Star Combinations: Ju Men

Ju Men's brightness table matches Xingge's; Xingge also grades Chou and Wei as Bu. Ju Men's transformed qi is darkness; it governs quarrels and gossip and belongs to water. Chen and Xu are its only fallen positions, where it sits alone with Tian Tong opposite. It is Miao in Yin, Shen, Mao and You, exactly the four positions where it shares a palace with Tai Yang (Yin and Shen) or Tian Ji (Mao and You), so nearly all of the Quan Shu's best Ju Men patterns are Ju Men with Tai Yang or with Tian Ji. For Ju Men's character as a whole, see The Nature of Ju Men and the Ju Men star page.

Ju Men and Tai Yang share a palace only in Yin and Shen. In this line the pair is in Yin and the Life Palace in Shen, which is empty and borrows the pair from Yin opposite. The Gu Sui Fu says 「巨日同宮官封三代」 (segment 26), the pattern Ju Ri Tong Gong (Ju Men and Tai Yang in one palace). Four lines on this page (segments 2, 3, 4 and 6) work through every arrangement of the pair in Yin or Shen with the Life Palace in Yin or Shen, and the verdicts differ only slightly in the order of fame and salary, showing that the Quan Shu considers all four good.

Ju Men and Tai Yang in the Life Palace in Yin: Tai Yang is Wang and Ju Men Miao there, both bright, the best of the four arrangements for brightness. The sun's light dispels Ju Men's darkness; that is the core logic of the pair: a dark star needs light. 「食祿馳名」 puts salary before fame, the reverse of the previous line; perhaps the ancients thought the person with the pair in the Life Palace gains substance first, while the one who borrows the pair gains a name first.

The pair is in Shen and the Life Palace in Yin, which is empty and borrows the pair from Shen opposite. With the pair in Shen, Tai Yang is only De (the sun is already past noon), while Ju Men is still Miao. Compared with segment 2, the palaces are simply swapped. The Quan Shu does not say which is better, and the verdict is the same, fame and salary. An empty Life Palace still counts the pair across the way: when reading it, take in the major stars of the opposite palace.

The original is the Gu Sui Fu's 「子午巨門石中隱玉」 (segment 63), the pattern Shi Zhong Yin Yu. The stems can be taken one by one: in a Xin year Ju Men takes Hua Lu and in a Gui year Hua Quan (and in a Gui year Lu Cun is also in Zi), both falling right on Ju Men, hence the top pattern; in Ding and Ji years Lu Cun is in Wu; in Bing and Wu years Qing Yang is in Wu, sharing the palace with Ju Men in Wu or clashing from opposite when Ju Men is in Zi, which supports the textual note's guess of 'hardship'. The Nature of Ju Men says it outright: 「子午宮旺地，丁己癸辛生人福厚，丙戊生人主困」. Note that in a Ding year Ju Men actually takes Hua Ji, yet the Quan Shu ranks Ding next best; the original gives no explanation.

Ju Men and Tai Yang in the Life Palace in Shen. Compared with the Life Palace in Yin of segment 3, Tai Yang here is only De, so the verdict is 「亦妙」, half a grade below 'salary and fame'. Taken together, the four lines give the Quan Shu's ranking: the pair in the Life Palace in Yin is best, in Shen next, and the two borrowed arrangements in between. This is one of the rare places where the Quan Shu lists all four variations of a single combination.

Ju Men in Hai (Wang) and Tai Yang in Si (Wang) face each other across the chart: the sun in a bright position shining on the dark star. By the chart rules, whenever Tai Yang is in Si, Ju Men is in Hai, so the two always face each other, and the line holds whenever the Life Palace is in Si or Hai. Tai Yang in Si is late morning approaching noon, when its light is at full strength, hence salary and fame.

The reverse: Ju Men in Si and Tai Yang in Hai, where Tai Yang is Xian; the night sun cannot light Ju Men, so it is not good after all. The same pair of palaces and the same two stars, only swapped, and the verdict turns around. These two lines are the clearest example of 'Ju Men depends on Tai Yang': the key is not whether the two stars face each other, but whether the sun is bright.

The note's example is the sun in Wu and Ju Men in Xu: Tai Yang is Wang in Wu, Ju Men Xian in Xu, and the two embrace each other from the trines. 「多方論日忌陷」 stresses again that the sun's brightness is the key. Ju Men in Xu is fallen, but with a Wang sun shining in from the trine it can turn good. On a chart, check whether Tai Yang is among the Life Palace's San Fang and what its brightness grade is.

The original is the Gu Sui Fu's 「巨機同宮公卿之位」 (segment 23), the pattern Ju Ji Tong Lin. Ju Men and Tian Ji in Mao: in a Yi year Tian Ji takes Hua Lu and Lu Cun sits in Mao; in a Xin year Ju Men takes Hua Lu; in a Bing year Tian Ji takes Hua Quan. The note explains directly why Jia fails: in a Jia year Lu Cun is in Yin and Qing Yang right in Mao, breaking the pattern. It is one of the few places where the Quan Shu spells out its reasoning about a stem, and it confirms the method of reading stems through the positions of Lu Cun, Qing Yang and Tuo Luo. In a Ji year Qing Yang is in Wei and shines in from a trine, yet the original lists Ji as lucky, a small exception.

