TL;DR: Nguyệt phá is the condition in which a line in a hexagram is clashed by the branch of the month. Old texts treat such a line as a tree with withered roots, present but useless. Tăng san bốc dịch rejects that way of reading it: a broken line that moves can still exert its effect and manifests once it leaves the month, at the time of thực phá, or on a day of hợp; a line sitting on nhật kiến is clashed yet not clashed; only a static line, unsupported by the day or nourished by a moving line, is broken to the end. This is a convention of divination, not a scientific conclusion about human destiny.
What Is Nguyệt Phá in Lục Hào?
Nguyệt phá is the condition in which a line in a hexagram is clashed and broken by the month's earthly branch (nguyệt kiến). For example, in the month of Dần, the line Thân is clashed; in the month of Mão, the line Dậu is clashed; in the month of Thìn, the line Tuất is clashed; and so on following the six clashes Tý Ngọ, Sửu Mùi, Dần Thân, Mão Dậu, Thìn Tuất, Tỵ Hợi. The book Tăng san bốc dịch by Dã Hạc lão nhân (expanded by Lý Văn Huy) has a whole chapter discussing "nguyệt phá", placed on par with the chapter on "tuần không", and in many judgment chapters these two concepts are always mentioned together as a pair of criteria for assessing a line's weakness[1].
Tăng san bốc dịch reports the understanding of the books before it: a dụng thần under nguyệt phá is like a tree with withered roots, which does not rise even when generated and is hurt more when harmed; it appears in the hexagram yet is as if absent; even the day's generation cannot raise it; and if it moves as a kỵ thần it can harm no line[1]. That way of reading treats nguyệt phá as the end of the line's story.
Dã Hạc lão nhân does not follow that reading. He writes that, by what he has tested, a broken line that moves can still injure other lines, because "thần triệu cơ ư động" (神兆機於動): once a line moves, the seed of fortune or misfortune is there. Broken for now, it is not broken once the month is over; broken today, it is not broken on the day the break is filled (thực phá), nor on the day it meets a combination; near matters are answered in days, distant ones in months and years. Only a static line that neither moves nor is supported by the day or a moving line is broken to the end (到底而破)[1].
Why Is a Line Clashed by the Month Considered Weak?
The mechanism of nguyệt phá lies in how Lục Hào conceives the authority of the month. The Nguyệt tướng chapter of Tăng san bốc dịch says the nguyệt kiến holds the authority of one month and the command of its three ten-day periods, the commander in power (當權之帥): a weak line it can generate, combine with and support until it is strong; a strong line it can clash, conquer and break until it is weak. The same chapter says a line combined by the month is of use, while a line clashed by the month, that is, in nguyệt phá, achieves nothing (爻逢月合而有用，爻逢月破而無功)[1].
The image the older books use for a line in nguyệt phá is "khô căn mộc", a tree with withered roots. Dã Hạc cites an actual hexagram against this for a moving line: in the Hợi month on a Kỷ Sửu day, a man asked whether he would ever hold office and obtained Đoài changing to Tụng; the Quan quỷ line Tỵ fire moved and generated the thế line but was in nguyệt phá. Asked to divine again, he obtained Tỷ, with Quan quỷ on the thế line. Dã Hạc judged that he would hold office, in the year that fills the break; the book records that he inherited a post in a Tỵ year[1].
Nguyệt phá should be distinguished from two neighbouring concepts. Tuần không is a line bearing one of the two branches missing from the current ten-day cycle; by the book, it ceases to be void once the cycle is over or when the day clashes it. Nhật phá, by the Nhật thần chapter, is a static and weak line clashed by the day; a static line that is prosperous and clashed by the day is ám động instead[1].
When Is It Broken Yet Not Broken?
According to Tăng san bốc dịch, a line in nguyệt phá is not always broken to the end. The book gives three situations and one exception[1]:
- A moving line: once it moves it can still act on other lines, and the matter is answered when the month is over, on the day or month that fills the break, or on a day of combination.
- A line generated by the day or supported by a moving line: the book calls a line broken to the end only when it is static and lacks both of these supports.
- A line sitting on the day branch: the Nhật thần chapter says "phùng nguyệt phá nhi bất phá"; for example, in the Dậu month on a Mão day, a Mão wood line is "phùng phá bất phá", broken yet not broken.
- The exception to the previous case: if Thân or Dậu metal also moves in the hexagram and conquers that Mão line, it is "quả bất địch chúng", the few cannot withstand the many, and broken is broken.
