TL;DR: The Tử Tôn line shares the element that the palace element generates, symbolizing children, students, subordinates, livestock, and monastics. Because Tử Tôn controls Quan Quỷ, it resolves sorrow and removes disaster, so it is called a blessing spirit and saving spirit. But precisely because it controls Quan Quỷ, when asking about career, exams, or official rank, Tử Tôn holding the World line or becoming active is highly taboo. The same line is auspicious or inauspicious entirely depending on the question and its role as the useful spirit.
What is the Children and Grandchildren Line in the Six Relatives system?
In Six Lines (Lục Hào), the Six Relatives (Lục Thân) number only five: Father and Mother, Brothers, Wife and Wealth, Children and Grandchildren, Officials and Ghosts. The Self line is not a sixth relative; it is the position of the person asking, and it itself carries one of the five relatives, and a hexagram may repeat or lack a relative. The rule for assigning the Six Relatives is based on the element of the palace trigram: take the palace element as the standard, the line that generates the palace element is Father and Mother, the line of the same element as the palace is Brothers, the line that the palace generates is Children and Grandchildren, the line the palace controls is Wife and Wealth, the line that controls the palace is Officials and Ghosts. Thus Children and Grandchildren is the line whose element is generated by the palace element, that is, "what I generate".
Children and Grandchildren means children and grandchildren, students, subordinates, pets. In addition, this line also extends to the layer of "being nurtured, commanded, guided" by the person asking.
Because it is the line generated by the palace, Children and Grandchildren also carries the meaning of draining one's own energy. A clear distinction is needed: judging by the Day Stem and the auspicious and inauspicious heavenly generals is the method of Liu Ren (Lục Nhâm), a different school; Six Lines does not take the Day Stem as the self and has no heavenly generals. In Six Lines, Children and Grandchildren has only two fixed element relationships: it generates Wife and Wealth and controls Officials and Ghosts.
Why is Children and Grandchildren called a blessing deity?
Children and Grandchildren controls Officials and Ghosts, and Officials and Ghosts is the line symbolising disaster, illness, lawsuits, punishments, those who oppress you. When Children and Grandchildren can control Officials and Ghosts, disaster is blocked, and so Children and Grandchildren is called the saving deity, the line of Fortune and Virtue. According to the general generating and controlling rules of Six Lines: Brothers generates Children and Grandchildren, Father and Mother controls Children and Grandchildren, Children and Grandchildren generates Wife and Wealth. These three relationships are the backbone for understanding all judgements about the Children and Grandchildren line.
What does Children and Grandchildren holding the Self line indicate?
The old verse "When the Children line holds the Self, affairs have no worry" means that when the Children and Grandchildren line holds the Self line, everything has no worry or trouble. The divination verse continues: "Seeking fame greatly fears it sitting at the head", that is, seeking fame greatly fears Children and Grandchildren holding the Self or Children and Grandchildren activating to control the Officials line. The same passage of the verse also adds: "Fleeing chaos, one is surely safe, loss is hard to suffer, lawsuits from now on will simply cease", meaning fleeing chaos will surely be safe, no worry of loss or damage, and lawsuits will likely be settled.
Thus, within a single Self-holding line, the meaning already splits in two according to the question. If asking about the safety of life and body, litigation, calamity, then Children and Grandchildren holding the Self is a clear auspicious sign. If asking about examinations, promotion, seeking office, then Children and Grandchildren holding the Self nearly blocks the path, because it controls away the Officials and Ghosts line, the line representing official career.
The book Zeng Shan Bu Yi (Tăng San Bốc Dịch) by Elder Ye He (Dã Hạc), in the section on Seeking Official Career, writes plainly: if one meets Children and Grandchildren holding the Self, or Children and Grandchildren moving in the hexagram, then seeking to pass exams or seeking promotion is like scooping the moon from the bottom of the water. In the same book, in the section on Divining Fortune and Misfortune, it again places Children and Grandchildren holding the Self in the group of inauspicious signs for a person currently holding official position, but for an ordinary person divining fortune and misfortune for a month, it rejoices to get the Wealth or Children and Grandchildren line holding the Self, promising a sure year of smooth prosperity. This is a typical example showing that the same line, the same Self-holding position, yields a completely reversed conclusion when the person asking changes.
