XinggeQing Yang, Tuo Luo, Huo Xing and Ling Xing: Overview
〈羊陀火鈴四星總論〉
The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu, Volume 1: Rhapsodies, questions on the stars, and chart patterns · Original text with translation
Introduction
This is Master Yuchan's 「羊陀火鈴四星總論」 in the Zhu Xing Wen Da Lun (Questions and Answers on the Stars) in volume one of the Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu: a five-character verse of eighteen lines treating the four malefic stars Qing Yang, Tuo Luo, Huo Xing and Ling Xing together. The four are 「一名馬掃星，又名短壽殺」: a gentleman loses his power, a petty man breaks the law; the person is alone and harms the six relations, disasters never stop, the waist, feet, lips and teeth are injured, life is toil and hardship, the face is scarred and the mind weary, and at worst one begs and dies in a ditch. With Wu Qu and Tan Lang, a lifetime of misfortune; in the Health Palace, illness all year round; only a monk in a mountain temple can always be at peace.
The whole chapter is translated literally. 'Filling the ditches' means a corpse left in a mountain gully, the old way of describing death in poverty.
1玉蟾先生曰
TranslationMaster Yuchan said:
This line only names the speaker, Master Yuchan. The three verse segments below treat the four malefic stars Qing Yang, Tuo Luo, Huo Xing and Ling Xing together, and form the last overview of malefic stars in the Zhu Xing Wen Da Lun.
The point of treating the four together: Qing Yang and Tuo Luo are placed by the year stem, Huo Xing and Ling Xing by the year branch and birth hour, so the four come from different sources, yet the Quan Shu puts them in one class as 'stars that cut life short'. Later writers added Di Kong and Di Jie to the four to make the Six Malefic Stars.
2火鈴陀羅金，擎羊刑忌訣，一名馬掃星，又名短壽殺，君子失其權，小人犯刑法，
TranslationHuo Xing and Ling Xing; Tuo Luo is metal; Qing Yang punishment and Tuo Luo obstruction. The rhyme: one name is the horse-broom star, another is the malefic star that cuts life short. A gentleman loses his power; a petty man breaks the law.
- 馬掃星
- The horse-broom star: the name of an evil star of the broom-star (comet) kind.
- 短壽殺
- A malefic star that cuts life short.
「火鈴陀羅金，擎羊刑忌訣」: the phrasing of this line is unclear; the gist is a list of the four stars' elements and transformed qi. 「一名馬掃星，又名短壽殺」: both names are evil omens. 「君子失其權，小人犯刑法」 follows the same line of thought as the Qing Yang and Tuo Luo overview's 「君子防恐懼，小人遭凌刑」: the same malefic stars weigh more or less heavily depending on character.
On a Xingge chart these four are the most common malefic stars: every chart has one each of Qing Yang, Tuo Luo, Huo Xing and Ling Xing, so 'meeting the four malefic stars' is nothing rare in itself; what matters is where they fall in the Life Palace's San Fang Si Zheng and how bright they are.
3孤獨剋六親，災禍常不歇，腰足唇齒傷，勞碌多蹇剝，破相又勞心，乞丐填溝壑，
TranslationAlone, harming the six relations, disasters never stopping; the waist, feet, lips and teeth injured; toiling, with much hardship and decline; the face scarred and the mind weary; a beggar who fills the ditches.
- 蹇剝
- Hardship and decline: a difficult situation.
- 填溝壑
- Filling the ditches: a corpse left in a mountain gully, meaning death in poverty.
This passage is the full list of bad signs for the four malefic stars in the Life Palace: alone and harming the six relations, endless disasters, injury to waist, feet, lips and teeth, toil, a scarred face, a weary mind, and finally 「乞丐填溝壑」. It is the Quan Shu's most extreme description of the four, and the condition is all four in the Life Palace's San Fang Si Zheng with no lucky star to resolve them.
「腰足唇齒傷」 assigns the body parts in detail: Tuo Luo governs the waist and back (the Star Combinations chapter has the bent waist and hunched back), Huo Xing the lips and teeth, and Qing Yang knife wounds. Today it can be taken as a pointer to the parts of the body most prone to injury, not literally as certain disability.
4武曲並貪狼，一世招凶惡，疾厄若逢之，四時不離著，只宜山寺僧，金谷常安樂。
TranslationWith Wu Qu and Tan Lang, a whole life of misfortune and evil. If the Health Palace meets them, illness never leaves through all four seasons. They suit only a monk in a mountain temple, who is always at peace as if in the Golden Valley.
- 四時
- The four seasons.
- 金谷
- The Golden Valley garden of Shi Chong of the Western Jin, a byword for wealth and ease.
「武曲並貪狼，一世招凶惡」: Wu Qu and Tan Lang meeting the four malefic stars, a lifetime of misfortune. This is the exact opposite of the Wu Qu chapter's 「更得貪火沖破，定為貴格」, and also differs from the noble Huo Tan pattern in the Huo Xing chapter. A reasonable reconciliation: Huo Xing or Ling Xing with Tan Lang in Miao or Wang is a noble pattern, and it turns bad when Qing Yang and Tuo Luo join or the stars are fallen; the chapters of the Quan Shu take different positions, so read the conditions.
「疾厄若逢之，四時不離著」: the four malefic stars in the Health Palace mean illness all year round. The closing 「只宜山寺僧，金谷常安樂」 returns to the Quan Shu's old remedy: becoming a monk can resolve malefic stars. The Golden Valley was a place of wealth and ease, used here to say that a monk can instead be at peace, a somewhat ironic turn of phrase.
Base text (Wikisource, partly in simplified Chinese)
FAQ
What does the Quan Shu say about the four malefic stars Qing Yang, Tuo Luo, Huo Xing and Ling Xing?
Master Yuchan says the four are 「一名馬掃星，又名短壽殺」: a gentleman who meets them loses his power, a petty man breaks the law; the person is alone and harms the six relations, disasters never stop, the waist, feet, lips and teeth are hurt, the face is scarred and the mind weary, and at worst one becomes a beggar and dies in a ditch.
What happens when the four malefic stars meet Wu Qu and Tan Lang?
The verse says 「武曲並貪狼，一世招凶惡」, and that in the Health Palace the four malefic stars 「四時不離著」; only a 「山寺僧」 can always be at peace.
Main stars in this section