Table Comparing Nguyệt Phá Cases
| Case | What the book says | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Line in nguyệt phá, static, not supported by the day or a moving line | Broken to the end | Nguyệt phá |
| Line in nguyệt phá that moves | Can still injure other lines; answered when the month is over, when the break is filled, or on meeting a combination | Nguyệt phá |
| Line in nguyệt phá sitting on the day branch | Meets the break yet is not broken | Nhật thần |
| Line in nguyệt phá on the day branch but conquered by several moving lines | The few cannot withstand the many; broken is broken | Nhật thần |
| Kỵ thần static, in tuần không or nguyệt phá | One of the seven cases where the kỵ thần cannot conquer the dụng thần | Nguyên thần kỵ thần suy vượng |
| Nguyên thần out of season and also in tuần không or nguyệt phá | One of the six cases where the nguyên thần cannot generate the dụng thần | Nguyên thần kỵ thần suy vượng |
The table gathers what three chapters of Tăng san bốc dịch say: Nguyệt phá, Nhật thần, and Nguyên thần kỵ thần suy vượng[1]. These are the conventions of a divination manual, not the result of measurement or testing.
Why Do Books Differ?
The Lục Hào books do not speak with one voice on nguyệt phá. At the end of the chapter, Lý Ngã Bình cites two earlier books. The Dịch mạo holds that a line in nguyệt phá, if it moves as a kỵ thần, does no harm, if it moves as a nguyên thần, is of no use, and does not rise even when generated by the day, a hexagram "bách vô sở dụng", of no use at all. The Dịch lâm bổ di writes that a line in nguyệt phá is judged inauspicious regardless of strength, "phùng sinh bất thụ, ngộ khắc năng chiêu": it does not receive generation and it invites conquest[1].
Lý Ngã Bình refutes both with one of Dã Hạc's own hexagrams. In the Ngọ month on a Quý Mão day, an official asked about his later career; the Thê tài line Tý water moved but was in nguyệt phá and changed into a line in tuần không. Dã Hạc judged trouble in the seventh month, a demotion rather than dismissal. The book records that serious trouble arose in the seventh month, that the case closed in the Tý month with demotion and transfer, and that in the Giáp Tý year he was reinstated at his original rank. Lý Ngã Bình concludes: the fortunes of that man's life hung on one line in nguyệt phá, so how can it be called as good as absent[1].
In the chapter on tiến thần and thoái thần, Lý Ngã Bình again criticises the Dịch mạo for saying that a moving line that sits on the day or month but changes into tuần không or a break cannot advance. He writes that a moving line already on the day or month is "phùng không bất không, phùng phá bất phá", not void when it meets the void, not broken when it meets the break; and that a line which moves and is broken has its own time when the break is filled[1]. The sentence concerns a moving line backed by the day or the month, not every moving line.
Application to Reading Specific Matters
The book judges a broken line by the role it plays in the hexagram. The chapter Nguyên thần kỵ thần suy vượng places "a static kỵ thần in tuần không or nguyệt phá" among the seven cases where the kỵ thần cannot conquer the dụng thần, and "a nguyên thần out of season that also meets tuần không or nguyệt phá" among the six cases where the nguyên thần cannot generate the dụng thần[1]. Another hexagram in the Nguyệt phá chapter: in the Thìn month on a Mậu Tý day, asking when a father would return, Càn changing to Quải was obtained; the Phụ mẫu line Tuất earth on the thế position was clashed by the month and, moving, changed into Mùi earth, then in tuần không. Dã Hạc judged news on a Mão day and return on a Ngọ or Mùi day; the book records news on a Mão day and arrival home on the Ất Mùi day, and explains the Mão day as the day the broken line met its combination[1].
In this book, then, "broken" has no fixed meaning: the same nguyệt phá is taken as weakening when it falls on the dụng thần or the nguyên thần, and as lessening harm when it falls on the kỵ thần.
Gợi ý của Nhật Nguyệt
On meeting a line in nguyệt phá when reading a Lục Hào text, one can follow the four questions Tăng san bốc dịch itself asks: is the line moving or static; do the day and the moving lines support it; does it sit on the day branch; and, where the book expects an answer, does it come when the month is over, when the break is filled, or on meeting a combination. Only when the line is static and has no support does the book call it broken to the end.
Everything above is a convention of Lục Hào as set down in one old book, not verified; it should not serve as grounds for decisions about marriage, investment or medical treatment.
