The Nature of Tuo Luo

Tuo Luo's transformed qi is Obstruction: delay, entanglement, hindrance. It is placed by the year stem in the palace before Lu Cun, and with Qing Yang one palace after, the two flank Lu Cun, so every chart shows Qing Yang, Lu Cun and Tuo Luo in a row. Tuo Luo's 忌 is not the Hua Ji of the four transformations but the star's own nature; Qing Yang and Tuo Luo: Overview says 「羊化氣曰刑，陀化氣曰忌」 (Qing Yang and Tuo Luo: Overview), the two forming a pair. Qing Yang is the open blade, Tuo Luo the hidden snare: Qing Yang strikes fast, Tuo Luo comes slowly and drags on.

In its temple (Chen, Xu, Chou, Wei), Tuo Luo resembles Qing Yang in temperament and looks: hard, marred, high-spirited. But the outcome differs: Qing Yang in its temple means 'power and rank', Tuo Luo in its temple 'sudden gains and sudden losses, the ancestral property not kept, drifting, beginning without finishing'. Even in its temple Tuo Luo leans to instability. What Does Tuo Luo Govern? says it is 「作事進退」 and 「橫成橫破，飄蕩不定」, and also 「在廟財官論，文人不耐久，武人橫發高遷」 (What Does Tuo Luo Govern?), separating civil and military careers. People of this type often do better making their way far from home, and need to guard against giving up halfway.

This segment is built like segment 2 of the Qing Yang chapter: born in the northwest, born in a four-tomb year, a four-tomb palace, the sun and moon harming the spouse, moles with Wen Chang, Wen Qu, Zuo Fu and You Bi. What it adds is 「加忌且損目」: Tuo Luo's own transformed qi is Obstruction, and with Hua Ji from the four transformations on top, the eyes are hurt. Qing Yang and Tuo Luo: Overview says 「忌同日月則傷親損目」 (Qing Yang and Tuo Luo: Overview). In old China the sun and moon also stood for the eyes, which is why Tuo Luo with Hua Ji meeting them so often draws verdicts of eye damage. For people whose work strains the eyes or keeps them at a screen for long hours, a combination like this can serve as a reminder.

Tuo Luo guarding the Life Palace alone, with no main star, means an empty palace with Tuo Luo in it. An empty palace borrows the main stars of the opposite palace, but the ancients thought people with an empty Life Palace had weaker roots, and once Tuo Luo sits there: 'alone, leaving the ancestral home, marrying in, surviving under another surname, living by a craft'. As the Xingge approach explains, the comparison with your own chart cannot express 'no main star'. On a Xingge chart it is easy to check: the Life Palace holds Tuo Luo and none of the fourteen main stars. For how to read an empty palace, see Empty palaces and borrowed stars. Upheaval early in life and standing on one's own skills fit this today, and marrying into the wife's family or taking the mother's surname are common enough now.

Tuo Luo fallen (Yin, Shen, Si, Hai) and meeting Ju Men and Qi Sha: harm to wife and children, turning one's back on kin, maiming and illness. Ju Men's transformed qi is Darkness and Qi Sha is a general star; Tuo Luo's Obstruction joined with darkness and killing is what Qing Yang and Tuo Luo: Overview means by 「忌與殺暗同度招凌辱而生暗疾」 (Qing Yang and Tuo Luo: Overview). When Tuo Luo is in Yin, Shen, Si or Hai, Qi Sha may share its palace (for example Zi Wei and Qi Sha in Si or Hai) or sit in the San Fang, and Ju Men is often there too. 'Lucky for monks and Daoists' is the Quan Shu's standard way out for charts heavy with malefic stars.

A woman's Tuo Luo: cruel within and hollow without, oppressing her husband and harming her children, at odds with her kin, shameless. This passage sets no condition at all; any woman with Tuo Luo in the Life Palace is judged so, making it one of the Quan Shu's harshest passages on women. Compare segment 2: a man's Tuo Luo in its temple still gets some positive description, a woman's here gets none. What Does Tuo Luo Govern? says only 「女人刑剋下賤」, and limits it to a fallen position with malefic stars. The two passages set looser and stricter conditions, and when checking a chart it is better to use the conditional version in What Does Tuo Luo Govern?. As a temperament: reserved but hard, slow to show feeling, liable to fall into cold silences or into taking control in a relationship.

