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Sanming Tonghui · A Comprehensive Account of the Three Destinies
Configurations of Wealth, Office, Seal, and Food
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Killing in Tomb
An old song says: “Know the Ghost encountered in Tomb: flanking Killing and holding the mound separate close kin. This harmful star without rescue diminishes blessing and lifespan while young.” Jia day seeing Gengxu or Gengchen; Yi Xinchou or Xinwei; Bing Renchen or Renxu; Ding Guichou or Guiwei; Wu Jiachen or Jiaxu; Ji Yichou or Yiwei; Geng Bingchen or Bingxu; Xin Dingchou or Dingwei; Ren Wuchen or Wuxu; Gui Jichou or Jiwei: this is Seven Killings Entering Tomb. Luoluzi says: “Flanking Killing and holding the mound, relatives by blood and marriage weep at the farewell.” Jisi, Wuchen, Guichou, Bingchen has a Gui day seeing Wu as Office and Ji as Killing. Wu and Ji are both said to be upon Chen, also Gui Water's Storehouse, often indicating early advancement and early death. Another view says Killing is not only Seven Killings but Sheep Blade, Death Spirit, and Robbery, flanked and hidden in Tomb by day and hour or day and month, all harmful.
Translator's note: All ten stem mappings and both alternatives are retained. The chart's actual four pillars and the statement that Wu and Ji are both upon Chen remain as supplied rather than silently reconciled.
Four Positions Entirely Pure
Yin, Shen, Si, and Hai contain the five phases' generative energy, Post Horse, and Study Hall: they are the Four Births. Zi, Wu, Mao, and You contain flourishing energy, with Yi, Xin, Ding, and Gui arriving: they are the Four Proper Positions. Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei contain mixed energy, with Canopy and Direct Seal arriving: they are the Four Tombs. A classic says: “Wealth, Office, and Seal and Ribbon reside securely in Yin, Shen, Si, and Hai.” The Rhapsody of True Treasures says: “Zi, Wu, Mao, and You are an image of Eight Exclusives. In civil service one becomes a first-rank pillar supporting the state; in military service one receives a fief and seal for achievement.” Another says: “Yin, Shen, Si, and Hai attain the Three Dukes.” The Rhapsody of Original Principle says: “Zi, Wu, Mao, and You complete give confusion through wine and sex.” Thousand-Li Horse says: “Four Storehouses complete make a dragon transform into the great sea, the honor of the sovereign's nine-five position.” The Rhapsody of the Precious Mirror says: “Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei proceeding in order assure a sovereign's fate.” The Song to Explain the Uncomprehending says: “Four Storehouses complete form Four Nobles, ranking high and controlling the balance.” Walking Alone says: “The Four Births configuration of Yin, Shen, Si, and Hai, with usable influences and strong Body, develops blessing. The Four Defeats configuration of Zi, Wu, Mao, and You gives men rise and decline and women solitude.” Those fitting this configuration often have great wealth and nobility, yet cannot avoid punishment and harm among the six relations, with advances and retreats linked together, because each clashes with another and there is no combination. Jingji says: “Zi, Wu, Mao, and You fitting a configuration are Four Extremes Complete; losing the configuration, Peach Blossoms Across the Fields. Men and women meeting it, though noble and wealthy, cannot avoid excessive wine and sex and scant virtue.” A poem says: “Yin, Shen, Si, and Hai linked, or Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei likewise: if not great power and highest authority, then surely close attendance at court.” Another: “Day Virtue, Day Nobility, and Chief Strength, pure and complete in four pillars, give great auspicious prosperity. Still fitting one of the six configurations, could such transformation be ordinary?” This takes four Day Virtues, four Chief Strengths, or four Day Nobles, without other stems or branches, and judges them like Four Positions Entirely Pure.
Translator's note: All three four-branch groups, the contrasting noble and unfavorable citations, both poems, and the final extension to four Day Virtue/Nobility/Chief Strength pillars are retained. The source's historical gendered, moral, and sovereign-status claims are not generalized into modern factual judgments.
Formation through a Single Energy
Heavenly Origin of a Single Energy means four Renyin, four Xinmao, four Gengchen, four Jisi, four Wuwu, four Dingwei, four Bingshen, four Yiyou, four Jiaxu, or four Guihai. Four pillars with one stem-and-branch energy still differ in weight, nobility, and low status, requiring careful distinction. Renyin, Xinmao, and Jiaxu have wealth and nobility complete; Jisi is also noble. Wuwu and Dingwei have flourishing Blade and strong temperament; even when noble, they have much danger, harm wives, and end badly. Gengchen is noble and romantic, reputation heavy and profit light. Yiyou often has injury or disability; Guihai often poverty and scant means. Bingshen born in the north can obtain nobility. Annual and major fortunes meeting punishment, clash, disruption, or seizure must bring calamity. Above all, infer whether branches contain Wealth, Office, Seal, or Food; whether the configuration is damaged; whether the Heavenly Stem obtains command; whether these influences above and below can transform or follow. This determines relative weight, nobility, and low status. Another account says four identical, unmixed stems are Heavenly Origin of a Single Energy and must not be judged as competing Equals. Examine whether branches generate or transform, punish or conquer. Wealth, Office, and Seal fitting a configuration, with annual and major fortunes not turning against it, must give great nobility; clash, punishment, conquest, and restraint are harmful. Do not insist every Single Energy is noble. Jiazi, Jiaxu, Jiayin, Jiazi is also called the Phoenix Stem configuration. Bureau Director Guo had Renchen, Renzi, Renyin, Renyin. Ren is called self-Extinct at Yin here, making impurity, hence only a bureau director. Another account says four identical, unmixed branches are one in Earthly form, named Orchid and Iris Flourishing Together. Examine whether the stem origins gather blessing or calamity upon the branches. Blessing gathered and fitting a configuration often gives the nobility of the Two Administrations. Jiayin, Bingyin, Gengyin, Wuyin is also called the Phoenix Branch