Structure (Gyeokguk): The Big Frame of a Chart
How to name the overall frame a chart lives by, centred on the season of birth.
What is the structure?
Structure (격국) is the name for the big frame of a chart: how a person goes through life. It is decided mainly by the month branch (월지), the lower character of the birth month, and is used to sum up the character of the whole chart in a phrase.
How it is decided
Halmeoni decides the structure in the following order. First, if the month branch is the position where the Day Master gains the most strength (the Prosperity position, 녹), the structure is the Prosperity structure (건록격), and if it is the position overflowing with blade-like strength (the Blade, 양인), it is the Blade structure (양인격). Otherwise, among the energies hidden in the month branch (hidden stems, 지장간) it looks for the one that has appeared openly among the heavenly stems (the main energy first), and gives the name according to which Ten God (십신) that character is to the Day Master. If none has appeared, it is decided by the main energy of the month branch.
| Step | What is checked | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is the month branch the Day Master's Prosperity position (녹, the place where it stands on its own strength)? | If so, the Prosperity structure |
| 2 | Is the month branch the Day Master's Blade (양인, the place where strength overflows)? Checked only for yang Day Masters | If so, the Blade structure |
| 3 | Among the hidden stems of the month branch, has any character appeared in the year, month or hour stem? Searched in the order main energy (정기), middle energy (중기), residual energy (여기) | Named after the Ten God of the first character found |
| 4 | No character has appeared | Named after the Ten God of the month branch's main energy |
| Structure | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Prosperity structure (건록격) | A frame that stands on its own strength. Independence, self-made success |
| Blade structure (양인격) | A frame of blade-like strength. Decisiveness, the temperament of a fighter |
| Rob Wealth structure (월겁격) | A frame that grows through competition. Independence and the urge to win |
| Eating God structure (식신격) | A frame that lives by talent and ease. Expertise, good fortune with food |
| Hurting Officer structure (상관격) | A frame that lives by talent and a way with words. Expressiveness, creativity |
| Indirect Wealth structure (편재격) | A frame of money moved on a large scale. Business, an active life |
| Direct Wealth structure (정재격) | A frame of steady household management. Diligence, thrift |
| Seven Killings structure (편관격) | A frame that overcomes pressure. Grit, drive |
| Direct Officer structure (정관격) | A frame of rules and honour. Organisations, a sense of responsibility |
| Indirect Resource structure (편인격) | A frame of unusual thinking. Intuition, a specialised field |
| Direct Resource structure (정인격) | A frame of learning and care. Study, luck with documents |
When the structure is decided by Rob Wealth (겁재), it is called the Rob Wealth structure (월겁격), and when it is decided by the Seven Killings (편관), it is called the Seven Killings structure (편관격, also 칠살격). There are also several theories about how to decide the structure, so another source may arrive at a different structure. The structure is only the starting point of a reading, not a frame that confines a person.
There is one more name that is not in the table. If the character chosen in step 3 or 4 is the same character as the Day Master (Friend, 비견), Halmeoni calls it the Friend structure (비견격). It is the counterpart of the name Rob Wealth structure given when the character is Rob Wealth. Some classical texts hold that no structure should be set up from Friend or Rob Wealth and that the structure should be sought again from another character, so such a chart may come out as a completely different structure in another manseryeok (perpetual calendar, 만세력).
Four examples
Let us follow the steps with the charts of four people born in Seoul. ① was born on 25 August 2001 at 00:50, ② on 10 June 1980 at 10:30, ③ on 10 October 1988 at 23:30, and ④ on 5 January 1985 at 06:30. The hidden stems of the month branch are written in the order residual, middle, main energy.
| Chart | Month branch and hidden stems | Stems that appear | Structure | Step that decides it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ① 辛巳 丙申 庚申 丙子 | 申 (戊·壬·庚) | 辛·丙·丙 | Prosperity structure (건록격) | Step 1: 申 is the Prosperity position of 庚 |
| ② 庚申 壬午 甲寅 己巳 | 午 (丙·己·丁) | 庚·壬·己 | Direct Wealth structure (정재격) | Step 3: the main energy 丁 is absent, and the middle energy 己 appears in the hour stem |
| ③ 戊辰 壬戌 戊戌 癸亥 | 戌 (辛·丁·戊) | 戊·壬·癸 | Friend structure (비견격) | Step 3: the main energy 戊 appears in the year stem |
| ④ 甲子 丙子 甲辰 丁卯 | 子 (壬·癸) | 甲·丙·丁 | Direct Resource structure (정인격) | Step 4: nothing appears, so the main energy 癸 |
① is decided right at the first step. In ②, the main energy of 午, 丁, is not among the heavenly stems, so the next in line, the middle energy 己, was looked for; 己 is in the hour stem, so the structure was set by 己, which is Direct Wealth to the 甲 Day Master. In ③, the same character as the Day Master 戊 is both the main energy of the month branch and the year stem, so it is the Friend structure. In ④, neither 壬 nor 癸 inside 子 is among the heavenly stems, so it was decided by the main energy 癸. If ④ had been born at 18:30 on the same day, with the hour pillar 癸酉, the 癸 inside 子 would appear in the hour stem. The name would still be the Direct Resource structure, but the grounds would change from "main energy" to "appearing" (투출), and these grounds are kept together with the result of the calculation.