Tuo Luo is in its temple in Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei: Chou in Jia years, Chen in Bing and Wu years, Wei in Geng years, Xu in Ren years. As with Qing Yang, the four tombs are earth and can hold fire and metal in. The second half depends on the birth-year branch, as the Xingge approach explains. The verdict 'benefit' for Tuo Luo in its temple is a grade below Qing Yang's 'wealth and office pattern', showing that on the whole the Quan Shu thinks Tuo Luo less lucky than Qing Yang. What Does Tuo Luo Govern? says 「辰戌丑未生人為福，在廟財官論」, raising it to the wealth-and-office grade after all; the two passages differ slightly.

Tuo Luo is fallen in Yin, Shen, Si and Hai: Yin in Yi years, Si in Ding and Ji years, Shen in Xin years, Hai in Gui years. Lu Cun is only ever in Yin, Mao, Si, Wu, Shen, You, Hai or Zi, and one palace back from those gives only Chou, Yin, Chen, Si, Wei, Shen, Xu or Hai, so Tuo Luo is never in Zi, Wu, Mao or You. Yin, Shen, Si and Hai are the four horse palaces, the only places Tian Ma can be; Tuo Luo sharing a palace with Tian Ma is what later writers call the 'lame horse', and What Does Tian Ma Govern? says that meeting Tuo Luo it is a 「折足馬」 (What Does Tian Ma Govern?). Star Combinations says 「陀羅巳亥寅申非夭折而刑傷」, with the note 「離祖出外成家者亦吉」.

Tuo Luo in the Life Palace, born in a four-tomb year, with Zi Wei, Wen Chang and Tian Fu joining: abundant wealth and income, a far-spread name. The verse is built almost exactly like the second verse on Qing Yang in a man's chart, differing only in the added Wen Chang. Zi Wei and Tian Fu appear again, showing the Quan Shu's consistent view that they can subdue Qing Yang and Tuo Luo: Tian Fu 「能制羊陀為從」, in the words of What Does Tian Fu Govern?. On a Xingge chart, with Tuo Luo in the Life Palace, check whether Zi Wei, Tian Fu and Wen Chang are in the San Fang Si Zheng. Slow, careful work, given a good platform and resources, can add up steadily to something great.

Tuo Luo fallen: quarrels and lawsuits all one's life, money scattered and people gone, loneliness, nothing as one wishes. This verse adds no malefic-star condition at all; a fallen position alone is judged this way, a heavy tone. In a fallen position Tuo Luo's obstruction is not held in at all: delay turns into entanglement, entanglement into disputes. In practice it shows as procrastination and decisions that keep changing, and as lost trust from 'saying but not doing' or 'doing and then changing'; making smaller promises and slowing the pace helps ease this side.

A woman's Tuo Luo, 「遇吉加臨淫蕩容」: lewd even with lucky stars, a rare turn in the Quan Shu, where lucky stars usually soften a verdict. The last two lines say that with unlucky malefic stars shining from the San Fang and breaking it, she must beware of parting from her husband. Verdicts like these on women and malefic stars reflect the old view that a woman's fate centred on chastity and marriage; the meaning is kept as written. Read now, it suggests someone attractive with a rich emotional life, whose marriage may come apart if the San Fang is heavy with malefic stars. One still has to look at the stars in the Spouse Palace and not judge from Tuo Luo in the Life Palace alone.

A luck period meeting Tuo Luo brings many affairs and calls for patience and modesty; with no lucky stars, 「一夢入南柯」. The advice for a Tuo Luo period is concrete: patience and modesty. It fits Tuo Luo's dragging nature: nothing can be hurried in such a period, and the more one hurries, the more tangled things become. A verse in Qing Yang and Tuo Luo: Overview calls them 'sweeping stars': 「君子防恐懼，小人遭凌刑」 (Qing Yang and Tuo Luo: Overview). The verdict of death keeps its original meaning; in such a period it is unwise to push ahead rashly, and health and legal documents both deserve extra attention.

「夾身夾命有陀羊」: the palace flanked by Qing Yang and Tuo Luo always holds Lu Cun, so the line amounts to Lu Cun in the Life or Body Palace. With Huo Xing, Ling Xing, Di Kong and Di Jie doing harm as well, and 「天祿不逢生旺地」, there is harm to wife and children. Lu Cun has no brightness on Xingge, so 'a place of birth or prosperity' more likely means the Chang Sheng (Birth) or Di Wang (Peak) of the twelve life-stage spirits, or a main star in its temple or Wang. If Lu Cun flanked by Qing Yang and Tuo Luo also carries Hua Ji, later writers call it Yang Tuo Jia Ji (Qing Yang and Tuo Luo flanking Hua Ji), and Star Combinations says 「羊陀夾忌為敗局」 (Star Combinations: Qing Yang and Tuo Luo). The picture is resources held under tight watch: money one has but cannot move.