What is the Gu Chen star?

The first time people see the Gu Chen star on their chart, many feel a little sinking feeling: does the word "solitary" in its name mean I'll be lonely all my life? In fact Gu Chen is a very light minor star. The ancients named it after its most extreme form. Read for today, it describes a habit: you are good at being on your own, and you like to think things through yourself first. Draw your chart first and see which palace your Gu Chen is in.

What kind of star is Gu Chen

Gu Chen pairs with Gua Su, and the two together are called "Gu Gua." Xingge reads the pair as the need for time alone: in whichever palace they sit, you tend to handle that palace's matters yourself. That isn't a flaw; you just recharge differently from other people. The heavy-named stars lesson covers Gu Chen and Gua Su, Tian Xing, and Tian Ku and Tian Xu together.

How Gu Chen is placed

Gu Chen goes by the branch of your birth year, split into four groups by direction:

• Born in a Yin, Mao or Chen year (east): Gu Chen is in Si.
• Born in a Si, Wu or Wei year (south): Gu Chen is in Shen.
• Born in a Shen, You or Xu year (west): Gu Chen is in Hai.
• Born in a Hai, Zi or Chou year (north): Gu Chen is in Yin.

The pattern: Gu Chen sits in the palace just after your birth year's direction group, and Gua Su in the palace just before it. So Gu Chen only ever sits in Yin, Shen, Si or Hai. The placement verses of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu) don't include this method; it is the same as Gu Chen and Gua Su among the Bazi spirit stars. The Lun Gu Chen Gua Su section of the San Ming Tong Hui, a Ming-dynasty classic of Bazi (Four Pillars), says: "for Hai, Zi and Chou, the three positions of a direction, step forward one branch and you meet Yin, which is Gu; step back one branch and you meet Xu, which is Gua." If you switch Xingge to Zhongzhou placement, the position doesn't change.

"Gu Chen" in the Quan Shu

The Quan Shu doesn't write about this star, but the words "Gu Chen" do appear once, used to describe Qi Sha. The passage on Qi Sha in the Zhu Xing Wen Da Lun chapter of volume one calls it:

The great general in the Dipper, truly the lone star of success and failure.

That is, Qi Sha is like a great general in the Dipper who carries success and failure alone. What the ancients meant by "Gu Chen" was that picture of shouldering things on your own. It's also a good angle for reading Gu Chen today: not that there's nobody around, but that you're used to carrying things yourself.

Gu Chen in key palaces

• Life Palace: you're good at being on your own, and used to working through things yourself. When someone asks how you are, try telling them the truth.
• Spouse Palace: in close relationships you need plenty of space of your own. Make it clear that what you want is space, not distance, and your partner is less likely to misunderstand.
• Career Palace: you like to put your head down and work alone, and don't enjoy meeting while you work. Independence is good; just let your colleagues know where you're at.
• Wealth Palace: you prefer to manage money yourself rather than talk it over with others. That's steady, but now and then listen to other people's views too.
• Fortune Palace: you really enjoy solitude, and can live a full life on your own. Just, once in a while, let someone in.

Gu Chen with main stars, transformations and luck periods

• Main stars and the Six Auspicious Stars: when Gu Chen meets Zuo Fu or You Bi, there are actually plenty of people around to help; you just don't often ask. Sharing a palace with main stars that are already independent, like Qi Sha or Wu Qu, the habit of carrying things alone is more pronounced; with easygoing main stars like Tian Tong or Tian Xiang, Gu Chen's flavor is much fainter.
• The four transformations: with Hua Lu in Gu Chen's palace, working independently actually tends to pay off; with Hua Ji, worries tend to stay bottled up, and talking to someone you trust helps a lot.
• Luck periods: when a Decade or Annual Luck period reaches Gu Chen's palace, practitioners say you'll want more time to yourself during that stretch. It's a good time to focus on one thing, study further or sort yourself out; there's no need to read it as becoming lonely.

How different schools read Gu Chen

Every school places Gu Chen and Gua Su the same way. Older readings judge Gu Gua separately by gender; the view cited in the San Ming Tong Hui is that men fear Gu Chen and women fear Gua Su. Xingge doesn't split the reading by gender, and reads both as the need for time alone. The Quan Shu school doesn't discuss these two stars at all. Tian Xing and Tian Ku, from the same lesson, also have heavy names and are read just as lightly.