What is Guan Fu?

Guan Fu (Officials) is the twelfth and last of the Twelve Erudite Gods (Bo Shi); after it, the count circles back to Bo Shi. It is about rules: this palace's matters can get tangled up in regulations, gossip or disputes. Follow the rules and say things clearly, and there's nothing to worry about. The Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian) also have a Guan Fu, the Guan Fu (Official Tally), spelled the same in pinyin but written with a different character. To see which palace your Guan Fu is in, draw your chart.

How Guan Fu is placed

The Bo Shi set starts with Bo Shi in the Lu Cun palace; count to the twelfth and you reach Guan Fu, so Guan Fu always sits in the palace on Lu Cun's other side. Men born in yang years and women born in yin years count forward, putting Guan Fu one palace behind Lu Cun; men born in yin years and women born in yang years count backward, putting it one palace ahead.

Qing Yang and Tuo Luo always sit on either side of Lu Cun, so Guan Fu, like Li Shi, always shares a palace with one of them: Tuo Luo when counting forward, Qing Yang when counting backward. The palace opposite Guan Fu always holds Zou Shu, and its trines hold Xiao Hao and Xi Shen.

What the classics say, and how to read it now

When 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, lists the order, it ends with "on to Guan Fu," writing the name with a homophone; it's the same god. The verse says "Fu Bing and Guan Fu bring entangling talk." Where volume two lists each star's element, it says:

Guan Fu rules official trouble.

By "official trouble" the classics meant dealings with the authorities and the rules. The Tai Wei Fu in volume one also has the line "Guan Fu rises through auspicious stars," but the Quan Shu gives no commentary on it, so Xingge doesn't draw conclusions from it.

Read for today, Xingge takes Guan Fu to mean that in this palace you run into rules and disputes more often: contracts, regulations, application processes, disagreements. Follow the rules and spell things out in black and white, and matters actually go more smoothly; Zou Shu, across the chart, is all about documents and records.

Guan Fu in key palaces

• Life Palace: you care about right and wrong and like to reason things out, and when something breaks the rules you want to say so. Get your grounds ready before you speak, so your point holds up.
• Wealth Palace: money matters tend to involve contracts, taxes and regulations. Keep clear accounts and hold on to your paperwork, and you'll avoid a lot of hassle.
• Career Palace: suited to work involving systems, regulations, auditing or administration; your sensitivity to rules is an asset. When a dispute comes up, check the rules first, then talk.
• Spouse Palace: the two of you can easily argue over who's right. In a relationship, talk about feelings as well as reasons.
• Health Palace: after a disagreement, you tend to keep it bottled up. Once it's over, let yourself relax, and don't go to sleep angry.

Telling it apart from the Sui Qian Guan Fu

• The Bo Shi Guan Fu: this one. Placed from Lu Cun and fixed for life; it shows that this palace naturally tends to run into rules and gossip.
• The Sui Qian Guan Fu (Official Tally): written with a different character, the fifth of the Twelve Year Gods. It follows Tai Sui and moves one palace each year, showing which palace may meet gossip or rule-related disputes this year.

Volume two of the Quan Shu also has a Guan Fu in its An Sang Men Bai Hu Diao Ke Guan Fu Si Fei Xing Jue section. That one is placed from the annual Tai Sui and corresponds to today's Sui Qian Guan Fu, not this Bo Shi god.

Natal chart and Annual Luck

The Bo Shi Guan Fu is natal and doesn't change with the Annual Luck on the Xingge chart; the sets that change each year are the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian) and the Twelve General Gods (Jiang Qian). If the annual Sui Qian Guan Fu also lands in your Guan Fu palace, that year the contracts and agreements in this area deserve an extra look.