The Nature of Huo Xing

This chapter is short and has one key point: 「諸宮不美，惟貪狼廟旺同度」. Huo Xing is placed by the year branch and the hour and has no fixed relation to Tan Lang, so whether the two share a palace depends on the individual chart; later writers call it the Huo Tan pattern, which means a sudden rise. A verse in What Does Huo Xing Govern? says 「若得貪狼會，旺地貴無倫，封侯居上將，勳業著邊庭」 (What Does Huo Xing Govern?). 'Merit on the frontier' meant winning glory in border wars; today it can be read as quickly making a mark in a new market or field. The description of looks (injured lips, teeth and limbs, unusual hair) belongs to the old lore of form and character and can be taken as traditional background.

The directional condition (good for the southeast, bad for the northwest) concerns the birthplace and cannot be seen on a Xingge chart. In the year-branch condition, 'people born in Yin, Mao, Si and Wu years suffer less', Yin and Mao are wood and Si and Wu fire; wood feeds fire and fire adds to fire, so Huo Xing was thought to run more smoothly in these years. The second half, sharing a palace with Qing Yang, is Huo Xing and Qing Yang in one degree, fire stacked on punishment, with disaster from infancy. What Does Huo Xing Govern? likewise says 「更與羊陀會，襁褓必災迍，過房出外養，二姓可延生」 (What Does Huo Xing Govern?). Adoption and fostering with the mother's family were old customs for helping a child grow up safely; today they can be read as being looked after by grandparents or relatives in early childhood.

The passage on a woman's Huo Xing sets no condition and is negative throughout: a poisonous heart, crafty, oppressing her husband and harming her children, lustful and base. This is the Quan Shu's harshest kind of writing on women and malefic stars, and the meaning is kept as written. A verse in What Does Huo Xing Govern? does set a condition: 「女人旺地潔，陷地主邪淫」 (What Does Huo Xing Govern?); in a Wang position she is chaste. Reading the two together, the sensible course is to take the conditional version: a woman whose Huo Xing is in its temple or Wang (Yin, Wu, Xu) is not judged by this passage. As a temperament: quick, direct and ready to collide, easily drawn into conflict in relationships.

As the note points out, the four groups here are exactly Huo Xing's brightness by palace: Xingge also marks it Miao in Yin, Wu and Xu, De in Si, You and Chou, Li in Hai, Mao and Wei, and Xian in Shen, Zi and Chen. So this passage very probably once spoke of which group of palaces Huo Xing sits in and was later written as 'people of such and such'. Another possibility is that Huo Xing is counted from the year branch: for Yin, Wu and Xu years it starts from Chou, for Shen, Zi and Chen years from Yin, so the year branch really does affect where Huo Xing lands, and the ancients may have mixed the two ideas. When checking a chart, the brightness Xingge marks is the most direct guide; 'with many lucky stars it brings fortune' is a reminder that Huo Xing's own brightness is only the starting point, and the number of lucky stars in the San Fang decides the outcome.

Huo Xing in a favourable position entering the luck period: joy fills the house, everything goes through, officials prosper, ordinary people grow rich. Huo Xing's favourable and temple positions are Yin, Wu, Xu and Si, You, Chou. Huo Xing's gift is speed: things arrive fast and are done fast. A luck period reaching a well-placed Huo Xing suits seizing opportunities that appear suddenly. When reading the Decade Luck on Xingge, Huo Xing's position is fixed in the natal chart; see whether it falls in the decade's Life Palace or San Fang, then check the small brightness mark.

The opposite of the previous verse: Huo Xing is 'the most perverse', stirring up lawsuits from nothing, harming the six kin, bringing lost money and hardship. 「無事官災鬧一場」 captures it vividly: Huo Xing's rashness often turns small matters into big ones. The verse gives no brightness condition, but read with the previous one it must mean Huo Xing out of position or with many malefic stars. In such a period temper is the biggest risk; arguments, impulse spending and fast driving are typical Huo Xing events, and calming down before acting avoids most of them.