What the Earth 5 · Tan Lang type is like
Where others keep a hobby as a pastime, an Earth 5 Tan Lang slowly grows it into a business. The playfulness is all still there, but they want to see a harvest.
Tan Lang meets the Earth 5 Bureau
The four tombs are the most interesting thing about an Earth 5 Tan Lang. Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei are the four Earth palaces, which the old books call the four tombs, and in 33% of charts of this type Tan Lang sits on Chen or Xu, both of them Temple (Miao). The second volume of the Complete Book says “Tan Lang in the four tomb palaces is in a Miao or Wang palace; with Zuo Fu and You Bi arriving…”, and goes on to call such a person wealthy, so the ancients read Tan Lang on that ground, joined by those two stars, as a sign of riches. The other 67% fall in Zi, Yin and the rest, split evenly between Prosperous (Wang) and Average (Ping). In element terms, Tan Lang's qi belongs to wood and its body to water, and the Earth 5 Bureau is Earth, so the two push against each other. Wood breaks up Earth, so Tan Lang's qi turns the soil; Earth holds back Water, so the bureau dams Tan Lang's body. Turning soil is for sowing and a dam is for storing, which is why an Earth 5 Tan Lang is best at turning desire into a plan and banking the fun to spend later, like a field being broken in.
Work and money
They are patient, which is rare for Tan Lang. They will spend three years nursing a side business, and happily play a little less now for a goal further out. Even their saving is very Tan Lang: not penny-pinching, but putting money where it grows, such as property, a shop, anything that earns rent or comes back as repeat custom. Earth can hold on too long, and they often cannot bring themselves to sell an investment they should let go. One day a year spent checking what is still growing and what is just sitting there pays off.
Love and getting along
In love they are practical and think about how a shared life will actually work: where to live, how much to save, whether to get a dog. Their romance is the steady kind, a fixed date night every week, one proper trip a year. Partners sometimes wish for more surprises, but the surprises are there, just already in the calendar. In a fight they go quiet. It is not the silent treatment; they are working on a fix. Give them one evening and they usually come back with a plan.
When things get stuck
Packed soil keeps seeds from breaking through. When the earth gets too heavy, the playfulness is buried under it, life becomes nothing but work and duty, and they feel flat. That calls for loosening the soil: book something purely for fun with nothing to show for it, like a show on their own or a class they have no plan to earn from. Guarding what they have too closely has its own cost: passing on a real opportunity because it might upset the plan. Turning the soil is Tan Lang's instinct, and a field that gets turned now and then stays rich.
The rhythm of the 10-year periods
Store first, release later is the rhythm of this type's life periods, which start in the Life Palace at age 5 (counted the traditional way) and change at 15, 25 and 35, like a field in winter: nothing seems to be happening on top while the soil builds strength underneath. They may often feel slower than their peers, with savings and experience building a little at a time. But earth holds what it is given. The interests planted early, the people met, the crafts learned do not wash away, and when a season finally has the right conditions, they come up together. When that season arrives depends on which palace the period has reached and what stars it meets, not on age.
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 Earth 5 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 5 for this bureau. No bureau is better than another; Xingge reads it as a flavour of the same persona.
Across 2,225 charts of this type:
- Life Palace branch
- Zi 26.8%, Yin 26.6%, Chen 20%, Xu 13.3%, Wu 6.7%, Shen 6.7%
- Star brightness
- Wang (Prosperous) 33.5%, Ping (Average) 33.3%, Miao (Temple) 33.3%
- Elements
- Tan Lang: Wood in spirit, Water in body; the Earth 5 Bureau is Earth
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 Earth 5 Bureau
Famous people of the Tan Lang persona
FAQ
What does “Tan Lang in the four tombs” mean, and does every Earth 5 Tan Lang count?
The four tombs are Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei, the four Earth palaces. A Tan Lang sitting alone in the Life Palace can only land in Chen or Xu among them, which is about 33% of this type; Tan Lang in Zi, Yin, Wu or Shen does not count. The old text says that a four-tombs Tan Lang joined by Zuo Fu and You Bi is good for wealth, but whether those stars are there, or a Hua Lu transformation, depends on your own chart.
Is an Earth 5 Tan Lang suited to starting a business?
Yes, usually the slow-growing kind: a small shop that started as a hobby, a studio, a service with regular customers. Their strengths are patience and the ability to hold on to money; their weakness is fear of upsetting the plan. Work out the worst case before starting and set aside a reserve that stays untouched. Once the numbers are done, let Tan Lang's playfulness lead.
How common is the Earth 5 · Tan Lang type?
Out of 262,980 charts cast for every day and every two-hour period from 1950–2009, 2,225 have Tan Lang leading the Life Palace and the Earth 5 Bureau: about 0.8%, roughly 1 in 118 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.