Small stars with heavy names

Why the names are so heavy

Old texts named small stars bluntly: punishment, solitude, loneliness, weeping, emptiness, void, often describing the most extreme case. These are all minor stars, ranked in weight after the main stars, the transformations and the Six Auspicious and Six Malefic Stars, and one alone can't carry a cell's personality. Xingge reads them as reminders about pace and mood, not as predictions.

The classics themselves say "not necessarily"

When the "Zhu Xing Wen Da Lun" in volume one of the *Quan Shu* describes Tian Xing, it starts heavily, saying that guarding Life or Body it "governs isolation and punishment". But the song that follows opens with:

Tian Xing is not necessarily a harsh star; entering the temple, it is called the spirit of heavenly joy.

That is, Tian Xing isn't necessarily a bad star, and in the right position it's actually good. The song goes on: "Xing in Yin, You or Xu, and in Mao it shines bright": Yin, Mao, You and Xu are where Tian Xing does well, and with Wen Chang and Wen Qu, the ancients even said it could "present plans at the royal court". The section on Tian Ku and Tian Xu is the same: first called harsh stars, then "auspicious in Chou, Mao and Shen; meeting Lu, the name is renowned".

Whether a star is good, the ancients themselves judged by position and company. That's why Xingge doesn't read these names literally.

How each is placed and read

• Tian Xing: the *Quan Shu* says "the Tian Xing star starts the first month at You and counts forward to the birth month". Today it's read as principle, discipline and self-demand, suited to work that needs judgment, like law, auditing, refereeing or coaching.
• Tian Ku and Tian Xu: by birth-year branch, starting the Zi year at Wu, Tian Ku counting backward and Tian Xu forward. Read as deep feelings and a tendency to overthink, often in people who understand others' feelings very well.
• Gu Chen and Gua Su: by birth-year branch. For Yin, Mao and Chen years, Gu Chen is in Si and Gua Su in Chou; for Si, Wu and Wei years, in Shen and Chen; for Shen, You and Xu years, in Hai and Wei; for Hai, Zi and Chou years, in Yin and Xu. These two aren't in the *Quan Shu*'s placement rhymes; later texts added them. Read as the need to be alone.
• Xun Kong and Jie Kong: the sixty Jia Zi run in decades of ten; when the stems run out, two branches are left over, and those two are that decade's void. The *Quan Shu* writes "in the Jia Wu decade, Chen and Si are void; in the Jia Shen decade, Wu and Wei are void". Jie Kong follows the birth-year stem, which the *Quan Shu* calls "the void that cuts the road". Volume three says "for Body, Life, Lu and Ma, not falling into the void matters most for Tian Kong and Jie Kong, and less for Xun Kong": what the ancients cared about most was whether Lu Cun and Tian Ma fell into a void, and Jie Kong weighs more than Xun Kong. Read as that cell's matters feeling less solid, needing one more step to make them real.
• Tian Shang and Tian Shi: Tian Shang is in the Friends Palace (the *Quan Shu*'s Servants Palace) and Tian Shi in the Health Palace, the same on every chart. These two cells flank the Travel Palace on either side, and the *Quan Shu* says a luck period entering this position is "in flanked ground", calling for extra care. Xingge treats it only as a reminder to "slow down a little during this time".
• Hua Gai: by birth-year branch, in the same position as Hua Gai among the Jiang Qian spirits, and also not in the *Quan Shu*'s rhymes. Often read as distinctive taste, with an interest in art, philosophy or religion.

An everyday example

Say Gu Chen is in your Career Palace. The classics would write the word "solitude"; the modern reading is: at work, you like to think things through before speaking, and you dislike meetings while the work is still in progress. That's not a flaw; just know that coworkers may need you to give them one more update. If Zuo Fu and You Bi are in the same cell, there's actually plenty of help around you; you just don't often ask.

When you read them

1. Read them last: first the main stars, transformations and auxiliary stars, then these small stars.
2. Look at their company: Gu Chen and Gua Su with Tian Xing make principle and independence more pronounced; with Zuo Fu and You Bi, people are still willing to help you.
3. Not predictions: the classics' verdicts are the language of their time; Xingge only takes the tendencies they describe.

Stars with heavy names are often exactly what gives a person depth and principle.