Introduction to Qi men Dun Jia 奇门遁甲
Qi men Dun Jia is often regarded as one of the three prized metaphysics knowledge in imperial China together with Da Liu Ren and Tai Yi Shen Shu. Because of the success in using Qi Men Dun Jia in military operations, the system of Qi men Dun Jia was regarded by the Imperial house as a closely guarded knowledge and known only to a few. Often, this system of Chinese Metaphysics is usually associated with great Chinese military strategists like Jiang Ziya (11th century B.C), Zhang Liang(3rd century B.C) and Zhuge Liang ( 3rd century B.C).
Qi men Dun Jia is literally translated as ‘concealing the marshall’. The word ‘qi’ refers to the three heavenly stems yi(symbol of Sun), bing(symbol of Moon) and ding(symbol of star). Yi would be best represented by the military strategist whose role will be to advise the marshall on tactical warefare. Bing would be referred to as the warrior within the camp. His main duty will be to protect the marshall and organise the troops. Ding is the logistic officer and his duties are of prime important to the whole army if they were to fight a prolonged battle.’Men’ (gates) refers to the three auspicious gates; open gate, rest gate and life gate among eight main gates. ‘Dun Jia’ would refer to protecting the Marshall Jia wood from the evil enemy Geng Metal.
A text knowned as ’Huandi Yin Fu Jing’ was later incoporated by a Ming scholar into a book known as ‘Dun Jia Yan Yi’ and later compiled in the ‘Qingding Siku Quanshu’(Qing dynasty). In the book, the origin of Qi Men Dun Jia is attributed to the legendary Yellow Emperor. According to legend, the Yellow Emperor was engaged in a battle with another tribe leader called Chi You. However, Yellow Emperor was unable to defeat his enemy in several attempts. It was only when he received a secret military art from a godness that he managed to defeat Chi You. After the great battle ended, the Yellow emperor instructed his minister Feng Hou to compile the secret military art into the system of Qi men Dun Jia.
As we can see, Qi men Dun Jia is an art closely related to military operations. Although, modern military science has advanced, the great knowledge of Qi men Dun Jia has not become obsolete . It is very common nowadys to find the use of Qi Men Dun Jia in the business world, education, fengshui as well as many other fields. Hence, Qi Men Dun Jia still thrive among our modern society although its usage has varied from its original intention.
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