What is Da Hao?

A new phone, a car repair, three wedding gifts in one month: in some years spending doesn't trickle out, it comes all at once. The chart uses Da Hao (Major Drain) as a reminder of times when more goes out than comes in. There's more than one Da Hao 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 Da Hao falls in, draw your chart.

What the Year God Da Hao is: seventh, opposite Tai Sui

Da Hao is seventh in the Twelve Year Gods, six palaces on from Sui Jian, which is exactly the palace opposite Tai Sui. In a Zi year Da Hao is in Wu, in a Chou year in Wei, and so on; in 2027, a Ding Wei year, it's in Chou.

Because it faces Tai Sui directly, Wang Tingzhi's Zhongzhou-school book Tan Xing calls this position Sui Po (Year Breaker), and the seventh of the twelve Tai Sui in the Tong Shu (the traditional Chinese almanac) is also called Sui Po. If you switch on the Zhongzhou school in the chart settings, this palace shows Sui Po instead; it's the same god.

In the Annual Luck, Sui Jian sits in the Annual Life Palace, and the palace opposite is the Annual Travel Palace. Long trips, moves and spending out in the world are often where Da Hao's outlay is concentrated that year. Da Hao also forms one trine with Sang Men and Diao Ke.

The Xiao Hao and Da Hao discussed in volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu) belong to the Bo Shi set; the Quan Shu has no entry on this Year God.

What the Year God Da Hao means, in plain words

Spending and social outlay tend to jump all at once; sleep on any big expense before you decide. Da Hao isn't about money vanishing. It's that some things that year will take money and effort, and they often come together. Set aside a reserve fund first, and you won't be thrown when they arrive.

Da Hao in key palaces

• Life Palace: there's a lot you want to do this year, and you're generous with money and effort. List the three things you most want to do first.
• Wealth Palace: big expenses tend to bunch up this year. Compare three options before you buy, and work out the full total before taking an installment plan.
• Career Palace: more time and money going into work, courses and new equipment included. Look at the return before you put in more.
• Spouse Palace: big shared expenses, such as travel, a move or a wedding. Plan the budget together.
• Travel Palace: plenty of spending on going out, travel and time elsewhere. Book early and read the cancellation rules.
• Property Palace: big purchases for the house and household, such as renovations or new appliances, often come this year.

The three Da Hao on a chart

• Da Hao of the Twelve Erudite Gods (Bo Shi): counted from Lu Cun, fixed on the natal chart, saying that palace tends to lose things and energy by nature.
• Da Hao of the Twelve Year Gods: the one in this article, opposite Tai Sui, changing position each year.
• The Zhongzhou-school Da Hao minor star: with the Zhongzhou school on, the chart gains a Da Hao minor star, placed one palace to the side of the palace opposite your birth-year branch. It doesn't share a palace with this Year God.

When the Bo Shi and Year God Da Hao meet in the same palace, Xingge gives only the annual line.

Natal and annual, read separately

The natal Year God Da Hao is placed by your birth-year branch, in the palace opposite it. Xingge treats it as background and doesn't read it separately. The one read is the annual Da Hao: 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.