What is Star brightness?

Star brightness in Zi Wei Dou Shu is the grade that describes how well a star works when it sits in a particular Earthly Branch, in seven levels from most at ease to most awkward: Miao (Temple), Wang (Prosperous), De (Gain), Li (Profit), Ping (Average), Bu (Unsupported) and Xian (Fallen). The small mark next to a star's name on a chart is its brightness. It isn't a score but the star's footing in that position: a star at Miao or Wang expresses its character most fully, while a star at Xian keeps its traits but uses them more awkwardly and needs more effort.

The short version:

• Formula: brightness = star + branch, looked up in a table; every star has a level in each of the twelve branches.
• Seven levels: Miao, Wang, De, Li, Ping, Bu, Xian, from the brightness table in volume two of the Quan Shu.
• Branch, not palace name: if Tai Yang is in your Wealth Palace, look at which branch the Wealth Palace is on.
• Never a verdict alone: brightness is the footing; add the transformations, the stars sharing the palace and the San Fang Si Zheng.

Where the seven levels come from

The names of the seven levels come from the brightness table in volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu), whose headings read Miao, Wang, De Di, Li Yi, Ping He, Bu De Di and Luo Xian, usually shortened to Miao, Wang, De, Li, Ping, Bu and Xian. The verses in volume one mostly speak only of the two ends, Miao-Wang and Xian; it's the table that splits them into seven.

Different schools' tables differ slightly. Xingge uses the Quan Shu's table throughout, checked cell by cell and locked into automated tests; see How Xingge casts a chart.

Brightness table for the 14 main stars

This is the table Xingge's charts use, matching volume two of the Quan Shu cell for cell. Find your star's row and your palace's branch column:

Each star's Miao and Xian at a glance

If you only want to know where each star is brightest and dimmest, this is enough:

A few easy patterns:

• Tai Yang: brightest in Mao (Miao) and fallen in Hai and Zi, like a setting sun. Bright in the daytime branches and dim in the night ones; see Tai Yang.
• Tai Yin: just the opposite, brightest in the night branches Hai, Zi and Chou, and fallen in Mao, Chen and Si; see Tai Yin.
• Stars that never fall: Zi Wei, Tian Fu, Wu Qu and Qi Sha have no Xian position in the table. Even at its dimmest, in Si and Hai, Qi Sha is only Ping.
• The four storehouses: Wu Qu and Tan Lang are at Miao in all four of Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei, the branches the old writers called the four tombs.

The most common mix-up: branch, not palace name

Brightness depends on the palace's branch, not the palace's name. The same Tai Yang in the Wealth Palace can look completely different on two people's charts:

A's Tai Yang is in Mao, its brightest position: earning through warmth and visibility, with effort that gets noticed easily. B's Tai Yang is in Zi: just as warm, but its giving is harder to see, so it helps to keep a record of results and let people know. Both have "Tai Yang in the Wealth Palace," yet their footing is very different.

The Quan Shu sometimes also calls palaces favorable or weak for a star, for example saying Tian Fu is at home in the Property and Wealth Palaces. That describes which areas of life a star handles well, which is separate from the brightness table by branch; keep the two apart when reading the classics.

Read brightness together with the transformations

Brightness isn't a verdict on its own. Volume one of the Quan Shu says:

When a star is at Miao or Wang, look further at how things support or restrain it. When the Life Palace is in a strong palace, examine closely how things check and transform.

That is, a star at Miao or Wang isn't enough; you also have to see how it interacts with the stars around it. When volume three explains how to read a chart, it also puts brightness, transformations and the trines together:

If the Life Palace holds a main star and auspicious stars, at Miao or Wang and transformed for good, and auspicious stars also meet in the three directions, it is a chart of the highest order.

In practice, practitioners treat brightness as the star's footing, then add or subtract with the transformations, the stars sharing the palace and the San Fang Si Zheng:

Most cases are in between; read them palace by palace.

Some stars the classics call harsh are actually very good in the right position. Volume one says:

Tan Lang is a kind star and not harsh at Miao; Ju Men is a harsh star, yet it is especially fine when it sits in its proper place.

When Ju Men sits at its strong positions (Yin, Mao, Shen and You are Miao), its eloquence and analytical power become strengths.

Brightness vs. the Twelve Life Stages

Brightness and the Twelve Life Stages (Chang Sheng) both write a word on the chart, and they often get mixed up:

Xian doesn't mean bad

A fallen star is often read as "this star is useless." It's more accurate to say its traits are still there but harder to use smoothly. Tian Ji at Xian still thinks fast, but tends to overthink and take the long way round; Tai Yang at Xian is just as warm, but its giving is harder to get noticed, so it needs to speak up for itself more. Knowing which of your stars are fallen tells you where to leave more slack.

Brightness is explained in full in the lesson main stars are the owners of the rooms. After you draw your chart, check which level is written next to your Life Palace star.