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Sanming Tonghui · A Comprehensive Account of the Three Destinies
Determining Whether a Pregnancy Produces a Boy or Girl
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A formula says: “Place parents' age numbers at the two ends, the conception month in the center. Qian, Kan, Gen, and Zhen make a boy; Xun, Li, Kun, and Dui all a girl.” For example, both parents' ages even make broken lines and an odd conception month a single line, forming Kan and determining a boy. Both parents' ages odd make single lines, an even conception month a broken one, forming Li and determining a girl. Father is above, mother below, conception month between; infer others similarly. Another method uses the Great Development number. A formula says: “Seven sevens forty-nine; ask which month mother conceived. Remove mother's birth-age number; odd is single, even paired. If odd and even do not correspond, lifespan will not endure.” Place forty-nine on an abacus, add mother's conception-month number, and total it. First-month conception makes fifty; subtract mother's thirty-one to leave nineteen. Nine is single, and single means boy. If odd gives a girl or even a boy, early death is asserted.
Translator's note: Both complete parity/trigram and forty-nine arithmetic methods, line positions, the fifty-minus-thirty-one example and adverse mismatch claim are retained. These are historical divinatory formulas, not valid methods of predicting fetal sex or lifespan.
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