configuration. A poem says: “Heavenly Origin of a Single Energy determines honor and glory, unmixed stems one pure character. Do not judge as Equals competing: born for wealth and nobility up to dukes and ministers.” Another: “One Heavenly Origin character with Water as source, born in autumn or winter, is indescribably fine. One Great Auspicious Earth Spirit brings high advancement in office while young.” Another: “One Heavenly Origin character with Earth as foundation, born in season-ending months, is more remarkable. Shen and You joining the configuration give an unusually intelligent and refined child.” Another: “One Heavenly Origin character rooted in Wood, with Transmitting and Brightness Ascending displaying blessing's origin: Office Star obtaining ground in four pillars lets merit, fame, profit, and Emolument vie for first.” Another: “One Heavenly Origin character meeting Metal, with Chief Strength in hour and day, has deep blessing. Sheep Blade encountering clash and bearing Nobility wins noble people's esteem throughout life.” Another: “One Heavenly Origin character, Fire warmly abundant, with Great Auspicious and Merit Officer in hour and day, clashes up Wealth and Office for use, giving lifelong wealth, nobility, and prosperous blessing.” On examining the two configurations, identical Heavenly Origins mostly give nobility, whereas identical Earthly Branches sometimes do not: a distinction between light refinement and heavy turbidity. Another: “Fourfold yang Ren Water and fourfold Yin, Li and Kan contending, give flourishing energy's birth. Fire-territory fortune adds noble distinction; coming and going must avoid opposite clashes with the framework.” Another: “A chart with all four Mao and Xin linked in stems may have light Body and shallow blessing as a minor matter; only insecurity of lifespan at birth is feared.” Another: “Four Bingshen complete in the chart balance Body and Killing and display blessing's origin. Unlike ordinary seekers of fame and profit, power must hold the highest authority.” Another: “Four Jia Heavenly Stems all encountering Xu divide and seize Wealth and Office without benefit. Southern fortune fitting this Hurting Office brings a little auspiciousness.” Another: “Four Gui Heavenly Stems stand in Qian palace; Wood and Water generating one another form Reversed Clash. Abundant reputation and profit require flourishing; southern fortune is still harmful in its allotment.”
Translator's note: All ten repeated-pillar types, three complete illustrative charts, eleven poems, and both identical-stem versus identical-branch interpretations are retained. The source's Ren-at-Yin Extinction claim and its conflicting favorable and adverse statements about Xinmao and Jiaxu remain. Technical spirit names in the poems are not expanded into missing tables. Noble status is explicitly conditional rather than automatic.
Turning Away from Emolument and Pursuing Horse
Turning Away from Emolument: Jia takes Xin as Office and Emolument, but Jia born in spring or summer has Extinct Metal and thus no Office. Pursuing Horse: Jia takes Ji Earth as Wealth and Horse, seized by Yi and Hai–Mao–Wei, leaving Jia no Wealth. Infer others similarly. In Renzi, Renzi, Dingwei, and Yi with the printed Yi-shaped final graph, Ding takes Ren as Office-Emolument. Ren has Established Emolument in Hai month; Ding born in Zi month has flourishing Gui as Killing, with Ren's Emolument already past, hence turning away. Facing it has Emolument, turning away lacks it. Ding takes Geng as Wealth-Horse, and Geng is Dead in Zi month: this is Turning Away from Emolument and Pursuing Horse. Killing fortune or Robbing ground does not develop blessing either, lacking a root source. Luoluzi says: “Turning Away from Emolument and Pursuing Horse keeps one desolate on poverty's road.” That usage differs from this, as can be seen in the rhapsody.
Translator's note: The fourth pillar's damaged Yi-shaped graph is not silently replaced with Si. Both separate losses of Office and Wealth, the complete example as printed, and the author's warning that Luoluzi uses the phrase differently remain.
Examples of Great Noble Persons Born in the Ten Stems and Twelve Years
In the six Jia years: Dingmao month, Yiwei day, Wuyin hour. In the six Yi years: Jimao month, Jiaxu day, Yihai hour. In the six Bing years: Gengyin month, Dingsi day, Bingwu hour. In the six Ding years: Bingwu month, Renchen day, Dingwei hour. In the six Wu years: Renxu month, Jichou day, Wuyin hour. In the six Ji years: Xinwei month, Jiwei day, Bingyin hour. In the six Geng years: Jiashen month, Gengshen day, Xinsi hour. In the six Xin years: Bingshen month, Gengwu day, Xinsi hour. In the six Ren years: Xinhai month, Renchen day, Dingwei hour. In the six Gui years: Bingchen month, Bingchen day, Wuzi hour. According to this list, each year has only one day and one hour producing the fate of a great noble person who appears in the world to establish merit and a career; otherwise one transcends the dusty world as an immortal, beyond ordinary techniques' understanding. Yet none is greater in nobility than sovereigns. Examining dynastic founders and the Ming emperors, not one fits. I have often said: with the world's vastness and its multitude of people, how could no one be born at such a year, month, day, and hour? Yet surely not all are great noble persons. Heaven's birth of a great noble person must have hidden allotment and the movement of energy governing it; year, month, day, and hour are often insufficient evidence. I have recorded countless officials and ordinary people with identical charts. Considering officials alone, Vice Minister Huang Maoguan had the same chart as Deputy Commissioner Shen Jia. Huang died in military calamity, Shen at home beside the window; Shen died before Huang. Their different rank need not even be discussed. Zhu Heng and Li Tinglong shared a chart. Zhu achieved examination success in Renchen, Li in Guichou. Zhu became minister, Li only the official called Dacan and did not live long. The number and worthiness of their descendants need not even be discussed. Wan, whose given name is damaged here, and Rao Cai shared a chart. Wan gained the jinshi degree and reached deputy high-ministerial office; Rao only the provincial degree and a prefect's post. Yet Rao had many sons and Wan few; Wan died after banishment, in a clause whose final service graph is damaged, while Rao did not. Their lifespan, gains, and losses are