What is Tai?

Tai (Conception) is the eleventh of the Twelve Life Stages (Chang Sheng), right after Jue. When the old round has broken off and the new one starts forming inside, that is Tai. Whichever palace has Tai, its affairs are still taking shape, and many ideas haven't formed yet. Give them some time, and don't lay them out too early. It has nothing to do with children or pregnancy; it describes the pace of something still being nurtured. To see which palace your Tai is in, draw your chart.

How Tai is placed

First find Chang Sheng from the Five Elements Bureau, then count ten palaces on, by yin or yang and gender, and that is Tai. Put another way, Tai sits two palaces back from Chang Sheng:

Volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu) only gives the placement method, worded "count forward for men, backward for women." Xingge sets the direction by yin or yang and gender, so for people born in a yin year it runs opposite to the original text. The Quan Shu doesn't explain Tai on its own.

What Tai means: growing inside first

Mu, Jue, Tai and Yang are what the lesson calls the "dormancy" phase. Jue (Severance) is the old breaking off, Tai is the new beginning forming inside, then comes Yang (Nurture), being cared for as it grows, and finally the return to Chang Sheng and a new sprout.

In a palace with Tai, you often have lots of ideas but can't yet put them clearly; your plans have a vague outline and aren't ready to go public. Laying them out too early, one remark from someone else can scatter them. A better approach is to try things on a small scale first, or write them down and revise slowly, and bring them out once the outline is clear.

In a few key palaces

• Life Palace: new ideas often come to mind, and you think more than you act. Pick one idea for a small trial first, and let it slowly take shape.
• Wealth Palace: your sources of money are still forming, and there's often a side project or investment direction you want to pursue but haven't settled. Research first, try small first, and don't rush to put everything in.
• Career Palace: your career direction is still taking shape, and you may be preparing to switch or to study further. This preparation period is itself a way of building up.
• Spouse Palace: relationships often stay a long time in the stage of flirting and slowly making sure. While you're still unclear about your own feelings, there's no rush to define the relationship.
• Health Palace: your energy needs time to come back slowly. Give yourself a stretch of quiet time without interruptions.

Natal only, unchanged in each year

On the Xingge chart the Twelve Life Stages are a single natal set that never moves. When you switch to an Annual Luck, the sets that change to annual versions are the Twelve General Gods (Jiang Qian) and the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian). If the year's Life Palace reaches your natal Tai, that year's theme falls where things are still forming, suited to planning and preparing, with no need to rush out results. For the full placement method, see the Twelve Life Stages overview.