What is the Hong Luan star?

Many people first hear of the Hong Luan star when they ask, "When will I get married?" Hong Luan is often used to look at happy occasions, but it covers more than weddings: having a crush, being liked and getting good news all fall within its range. It is a minor star, lighter than the main stars and the Six Auspicious and Six Malefic Stars, so read it together with the rest of its palace. To see which palace your Hong Luan is in, draw your chart.

What kind of star is Hong Luan

Hong Luan is one of the romance stars. It pairs with Tian Xi, and the two together are called "Luan Xi." Xingge reads this pair as cheerfulness and likability: your smile puts people at ease, and good friends and good news tend to find you on their own. Hong Luan leans toward "the heart stirring," Tian Xi toward "happy occasions," and they read most fully together. The romance stars lesson covers all four minor romance stars.

How Hong Luan is placed

Hong Luan goes by the branch of your birth year. The An Hong Luan Tian Xi Jue verse in volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu) reads:

Start the Zi year at Mao and count backward, until you reach the branch of your birth year; the palace you land on is Hong Luan's seat, and Tian Xi sits opposite without fail.

In other words, treat the Mao palace as the Zi year and count backward to your birth-year branch; that palace holds Hong Luan, and Tian Xi sits in its opposite palace. So for a Zi year Hong Luan is in Mao, for Chou in Yin, for Mao in Zi, for Wu in You, and so on. Everyone born in the same year has Hong Luan in the same branch; what makes it personal is which of your palaces that branch happens to be. Where volume two lists each star's element, it also notes that "Hong Luan and Tian Xi belong to Water."

What the classics say

The Hong Luan verse goes on with a few lines about age:

Marriage and happy events come wonderfully when young... Before thirty it is an auspicious star; after fifty it no longer suits.

The ancients tied Hong Luan's joy to age: met when young, it meant marriage and celebrations; later in life, it was no longer taken as a good sign. Read for today, a more sensible view is that Hong Luan's joy changes shape with the stage of life. When you are young it is your own romance and starting a family; as the years go on, it often becomes the happy news of the younger generation in your family. The Dou Shu Fa Wei Lun in volume one also warns that when Hong Luan meets Tan Lang, the heat of feelings easily runs too high, and you have to judge the right measure yourself.

Hong Luan in key palaces

• Life Palace: you carry a cheerful air and make a good first impression; people strike up conversations with you and remember you. You don't need to work at it; goodwill comes on its own.
• Spouse Palace: there is sweetness in how you get along in close relationships, and connections show up clearly. The person closest to you is often the source of your good news.
• Wealth Palace: money often has to do with celebrations and social obligations: gift money, gatherings and presents come up a lot. Enjoy it, but think about the budget before you spend.
• Career Palace: you are well liked at school or work and the atmosphere is lively; goodwill also helps you get things done.
• Fortune Palace: you are naturally easy to please and good at finding your own fun.

Whichever palace Hong Luan is in, Tian Xi is directly across from it. So with Hong Luan in the Life Palace, Tian Xi is in the Travel Palace; with Hong Luan in the Spouse Palace, Tian Xi is in the Career Palace. Read the two palaces together.

Hong Luan with main stars, transformations and Annual Luck

• The main star: Hong Luan only adds a layer of "easy to like" to its palace. Next to Tian Liang it is a reassuring warmth; next to Tan Lang it is someone great at chatting and having fun.
• The four transformations: with Hua Lu in Hong Luan's palace, happy events more readily come true; with Hua Ji, feelings stir but also tug back and forth, so don't rush to settle things.
• Annual Luck: the chart also has a Hong Luan that moves with the Annual Luck, placed from that year's branch by the same verse. Xingge reads it this way: when the annual Hong Luan reaches the Life Palace, your own thoughts about love and starting a family grow stronger; when it reaches the Spouse Palace, the other person is the more active one. The Annual Luck lesson covers how to read the year in full.

How different schools read Hong Luan

On today's common charts, Hong Luan is placed in much the same way; the differences are in the reading. The school that follows the Quan Shu puts weight on the age line and reads it differently before and after thirty. Some teachers pay special attention to the annual Luan Xi; Ling Donglai, for example, says that for married people, Tian Xi in the annual Life Palace often means a new child in the family. Bazi (Four Pillars) spirit stars also include a Hong Luan, likewise counted backward from Mao as the Zi year. You can compare the two, but there's no need to use one to prove the other good or bad.

Another placement in the Daoist Canon edition: the Daoist Canon edition of Zi Wei Dou Shu (attributed to Chen Tuan, in the Ming supplement to the Daoist Canon) also has a Hong Luan, but it belongs to a different star system (the book calls it the Eighteen Flying Stars). It also goes by the birth-year branch, but it "starts the Zi year at Wei and counts forward to your birth year" to find a starting point, then places stars in the book's own order. Worked out, that puts a Zi year in Chou and a Yin year in Mao, moving forward; the Quan Shu counts backward from Mao, so the two methods agree only for Chou and Wei years. Xingge charts by the Quan Shu.