TERRAMONTAO · SHENZHEN
Rooted in culture. Made tangible through product. Measured by its boundaries.
Founded in Shenzhen in 2026. Geomontao turns Chinese self-cultivation into three minutes a day; Taiyi Lab (in formation) studies how AI in the mantic arts can calculate correctly and interpret faithfully. Calculation, knowledge, AI expression and safety rules each answer for their own part.
WHO WE ARE
One company, two lines of work.
Shenzhen Terramontao Culture and Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in Shenzhen in June 2026. We turn Chinese learning about time, birth charts and self-cultivation into tools people can use today, and check.
Geomontao · product
An AI companion for self-cultivation, with the birth chart as a mirror rather than the point. iOS first, in invitation-only beta. A lesson in the morning, practice through the day, a short reflection at night; Bazi, Ziwei and Qizheng charts as mirrors; three teachers who answer from the Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist classics.
Taiyi Lab (in formation) · research
An internal research group studying how AI in the Chinese mantic arts can calculate correctly, interpret faithfully, and have its readings tested. Results pass review before they reach Geomontao.
THE NAME
A mountain within the earth.
The name comes from Qian (Modesty), the fifteenth hexagram of the Book of Changes: earth (Kun) above, mountain (Gen) below. A mountain should rise above the ground; here it rests within it. It has height, and shows it as support and restraint.
TERRAMONTAO maps the four characters one to one: TERRA is Latin for earth, Kun; MON is mountain, Gen, and also echoes the Cantonese sound of 问, to ask; TAO is the Way.
Why 问道, asking about the Way, rather than 论道, discoursing on it? Discourse begins from what we already see. Asking begins from what we do not yet know.
Within the earth, a mountain: Modesty. — Book of Changes, Image commentary on Qian
WHY WE DO THIS
Knowing your fate is where the work begins.
Liaofan's Four Lessons tells a story more than four centuries old. Yuan Liaofan's life was foretold in detail, and for twenty years he dared not change a thing. Then the monk Yungu told him, ‘Fate is made by me; fortune is sought by oneself,’ and he went from knowing his fate to shaping it.
That is our product logic. The chart is a mirror that helps a person see their situation and tendencies. Self-cultivation is the daily work that answers what to do once they have seen.
HOW WE WORK
Engines calculate. Sources speak. Rules hold the line.
We separate calculation, knowledge and expression into layers, each accountable for its own part.
AI does not cast the chart
Bazi, Ziwei and Qizheng charts come from deterministic rule engines; AI only reads the chart's facts. The same inputs and method settings always reproduce the same result. Qizheng positions are checked against the JPL ephemeris.
Every quotation can be checked
Forty-two classics on self-cultivation, about 824,000 characters, are stored paragraph by paragraph. When a lesson or an answer quotes a source, it is compared character by character with the base edition, and the source is one tap away.
Boundaries written into the rules
No readings about nations, public events, political figures or disasters; readings only for the person themself, with their consent. When someone expresses a crisis, help lines come first.
Figures as of October 2026, counted by script from the code repository. Chart calculation builds on the open-source lunar-typescript, iztro and astronomy-engine (MIT licence), with our own rules and validation layers.
TAIYI LAB (IN FORMATION)
Correct, faithful, and open to testing.
Taiyi Lab studies specialist AI for the Chinese mantic arts. Charts and calendar calculations must be correct. Interpretations must be faithful: every sentence traceable to the chart's facts and the classics, with schools labelled separately.
Whether a reading holds is a question for method, not for claims: thresholds and statistics are registered before results are unblinded, the test set is held by a third party, and positive and negative results are both published.
MILESTONES
From a charting tool to a practice.
2026 · 06
The company is founded in Shenzhen.
2026 · 07
Publishes its founding essay, ‘What Terramontao means’.
2026 · 08–09
Bazi, Ziwei and Qizheng charts with full detail; Inquiry enters beta.
2026 · 10
Refocuses on self-cultivation, with the chart as a mirror; 42 classics catalogued; the practice module and a new interface are complete.
2026 · 11
Charts move to bamboo slips and tiered dials; Inquiry can read several charts together, with separate modes for the charts and the teachers.
Now
Geomontao is in invitation-only beta.
FOUNDER
Someone who knows the tradition and builds the product.
Teyu Lin (林特宇), founder and CEO, director of Taiyi Lab. Led Geomontao's product, the three chart engines, the classics corpus, the lessons and the brand.
Education
Binghamton University, State University of New York · Philosophy, Politics and Law (PPL); China Taoist College.
Lineage
Lay disciple of the 30th generation of the Zhengyi school (generation name Luo) and of the 31st generation of the Quanzhen Nanwu school (generation name Wu).
ENTITY & CONTACT
深圳坤艮问道文化科技有限公司
Official website contact: linteyu@terramontao.com. Business, research, media, people and product feedback begin on the contact page.