difficult to discuss by the chart too. Wang Qiezhai of Sanhe and his brother were born together, yet the sequence of their achievements differed. How much more, with the vast world, Nine Provinces, and multitudes of people, are identical Eight Characters unlimited? How could they be judged by a single example? I recall an account of a runner with the same chart as Duke Lu. Great imperial favor for the duke corresponded to heavy punishment for the runner; a small celebration for the duke to a small reprimand for the runner. Such reversals occurred. Another family had a son with Duke Lu's chart, sixty years apart. A practitioner cited the duke's fate as proof; the family rejoiced, believing the child would be noble, and indulged everything he did from childhood. He later drank excessively, wandered, and drowned while drunk, dying at only nineteen. The Record of Delighting in Goodness also records two Imperial University students with identical charts. They passed the local and provincial stages together and agreed to seek nearby appointments so each could know the other's calamities and blessings. One became education professor in Ezhou, the other in Huangzhou. Soon the Huangzhou man died. The Ezhou man handled his funeral affairs and prayed: “We share birth year, month, day, and hour, and the same career. You left before me; if I die now I am already seven days later than you. If you have a spirit, tell me in a dream.” That night he indeed dreamed the reply: “I was born wealthy and noble and enjoyed more than was fitting, so I died. You were born poor and humble and have not yet enjoyed your share, so you live.” The Ezhou official later governed a prefecture. Was this not the result of being warned and not exceeding proper enjoyment? In my own prefecture, student Yan Shoufang had the same chart as Yuan Dagang, described here as a factory resident. Yan was poor and the source's printed Xi rich; Yan had many sons, Yuan only two. Yan remained alive when Yuan had died. Yan studied and observed ritual, survived dangerous illness through self-preservation, and ultimately entered service as an annual tribute student; Yuan was the opposite. Considering these people together, perhaps different birth households and different occupations and habits explain it. Preserving oneself, cultivating carefully, practicing frugality, and extending years lie in seeking more blessing for ourselves. If one says, “My fate guarantees wealth, nobility, and long life,” yet fails to cultivate virtue and advance learning, behaving arrogantly, indulgently, and unlawfully, is this what makes fate fate? The supplied text adds: “The following content does not match the book.”
Translator's note: All ten year-stem/month/day/hour formulas, named counterexamples, sixty-year comparison, nineteen-year death, and the seven-day dream narrative are retained. Damaged items include Wan's given name, the banishment/service graph, and Xi in the Yan/Yuan wealth comparison. The final editorial parenthesis is translated as source material. The author's rejection of chart-based certainty and emphasis on conduct are preserved in full; the dream is a reported story, not independent evidence.
Direct Wealth is exemplified by Jia seeing Ji and Yi seeing Wu. It receives my conquest and restraint and is my wife in the source's analogy. A person marries a wife who brings Wealth into marriage; only with healthy, strong spirit can he enjoy it. If weak and unvigorous, even abundant Wife Wealth can only be looked at, never used. Wealth therefore needs the proper season and flourishing, no confusion of Direct and Indirect, no many repeated occurrences, and one's own powerful Day Ruler; then blessing can develop. Much Wealth and weak Body without Seal assistance, or little Wealth and strong Body with Equal and Robbing in the pillars, are excess or deficiency and not blessed. Luoluzi says monthly Wealth configuration with declining Body aided by Seal should be judged rich; Seal appearing first instead fears later Wealth. Walking Alone says: “Wealth first and Seal afterward instead makes blessing; Seal first and Wealth afterward instead makes disgrace.” Wealth used should not appear openly, yet with Equal and Robbing in the pillars it should emerge so everyone sees it and cannot seize it. A rhapsody says: “Wealth should be hidden: hidden, it is abundant; exposed, floating and unstable.” Wealth configurations favor Office Star openly appearing without other damage, or further Food generating, Seal assisting, and a healthy, flourishing Day Ruler, giving both wealth and nobility. Killing in stems or branches can also be enjoyed: this is Encountering Wealth, Inspect Killing. Owl is greatly feared: its seizure prevents generation; Blade and Robbing prevent enjoyment; a Storehouse meeting Void prevents accumulation. Jia born in Wu month is injured by Ren, disrupted by Bing and Mao, and robbed by Yi. Yi born in Si month is injured by Gui, disrupted by Ding and Hai, and robbed by Jia. Ren born in Xu month has Xu fall into Void in the Jiazi cycle. Infer others similarly. Another account says Wealth sustains life and no person's Eight Characters should lack it, but it must not be excessive, for excess is impure. Originally absent Wealth followed by Wealth fortune gives name without substance. Much Wealth with weak Body, further proceeding into Office territory and flourishing Wealth, has Wealth stealing energy and Office conquering Body. Not only does Emolument fail to develop, a hundred calamities arise. Another account calls Wealth Horse and Office Emolument. Neither should be absent, yet obtaining both complete is difficult. Original Wealth favors Office fortune; original Office favors Wealth fortune. Wealth fortune generates Office, Office fortune develops Wealth. No original Office but much Wealth followed by Wealth fortune can also achieve reputation and profit, occasionally even examination success. Wealth need not fear abundance, because abundance secretly generates Office, but flourishing Body must carry it. Without Wealth, many Offices restrain Body and are inauspicious instead. With no Office, possessing Wealth alone is taken as blessing. Another account says Wealth, Office, and Killing used from the monthly branch are Taking Branch as Fate, while the day stem is Taking Stem as Emolument. Wealth and Office in the monthly branch without emerging stems are sufficient for blessing. Without them in the branches, openly emerging stems make