XinggePlacing Qing Yang, Tuo Luo, Huo Xing and Ling Xing
〈安擎羊陀羅、火星鈴星〉
The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu, Volume 2: Placing the stars and the twelve palaces · Original text with translation
Introduction
This chapter places four of the Six Malefic Stars:
- Qing Yang and Tuo Luo (segments 2 and 3): they follow Lu Cun. The palace in front of Lu Cun holds Qing Yang, the palace behind it holds Tuo Luo. The second half of the rhyme adds a verdict: when Qing Yang and Tuo Luo flank a luck period and a malefic star is also met, misfortunes are many.
- Huo Xing and Ling Xing (segment 5): placed by the birth-year branch in four groups; the rhyme only gives the starting palace of Huo Xing and of Ling Xing for each group.
The Huo-Ling rhyme gives only the starting points and does not say how to count to the final position. The standard practice, which Xingge also follows, is to start the Zi hour at the starting palace and count forward to the birth hour. For example, born in a Yin, Wu or Xu year in the Mao hour: Huo Xing starts the Zi hour at Chou and counts forward to Chen; Ling Xing starts the Zi hour at Mao and counts forward to Wu.
'In front of Lu' means the next palace in the order of the branches (the palace in front of Zi is Chou), so Qing Yang is always Lu Cun's neighbour in the forward direction.
安擎羊陀羅二星訣
2祿前擎羊後陀羅，夾限逢凶禍患多，歲限逢之俱不利，人生遇此莫蹉跎。
TranslationIn front of Lu Cun is Qing Yang, behind it is Tuo Luo. When Qing Yang and Tuo Luo flank a luck period and a malefic star is also met, misfortunes are many; meeting them in the Annual Luck or the Minor Luck is always unfavourable. When life comes to such a time, do not let it slip by idly.
- 夾限
- A luck-period palace held between two stars, one on each side.
- 歲限
- The Annual Luck and the Minor Luck.
The first clause of the rhyme places the stars; the other three are verdicts. 'Flanking a luck period' deserves a second thought. Qing Yang and Tuo Luo only ever flank the palace where Lu Cun sits, so natal Qing Yang and Tuo Luo 'flanking the luck' really means the Decade Luck, Minor Luck or Annual Luck moving into the palace of natal Lu Cun. The Annual Luck also has its own annual Lu, annual Qing Yang and annual Tuo Luo, arranged the same way, one in front and one behind.
The Quan Shu puts this even more strongly in the chapter on the Decade Luck: 「羊陀守命尚且無用，況夾限乎」 (see the original). Read today, it describes a stretch in which you can hold your ground but feel hemmed in, and trouble comes easily only when a malefic star is met as well; not every flanking brings misfortune.
3此二星隨祿存安之，前安擎羊祿後安陀羅。假如癸祿在子，丑宮安擎羊，亥宮安陀羅，餘仿此。
TranslationThese two stars are placed by following Lu Cun: in front of Lu Cun place Qing Yang, behind Lu Cun place Tuo Luo. For example, in a Gui year Lu Cun is in Zi, so place Qing Yang in the Chou palace and Tuo Luo in the Hai palace. The rest follow the same way.
Laid out by 'Qing Yang in front of Lu, Tuo Luo behind': Jia years, Qing Yang in Mao and Tuo Luo in Chou; Yi, Yang in Chen and Tuo in Yin; Bing and Wu, Yang in Wu (午) and Tuo in Chen; Ding and Ji, Yang in Wei and Tuo in Si; Geng, Yang in You and Tuo in Wei; Xin, Yang in Xu and Tuo in Shen; Ren, Yang in Zi and Tuo in Xu; Gui, Yang in Chou and Tuo in Hai. From this you can see that Qing Yang only falls in Zi, Wu, Mao, You and Chen, Xu, Chou, Wei, never in Yin, Shen, Si or Hai; and Tuo Luo only falls in Yin, Shen, Si, Hai and Chen, Xu, Chou, Wei, never in Zi, Wu, Mao or You.
This direction is the same for men and women and for yin and yang years. On a Xingge chart Qing Yang and Tuo Luo are listed among the minor stars, with brightness in the small text: Qing Yang, for example, is Miao in Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei and Xian in Zi, Wu, Mao and You. For the Quan Shu's method of Qing Yang and Tuo Luo 'stacking' in the Annual Luck, see Qing Yang and Tuo Luo Stacked.
安火鈴二星訣
5寅午戌人丑卯方，申子辰人寅戌揚，巳酉丑人卯戌位，亥卯未人酉戌房。
TranslationFor people born in Yin, Wu or Xu years, Huo Xing and Ling Xing start at Chou and Mao; for Shen, Zi or Chen years, at Yin and Xu; for Si, You or Chou years, at Mao and Xu; for Hai, Mao or Wei years, at You and Xu.
- 丑卯方
- The first is Huo Xing's starting point, the second Ling Xing's. The rhyme does not give the counting; the standard practice is to start the Zi hour at the starting point and count forward to the birth hour.
The rhyme gives only the starting points; the counting follows the standard practice described in the introduction, which is also what Xingge does. A worked example: born in a Geng Wu year (Wu belongs to the Yin-Wu-Xu group) in the Mao hour. Huo Xing starts the Zi hour at Chou: Zi at Chou, Chou at Yin, Yin at Mao, Mao at Chen, so Huo Xing is in Chen. Ling Xing starts the Zi hour at Mao: Zi at Mao, Chou at Chen, Yin at Si, Mao at Wu, so Ling Xing is in Wu. Cast this chart on Xingge and Huo Xing and Ling Xing are in exactly these two palaces.
Notice that in every group except Yin-Wu-Xu, Ling Xing starts at Xu; the groups differ only in where Huo Xing starts. Some later schools change the direction of Huo Xing and Ling Xing by yin-yang and gender; the Quan Shu has no such rule. Huo Xing or Ling Xing meeting Tan Lang forms the Huo Tan pattern, one of the few combinations in which the Quan Shu treats a malefic star as a help.
Base text (Wikisource, partly in simplified Chinese)
FAQ
How are Qing Yang and Tuo Luo placed?
They follow Lu Cun: the palace in front of Lu Cun holds Qing Yang, the palace behind it Tuo Luo. In a Gui year, for example, Lu Cun is in Zi, Qing Yang in Chou and Tuo Luo in Hai. So anyone with Lu Cun in the Life Palace is always flanked by Qing Yang and Tuo Luo.
How are Huo Xing and Ling Xing placed?
The birth-year branch sets the starting points: in Yin, Wu and Xu years Huo Xing starts at Chou and Ling Xing at Mao; in Shen, Zi and Chen years Huo at Yin and Ling at Xu; in Si, You and Chou years Huo at Mao and Ling at Xu; in Hai, Mao and Wei years Huo at You and Ling at Xu. Then start the Zi hour at each starting point and count forward to the birth hour.
What does 「夾限逢凶禍患多」 mean?
Qing Yang and Tuo Luo sit on either side of Lu Cun, so they hold one palace between them. The Quan Shu says that when a luck period reaches the palace flanked by Qing Yang and Tuo Luo and a malefic star is also met, misfortunes are many; reaching it in the Annual Luck or Minor Luck is unfavourable too.