What is Bing Fu?

A week of overtime, and on the weekend you lie down and can't get up; a schedule packed too full, and one day you suddenly don't want to do anything. Bing Fu (Illness Charm) is about this "battery running out" state. Its name contains the word for "illness," but it's about your energy and rhythm, not about falling ill. There are two Bing Fu on the chart; this article is about the one in the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian), which moves with the year. To find which palace this year's Bing Fu falls in, draw your chart.

What the Year God Bing Fu is: twelfth in the set

Bing Fu is last in the Twelve Year Gods, eleven palaces on from Sui Jian, which is one palace behind Tai Sui; one more palace and you're back at Sui Jian, completing the round. Before it comes Diao Ke. In a Zi year Bing Fu is in Hai, in a Chou year in Zi, and so on; in 2027, a Ding Wei year, it's in Wu.

In the Annual Luck, Sui Jian sits in the Annual Life Palace, and Bing Fu is in the Annual Siblings Palace. Siblings, peers and business partners often come with the tiredness of a Bing Fu year: things land on your doorstep and you're asked to share the load. Bing Fu also forms one trine with Guan Suo and Long De.

In volume one of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu), the Tai Wei Fu says of the Annual Luck that "Qing Yang and Tuo Luo ride on Tai Sui to lead the way," and then names Bing Fu and Guan Fu together, meaning these two are read alongside that year's Qing Yang and Tuo Luo. When volume two annotates the Bo Shi set, it writes about the Bo Shi Bing Fu; this Year God has no entry of its own. The San Ming Tong Hui, a Ming-dynasty classic of Bazi (Four Pillars), also has a Bing Fu, which it says "takes the branch behind Tai Sui," the same position as here.

What the Year God Bing Fu means, in plain words

Your energy is easily overdrawn, and once you're tired your body feels stuck too; put sleep and rest ahead of the schedule. Bing Fu says "rest first, then push." However keen you are on that palace's affairs, keep some charge in reserve: built-up tiredness slows your judgment and shortens your temper.

Bing Fu in key palaces

• Life Palace: you tend to feel your battery is low this year. Keep a stretch of each day completely unscheduled.
• Wealth Palace: you tend to wear yourself out earning money. Work out your hourly rate, and don't trade rest for small change.
• Career Palace: your workload tends to overflow. Agreeing priorities with your manager works better than staying up late to finish.
• Spouse Palace: when you're both tired, patience runs short. Taking a break together works better than arguing the point.
• Siblings Palace: things involving peers or partners tend to fall to you. Share the work where you can.
• Health Palace: your routine and sleep are most worth looking after. Go to bed and get up at fixed times, and find your rhythm again first.

Not the same as Bing Fu in the Twelve Erudite Gods

The ninth of the Twelve Erudite Gods (Bo Shi) is also called Bing Fu. It is counted from Lu Cun, never moves for life, and says that palace tends toward tiredness and low drive by nature. The Year God Bing Fu follows Tai Sui and changes position each year; it's that year's reminder. The two mean similar things, and when they meet in the same palace, Xingge gives only the annual line.

Natal and annual, read separately

The natal Year God Bing Fu is placed by your birth-year branch; Xingge treats it as background and doesn't read it separately. The one read is the annual Bing Fu: 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.