Your birth-year transformations

First, find your year stem

The birth-year transformations come from the heavenly stem of your birth year, and it's the lunar year that counts. People born in January or early February should take special care: if your birthday falls before Lunar New Year, your year stem belongs to the previous year. For example, someone born on January 20, 2000, before the new year, was born in a Ji Mao year, not Geng Chen. Xingge does this conversion for you when it casts the chart.

There are only ten year stems, so they repeat every ten years. 1984, 1994 and 2004 are all Jia years, with the same Lian Zhen Hua Lu, Po Jun Hua Quan, Wu Qu Hua Ke and Tai Yang Hua Ji; what differs is which cell each of these four stars sits in.

The table of the ten stems

Xingge follows the transformation rhyme in volume two of the *Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu*, in the order Hua Lu, Hua Quan, Hua Ke, Hua Ji:

• Jia: Lian Zhen Lu, Po Jun Quan, Wu Qu Ke, Tai Yang Ji
• Yi: Tian Ji Lu, Tian Liang Quan, Zi Wei Ke, Tai Yin Ji
• Bing: Tian Tong Lu, Tian Ji Quan, Wen Chang Ke, Lian Zhen Ji
• Ding: Tai Yin Lu, Tian Tong Quan, Tian Ji Ke, Ju Men Ji
• Wu: Tan Lang Lu, Tai Yin Quan, You Bi Ke, Tian Ji Ji
• Ji: Wu Qu Lu, Tan Lang Quan, Tian Liang Ke, Wen Qu Ji
• Geng: Tai Yang Lu, Wu Qu Quan, Tai Yin Ke, Tian Tong Ji
• Xin: Ju Men Lu, Tai Yang Quan, Wen Qu Ke, Wen Chang Ji
• Ren: Tian Liang Lu, Zi Wei Quan, Tian Fu Ke, Wu Qu Ji
• Gui: Po Jun Lu, Ju Men Quan, Tai Yin Ke, Tan Lang Ji

Patterns in the table

Spread the table out and a few things are easy to remember:

• Hua Lu and Hua Quan are all main stars. Auxiliary stars only appear under Hua Ke and Hua Ji: Wen Chang, Wen Qu and You Bi.
• Tai Yin appears most. Hua Ji in Yi years, Hua Lu in Ding years, Hua Quan in Wu years, Hua Ke in Geng and Gui years: one star covering all four transformations. Tian Ji and Wu Qu also appear four times each, taking Lu, Quan, Ke and Ji in turn.
• Tian Xiang and Qi Sha never transform. They're the only two of the fourteen main stars absent from the table, so for them, the stars sharing their palace and on either side matter even more.
• The rhyme uses shorthand. "The Moon" is Tai Yin, "the Sun" is Tai Yang, "Bi" is You Bi, "Qu" is Wen Qu and "Chang" is Wen Chang.

Why there are different versions

The transformation table differs in a few places between schools. The most common difference is Hua Ke in Ren years: Tian Fu in the *Quan Shu*, but Zuo Fu in many popular books and chart programs. Geng year's Hua Ke and Hua Ji also have a few variants: some books have Tian Tong Hua Ke and Tai Yin Hua Ji, and some bring Tian Fu in.

Xingge follows the transformation rhyme in volume two of the *Quan Shu* throughout: You Bi Hua Ke in Wu years, Tai Yin Hua Ke in Geng years, Tian Fu Hua Ke in Ren years, with the same table for natal, Decade, Annual and Flying Star readings. If you see different transformations in another app, it's usually a different school, not a mistake.

How to read your own birth-year transformations

1. Find the four stars: look up your birth-year stem in the table.
2. See which cell each sits in: Hua Lu's cell goes more smoothly, Hua Quan's is where you want to be in charge, Hua Ke's is where you're easily seen, and Hua Ji's is what you can't let go of.
3. Consider each star's nature: two people with Hua Ji read differently. Tai Yang Hua Ji is warm giving that feels unseen; Wen Chang Hua Ji is special tension around documents, exams and details.
4. Connect them: the Hua Lu and Hua Ji cells often form a line, from where an intention starts to where it finally weighs on you.

An example: born in a Jia year, with Lian Zhen Hua Lu in the Career Palace and Tai Yang Hua Ji in the Children Palace. It reads: your people skills and charm at work are your tailwind, while with children, juniors or your own creative work, you often feel you give more than you get back. Put together, that's a very real picture of a person.

The same star transformed twice

Sometimes the birth-year and decade transformations land on the same star, for example Tai Yin Hua Lu at birth, then Tai Yin Hua Ji in some Decade Luck. Practitioners read that decade as: what used to come easily becomes what weighs on you most during this period. Chapter 6 looks at this more closely under the layered chart.

The weight of the birth-year transformations

The birth-year transformations are the base color for life. Later, Decade and Annual Luck each bring their own set, changing from period to period; as they layer on top, they echo the birth-year set. Get to know the four cards in your hand first, and the time layers that follow will make sense.