Stars in Fallen Positions: Poverty and Low Station

Stars in Fallen Positions: Poverty and Low Station is the companion of Stars in Strong Positions: Wealth and Rank. 「丑未巨機為值福，失陷此月福須輕」: Ju Men in Chou or Wei shares the palace with Tian Tong at brightness Bu; Tian Ji in Chou or Wei sits alone and is fallen. The two never share a palace, so they are taken separately here. 「卯酉不喜逢羊刃」: Qing Yang is fallen in both Mao and You, and only people born in Jia or Geng years have it there; see What Does Qing Yang Govern?.

「辰戌紫破朝羅網」: Chen is the Net of Heaven and Xu the Net of Earth, and Zi Wei and Po Jun in Chen and Xu sit one in the palace and one opposite. The ancients saw Chen and Xu as places of the net, where a star is as if trapped; the Gu Sui Fu also says 「限至天羅地網屈原溺水而身亡」.

「辰休戌囚貪貞陷」 uses the five states of an element, prosperous, supported, at rest, imprisoned and dead, to say Tan Lang and Lian Zhen lose their power in Chen and Xu. Yet on the brightness table Xingge uses, Tan Lang is Miao in both Chen and Xu and Lian Zhen is Li there; neither is fallen. This is one of the plainest differences between the verses and the brightness table, and the Star Combinations chapters even say of Tan Lang meeting Huo Xing or Ling Xing 「四墓宮豪富家資侯伯貴」 and 「辰戌宮佳」, the exact opposite of this line.

「午宮陰巨不堪稱」: Tai Yin in Wu is Bu and Ju Men in Wu is Wang; the two never share a palace and rate differently. 「申宮合武為下格」: Wu Qu in Shen shares the palace with Tian Xiang at brightness De, while the Xing Yuan Lun says 「武曲居申而好生」, another opposite view. 「酉逢機巨日無精」: Tian Ji and Ju Men in You, and Tai Yang in You also has no lustre.

Most conditions in this segment agree with the brightness table: Tai Yin is fallen in Mao, Chen and Si and Bu in Wu; Tai Yang is Bu in Xu and fallen in Hai; Tan Lang is fallen in Si and Hai; Po Jun is fallen in Mao and You. The one exception is Qi Sha: in Si and Hai it is Ping, and on the brightness table Qi Sha has no fallen position at all.

In effect the segment lists the positions where the sun and moon are 'turned backwards': Tai Yin in the daytime palaces and Tai Yang in the night-time ones lose their light. The Tai Wei Fu says 「日月最嫌反背」, and this segment spells out the actual palaces.

「加殺遇劫為奸盜」: the fallen stars listed above, with malefics and Di Jie added, make villains and thieves. 「貪狼化祿居四墓，縱然遇吉亦中平」 deserves attention: Tan Lang takes Hua Lu in Wu years, and Tan Lang is Miao in all four tomb palaces, Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei, yet it rates only middling.

This can be read with the Gu Sui Fu's 「貪武墓中居三十才發福」 (Gu Sui Fu): Tan Lang in a tomb palace prospers late, so in early years it looks merely middling. On the other hand, The Nature of Tan Lang says 「貪狼主限四墓臨，更喜人生四墓生，若見火星多橫發」, so whether Tan Lang in the four tombs is good also depends on Huo Xing and on the birth year.

This is the worst case of a fallen pattern: the Life Palace in a weak place, meeting Hua Ji, Di Kong, Di Jie, Qing Yang, Huo Xing and Ling Xing: 「若非夭折主下賤，六畜之命不可平」. The condition is a fallen position plus several malefics and Hua Ji, not any single factor.

'The fate of the six beasts' uses the same words as 「重者六畜之命」 in What Do Di Kong and Di Jie Govern?; it is the Quan Shu's fixed phrase for the lowest grade. Read now, a verdict like this says the chart lacks support and its pressures are concentrated, so life is harder and has to be made up for by one's own efforts and by the luck periods.

The closing lines of the chapter: 「旺地發福終遠大，陷地崢嶸到底傾」. This is the Quan Shu's most direct summary on brightness: in a strong place prosperity lasts; in a fallen place, even a moment of success topples in the end. 「二論不過五百字」: the two chapters together come to under five hundred characters, yet they tell wealth and rank from poverty and low station.

Checked against the chart, the two chapters mostly agree with the brightness table Xingge uses, but differ in several places: Tan Lang in Chen and Xu, Ju Men in Wu, Qi Sha in Si and Hai, Tian Liang in Hai and others. This shows that the Quan Shu's brightness table and its verses come from different layers of compilation. When reading brightness on a chart, go by the brightness table, and treat the verses' special claims as a reference.