a deceptive, insubstantial fate; even flourishing fortune achieves nothing. If absent from the monthly branch but present in year, hour, or day branches, they can still be selected. Monthly-branch Wealth and Office are Obtaining the Time; day-branch Wealth and Office Obtaining the Position; hour-branch Wealth and Office Having Completion. Time ranks first, position next, completion after that; combining one or two is especially fine. The year governs ancestors' wealth and nobility and is of no use after middle age. Another account says Geng and Xin days born in the first month, with Fire as Killing elsewhere conquering them, have no ancestral Wealth even with Yin and Mao in year or month. Lifelong torment follows, and apparent Wealth-development ground must bring calamity: flourishing Wood generates Fire and harms the day stem's Metal. Heavenly Origin is weak and Wealth supports Killing, preventing blessing. Another account attributes honesty, thrift, intelligence, but also stinginess to Direct Wealth. Flourishing Wealth with declining Body makes the wife exercise masculine authority and manage the household's difficult affairs; good sons also supply strength, bringing leisure's pleasure instead. Equal and Robbing fortune puts wives and concubines in danger. Walking Alone says: “Flourishing Wealth generates Office, giving riches and rank. Office exposed and Wealth hidden invariably give high position. Hidden, abundance; exposed, waste. What is clashed should emerge; substantial, it increases profit.” Profound Meaning of the Central Documents says: “What I conquer is Wife Wealth; strong stems give riches.” Another says: “Weak Body with much Wealth favors brothers and Sheep Blade as assistance.” Another: “Flourishing Wealth does no harm meeting Equal.” Another: “Wife Wealth clear and bright: tall trees seek one another. Wealth Star entering Tomb must punish the wife; Wealth concealed beneath branches favors secondary wives and cherished concubines.” An oral formula says: “Excessive Wealth Star gives foolishness.” Another: “Major fortune, flowing year, and three harmonies in Wealth territory must bring Red Luan's auspicious omen.” Thousand-Li Horse says: “Wealth's source robbed makes the father's life fall first.” Another: “A man with much Wealth and weak Body listens particularly to his wife. Wealth Star obtaining position brings riches and a household through the wife. Wealth meeting Long Life gives vast fields and gardens. Flourishing Wealth generates Office, raising a commoner to honor.” The Rhapsody of Original Principle says: “Great nobles use Wealth rather than Office.” Another: “Wealth arriving at flourishing ground gives much blessing.” Another: “Solitude and widowhood arise only because Wealth Spirit is robbed.” Secret Instructions says: “Born Wealth and flourishing Body balanced dislike Equal appearing again.” Wanqi says: “Direct Wealth at Birth and Flourishing leisurely enjoys blessing; Robbing Wealth brings obscurity, obstruction, and groaning. Office Star brings lifelong disputes; Seven Killings makes undertakings mostly fail. Flourishing Wealth and declining Body give deep calamity and shallow blessing. Much Wealth and weak Body need Seal supporting Body. Strong Body and declining Wealth fear Robbing's division and seizure. Wealth and Food entering Storehouse give deep blessing; seeking Wealth through the damaged Li-Food expression gives poverty and early death.” A poem says: “Direct Wealth favors flourishing and abundant Food, with a strong Day Ruler able to carry it. Much Wealth and weak self bring lifelong ruin and unsuccessful affairs.” Another: “Direct Wealth resembles monthly Office, most fearing disruption and clash in stems and branches. Annual or major fortune in flourishing Wealth must give riches surpassing Lord Tao.” Another: “Direct Wealth firmly avoids Robbing Wealth Spirit; disruption, harm, punishment, and clash defy favorable judgment. Still less can annual and major fortunes meet Blade ground: even a surviving life meets distress.” Another: “Wealth Star obtaining position properly holds authority; a high, strong Day Ruler has reputation and profit complete. Seal and Ribbon further assisting fill coffers with gold and pearls and continue blessing.” Another: “Strong Body without Office takes only Wealth; Wealth Spirit clashed or broken instead gives calamity. Declining Body and flourishing Wealth also indicate early death; abundant Office and strong Body mediate blessing and Emolument.” Another: “Why does much Wealth not develop Wealth? Only because Body is weak with little cultivation. Equal fortune on Body-flourishing ground brings wealth, nobility, and honor in sequence.” Another: “Much Wealth and weak Body with strong Blade find Body-flourishing territory greatly inauspicious. Lonely phoenixes lament cold nights; wives weep in the chamber two or three times.” Another: “Wealth Spirit avoids emergence and should only hide. Flourishing Body meeting it gives great prosperity. Carefully avoid Equal and Robbing gathering, dividing lifelong reputation and profit.” Another: “Much Wealth and flourishing Body give ample honor and joy; strong Body with much Wealth transforms into Office. Declining Body with much Wealth is burdened by Wealth, with unmastered disputes raising contention.” Combining these accounts reveals Direct Wealth's preferences and avoidances.
Translator's note: All generation/strength conditions, hidden/exposed and before/after distinctions, three explicit stem/month examples, quoted authorities, and nine concluding poems are retained. The tall-tree marriage expression and damaged Li-Food phrase are not replaced by invented rules. Contrasting statements favoring or rejecting Office, Equal, abundant Wealth, or Body-strengthening fortune retain their separate contexts. Historical gender, family, illness, status, and lifespan claims are translated as source assertions.
Direct Horse in the Year
Examples are a Jia day with Ji at Wu year, or an Yi day with Wu at Si year. Preferences and avoidances are the same as monthly-stem Direct Wealth. With Direct Horse in the year, birth in Chen, Xu, Chou, or Wei month or a summer month has vigorous, flourishing Ji Earth. Without punishment, clash, division, or seizure and with a flourishing day stem, substantial inherited ancestral property is indicated. Yin or Mao monthly command with Equal further in the pillars, or fortune on Hurting and Robbing ground, must indicate poverty and hardship.
