Source line (Yuan Shen)

As a concept, the Source line is the line that generates the Target line as judged by the Five Elements; for example, if the Target line is Fire then the Source line is Wood. This calculation is fixed.

When the Source line is read

The Source line is read only when it moves, or sits on the Self line, or lies at the changed line; in all other cases there is no need to read it.

Conditions for the Source line to be usable

For the Source line to be usable, the following must be satisfied:

• The Source line must be Resting–Confined or above (that is, Resting–Confined, Prosperous, Excessive strength)
• If Weak, it is generated by a moving line that is Resting–Confined or above
• It does not change into control
• It does not enter the Tomb at any of the three Tombs, that is, entering the Tomb at the Day, at a moving line, or at the changed line
• It is not controlled by another moving line
• It is not combined by the Day or the Month, and not combined by the changed line
• It is not Resting and changing into Extinction
• It is not Resting and changing into being drained
• It is not combined with another moving line

In the technique of using the Source line, note that, unlike the Opposing line, when the Source line — however Prosperous — is in the Tomb, changes into combination, or is Resting and changes into Extinction or into control, then however Prosperous the Target line may be, the matter asked about will also fail. Only where a matter is certain to happen does the timing fall at the clash of the Tomb, the clash of the combination, the Birth of a Resting line, or the clashing away of the changed line that controls the moving Source line — that is the moment when the matter asked about will succeed.

What a moving Source line signals

A moving Source line usually signals the factors that help the Target line, including both events and people; how long that help lasts lies in the Strength of the Source line, and only where the Source line changes into Extinction does it signal that the factor helping one will end early, however Prosperous it is.

Besides, a moving Source line in a question about lifespan is likewise taken as a great taboo: however Prosperous the Target line, the moment the Source line is clashed away is also the moment the allotted span ends (answering to the Year if the Target line is Prosperous).

How this differs from a Weak Target line or a moving Opposing line

The difference between the cases where a moving Source line changes into combination, into the Tomb or into control, as against a Weak Target line or a moving Opposing line, is as follows:

• Where the Source line is combined, changes into control, is in the Tomb and so on, it signals that the help is interrupted and the matter is spoilt.
• Where the Target line is Weak, the matter asked about is already spoilt from within itself, with no hope at all
• Where the Opposing line moves, there is a person or a factor directly destroying it, and the matter is spoilt.
• Where the Opposing line sits on the Self line, one is going the wrong way oneself, and here we need to make clear why one is wrong. In the basic case, that is with no other moving line intervening, the error when the Target line is Prosperous consists of:
  • Fire is being hasty oneself
  • Water is being too easy-going
  • Wood is overstating the matter
  • Metal is being too conservative
  • Earth is being too slow
  To correct a mistake caused by oneself in this way, one can only go against the problem one has fallen into — for example, with a Fire Opposing line sitting on the Self line, slow down and it succeeds; and likewise for the rest.

See also

• Target line — the Five Roles: Source, Opposing, Draining and Hostile lines
• Opposing line, Hostile line, Draining line
• Single moving line — a moving Source line in relation to the Self line
• Self line — how to put it right when the Opposing line sits on the Self line