Ju Men and Tian Ji in You: even with lucky transformations, nothing lasts; the note goes further, saying a lonely, poor person lives long and a very rich one dies young. This is the Quan Shu's most contradictory pair of judgments on Ju Men and Tian Ji: high minister in Mao, nothing lasting in You. Their brightness in Mao and You is almost identical on Xingge's table (Tian Ji Wang, Ju Men Miao); the only difference is that Mao is sunrise and You sunset, so the ancients judged by the momentum of the direction rather than by brightness. It describes success that comes quickly but is unstable, where wealth and health should not both be pushed at once.

The note has explained that in a Xin year Ju Men actually takes Hua Lu, not Hua Ji. From another angle: Ju Men in Chen is fallen; in a Xin year Ju Men has Hua Lu and Tai Yang Hua Quan (Tai Yang being in Zi, a trine), but the same year puts Qing Yang in Xu, clashing from opposite. The Quan Shu calls it 'Hua Ji' and then 'remarkable instead', perhaps treating the fallen position as the 'Ji' and letting the Xin year's Hua Lu and Hua Quan turn it around, much like Tian Tong in Xu, 'back to back' yet good for a Ding year. Such reversed patterns are common in the Quan Shu.

As the note says, Ju Men and Tian Ji share a palace only in Mao and You, so in Chou or Wei only one of them can be present. Ju Men in Chou or Wei shares the palace with Tian Tong, both Bu; Tian Ji in Chou or Wei sits alone and is Xian. So whichever star 「巨機丑未」 refers to, it is in its dimmest position, and the low-pattern verdict follows straight from brightness. Set against the high minister in Mao, the same pair falls from the best verdict to the worst just by changing palace.

Ju Men sharing a palace with Tuo Luo means an unusual mole. The Wen Chang and Wen Qu page also has 「昌曲左右會羊陀當生異痣」 (segment 21), and the Xing Xing Fu says Qing Yang meeting Huo Xing, Ling Xing and the dark Ju Men surely brings an unusual mole, so Tuo Luo, Qing Yang and Ju Men's 'darkness' are all tied to moles and marks on the body in the Quan Shu. This is a verdict about physical features: something to compare against, not a basis for judging a chart.

Ju Men with Qing Yang and Tuo Luo in the Body, Life or Health Palace: thin, sallow, beset and feeble, and the closing 「盜而娼」 is extremely harsh language, kept as written. Ju Men governs darkness and Qing Yang and Tuo Luo punishment; in the Health Palace that is illness, in the Body or Life Palace hardship in life. A modern reading can separate two layers: a weaker constitution that needs looking after, and a tendency to go astray when circumstances are hard. The second is not inevitable; it depends on whether there are lucky stars in the San Fang.

Ju Men's only fallen positions are Chen and Xu, so this line really means Ju Men in Chen or Xu meeting Qing Yang, Tuo Luo, Huo Xing or Ling Xing. Qing Yang is in Chen in Yi years and in Xu in Xin years; Tuo Luo is in Chen in Bing and Wu years and in Xu in Ren years. The conditions are very concrete and can be checked directly on a chart: Ju Men graded Xian, with malefic stars in its palace.

The original is the Gu Sui Fu's 「巨火擎羊終身縊死」 (segment 52). Ju Men belongs to water and Huo Xing to fire; water and fire at war, plus Qing Yang and Tuo Luo, is one of the Quan Shu's combinations for suicide. Taken literally it is extremely heavy, and needs particular care today: it describes the emotional pressure that may build when Ju Men's darkness, Huo Xing's urgency and the punishment of Qing Yang and Tuo Luo come together, and what it points to is a need for support, not a verdict on an individual.

Compared with the previous line, this one moves the condition onto the luck periods: Ju Men, Huo Xing and Ling Xing in the natal chart, and the Decade or Annual Luck reaching an unlucky palace. The Lian Zhen page also speaks of 'dying on the road' (segment 12). On a chart, note Ju Men's palace, then see whether the current Decade Luck or this year's Annual Luck reaches a palace with malefic stars.

The original is the Women's Gu Sui Fu's 「巨門天機為破蕩」 (segment 8). A woman with Ju Men and Tian Ji in Mao or You, though rich and noble, cannot escape lewdness, and in a fallen position she is base. Put next to the 'rank of high minister' of segment 10, the same pair makes a man a minister and a woman dissolute, the Quan Shu's double standard for women. It is kept as written. Read today, a woman with Ju Men and Tian Ji can be seen as clever, changeable and articulate, with a more complicated love life, which is no different in substance from the same pair in a man's chart.