XinggeBirth Hour, Life Palace and Fortune
〈論人生時安命吉凶〉
The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu, Volume 3: Reading a life and its luck periods · Original text with translation
Introduction
Birth Hour, Life Palace and Fortune (論人生時安命吉凶), in volume three of the Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu, is a single sentence: the yin or yang of the birth hour and of the Life Palace's branch should match.
Yin, Wu, Xu, Shen, Zi and Chen are the six yang branches; Si, You, Chou, Hai, Mao and Wei the six yin branches. The Quan Shu says that someone born in a yang hour with the Life Palace on a yang branch, or in a yin hour with it on a yin branch, is lucky; if yin and yang are reversed, 「少遂」, things seldom go smoothly.
This is the same idea as the 'yin and yang going together' in Ranking Patterns and Stars: the yin and yang of the chart itself should be in harmony.
1凡男女生在寅午戌申子辰六陽時，安命在此六宮者吉。生在巳酉丑亥卯未六陰時，安命在此六宮者吉。反此則少遂。
TranslationWhenever a man or woman is born in one of the six yang hours, Yin, Wu, Xu, Shen, Zi or Chen, having the Life Palace placed in one of these six palaces is lucky. Born in one of the six yin hours, Si, You, Chou, Hai, Mao or Wei, having the Life Palace placed in one of these six palaces is lucky. The reverse seldom goes smoothly.
- 少遂
- Seldom going as one wishes.
The condition here is that the yin or yang of the birth hour matches that of the Life Palace's branch: a yang hour with the Life Palace in a yang palace, or a yin hour with it in a yin palace, is lucky. There is a fact of chart setup to set beside this: the Life Palace is found by starting the first month at Yin, counting forward to the birth month, then counting back by the birth hour, so its yin or yang is decided by the birth month and hour together. Worked through, anyone born in an odd lunar month (the first, third, fifth...) always has a Life Palace of the same yin or yang as the birth hour, and anyone born in an even month always has the opposite. In other words, this rule in practice divides people into those born in odd months and those born in even months. You can check it on your own Xingge chart: compare the lunar month and birth hour with the branch of the Life Palace.
Base text (Wikisource, partly in simplified Chinese)
FAQ
How should the birth hour and the Life Palace match in yin and yang?
The Quan Shu says Yin, Wu, Xu, Shen, Zi and Chen are the six yang hours, and Si, You, Chou, Hai, Mao and Wei the six yin hours. Born in a yang hour with the Life Palace also on a yang branch is lucky, and born in a yin hour with it on a yin branch is lucky; the reverse seldom goes smoothly.
How do you tell whether the Life Palace is in a yin or a yang palace?
Look at the Life Palace's branch: Zi, Yin, Chen, Wu, Shen and Xu are yang; Chou, Mao, Si, Wei, You and Hai are yin. Birth Hour, Life Palace and Fortune asks for it to match the yin or yang of the birth hour.