Near and Far Timing

Your task is to compare the question’s declared horizon with the calendar scale supported by the cited timing rule. Do not convert a branch into an hour, day, month, or year by analogy alone.

Zengshan Buyi distinguishes far matters by year or month and near matters by day or hour. It does not provide one universal conversion formula. UAYA therefore adds a horizon record and requires each dated candidate to name the source or lineage that supports its scale.

Record the horizon before reading candidates

Question date and time zone:
Calendar day stem/branch anchor:
Declared horizon:
Relevant operational period, if known:
Maximum useful precision:
Source date complete: yes / no

If the date, day-pillar anchor, or time zone is missing, you may preserve a symbolic branch candidate but not a reproducible Gregorian date.

Keep the two layers separate

Layer	What it contributes	What it cannot do
Received text	Zengshan Buyi distinguishes far matters by year/month and near matters by day/hour.	It does not supply one universal conversion formula for every case.
UAYA record	Declares the question horizon and reports any mismatch or unsupported precision.	It does not stretch a candidate until it fits the desired answer.

Examples

Symbolic-only output

Invented exercise. An attributed rule identifies a future Si branch as a candidate, but the source date is unknown.

symbolic candidate: si
Gregorian window: unavailable
reason: question date/day-pillar anchor missing
output: symbolic candidate only; exact dating stopped

Grain mismatch

Invented exercise. A cited day-level rule produces a candidate outside the declared short observation period.

question horizon: 3 days
first supported candidate: day 8
result: candidate outside declared horizon
worksheet output: no in-horizon window; do not compress day 8 into hour scale

Same-day weather-example boundary

The source question in the weather passage publicly catalogued by UAYA as Case 00035 is explicitly same-day, and the text records an hour-level observation. That outcome does not supply a general formula for converting every moving line into an hour. The case remains a historical mechanics record, not a current forecast.

Precision checklist

Before retaining a candidate row, confirm:

1. the cited source or attributed lineage actually supports that calendar grain;
2. the question date and time zone are recorded;
3. a supplied day pillar is preserved when it intentionally anchors the case;
4. the window is inside the declared horizon, or the mismatch is shown;
5. the declared horizon is not silently extended;
6. confidence language is not strengthened because the date looks exact.

Exact-looking output can still be low confidence. Precision describes the window’s shape; it does not certify that an event will occur.

Source note

The received near/far distinction appears in Zengshan Buyi, vol. 1, “General Notes on Response Times for the Various Categories” (各门类应期总注章), checked composite printed p. 49 / PDF physical p. 50: 勿谓爻之不验，远近当分. The horizon and precision checklist is a UAYA teaching convention.

Next step

With grain limits recorded, add frame context only where a positioned line actually participates: San He Timing.