Translator's note: The source's two year-position examples and subsequent specific Ji Earth condition are retained without extending the latter into an unstated rule for every stem.
Direct Horse in the Hour
An example is a Jia day carrying Si or Wu hour. Without punishment, clash, disruption, or Robbing, it indicates obtaining a beautiful wife, outside assets, honored and noble children, and substantial property. This is not parental Wealth but Wealth from outside oneself, attracting and establishing property. Frugality is appropriate, extravagance not.
Translator's note: The source distinguishes acquired outside property from inheritance; both that distinction and the Si/Wu example remain.
Flourishing Wealth Generating Office
The Continuing Goodness chapter says: “Riches together with rank must arise from flourishing Wealth generating Office.” Wealth has the principle of generating Office, but once Wealth is selected for use, Office should not be seen: visible Office makes a Wealth-and-Office configuration instead. Hurting or Food in the pillars prevents even abundant Wealth from generating Office. Wu and Ji take Hai, Zi, Ren, and Gui as Wealth, and Yin, Mao, Jia, and Yi as Office. Birth in Renzi or Guihai month with no Yin, Mao, Jia, or Yi in the four pillars is Flourishing Wealth Generating Office. Such a chart reaches nobility through riches, for instance through grain contributions for rank or a marriage-related court title. If monthly Wealth has no injury or conquest, examination success is also indicated. Geng or Xin emerging prevents generation and this configuration is not used.
Translator's note: The absence of visible Office, exclusion of Hurting/Food and Geng/Xin, and both explicit monthly examples are retained. Historical routes to rank are not modern recommendations.
Heavenly Origin Seated on Wealth
Gengchen or Xinmao day born in spring takes Jia and Yi Wood as Wealth. Wu and Ji Seal generating Body and Ren and Gui Food generating Wealth are favored; Geng and Xin Metal robbing and seizing are avoided. Office or Killing in the year is firmly prohibited: spring Metal is weak and cannot bear the task, so no blessing results. Jiawu or Yiwei day born in summer takes Ji Earth as Wealth; Jiachen day born in summer takes Wu Earth as Wealth; Bingxu or Dingchou day born in autumn takes Xin Metal as Wealth. Their preferences and avoidances follow the preceding example. Only Renwu and Guisi, Emolument and Horse in the Same Homeland, are not judged exclusively as Wealth.
Translator's note: All seven Wealth day examples and the two Renwu/Guisi exceptions are retained. Wu and Ji Earth are distinguished as the source lists them.
Indirect Wealth
What is Indirect Wealth? It is exemplified by Jia seeing Wu and Yi seeing Ji. It is not what a wife brings, but other people's Wealth. Sisters and brothers dividing and seizing are firmly avoided. Without Office Star in the pillars, a hundred calamities arise. A classic says: “Indirect Wealth likes emergence and does not fear concealment; it only fears division and seizure and falling into Void. Either makes Office fail to form and Wealth fail to stay.” Weak Wealth must wait for flourishing territory to gain honor. Abundant Wealth is beneficial wherever it goes, fearing only a powerless Body unable to carry it. The Indirect Wealth configuration describes generosity, little stinginess, affection toward people yet much guile. Proper ground gives not only ample Wealth but flourishing Office, because abundant Wealth naturally generates Office. Vigorous, flourishing fortune brings both blessing and Emolument; Office territory can immediately develop blessing. Original Office Star makes a good chart, but brothers repeatedly emerging make blessing slight even in Office territory. Indirect Wealth carried by the monthly command is heaviest; many further occurrences in the pillars are unsuitable. Annual Indirect Wealth at Birth and Flourishing, connected in energy with the month and pillars, gives ample inherited property from uncles or ancestors, or property and care from maternal grandparents. Above all the Day Ruler must prosper and Wealth Star be born and flourish; fortune toward flourishing Wealth develops blessing. Punishment, clash, disruption, harm, Equal and Robbing dividing and seizing, excessively declining Wealth, excessively weak Day Ruler, or much Wealth generating Killing all make a fate of ruined ancestral property and toil. Monthly Wealth indicates youthful wealth and nobility. If the birth hour lacks ground or has Robbing or Defeat and fortune further enters harmful ground, ancestral Wealth is exhausted late in life, ending in lifelong hardship: rich first, poor later. If year and month originally lack Wealth but day and hour carry it, without Robbing, Defeat, clash, or conquest, oneself establishes a household and greatly advances in middle and later years. Much Wealth and weak Body, with youth further passing through Rest and Defeat, bring repeated troubles and universal frustration. After the middle period, in a slightly damaged expression, sudden arrival on parental ground or three harmonies assisting oneself causes rapid rise. Youth riding flourishing but old age leaving the configuration brings not only desolation on poverty's road but swarming disputes, since Wealth can benefit oneself and attract slander. Mutually generating four pillars with another noble configuration, no Void, flourishing fortune, and a three-harmony Wealth Star are noble charts. The depth of blessing and Emolument follows the configuration's weight. Another account says two Wealth positions in a chart do no harm even with weak Body. Originally using Direct Wealth, flourishing Body develops Wealth; originally using Indirect Wealth, flourishing Body loses Wealth. Another says Direct and Indirect Wealth largely share preferences and avoidances, differing slightly in whether Office Star is favored. Having Indirect Wealth is better than Direct Wealth. Solid, substantial Indirect Wealth gives deep blessing. Robbing, Defeat, and Equal are most feared, heaviest in the year and somewhat less in the month. One is named Solitary Star, another Pursuing Horse, indicating harm to wife and children, lost Wealth, poverty and scant means, and requiring care against hidden thieves, lesser people, and injury by one's own kind. Even with the original prohibition, flourishing Wealth fortune can develop blessing. Further Equal or Robbing fortune can bring decline and death or official calamity and ruin. The Rhapsody of Penetrating Clarity says: “Monthly Indirect Wealth without Robbing or Defeat gives unsurpassed riches.” The Rhapsody of Reading the Heart says: “Indirect Wealth emerging takes Wealth lightly and values righteousness, loves people's attentions, enjoys discussing right and wrong, and craves wine and sexual beauty.” The Rhapsody that Startles Spirits says: “Indirect Wealth with flourishing Body is a person pursuing profit through commerce.” Profound Meaning says: “Indirect Wealth can benefit longevity and extend years.” Thousand-Li Horse says: “Appearing Indirect Wealth gives little love for the principal wife and more for concubines.” An old song says: “Indirect Wealth is originally everyone's Wealth, most avoiding sibling stems and branches. Strong Body and flourishing Wealth are all blessing; Office Star makes it finer still.” Another: “Indirect Wealth with flourishing Body needs Office Star. Fortune entering its territory develops reputation and profit. Sisters and brothers dividing and seizing leave fame unfulfilled and calamity following.” Another: “Indirect Wealth in its position develops abroad. Generous and romantic, its nature must be strong. Separate households in two or three places keep oneself busy for reputation and profit.”