When is Children and Grandchildren the useful god?
The useful god is the line representing the matter being asked about. When the question falls exactly within the scope of Children and Grandchildren, this line becomes the useful god and all judgements revolve around it. Common cases include: asking about children and grandchildren, asking about students, asking about subordinates or employees, asking about pets, and asking about averting disaster, seeking peace, escaping danger.
When Children and Grandchildren is the useful god, the Father and Mother line becomes the hostile god because it controls Children and Grandchildren, while the Brothers line becomes the original god because it generates Children and Grandchildren. This is why, for the same hexagram, a person asking about official career and a person asking about children will read two opposite conclusions from the same generating and controlling structure.
Children and Grandchildren moving to generate Wife and Wealth when asking about money
The book Zeng Shan Bu Yi, in the section on Divining for Wealth, lists the cases that promise sure wealth-seeking: the Wealth Star holding the Self; or the day, month, or moving line being Children and Grandchildren generating and combining with the Self line; or Officials and Ghosts holding the Self being generated by a moving Wealth line. Conversely, if one meets Brothers holding the Self, or the Brothers line moving in the hexagram, or the Self falling into Void, or Monthly Destruction, then it is no different from climbing a tree to catch fish.
A notable point is that Children and Grandchildren is not directly money, it is the source that generates money. Wife and Wealth is the line of money and wife. Children and Grandchildren moving to generate Wife and Wealth means there is a resource, a person, or a matter creating a stream of money, not that one is holding money oneself. Therefore when asking about wealth-seeking and seeing Children and Grandchildren moving to generate Wealth, that is a good signal about a source of income, especially when the Self line also enjoys that generating stream.
Why is the same line both a blessing and an obstacle?
The answer lies in the fact that Children and Grandchildren has only one fixed behaviour: it generates Wife and Wealth and controls Officials and Ghosts. Auspicious or inauspicious does not lie in the line itself, but in which line is currently the useful god.
If Officials and Ghosts is the useful god, that is, asking about official career, titles, examinations, then Children and Grandchildren controls the useful god, becoming the hostile god, and the result is unfavourable. If Wife and Wealth is the useful god, that is, asking about money, then Children and Grandchildren generates the useful god, becoming the original god, and the result is favourable. If asking about children and grandchildren, Children and Grandchildren is the useful god. If asking about disaster, illness, litigation in which one is being harmed, then according to the verse "When the Children line holds the Self, affairs have no worry ... lawsuits from now on will simply cease", Children and Grandchildren holding the Self can resolve litigation.
The three roles of hostile god, original god, and useful god of the same Children and Grandchildren line, depending on the question:
| Question | Useful god | Role of Children and Grandchildren | General conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seeking office, examinations, promotion | Officials and Ghosts | Hostile god (controls the useful god) | Unfavourable, greatly fears Children and Grandchildren holding the Self or moving |
| Seeking wealth, trade | Wife and Wealth | Original god (generates the useful god) | Favourable, especially Children and Grandchildren moving to generate Wealth |
| Averting disaster, seeking peace, litigation | Officials and Ghosts | Children and Grandchildren holding the Self can resolve litigation | Good, bad news dissolves, meeting danger turns to safety |
| Asking about children and grandchildren, students, pets | Children and Grandchildren | Useful god | Depends on the strength or weakness of the Children and Grandchildren line itself |
The table of hostile god and original god roles here is the way of reading according to the four roles of Zeng Shan Bu Yi. The core calculation of the site only assigns the six relatives and the useful god, and does not calculate the roles of original, hostile, or enemy.
Reference table of the Children and Grandchildren line by the eight palaces
Each palace trigram has one element, and the Children and Grandchildren line is the line carrying the element that the palace element generates. Below is a reference table by the eight palaces, with the branches carrying the corresponding element in the na jia (nạp giáp) system. The column "branches carrying that element" lists the Earthly Branches having that element, used for quick cross-checking when reading a hexagram.
| Palace | Palace element | Element of Children and Grandchildren | Branches carrying that element |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qian | Metal | Water | Zi, Hai |
| Dui | Metal | Water | Zi, Hai |
| Li | Fire | Earth | Chen, Xu, Chou, Wei |
| Zhen | Wood | Fire | Si, Wu |
| Xun | Wood | Fire | Si, Wu |
| Kan | Water | Wood | Yin, Mao |
| Gen | Earth | Metal | Shen, You |
| Kun | Earth | Metal | Shen, You |
How to use the table: when you know which palace a hexagram belongs to, look up the element of Children and Grandchildren, then find among the six lines of the hexagram which line carries that element; that line is precisely Children and Grandchildren. For example, a hexagram belonging to the Kan palace has Children and Grandchildren as the Wood line, that is, the lines carrying the branches Yin or Mao. A hexagram belonging to the Qian or Dui palace has Children and Grandchildren as the Water line, that is, the lines carrying the branches Zi or Hai.
