What the Water 2 · Tan Lang type is like
A Water 2 Tan Lang is a river that keeps moving after dark: wherever something new is happening, it flows there, and leaves a few friends and a few stories behind. Their curiosity never stops at a taste. It sinks all the way down, until a hobby has turned them into half an expert.
Tan Lang meets the Water 2 Bureau
In the Complete Book, Tan Lang's “qi belongs to wood and its body to water,” and the Water 2 Bureau is Water, the same element as its body. Water also nourishes Wood, so this bureau is feeding Tan Lang's qi from below the whole time. This Tan Lang hardly needs anyone to light a match: ideas keep welling up on their own, and every conversation goes a level deeper. In charts of this type Tan Lang lands most often in Chen, about 28%, then Yin at 17%, with Zi, Shen, Wu and Xu at about 14% each. About 41% sit at Temple (Miao) brightness, in Chen or Xu; Yin and Shen are Average (Ping), Zi and Wu Prosperous (Wang). This bureau has an unusually large share of Temple-bright Tan Lang.
Work and money
Water seeps in, and so does this type. They work by getting inside a field: once they know the subject, they know the people too, and the next job usually comes through a friend of a friend. The Complete Book calls Tan Lang “deep in schemes and far-sighted.” In Water 2 the scheming is not written in any plan. It lives in the network. The friend who talked with them until two in the morning may be a business partner three years later. They are in no hurry to cash in a relationship; they let it deepen, and when the water is high enough, the opportunity often floats up by itself. Income tends to be several small streams joined together: a main job, side projects, a hobby that started paying. Spending runs in small streams too, so a fixed monthly look at the accounts keeps the water from quietly spilling over.
Love and getting along
They are easy to talk to and good at catching what the other person has not said. The Complete Book says “Tan Lang in Zi is called peach blossom floating on water,” charm that spreads like water. The old text meant it as a caution; read today it says that their warmth is easy to read too much into. This type does best in a relationship with clear terms, because grey areas wear everyone out, them included. A partner with a life of their own, who does not worry when another invitation comes in, earns their trust, and with that trust they feel free to put the partner first.
When things get stuck
What a river fears is not rocks but having no banks. They go with the flow too well, saying yes to every invitation, until one day they realise that nothing on the calendar was their own choice. One or two lines they will not cross however fun the offer, such as one evening a week kept for themselves, give the current a shape. The opposite problem is diving too deep: one obsession, and sleep, meals and everything else get shelved. Rather than waiting for willpower to call time, they can set an alarm in advance that tells them to come up for air.
The rhythm of the 10-year periods
Tan Lang's first decade comes unusually early in Water 2: the first period begins at age 2 (counted the traditional way) and runs through the Life Palace itself. More unusual still, the period has already changed once by 12, so the theme of a whole decade turns over before they finish primary school. After that come 22 and 32, and which palace each later period moves into depends on whether the chart runs forward or backward, set by the birth year's yin or yang and by sex. Having lived through a change of scene so young, this type is rarely frightened of change, and learns early how to find their people somewhere new.
For the full picture of this persona, see Tan Lang · The Virtuoso.
Where it comes from in Purple Star Astrology
In this type Tan Lang leads the Life Palace. The Life Palace is the one of twelve that says who you are, and its main star sets your base color; when two main stars share it, the first one counts.
The bureau is the Water 2 Bureau. The Five Elements Bureau comes from the Nayin of your Life Palace stem and branch; it places the Zi Wei star on the chart and sets the age your first 10-year period starts, which is 2 for this bureau. No bureau is better than another; Xingge reads it as a flavour of the same persona.
Across 2,157 charts of this type:
- Life Palace branch
- Chen 27.6%, Yin 17.4%, Zi 13.8%, Shen 13.7%, Wu 13.7%, Xu 13.7%
- Star brightness
- Miao (Temple) 41.4%, Ping (Average) 31.1%, Wang (Prosperous) 27.5%
- Elements
- Tan Lang: Wood in spirit, Water in body; the Water 2 Bureau is Water
What is the Five Elements Bureau ›Find my bureau ›Tan Lang ›
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Tan Lang in the other bureaus
Other personas in the Water 2 Bureau
Famous people of the Tan Lang persona
FAQ
If a Water 2 Tan Lang sits in Zi, is that the “peach blossom floating on water” the old books mention?
The first volume does give Tan Lang in Zi that name; the third volume is stricter, requiring Tan Lang in Hai or Zi to meet Qing Yang or Tuo Luo as well. It describes strong charm and a wide circle, not a complicated love life. How relationships actually go depends on the Spouse and Fortune palaces and on where stars such as Tian Yao and Hong Luan fall. In this type Zi accounts for only about 14%; the most common version is the Temple-bright Tan Lang in Chen.
Does remote work suit a Water 2 Tan Lang?
It can, as long as they keep a channel open to people. Most of their opportunities grow out of their network, and alone at home in front of a screen, the ideas keep coming but the news stops. The better setup is remote work with in-person contact: one or two regular communities or meetups where friends of friends can find them. Then working remotely actually gives them more time to dig deep.
How common is the Water 2 · Tan Lang type?
Out of 262,980 charts cast for every day and every two-hour period from 1950–2009, 2,157 have Tan Lang leading the Life Palace and the Water 2 Bureau: about 0.8%, roughly 1 in 122 people. Every day and hour is counted equally, so this is not the actual birth distribution of a population.
Why can two people born on the same day be different types?
Where your Life Palace falls depends on your birth month and birth hour, and your Five Elements Bureau comes from the stem and branch of that palace. So on the same day, one two-hour period later moves the Life Palace by one, and the main star and bureau can both change. The twelve hours of a single day usually produce several different types.
What is the Five Elements Bureau?
The Five Elements Bureau is the Nayin element of your Life Palace stem and branch: Water 2, Wood 3, Metal 4, Earth 5 or Fire 6. The number places the Zi Wei star on the chart and is also the age your first 10-year period begins (2 for Water, 6 for Fire). A bigger number is not better or worse; Xingge reads the element as a flavour of the same persona.
How is this different from MBTI?
MBTI comes from a questionnaire about how you see yourself. An Xingge type comes from your birth date and time, with nothing to answer, and the same birth details always give the same type. They work well side by side: MBTI describes your current habits, the chart describes your underlying nature and the rhythm of your life.
Which type do I get if my Life Palace has two main stars?
When two main stars share the Life Palace, the one listed first (in the order of the Zi Wei and Tian Fu star groups) sets the persona, the same as on your chart page. A Life Palace with no main star is the Empty Palace: the Traveler.
A type looks only at the Life Palace and the bureau: the roughest outline of a chart. People of the same type differ in the Body Palace, the surrounding palaces and the transformations.