Translator's note: The hidden/exposed, year/month/day/hour, youthful/late-life, and Direct-versus-Indirect distinctions remain, including the explicit claim that flourishing Body can lose Indirect Wealth. The damaged middle-period expression, all cited character and family assertions, and all three poems are retained. No financial outcome or personal trait is independently verified here.
Indirect Wealth in the Hour
The Preferences and Avoidances chapter says: “Indirect Wealth in the hour fears brothers,” as a Jia day seeing Wuchen or the printed Jiaxu hour. Favor Xin Office and Ren and Gui's generation and assistance; avoid Geng Killing and Yi Robbing. Wu and Ji should not appear again in the pillars. If Body is too flourishing, eastern Yin and Mao fortune loses Wealth. Infer other stems similarly. Like hour Indirect Office, this needs only one occurrence, not many. Emerging in Heavenly Origin is excellent; hidden in a branch is second best. Office and Seal assisting in the pillars and a healthy, flourishing Day Ruler make a good chart. Year and month clashing or breaking it and brothers emerging repeatedly are greatly feared, making blessing incomplete. An old poem says: “Hour Indirect Wealth most avoids clash and fears all sibling influences. Fortune favors flourishing Body and Office Emolument territory; with no further emergence, there is nobility.”
Translator's note: Jiaxu rather than an unannounced Wuxu correction remains in the opening example. The single-occurrence, concealed/emerging, and excessive-Body qualifications are retained.
Abandoning the Natal Self to Follow Wealth
Walking Alone says: “Abandoning the natal self to follow Wealth requires Wealth gathering. If root energy appears, harm to life is beyond doubt.” Ding born in You month, with much Geng and Xin in the pillars and an energy-less day stem, must abandon self and follow. Northern fortune on flourishing Wealth and Office ground fits the configuration; southern movement brings calamity. An old song says: “Energy-less day stem and Wealth filling the chart make abandoning self and following blessing's foundation. Flourishing Wealth and Office fortune gives blessing and nobility; root assistance instead brings calamity.”
Translator's note: The northern/southern distinction and reversal when the day stem gains root or assistance follow the supplied text; no missing stem or seasonal rule is added.
Day Seated on Heavenly Wealth
Wu and Ji Earth conquer Water as Wealth, and Chen is Water's Tomb. An old song says: “The year stem conquering below is Heavenly Wealth; conquering Tomb's territory opens the proper Storehouse. Wealth entering Storehouse gives much grain and silk, a grand household with gold and goods piled high.” Examination champion Bi's chart, Jisi, Guiyou, Gengchen, Jiashen, is an example.
Translator's note: The day-seated title, year-stem verse, Wu/Ji explanation, and complete Gengchen-day example are retained without silently replacing one with another.
Combined Discussion of Direct and Indirect Wealth
Jingji has Generated Wealth: Jia and Yi see Wu and Ji Earth as Wealth, seated upon Birth, Flourishing, and Storehouse in Shen, Zi, and Chen, with Wushen, Wuchen, and Wuzi stems and branches forming combination. A chart fitting a noble configuration must, beyond nobility, also have great riches and often offices administering money and grain. Without a noble configuration or blessing spirit's assistance, it still gives a wealthy commoner. Self-Birth or self-Flourishing, as a Jia person seeing Wuwu or Jihai, indicates riches; infer others similarly. There is Generating-and-Combining Wealth: Jia seeing Wu and Gui, Ji seeing Gui and Wu, Geng seeing Jia and Ji, giving establishment, riches, and rank. There is Mother-and-Child Wealth, such as a Wood fate seeing Fire month and Earth day or hour, indicating many happy events. There is Kindred Wealth Killing: Yin–Wu–Xu people seeing Yi and Geng, Si–You–Chou Ding and Ren, Shen–Zi–Chen Wu and Gui, Hai–Mao–Wei the damaged Jia-Hao sequence. Also named Hidden Subtle Killing, it brings reputation and profit together. There is Wealth-Gathering Killing: Yin–Wu–Xu people seeing Xinchou, Si–You–Chou Yiwei, Shen–Zi–Chen Bingxu, Hai–Mao–Wei Wuchen. This spirit gathers Wife Wealth, indicating abundance, a beautiful wife, and unexpected Wealth, but an awkward clause warns of a wife-related person's poison endangering life. There is Reputation-and-Position Wealth: Storehouse encountered within Food Spirit. A Wuzi Fire person seeing Gengxu has Wu feeding upon Geng, Fire's Storehouse at Xu, and conquest of Metal as Wealth, giving lifelong Emolument. There is Wealth at Long Life: Jia using Wu and Ji as Wealth sees Wushen, or Gui using Bing and Ding sees Bingyin, often obtaining outside Wealth. Another account says practitioners mostly take Jia seeing Wu or Yi seeing Ji as Wealth, unaware that Jia–Ji seeing Bing–Xin, or Bing–Xin seeing Wu–Gui, are True Wealth. Birth in energized, vigorous, flourishing positions indicates great riches. Nayin's own original stem seeing a true phase also counts: Yihai people seeing Geng in month, day, or hour have Fire Nayin and Yi–Geng true Metal, so the stem itself is Wealth. Named Heavenly Wealth, it gives abundance and ease. If Nayin instead conquers the stem-head phase, as Dingmao Fire restraining Yi–Geng Metal, it is Ghost Wealth, indicating lifelong worldly Wealth or establishment as a powerful, crafty petty official. Wuyin or Wushen obtaining Bing–Xin, and Yiyou or Yimao obtaining Wu–Gui, follow this. Further Chen, Xu, Chou, or Wei indicates arts and skills and great worldly Wealth.
