What is Twelve General Gods (Jiang Qian)?

In the corner of every palace on the chart there is often a row of tiny names: Jiang Xing, Pan An, Hua Gai, Wang Shen… That row is the Twelve General Gods (Jiang Qian). The set starts from Jiang Xing, the General Star, and runs on through all twelve palaces. It shows the momentum of each palace over a year: where it pays to push forward, where plans tend to change, and where it's time to stop and catch your breath. It is one of the lightest of the twelve-god sets, and it is always read after the main stars, the transformations and the auxiliary stars. To see where they fall on your chart, draw your chart.

The twelve, in order

• Jiang Xing (General Star): first. Making the calls, and being able to lead.
• Pan An (Climbing the Saddle): second. Your effort is easily noticed, with a chance to move up.
• Sui Yi (Year Post-Horse): third. Lots of change and moving around; it always shares a palace with Tian Ma.
• Xi Shen (Rest Spirit): fourth. You want to stop and catch your breath.
• Hua Gai (Canopy): fifth. Going at your own pace, not much for following the crowd.
• Jie Sha (Robbery Sha): sixth. Things tend to change at the last minute, so keep something in reserve.
• Zai Sha (Mishap Sha): seventh. Small, unexpected hassles; double-check in advance.
• Tian Sha (Heavenly Sha): eighth. Friction with strong-willed people comes easily.
• Zhi Bei (Pointing at the Back): ninth. Talk behind your back; keep things above board and you're fine.
• Xian Chi (Salt Pool): tenth. Liveliness, with people drawn your way.
• Yue Sha (Month Sha): eleventh. Small frictions, and a mind that isn't quite at ease.
• Wang Shen (Lost Spirit): twelfth. Energy and belongings tend to slip away quietly.

Several of them carry "sha" (an old word for a harsh influence) or "wang" (loss) in their names. They sound heavy, but they are read lightly: each one is a reminder of what to watch in that palace this year, not a prediction of what will happen.

How the Twelve General Gods are placed

First find which trine your year branch belongs to. Jiang Xing sits on the middle branch of that trine:

• Yin, Wu and Xu years: Jiang Xing is in Wu.
• Shen, Zi and Chen years: Jiang Xing is in Zi.
• Si, You and Chou years: Jiang Xing is in You.
• Hai, Mao and Wei years: Jiang Xing is in Mao.

With Jiang Xing in place, count forward one palace at a time: Pan An, Sui Yi, Xi Shen, Hua Gai, Jie Sha, Zai Sha, Tian Sha, Zhi Bei, Xian Chi, Yue Sha, Wang Shen. There is no split by gender or by yin and yang; the whole set always runs forward.

Because Jiang Xing only ever lands in Zi, Wu, Mao or You, each of the other eleven also lands in only four branches. Hua Gai, for example, only falls in Chen, Xu, Chou or Wei; Sui Yi only in Yin, Shen, Si or Hai; Xian Chi only in Zi, Wu, Mao or You. The set also faces off in pairs: Jiang Xing opposite Zai Sha, Pan An opposite Tian Sha, Sui Yi opposite Zhi Bei, Xi Shen opposite Xian Chi, Hua Gai opposite Yue Sha, and Jie Sha opposite Wang Shen.

None of this set is in the placement verses of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu). It was added to chart-making later, and Xingge follows the standard placement. Several of the names share a root with the spirit stars of Bazi (Four Pillars). The San Ming Tong Hui (a Ming-dynasty classic of Bazi) has chapters on Jiang Xing and Hua Gai, on Xian Chi, on the Post-Horse, on Jie Sha and Wang Shen, and on Zai Sha. There, Jiang Xing takes the middle of the trine, Hua Gai takes the trine's storage branch, and Zai Sha "clashes with and breaks Jiang Xing," all the same positions as here. Sui Yi is the Bazi Post-Horse itself. Wang Tingzhi's book Tan Xing also lists these twelve together as the Jiang Qian set.

One set for the natal chart, one for each year

The Twelve General Gods appear on the chart in two sets:

• The natal set: placed by the branch of your birth year. It never moves and is printed in the corner of each palace.
• The annual set: placed again by the Earthly Branch of whichever year you are looking at, and replaced every lunar year. When you switch the detailed chart to an Annual or Monthly Luck, the General Gods in each palace change to the annual set.

Xingge's palace readings only use the annual set, in the "this year" part of the reading. The natal set stays on the chart for comparison and gets no reading of its own. The reason is that the standard verse places Jiang Xing by the year's branch in the first place: this set is mainly for reading a year's momentum.

The annual set follows a pattern: each year Jiang Xing moves back three palaces, from Wu to Mao to Zi to You, and comes full circle in four years. So in any given palace, the god you meet each year rotates among just four. In 2026, a Bing Wu year, Jiang Xing is in Wu; in 2027, a Ding Wei year (from February 6, 2027), it is in Mao.

One more position worth remembering: the palace of the year's branch, which is where Sui Jian of the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian) sits, holds Jiang Xing in Zi, Wu, Mao and You years, Zhi Bei in Yin, Shen, Si and Hai years, and Hua Gai in Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei years.

Don't confuse them with stars of the same name

• Hua Gai and Xian Chi: the minor stars also include a Hua Gai and a Xian Chi. Both go by the birth-year branch, so on the natal chart they always share a palace with these two General Gods. The minor stars never move for life; the General Gods change position in each year.
• Jie Sha and Jie Sha: the minor star Jie Sha, written with a different second character, belongs to the Zhongzhou school's placement and sits in the same palace as the natal Jie Sha god. Neither is Di Jie, one of the Six Malefic Stars.
• Sui Yi and Tian Ma: Sui Yi goes by the year branch, just like Tian Ma, so the two always share a palace; the annual Sui Yi also always shares a palace with the annual Tian Ma.

If you choose the Zhongzhou school in Xingge's chart settings, the placement of the Twelve General Gods stays the same. What changes is that the Jie Sha minor star appears, and Da Hao in the Twelve Year Gods is renamed Sui Po.

How much weight it carries

There are four twelve-god sets in all. The Twelve Life Stages (Chang Sheng) show which stage a palace's energy is in. The Twelve Erudite Gods (Bo Shi) start from Lu Cun and show small natal habits. The Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian) and the General Gods both read the year: the Year Gods show the atmosphere, the General Gods the momentum. All four weigh less than the minor stars. Read the main stars and the transformations first, then use them as small footnotes. The Bo Shi, Jiang Qian and Sui Qian lesson brings them together.