XinggeTai Sui and the Annual Spirit Stars
〈論流年太歲吉凶星殺〉
The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu, Volume 3: Reading a life and its luck periods · Original text with translation
Introduction
Tai Sui and the Annual Spirit Stars (論流年太歲吉凶星殺) is a single sentence on how to read the Annual Luck, that is, Tai Sui.
Tai Sui moves one palace each year. Looking at whether the stars in the trine and the opposite palace of its palace are lucky or unlucky settles the fortune of that year. The year Tai Sui reaches the natal Life Palace matters most: with the Life Palace in Zi, a Zi year puts Tai Sui in the Life Palace, and if the person was also born in a Gui year, lucky stars bring luck and malefic stars bring misfortune, both more sharply than usual.
Read together with The Two Lucks and Tai Sui, this chapter shows the Quan Shu's basic method for the Annual Luck.
1凡太歲看三方對照星辰吉凶何如以定禍福，太歲在命宮行者禍福尤緊。如命在子宮太歲到子，又癸生人逢吉則吉逢凶則凶。
TranslationWhenever you look at Tai Sui, see whether the stars in its trine and opposite palace are lucky or unlucky, and settle fortune and misfortune from that. When Tai Sui passes through the Life Palace, fortune and misfortune are most pressing. For example, with the Life Palace in Zi, Tai Sui reaches Zi (a Zi year); if the person was also born in a Gui year, meeting luck brings luck and meeting misfortune brings misfortune.
- 太歲
- Tai Sui: the Annual Luck, read from the palace of that year's Earthly Branch.
Tai Sui is the Annual Luck, centred on the palace of the year's branch: in a Zi year look at the Zi palace, in a Chou year at the Chou palace. It is read the same way as the natal chart, through the San Fang Si Zheng of that palace. The Quan Shu stresses the year Tai Sui reaches the natal Life Palace as the weightiest; that happens once every twelve years, every Zi year for someone whose Life Palace is in Zi. The example adds 「癸生人」 because for a person born in a Gui year Lu Cun is in Zi, Qing Yang in Chou and Tuo Luo in Hai, so a Life Palace in Zi is exactly flanked by Qing Yang and Tuo Luo, and good and bad are both magnified. On a Xingge chart, the palace of the current year's branch is where Tai Sui stands this year; if that is the Life Palace, this is the year the sentence describes. The annual transformations and annual stars are a further layer, explained in the lesson on the Annual Luck.
Base text (Wikisource, partly in simplified Chinese)
FAQ
How do you judge the good or bad of an Annual Luck?
Tai Sui and the Annual Spirit Stars says to look at whether the stars in the trine and opposite palace of Tai Sui's palace are lucky or unlucky, and judge the year's fortune from that; in the year Tai Sui reaches the natal Life Palace, fortune and misfortune matter most.
Is the year the Annual Luck reaches the Life Palace especially important?
Yes. The Quan Shu says 「太歲在命宮行者禍福尤緊」: for example, with the Life Palace in Zi and a Zi year, both good and bad show especially clearly.