Minor Luck and Monthly Luck

How the Minor Luck is laid out

The Minor Luck is another one-cell-a-year sequence; the difference from the Annual Luck is that the Annual Luck follows the calendar year, while the Minor Luck follows your age.

The "Rhyme for Placing the Minor Luck" in volume two of the *Quan Shu*: "Yin, Wu, Xu people start at Chen; Shen, Zi, Chen people from Xu; Si, You, Chou people start at Wei; Hai, Mao, Wei people start at Chou." It adds that "men, yin or yang, all count forward; women, yin or yang, all count backward".

In plain terms:

1. Find which trine group your birth-year branch belongs to: Yin-Wu-Xu, Shen-Zi-Chen, Si-You-Chou or Hai-Mao-Wei.
2. Your Minor Luck at age 1 falls in that group's cell: Chen for Yin-Wu-Xu, Xu for Shen-Zi-Chen, Wei for Si-You-Chou, Chou for Hai-Mao-Wei.
3. Men move clockwise and women counterclockwise, one cell per year of age.

For example, a woman born in 2001, a Xin Si year: Si belongs to Si-You-Chou, so age 1 is in Wei, and moving counterclockwise, age 2 is in Wu, age 3 in Si and so on, round the circle every twelve years.

Age here is nominal age: you're one at birth and add a year each Lunar New Year.

Reading Minor and Annual Luck together

"On the Two Luck Periods and Tai Sui" in volume three of the *Quan Shu* says to first look separately at how the Decade Luck, Minor Luck and Tai Sui (the Annual Luck) stand, then at how they meet each other. In practice:

• The Minor Luck and Annual Luck in the same cell: that cell's matters are felt especially this year.
• The Minor Luck and Annual Luck in different cells: read the two together, with the Annual Luck for the wider setting and the Minor Luck for your state at this age.

The layout produces an interesting effect. The Annual Luck moves one cell clockwise each year, and a man's Minor Luck also moves one cell clockwise, so the two move in step and the distance between them never changes for life: the Minor Luck is always two cells ahead of, two cells behind, or directly opposite the Annual Luck, and never overlaps it. A woman's Minor Luck moves the other way and meets the Annual Luck in the same cell once every six years. The woman born in 2001 above has her Minor Luck and Annual Luck both in Wu at age 2, then again at 8, 14, 20 and so on.

How much weight the Minor Luck carries differs between schools. Some modern schools look almost only at the Annual Luck; the *Quan Shu* often reads the Decade and Minor Luck together as the "two luck periods". Xingge marks both so you can compare them yourself.

Childhood luck

For the early years before the first Decade Luck begins, the classics have a separate "childhood luck": "one, Life; two, Wealth; three, Health; four, Spouse; five, Fortune; six, Career", so age one reads the Life Palace, age two the Wealth Palace, age three the Health Palace and so on. Beginners don't need to memorize it; it's enough to know it exists.

Monthly Luck

The Monthly Luck reads the year month by month. The first step is to find the Dou Jun. The "Rhyme for Placing the Dou Jun" in volume two of the *Quan Shu*: "From the annual Tai Sui palace, start the first month and count backward to the birth month; from the birth month, start the Zi hour and count forward to the birth hour to place the Dou Jun."

Working one out is clearest. Say you were born in the third month in the Chen hour, and you want to look at 2026, a Bing Wu year:

1. Take this year's Annual Life Palace, Wu, as the first month and count counterclockwise to your birth month: first month Wu, second month Si, third month Chen.
2. Take Chen as the Zi hour and count clockwise to your birth hour: Zi at Chen, Chou at Si, Yin at Wu, Mao at Wei, Chen at Shen.

You stop at Shen, so Shen is the first month of 2026, the second month is You and the third is Xu, moving one cell clockwise each month. Because the Annual Luck moves one cell each year, the Dou Jun moves one cell each year too, so next year this person's first month is in You.

The Monthly Luck is very fine-grained, so read it under the Decade and Annual Luck; if you haven't understood the big picture, going down to months only gets more confusing.