How we compute timing
Mingpath's timing windows come from a published, deterministic scoring rule: each year is compared with your natal chart and luck pillar, matching stars add points and each adverse sign subtracts one, and consecutive years scoring 3 or more form a window. Same birth data and question, same result; the AI only writes it up.
The timing windows in a question book are not guessed by an AI. They come from a published scoring rule: the same birth data and the same question give the same result, whoever runs it and whenever. The AI only puts the computed result into words.
1. Evidence, year by year
For each year asked about (usually ten), the year's stem and branch are compared with your natal chart and the luck pillar of that time. What is compared depends on the question: partner star and spouse palace for relationships; authority, resource, output stars and the month pillar for career; wealth stars and the wealth store for money; favourable elements and the day branch for wellbeing. Each finding is one evidence line, labelled BaZi or Zi Wei.
2. What adds
- The star that matches the question shows in the year's stem: +2.
- Your day stem combines with it: +2.
- It sits in the branch, forms the matching frame, the spouse palace is combined, Hongluan/Tianxi arrive: +1 each.
- Zi Wei: the year's favourable transformations land on stars of the matching palace: +1 or +2; the year's Life palace falls on that palace: +2.
3. What subtracts
- Peer stars (比肩, 劫财) in the stem.
- The year's branch clashes the day branch, the seat of the star, the month branch, or punishes the day branch.
- Zi Wei: a 忌 transformation enters or opposes the matching palace.
Each adverse finding counts as one mark, −1, however dramatic it sounds. On purpose: adverse signs are what tradition most often overstates.
4. Net score and windows
Net = sum of adds − number of marks. Consecutive years with net ≥ 3 form a window; the one with the highest peak is "strongest", others "second". Years with adds ≥ 1 but two or more marks are mixed. If this year is in neither, it is marked watch. Scattered years with net 1–2 are listed as residual, not windows.
5. Worked example
Male, born 25 Jan 1999 23:26 in Shanghai (see conventions), asking when he will meet the right person, 2026–2035:
| Year | Pillar | Adds | Minus | Net | Reads as |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 丙午 | +0 | −1 | -1 | mixed |
| 2027 | 丁未 | +3 | −2 | 1 | mixed |
| 2028 | 戊申 | +3 | −1 | 2 | residual |
| 2029 | 己酉 | +2 | 0 | 2 | residual |
| 2030 | 庚戌 | +4 | 0 | 4 | strongest |
| 2031 | 辛亥 | +4 | 0 | 4 | strongest |
| 2032 | 壬子 | +1 | 0 | 1 | residual |
| 2033 | 癸丑 | +3 | 0 | 3 | second |
| 2034 | 甲寅 | +0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2035 | 乙卯 | +1 | −1 | 0 |
Every evidence line for every year is printed in the book; every statement must point back to them, and a checker compares them line by line before the book is delivered.
6. Monthly flow
The window year (or the year asked about) is cut into twelve solar months and each month is scored the same way (BaZi only): good (net ≥ 2), watch (peer stars), moving (the month's branch clashes the chart), even. Companion members get the table refreshed every month.
7. Why transparent
The commonest problem with fortune-telling is that the story bends to the result. With fixed rules and the evidence laid out, you can judge for yourself which line you don't accept. The preview wall runs the same rules in your browser, so the preview and the book always agree.
8. Methods diverge
Timing is where schools disagree most: luck-pillar-first, clash-and-combine, symbolic stars, the "blind school"; Zi Wei has its own schools. We chose a rule that can be published and recomputed; that does not make it the only right one. If a teacher gave you different years, that is normal, and both can inform you. When BaZi and Zi Wei disagree about a year, the book says so instead of forcing one answer.
9. Date selection
The Xieji Bianfang Shu system: twelve officers, Yellow/Black Path spirits, 28 mansions, daily suitable/unsuitable lists, solar terms. A Yellow-Path day whose suitable list includes agreements, trade, contracts, travel or opening is a good day to begin; breaking and closing days and solar-term days are left open.
What we don't do
No prediction of specific events, no claims of accuracy, no promises about health, wealth or relationships; no fear or urgency; no per-minute chat, no virtual coins. Birth data is used only for what you ask for, never profiled, and you can delete it yourself in My account.
Cite this page: Mingpath, “How we compute timing”, https://mingpath.app/en/method/, updated 2026-11-08.