Translator's note: All seven named Wealth varieties and subsequent True/Heavenly/Ghost Wealth discussions, examples and four branch-group tables are retained. Jia-Hao and the wife-related poison phrase are damaged source wording, not reconstructed formulas. The source's overlap and contrast between Heavenly and Ghost Wealth are preserved rather than harmonized.
Seal and Ribbon names the phase that generates me, such as Jia and Yi in Hai or Zi month and Bing and Ding in Yin or Mao month. It is the source of my energy, generative energy and parents, protecting Office Star against injury and conquest. Like receiving things that assist and nourish a person, it grants ready-made blessing: how could this not be excellent? The configuration describes intelligence, much wisdom, kindness, benevolent speech, slow or hesitant expression, substantial appearance, good appetite, little lifelong illness, freedom from violent calamity, but stinginess. Officials mostly hold regular office and receive imperial commissions, civil or military, all administering seals. Office Star is favored because Office generates Seal. A classic says: “Seal relies on Office's generation.” Another: “Office without Seal is not true Office; Seal with Office completes deep blessing.” Wealth Star is avoided because Wealth breaks Seal. A classic says: “Seal and Ribbon in birth month, year, or hour avoids Wealth Star. Fortune entering Wealth territory should prompt retirement and withdrawal from office.” Annual and major fortunes are judged alike. Undamaged Seal often receives parental shelter and ready-made assets, peacefully enjoying wealth and nobility. Compared with other charts, many Seals rank high. Month is most important, day and hour next. The year stem is weighty but must return to Emolument in month, day, or hour for use. Annual Seal exposed without it elsewhere accomplishes nothing. Original Office Star is excellent. Few Seals and many Offices or Ghosts, or another configuration forming, prevent exclusive Seal judgment. Seal meeting Arching Emolument, Exclusive Emolument, Returning Emolument, Rat Nobility, Flanking Nobility, or Hour Nobility is especially remarkable, but indicates few or no sons. Many Seals give purity and solitude. Seal generally favors Seven Killings, but not too many, which injure Body. Originally absent Seven Killings encountered in fortune bring advancement. Originally present Seven Killings followed by Wealth fortune, Seal's Death or Extinction, or Tomb ground are all harmful. A classic says: “Killing generates Seal but fears Wealth territory, which breaks Seal and assists Ghost, surely inauspicious.” Other configurations favor strong Body; Seal alone favors weak birth. If original Wealth injures Seal, Equal and Robbing fortune strengthening Body can also develop blessing; without this it is unsuitable. Without Office, Killing, or Wealth Spirit, further Body-flourishing fortune gives ordinary status. The Yuanyuan discussion takes Jia day in Zi month as Direct Seal, Hai month Indirect Seal, most favoring Heavenly and Monthly Virtue. Zi has Heavenly Virtue at Xun and Monthly Virtue at Ren; Hai has Heavenly Virtue at Yi and Monthly Virtue at Jia. You/Xin Direct Office in the hour is excellent, or Shen/Geng Seven Killings, but Equal and Robbing must assist Body and combine Killing for nobility. Fear Wu and Ji Wealth injuring Seal, and avoid Bing and Ding Food/Hurting generating Wealth to break it. Yi in Hai or Zi month has the same preferences. Bing day in Mao month has Direct Seal, Heavenly Virtue at Kun and Monthly Virtue at Jia; Yin month has Indirect Seal, Heavenly Virtue at Ding and Monthly Virtue at Bing. Favor Zi/Gui Direct Office or Ren/Hai Seven Killings, with Equal and Robbing assisting Body and combining Killing. Fear Shen/Geng and You/Xin Wealth injuring Seal, and avoid Wu and Ji Food/Hurting generating Wealth to break it. Ding in Yin or Mao month follows Bing. Wu day in Wu month has Direct Seal, Heavenly Virtue at Hai and Monthly Virtue at Bing; Si month has Indirect Seal, Heavenly Virtue at Xin and Monthly Virtue at Geng. Favor Mao/Yi Direct Office or Yin/Jia Seven Killings, with Equal and Robbing assisting Body and combining Killing. Avoid Ren and Gui Wealth ruining Seal and Shen, Geng, and Xin Food/Hurting generating Wealth to break it. Ji in Si or Wu month follows Wu. Geng day in Wu month has Direct Seal, Heavenly Virtue at Qian and Monthly Virtue at Bing; Si month has Indirect Seal, Heavenly Virtue at Xin and Monthly Virtue at Geng. Favor Wu/Ding Office Star or Si/Bing Seven Killings, with Equal and Robbing assisting Body and combining Killing. Avoid Jia, Yi, Yin, and Mao flourishing Wealth ruining Seal, Ren and Gui Hurting/Food, and the printed Wu Wealth breaking Seal. Xin in Si or Wu month follows Geng. Ren day in You month has Direct Seal, Heavenly Virtue at Yin and Monthly Virtue at Geng; Shen month has Indirect Seal, Heavenly Virtue at Gui and Monthly Virtue at Ren. Favor hour Si/Wu Direct Office or Ji/Wu Seven Killings, with Equal and Robbing assisting Body and combining Killing. Avoid Bing and Ding flourishing Wealth ruining Seal, Jia and Yi Food/Hurting, and again the printed Wu Wealth breaking Seal. Gui in Shen or You month follows Ren. A classic says: “Official punishment does not infringe when Seal and Ribbon share a palace with Heavenly Virtue.” Another: “Vegetarian