Star Combinations: Tai Yang

The line lists only Miao in Mao, Wang in Yin, Chen, Si and Wu, and Xian in Zi. Xingge's brightness table agrees for these and fills in the rest: De in Wei and Shen, Ping in You, Bu in Chou and Xu, Xian in Hai. Tai Yang's brightness follows the sun's path through the day: brightest from Mao (sunrise) to Wu (noon), fading after Shen, darkest in Hai and Zi. That rule is the key to every verdict on Tai Yang, and the later line about the sun setting in Wei and Shen grows straight out of it. For Tai Yang's character as a whole, see The Nature of Tai Yang and the Tai Yang star page.

The original of Ri Zhao Lei Men (the sun shining on the Thunder Gate) is in the Gu Sui Fu: 「日照雷門富貴榮華」 (segment 32). The Thunder Gate is Mao, where Tai Yang shares the palace with Tian Liang and both are Miao. This line adds 「子辰」 and 「晝生」. The day-birth requirement makes good sense: Tai Yang is the sun, and someone born in daylight has it in its season. Zi, however, is Tai Yang's fallen position, and its presence here is hard to explain; the note leaves it in doubt. To judge day or night, look at the birth hour on the chart: the hours from Mao to Shen are roughly daytime.

The original is the Tai Wei Fu's 「太陽會文昌於官祿，皇殿朝班」 (segment 34). Tai Yang stands for rank and reputation, Wen Chang for examinations and documents; together in the Career Palace they mean serving at court on the strength of one's writing. The palace that matters here is the Career Palace, not the Life Palace, which makes this one of the few lines in the Quan Shu that names the Career Palace directly. On a chart, check whether Tai Yang and Wen Chang sit in the Career Palace together, then look at Tai Yang's brightness: a fallen Tai Yang in the Career Palace lacks light.

This verdict is derived entirely from Tai Yang's brightness. Wei and Shen are where the sun goes down behind the western hills, and Xingge grades Tai Yang De in both, a step below the Miao and Wang of Mao and Wu. The ancients compared sunset to a person's energy: there is still light early on, then it fades, hence diligent first and lazy later. Tai Yang shares the palace with Tai Yin in Wei and with Ju Men in Shen, and the two pairs have quite different characters, but this line argues from the light of Tai Yang alone. Taken as a tendency, it describes someone who starts keenly and runs short of stamina, and who needs an outside goal to keep going.

Tai Yang in Wu is Wang, the sun at its zenith, matching the pattern Jin Can Guang Hui (golden brilliance). The four stems: in a Geng year Tai Yang has Hua Lu, in a Xin year Hua Quan, and in Ding and Ji years Lu Cun sits in Wu with Tai Yang. Each of the four puts wealth or power right in Tai Yang's own palace, hence both wealth and rank. Note, though, that in a Xin year Ju Men's Hua Lu and Qing Yang both sit in Xu, a trine of Wu, and that in Ding and Ji years Lu Cun in Wu is flanked by Qing Yang and Tuo Luo; the Quan Shu deducts nothing for either here.

Tai Yang takes Hua Ji only in Jia years. Tai Yang governs light and older male relatives, and also the eyes; Hua Ji is the light being covered, so there is gossip and eye trouble. The Quan Shu's page on the nature of the four transformations treats Hua Ji more fully; see Tai Yang Hua Ji. The condition given is the Life Palace, but wherever the Hua Ji falls, it affects the matters of that palace: in the Parents Palace, for instance, it is often read as a thin bond with the father. On the chart of a person born in a Jia year, Tai Yang carries the birth-year Hua Ji.

The original is the Women's Gu Sui Fu's 「端正紫微太陽星，早遇賢夫性可憑」 (segment 3); the note in this chapter adds a brightness condition: Tai Yang in Mao, Chen, Si or Wu without malefic stars brings prosperity to the husband and benefit to the children, while in a fallen position it is ordinary. Mao through Wu is exactly the stretch from sunrise to noon when Tai Yang is brightest. The Quan Shu reads a woman's husband from Tai Yang because in the old books Tai Yang stands for men, and a bright Tai Yang means meeting a good husband. Today the line suggests a woman who cares about the quality of her partner and holds her own views within a relationship.