Same Day Master, different months
The structure divides sharply according to the month of birth. The table below shows the structure Halmeoni gives a 庚 Day Master born in each month when none of the month branch's hidden stems appears among the heavenly stems. The cells of the table were filled with Halmeoni's structure calculation function.
| Month branch | Main energy | Structure for a 庚 Day Master |
|---|---|---|
| 子 | 癸 Hurting Officer (상관) | Hurting Officer structure (상관격) |
| 丑 | 己 Direct Resource (정인) | Direct Resource structure (정인격) |
| 寅 | 甲 Indirect Wealth (편재) | Indirect Wealth structure (편재격) |
| 卯 | 乙 Direct Wealth (정재) | Direct Wealth structure (정재격) |
| 辰 | 戊 Indirect Resource (편인) | Indirect Resource structure (편인격) |
| 巳 | 丙 Seven Killings (편관) | Seven Killings structure (편관격, also 칠살격) |
| 午 | 丁 Direct Officer (정관) | Direct Officer structure (정관격) |
| 未 | 己 Direct Resource (정인) | Direct Resource structure (정인격) |
| 申 | 庚 Friend (비견) | Prosperity structure (건록격) |
| 酉 | 辛 Rob Wealth (겁재) | Blade structure (양인격) |
| 戌 | 戊 Indirect Resource (편인) | Indirect Resource structure (편인격) |
| 亥 | 壬 Eating God (식신) | Eating God structure (식신격) |
The 申 and 酉 months are the Prosperity position and the Blade, where 庚 gains its own strength, so they are decided before the hidden stems are looked at; in the other months the Ten God of the main energy becomes the name as it is. In a real chart, if a hidden stem has appeared among the heavenly stems, that character comes first. The nine branches with three hidden stems (寅·巳·午·申·亥 and 辰·戌·丑·未) leave plenty of room for the name to change depending on which character appears, while 子·卯·酉, with two hidden stems, leave little room.
How to read the name of a structure
The name of a structure tells you the Ten God at the centre of that chart. The Direct Wealth structure means that the grain of Direct Wealth, steadily gathering and managing, is the foundation of the chart, and the Seven Killings structure means that the grain of the Seven Killings, enduring and overcoming pressure, is the foundation. So to read a structure, you first need to know the meanings of the Ten Gods. The Prosperity structure is read as a frame that takes the strength of the season as it is and stands on its own strength, and the Blade structure as a frame in which that strength overflows like a blade.
In Halmeoni's readings the structure is one of the five key facts (the Day Master, strength, structure, favourable element and element counts), so every part of the reading starts with these facts as its basis. Even so, personality or career is not decided from the structure alone; it is read together with strength and the favourable element. Even within the same Prosperity structure, a chart with many Seven Killings, like ①, reads differently from a chart full of nothing but Friends.
What Halmeoni does not calculate
- Formed and broken structures: Halmeoni does not judge that a structure is formed (성격) when a character helps it, or broken (파격) when a character harms it.
- Special structures such as following and transforming structures: it does not set structures in which a very weak or very strong Day Master follows a single energy (following structure, 종격), or in which characters combine and turn into another energy (transforming structure, 화격).
- Judging that a chart combines two or more structures: only one structure is given to a chart.
Common misunderstandings
- There are good structures and bad structures: the names Halmeoni gives are not grades; they point to the central Ten God of the chart. The Seven Killings structure is not inferior to the Direct Officer structure.
- The Prosperity structure is a structure for becoming rich: 녹 (祿) comes from the stipend that officials used to receive, so it is easily mistaken for wealth, but it means the position where the Day Master stands on its own strength.
- The structure and the favourable element are the same thing: the structure is the name of a frame given with the month branch at its centre, while the favourable element is decided by the strength of the Day Master. ① is a Prosperity structure, but its first favourable element is fire (Officer, 관성).
- If the structure differs from another source, one of them is wrong: whether to look first at the characters that appear or only at the main energy, and whether to set up a structure from Friend or Rob Wealth, differ from school to school, so it is common for the names to differ.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the structure change if I do not know my birth time? Without the time, the hour stem cannot be seen, so a structure that was decided by a character appearing only in the hour stem may change. For ②, without the hour stem 己, none of the characters inside 午 appears, so it becomes the main energy 丁, that is, the Hurting Officer structure.
- Does the structure never change in a lifetime? It is decided from the eight characters you are born with, so it does not change. What differs from time to time is how the characters of the Luck Cycles and the years meet this frame.