDS, flying star, Liu-ren, Yi-Jing to Plum Flower:

http://www.zhycw.com/artical/bbs/bz/index.asp

For QMDJ charts:

http://www.zhycw.com/artical/bbs/bz/qimen.asp

With this free online software, you can locate your
birth hour chart in terms of QMDJ-- it will give you a
lot of insight and help analyzing 4P.  It supports
charts from 1883-2031.

You need to set your browser to read simplified
Chinese before using this website.

If you have problem reading the Chinese, download my
IQMDJ file from the CA archive.


The ideal QMDJ program should have these features:

--Key in a date range (say from August 1 to 15) and
specify an auspicious profile (say my client wants the
closet "Maiden waiting at the gate hour")-- the
program should give you when you will find the hour
within the range, so you don't need to go through tons
of charts to find the hour.

--Can do divination with explanation

--Can give you explanation of each palace in terms of
positive and negative aspects

--Can give you the function specific info of each
palace by moving the cursor over the palace

--Has more than 10+ years of data, preferably also
historical data like from 1900- 2030, so that you can
use it to do 4P from the perspective of QMDJ

--Can handle hour, day, month and year pans.

--Can rank the pans of a designated period (like a
month) in terms of specific tasks (e.g. litigation,
gambling, grand-opening, travel... etc.), so you can
pick out the best chart in a flash.

-- can advise you how to walk the chart based on your
starting point

-- can show you the indicators or imageries to be seen
when applying QMDJ

--can handle different schools of QMDJ calculation,
not just the classic school

--can handle different methods of integrating the
extra 5-6 days outside the 24 solar terms

So far, no such program exist in Chinese or English.
I've been using a homemade one to do the above
functions.  But it is not for sale.  I don't want to
be in software-support business.  I write out these
specifications so that smart programmers can write one
out for the public.


Ken Lai
http://www.kenlaifengshui.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10429370@N05/

QMDJ Divination

Note:  The following blog was written on Sept. 21, 2005


Some people here show intense interest in QMDJ
divination.  Hence I post the following excerpt about
QMDJ divination from p.150 of my "Imperial QMDJ"
course manual.  The manual is over 400 pages.  But my
focus is on "making things happen" and not on
divination or waiting for things to happen.

Generally speaking, if you have problem handling
imageries and associations with 4-Pillars, you can
pretty much forget about doing QMDJ divination.

===============================================
QMDJ DIVINATION
Besides choosing auspicious direction, QMDJ can also
be applied to divination.  The method itself is very
simple, but interpretation of result takes experience
and good associative power or imagination.

Predictions and deductions are based any OR
combinations of the followings:

* 9-stems characteristics and representations
* 8-gates’ 5-elements and characteristics
* 9-stars’ 5-elements, characteristics, shapes  and
representations
* 8-gods characteristics and imageries
* 9-palaces or bagua representations and
characteristics

Besides the above, QMDJ also use specific plate or
dimension to make prediction, for example, to predict
marital relationship, QMDJ uses yi-wood of heaven
plate to represent woman and geng-metal to represent
man.  Then check to see the controlling-nurturing
relationship between the two to determine marital
blessing.  For sickness, QMDJ uses Tian-rui star to
represent sickness and checks which palace the star
lands on.  Then each palace represents certain organs
of the body and hence figuring out where the sickness
is.  There are numerous unique principles like the
ones used in these two examples.  So it gets very
complicated to use QMDJ as a divination tool,
especially when interactions between plates or
dimensions are also considered.  There are simple and
easier divination tools out there that we can use with
ease and cost less to learn.

The followings are some common divination topics and
methods used in QMDJ:
Business and economic forecasting
Speculation
Marriage and fertility
Missing person and lost articles
Sickness
Exams
Visitation
Legal problems
Election
<<>>


Ken Lai
http://www.kenlaifengshui.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10429370@N05/