Act 4
The Target-Line System
Act 3 tells you how strong each line is against the calendar. Act 4 tells you which line matters.
That decision comes first. A perfect strength judgment on the wrong line is still a wrong reading. The question chooses the target; the chart then tells us what is helping, harming, hiding, or replacing that target.
Treat this act as intake discipline. Before judging a moving line, a strong line, or a dramatic clash, name what the question is actually asking about and which line is allowed to carry that subject.
Father, money, promotion, illness, opponent, travel, document, spouse, child, exam: each subject points to a line.
Once the target is fixed, the supporting line family becomes legible instead of abstract.
The reading starts to become a story of support, pressure, blockage, and release.
What this act teaches
The working idea is simple: the question determines the target line.
The same cast can answer different questions. A promotion question does not look at the same line as a loan question. A father’s illness does not use the same target as self-illness. A question about an unfamiliar opponent may use a structural line rather than a Six Relative label.
This act teaches the selection workflow:
- Read the question before reading chart activity.
- Map the question’s subject to a target type.
- Find the matching line or lines in the primary chart.
- Resolve multiple candidates without guessing.
- Retrieve the target when it is absent from the visible chart.
- Keep rare transformed-line cases separate from ordinary selection.
Working labels in this act
The source terms are useful, but the learner-facing job is clearer in plain language: target, support, obstacle, blocker, double appearance, hidden target.
The line that represents the subject of the question. Everything later is judged in relation to it.
The line family that generates and supports the target.
The line family that controls, attacks, or obstructs the target.
The line family that controls the support before it can reach the target.
Two or more visible lines match the target type. The selection cascade decides which one carries the question.
The target type is missing from the visible chart, so it is retrieved through the palace structure.
What we are holding for later
- Full strength comparison belongs to Act 5 and Act 7. Here we identify the target, support, and obstacle.
- Advanced transformed-line mechanics belong to Act 6. Here we only mark the rare cases where a transformed line can carry the subject.
- Timing belongs to Act 8. A hidden or blocked target can emerge on a date, but this act only retrieves it.
- Domain-specific routing belongs to Act 9. Marriage, health, travel, law, documents, and broad-life questions need careful subject selection.
- Method comparison and rejected shortcuts belong to Act 10. Here we keep the working rules clean.
Where this lands us
After Act 4, the chart finally has a center of gravity. You can point to the target line and name its support, obstacle, and blocker.
Only then does strength comparison make sense. Act 5 asks how the target, support, obstacle, calendar, and moving lines interact.
Checkpoint
By the end of Act 4, you can restate the question, choose the line that carries the answer, identify support and obstruction, and avoid being distracted by dramatic lines that are not actually connected to the question.
The modules
Why the same cast can point to different target lines when the question changes.
4.2Yong Shen: The Useful SpiritThe target line: the line that represents the subject of the question.
4.3The Four Spirits: Yuan, Ji, ChouHow the target line creates its support, obstacle, and support-blocker through the Five Phases wheel.
4.4Selection MethodsThe six ways a question can select its target line.
4.5Double Appearance: Multiple Target CandidatesHow to choose the target when the chart has more than one visible line of the needed type.
4.6Hidden Spirit: When the Target Is AbsentHow to recover the target line when the question's required role does not appear on the visible chart.
4.7Twelve Questions, Twelve TargetsA workshop for choosing the target line across twelve common Wen Wang Gua question types.