---
type: Palm Sutra Concept
title: "流月／流日起法 (Monthly & daily star method)"
description: "The Palm Sutra has a common method for the year (the year’s branch fixes the year star); for the **month and the day it has none**."
resource: https://localpapa.com/tools/yizhang.html
category: "Damo Yi Zhang Jing · Schools"
tags: [yizhang, palm-sutra, school, convention, liuri, liuyue, daily-star]
timestamp: 2026-06-21T00:00:00Z
---

# 流月／流日起法 (Monthly & daily star method)

- **中文 / Chinese:** 流月／流日起法

The Palm Sutra has a common method for the year (the year’s branch fixes the year star); for the **month and the day it has none**. Both are later layers that the classical texts do not describe. This tool does not pretend otherwise: as with decade luck, the method is a stated option rather than an assumed rule, and the two methods below give different palaces — they coexist, neither is "the" answer. **This one setting governs both the monthly and the daily star**: the two layers stand or fall together, and choosing separately would only produce a self-contradictory pair.

## Conventions 各派做法

- **Counted from the year palace (default) (順數法（預設）) — default** — Applies the natal counting method to the date: the year palace is the lunar year’s branch, count from it to that lunar month (**this is the month palace**), then from there to the lunar day (the day palace). **The month palace is already the intermediate step of the day palace**, so the two layers cannot disagree; and both share the natal chart’s operation — only the date changes.
- **By the sexagenary branch (month-build / day branch) (干支法（月建／日支）)** — The month takes the branch it "builds" on (first lunar month on Yín, second on Mǎo); the day takes the branch of its sexagenary pillar. This borrows the BaZi notions of month and day pillars — but note the natal "Month" and "Day" pillars here are *not* sexagenary pillars, they are counted palaces, so this method is imported rather than native; it is offered as an option, not the default.

The [reading tool](https://localpapa.com/tools/yizhang.html) lets you pick the convention; the first option is the common default. Different choices can shift the pillars for births at late Zi or in a leap month.

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*[All schools & conventions](./index.md) · [The four pillars](../pillars/index.md) · [Palm Sutra knowledge base](../index.md)*