What is Bai Hu?

Bumping into a table corner when you're rushing, snapping at a colleague over one remark, cutting across lanes in a hurry: for these "too fast" moments, the chart has a fierce-sounding little label as a reminder, Bai Hu (White Tiger). It's one of the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian), it's about your movements and your temper, and it reads far more gently than its name. To find which palace this year's Bai Hu falls in, draw your chart.

What Bai Hu is: ninth of the Twelve Year Gods

Bai Hu comes ninth, eight palaces on from Sui Jian, which is exactly opposite Sang Men. Volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu), in its verse for placing the four flying stars Sang Men, Bai Hu, Diao Ke and Guan Fu, says:

Two places ahead of the annual Tai Sui is Sang Men; two places behind is Diao Ke. Opposite Sang Men place Bai Hu; opposite Diao Ke place Guan Fu.

Find Sang Men first; Bai Hu is across from it. In a Zi year Bai Hu is in Shen, in a Chou year in You, and so on; in 2027, a Ding Wei year, it's in Mao. When volume two of the Quan Shu assigns elements to the stars, it gives Bai Hu metal.

In the Annual Luck, Bai Hu always sits in the Annual Wealth Palace

Sui Jian sits in the Annual Life Palace, and eight palaces on is the Annual Wealth Palace. Bai Hu also forms one trine with Sui Jian and Guan Fu; the three together make up Tai Sui's three directions.

How the classics see Bai Hu

Several lines in volumes one and three of the Quan Shu group the annual Bai Hu with hard-charging stars like Qing Yang, Ling Xing, Lian Zhen and Qi Sha, in very strong language. What they have in common: Bai Hu alone says little; only when that year's challenging stars gather around it did the ancients raise it as a warning. Xingge's reading follows the same logic: Bai Hu is a "slow down" reminder, and when it meets fast-charging stars, slow down all the more.

What Bai Hu means, in plain words

Clashes with people or bumps and knocks come easily; slow down, and rein in your temper a little. Bai Hu is about being hasty, hard and headlong: rushed movements lead to knocks, sharp words lead to friction. It doesn't forecast anything; it only reminds you to take an extra beat in that palace's affairs.

Bai Hu in key palaces

• Life Palace: you tend to rush and speak sharply this year. Count to three before you speak.
• Wealth Palace: spending and bargaining can turn impulsive. Look at big decisions again the next day.
• Career Palace: you tend to meet colleagues or managers head-on. When you disagree, ask "what's your thinking here?" first.
• Spouse Palace: arguments tend to get louder and louder. When emotions rise, step out of the room for ten minutes.
• Travel Palace: rushing around means more bumps. Leave early and take it slower on the road.
• Health Palace: watch your posture when exercising or lifting something heavy, warm up properly, and don't push past your limits.

Natal and annual, read separately

The natal Bai Hu is placed by your birth-year branch; Xingge treats it as background and doesn't read it separately. The one read is the annual Bai Hu: on the first day of each lunar year it moves one palace along with Tai Sui, and you can see it when you switch the chart to an Annual Luck. There's no god of the same name in the Twelve General Gods (Jiang Qian), so this is the only Bai Hu on the chart.