What is Kong Jie Jia (Flanked by the Voids)?

Di Kong and Di Jie are the most unusual pair among the Six Malefic Stars: Di Kong is inspiration and unconventional ideas that can come to nothing; Di Jie is the road less traveled, with effort that can go to waste. Kong Jie Jia (Di Kong and Di Jie flanking) is the two standing one on each side of a palace, so that palace's affairs bring plenty of ideas and plenty of uncertainty. The classics list it as a "failing pattern," but taken apart, it describes a rhythm that calls for placing bets in stages. To check whether you have it, draw your chart.

How Kong Jie Jia forms

Di Kong and Di Jie both go by the birth hour, both starting the Zi hour at Hai: Di Jie counts forward, Di Kong backward. So people born in the Zi hour have both in Hai, people born in the Wu hour have both in Si, and for other hours they split, one on each side, symmetrical around the Si–Hai axis.

Because of this, the only palaces Di Kong and Di Jie can flank are Si and Hai, and only people born in four double-hours have it:

• Born in the Chou or Hai hour: flanking Hai.
• Born in the Si or Wei hour: flanking Si.

Xingge's detection only looks at the Life, Wealth, Career and Spouse Palaces and the palace holding the Body Palace. By this count, about 1 chart in 8 has Kong Jie Jia; with the Life Palace flanked, about 1 in 37.

What the classics say

Volume three of the Quan Shu says:

Di Jie and Di Kong flanking the Life Palace is a failing pattern.

The commentary's example has the Life Palace in Hai with Di Jie in Zi, so Di Kong should be in Xu, flanking Hai from both sides: someone born in the Chou hour. (The version in circulation today puts Di Kong "in Hai," overlapping the Life Palace, which doesn't match the placement method either; it is probably a copying error.)

The same series includes Huo Ling Jia and Yang Tuo Jia Ji, all of which the ancients called failing patterns. The classics speak of flanking the Life Palace; Xingge extends the same reading to the Wealth, Career and Spouse Palaces and the Body Palace.

How to read it today

The "void" in Di Kong and Di Jie isn't all bad; practitioners also often read them as creativity and unconventional paths. The palace caught between them commonly looks like this:

• Lots of ideas, few that land. One idea after another, and not many carried through.
• Plans often disrupted by outside variables. The palace itself isn't necessarily the problem; matters on either side unsettle it.
• A lighter attachment to this area. Sometimes that is easygoing freedom, sometimes not taking it seriously enough.

Xingge's reading: Di Kong and Di Jie flank this palace: lots of ideas here, and lots that come to nothing; do important things in stages, and don't put everything on one bet.

In different palaces

• Life Palace: you are an ideas person, suited to creative work, research and unconventional paths, but you need someone to help you finish.
• Wealth Palace: in money matters the worst move is betting everything at once; spreading out and going in stages is the best protection.
• Career Palace: work tends to change direction; project-based roles, or environments where you can often try new things, suit you.
• Spouse Palace: love is less bound by traditional frames, and it's worth watching for the feeling of expectations falling through.

What loosens it

• Lu Cun, Hua Lu, Zuo Fu or You Bi in the middle palace. With something to hold on to and people to help, things coming to nothing is less noticeable.
• A main star at Miao or Wang in the middle. A steady star holds off outside variables better.
• No Hua Ji in the middle. When Kong Jie Jia also flanks Hua Ji, the sense of things coming to nothing concentrates on one matter.

If the flanked palace itself also has Di Kong or Di Jie, read it together with Lu Feng Kong Jie or the empty treasury. The Six Malefic Stars lesson covers Di Kong and Di Jie themselves, and the flanking palaces lesson the kinds of flanking.

Common questions

What does Kong Jie Jia Ming mean?

Di Kong and Di Jie sit one on each side of the Life Palace. Both stand for things coming to nothing and uncertainty, and the Quan Shu lists it as a "failing pattern." The modern reading: lots of ideas here, and lots that come to nothing; do important things in stages, and don't put everything on one bet.

Which birth hours have Kong Jie Jia?

Only people born in the Chou or Hai hour (flanking Hai) or the Si or Wei hour (flanking Si). Then check whether the flanked palace is the Life, Wealth, Career or Spouse Palace, or the Body Palace. People born in the Zi or Wu hour have Di Kong and Di Jie in the same palace, so there is no flanking.

Does Kong Jie Jia mean everything you do will fail?

No. "Failing pattern" is the classics' category, not an outcome. Di Kong and Di Jie also stand for inspiration and unconventional paths, which practitioners often read as a source of creativity. The key is to bet in stages, keep a way back, and see good ideas through.