One easily confused point needs noting: the element of Children and Grandchildren is derived from the palace element, not from the element of the person asking. Therefore the same branch line in two hexagrams of different palaces may carry different Six Relatives. This is also why one must set up the hexagram correctly according to the na jia rules before judging, and cannot guess by feeling.
Where schools and books disagree
The biggest difference lies in how Children and Grandchildren is evaluated. The book Bu Shi Zheng Zong (Bốc Phệ Chính Tông) by Wang Wei De (courtesy name Hong Xu) has a passage handed down: nobles take Children and Grandchildren as a baleful star, commoners take Children and Grandchildren as a blessing deity. That is, for a person currently holding titles, currently within the officialdom system, Children and Grandchildren is a bad star because it destroys official career; while for an ordinary person, Children and Grandchildren is again a fortune star because it averts disaster and removes calamity. This view matches the way Zeng Shan Bu Yi distinguishes a person currently in office from an ordinary person when divining fortune and misfortune.
Another point to state clearly: many books assign Children and Grandchildren to medicines and to healing, regarding Children and Grandchildren as the line of the physician, of the remedy. This assignment does exist in tradition, but this article only records it as a convention of some books, and does not use it to give healing advice. Asking about illness and judging illness by Six Lines is a separate field, outside the scope of this article, and one should not extrapolate from a few verses to apply to health.
There is also disagreement about whether Children and Grandchildren is regarded as the line of monks and Daoists, of practitioners. Some books place monks and Daoists under Children and Grandchildren because Children and Grandchildren is the "world-leaving" line, escaping the circle of official titles. Some other books place it under Father and Mother or Officials and Ghosts depending on the case. This article follows the more common placement in widely used Six Lines books, which places monks and Daoists under Children and Grandchildren, and states clearly that this is a convention, not a mandatory rule for every school.
A few notes when judging the Children and Grandchildren line
First, never conclude auspicious or inauspicious from the name of the line alone. One must determine the useful god first, and only then consider what role Children and Grandchildren is playing. The same Children and Grandchildren line holding the Self gives a person asking about litigation and a person asking about examinations two opposite answers.
Second, whether Children and Grandchildren is prosperous and strong or resting and imprisoned only indicates the degree of strength or weakness of the line, and does not by itself change the sign of auspicious or inauspicious. A prosperous Children and Grandchildren that is currently the hostile god, the more prosperous it is, the more unfavourable for official career. A resting and imprisoned Children and Grandchildren that is currently the original god generating Wealth can still be sufficient if supported by the Day and Month.
Third, the relationships with Father and Mother and with Brothers need to be read at the same time. Father and Mother controls Children and Grandchildren, so when Father and Mother moves strongly, Children and Grandchildren is restrained and everything related to children and grandchildren and to averting disaster meets obstacles. Brothers generates Children and Grandchildren, so when Brothers moves, Children and Grandchildren is reinforced, but at the same time Brothers is again the line that drains wealth, so benefit and harm come together.
Fourth, the concepts of Void, Monthly Destruction, moving and changing, transforming forward and transforming backward all apply to Children and Grandchildren as to every other line. A Children and Grandchildren line moving and transforming into Children and Grandchildren is usually read as a layered image, many layers of children and grandchildren, or a matter dragging on, but the specific reading still depends on the question and on the book. One should not apply a rigid formula to every case.
One final point on method: the above conclusions are only valid within the framework of the Six Lines system with the na jia and Six Relatives rules. They are not predictions about the future in a certain sense, but a way of reading a rule-based symbol system. Learners should regard this as a tool for contemplation and reflection, not as a basis for deciding in place of their own reason and responsibility.
