What is Xiao Hao?

Xiao Hao (Minor Drain) is the fourth of the Twelve Erudite Gods (Bo Shi). It is about small, scattered losses: time, energy and pocket money all count, slipping out bit by bit without you really noticing. Pay a little attention, and the small things won't add up. There is another Xiao Hao with the same name in the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian); this page is about the Bo Shi one. To see which palace your Xiao Hao is in, draw your chart.

How Xiao Hao is placed

The Bo Shi set starts with Bo Shi in the Lu Cun palace, then Li Shi, Qing Long and Xiao Hao. Men born in yang years and women born in yin years count forward, so Xiao Hao is three palaces ahead of Lu Cun; men born in yin years and women born in yang years count backward, so it's three palaces behind.

Once placed, you'll see that the palace opposite Xiao Hao always holds Da Hao (Major Drain): one small, one large, facing each other across the chart. Xiao Hao's trines hold Xi Shen and Guan Fu.

What the classics say, and how to read it now

The verse in 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 "Qing Long brings joy, Xiao Hao is money." Where volume two lists each star's element, it puts the two Hao on one line:

The greater and lesser Hao are Fire. Xiao Hao is money and goods; Da Hao wastes the inheritance.

The classics mark Xiao Hao with "money and goods" and Da Hao with "wasting the inheritance," a clear split: Xiao Hao is small money coming and going, Da Hao is a larger outflow.

Read for today, Xingge takes the Bo Shi Xiao Hao to mean small leaks in this palace. Nothing happens all at once. It's the subscription you never cancelled, a few extra takeaway orders, a meeting that runs half an hour over. The reminder is practical: list this palace's small expenses and small blocks of time once, and the leaks show themselves.

Xiao Hao in key palaces

• Life Palace: you're generous with people, and you easily spread your energy across lots of small things. Now and then, stop and check which ones you don't actually need to do yourself.
• Wealth Palace: small change goes fast, and small purchases add up to more than you'd think. Track your spending for a month and you'll usually see where it went.
• Career Palace: your work time gets chopped up by small tasks. Keep big blocks for what matters and batch the small stuff.
• Spouse Palace: small costs and small hurts between you build up easily. Talk small things through when they happen rather than saving them up.
• Health Palace: your energy gets worn down bit by bit by odds and ends. A stretch of uninterrupted time each day restores you more than extra sleep.

Telling it apart from the Sui Qian Xiao Hao

There are two Xiao Hao on the chart. The Bo Shi Xiao Hao follows your birth-year Lu Cun and stays in the same palace for life; it shows where you naturally tend to leak. The Sui Qian Xiao Hao follows Tai Sui and moves one palace each year; it shows where small money and scattered time tend to slip away without notice this year. One is a natal habit, the other is this year's weather. Read them separately.

Natal chart and Annual Luck

The Bo Shi Xiao Hao is natal and does not 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 Xiao Hao happens to land in the same palace as your Bo Shi Xiao Hao, that year the small expenses there are even more worth writing down.