What is Bo Shi?

Bo Shi (Erudite) is the first of the Twelve Erudite Gods (Bo Shi), and the whole set is counted from it. It always sits in the same palace as Lu Cun, and it is about working with your brains and your insight: think it through before you speak, and your words carry weight. To see which palace your Bo Shi is in, draw your chart and find the Lu Cun palace.

How Bo Shi is placed

Volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu), in the An Shi Er Gong Tai Sui Sha Lu Jue section, says this set "starts from Lu Cun," so Bo Shi's position is Lu Cun's position. Lu Cun goes by the stem of your birth year: Jia in Yin, Yi in Mao, Bing or Wu in Si, Ding or Ji in Wu, Geng in Shen, Xin in You, Ren in Hai, Gui in Zi.

Once Bo Shi is placed, yang men and yin women count forward and yin men and yang women count backward to place the other eleven. Either way, the palace opposite Bo Shi always holds Fei Lian, and its trines always hold Jiang Jun and Bing Fu.

What the classics say, and how to read it now

The first line of the same section's verse is "Bo Shi is clever, Li Shi has power." Where volume two lists each star's element, it also says:

Bo Shi is Water and rules cleverness.

The Tai Wei Fu adds "Zou Shu, Bo Shi and the transiting Lu are all auspicious," placing Bo Shi alongside Zou Shu and the annual Lu Cun as signs of good fortune.

Read for today, Xingge takes Bo Shi to mean that in this palace your brains are your best tool. You look things up, you think the reasons through, and people listen more readily to what you say. Because it shares the palace with Lu Cun, the classics saw this as a place with both a good head and a solid base. There is just one thing to watch: thinking a lot is not the same as saying a lot. Get clear first, then speak, and your words will land.

Bo Shi in key palaces

• Life Palace: you like to understand before you act, and you research and ask why when something comes up. The habit makes your judgment sharper; just don't let it turn into never getting started.
• Wealth Palace: money comes through expertise and judgment, and the more you know, the steadier it gets. Doing your homework before money decisions is your most natural protection.
• Career Palace: suited to work that runs on knowledge, analysis and expert opinion, such as research, consulting, teaching or technical roles. You tend to move up because you can explain why.
• Spouse Palace: you're drawn to people you can really talk to, and the relationship is often held up by communication. When you disagree, hear your partner out before giving your view.
• Health Palace: your mind finds it hard to switch off, and when you overthink, your whole body tenses with it. Set aside regular time to let your mind go blank; it works better than pushing through.

Natal chart and Annual Luck

Bo Shi is natal. It follows your birth-year Lu Cun and never changes. On the Xingge chart, the sets that change with the year are the Twelve General Gods (Jiang Qian) and the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian); Bo Shi stays put. When the Decade Luck or Annual Luck reaches the Bo Shi palace, learning and making judgments come especially easily, so it's a good time to study or make decisions that need careful thought.