and kind-hearted, Seal and Ribbon gladly meet Heavenly Virtue.” Censor Meng Zhong's chart, Yihai, Dinghai, Yichou, Bingxu, has Seal and Heavenly Virtue in one palace. Jiayin, Bingyin, Bingyin, Dingyou has Heavenly Virtue at Ding, Monthly Virtue at Bing, and Seal at Yin. Gengshen, Gengchen, Gengzi, Renwu has both Virtues at Ren and Seal at Chen. This configuration principally needs Birth and Flourishing and most avoids Death and Extinction. Yi seeing Hai or Zi as Seal, with Metal, completes benevolence, righteousness, generation, and nourishment. Seal's origin meeting Earth mixes the configuration. Northwestern Office and Seal fortune brings blessing. If the hour leads back to Mao, Chen, or Si, or fortune enters them, Wealth and Seal return to Death or Extinction; a flowing year further bringing Wealth conquering Seal is said to assure death. A fitting Seal configuration most avoids Seal transforming through combination in major fortune: branch three harmonies becoming Hurting, Wealth, or Killing configurations are most inauspicious. A rhapsody says: “Metal relies on Earth's generation, but thick Earth buries Metal. Wood takes Water's nourishment, but excessive Water makes Wood drift. Blazing Fire and dry Earth cannot generate things,” as Ji day obtaining Wu. “Hard Metal cannot generate Water,” as Geng day obtaining Xu. Flourishing Earth meeting flourishing Fire must give eye illness, abscesses, or febrile disease. Filthy Earth cannot generate Metal, dry Metal cannot generate Water, and Extinct Water cannot generate Wood. Examine such cases closely rather than judging all as Seal alike. Water generated by Metal in autumn forms Clear Water and White Metal, praiseworthy refinement. One Water and three Metals are named the Complete Body Image. Fire generated by Wood in spring forms Refined Wood and Bright Fire, displaying red and green flames. Metal injures the Wood and extinguishes Fire. Thus abundant Metal and Wood Seals are both judged auspicious; much Fire Seal gives dry Fire and scorching Earth, much Water Seal gives flooding and drifting Wood, much Earth Seal buries Metal, all inauspicious. Another account lists these avoidances: Jia day/Zi month avoids Jisi hour and fears Wu clash; Yi day/Hai month avoids Wuchen hour and fears Si clash. Bing day/Mao month avoids Xinmao hour and fears You clash; Yin month avoids Gengyin hour and fears Shen clash. Ding day/Yin month avoids Gengzi hour and fears Shen clash; Mao month avoids Xinchou hour and fears You clash. Wu day/Wu month avoids Guimao hour and fears Zi clash. Ji day/Si month fears Renzi or Renxu hour and avoids Hai clash. Geng day/Wu month avoids Jimao or Yiyou hour and fears Zi clash; Si month avoids Wuyin hour and fears Hai clash. Xin day/Si month avoids Gengyin or Jiawu hour and fears Hai clash; Wu month avoids Xinmao or Yiwei hour and fears Zi clash. Ren day/You month avoids Dingwei hour and fears Mao clash; Shen month avoids Bingwu hour and fears Yin clash; You month is listed again with Dingsi hour avoided and Mao clash feared. All these day stems favor Equal opening the way and avoid Food/Hurting consuming Seal and generating Wealth. Violating this, with fortune further declining Body and Seal while Wealth flourishes, must greedily ruin Seal through Wealth, stripping office and post. A classic says: “Repeated Seal and Ribbon and Wealth Star obstruct a hundred affairs.” Another: “Pure monthly Seal without Wealth Star gives literary success in the highest examination list.” Another: “Strong Body and many Seals do no harm in Wealth fortune; weak Body with Seal suffers no injury from Killing fortune.” Another: “Rooted Seal favors Wealth Star; rootless Seal avoids Wealth. Office Star is Seal's root.” With Office and Wealth, Wealth generates Office, Office Seal, Seal Body, and Body conquers Wealth, giving honor and nobility; thus Wealth is not avoided. Another: “Rooted Seal develops with Wealth, gains distinction with Office, darkens with combination, and meets calamity with clash.” The Rhapsody of Penetrating Clarity says: “Wealth and Seal interwoven require weighing their energy. Light Wealth and heavy Seal mean abandon Wealth and take Seal for evident nobility. Light Seal and heavy Wealth mean abandon Seal and take Wealth; though turning from Emolument, strong repeated stems and branches instead become assets.” Precious Mirror says: “Seal and Ribbon injured by Wealth means the mother dies young.” Profound Meaning says: “Seal and Ribbon injured loses ancestral property and leaves the homeland.” The Luoyi Rhapsody says: “Seal at the child position receives the child's honor.” Thousand-Li Horse says: “Encountering Seal, inspect Office: seven in ten with Office are noble.” On Making Subtlety says: “Seal meeting brilliance occupies honored academy office.” The Wanqi Rhapsody says: “Direct Seal with Wealth is harmful, with Office auspicious. Office without Seal, though wealthy and noble, has injury or disability; Seal without Office, though glorious, has loss. Four pillars fear Death and Extinction; Three Origins gladly see Long Life.” An old poem says: “Seal and Ribbon gives considerable blessing, enjoying ready-made abundance while young. Vigorous, flourishing many Seals give deep blessing, receiving grace and shelter to establish merit and fame.” Another: “Monthly Seal favors Office Star; Office-territory fortune must give pure blessing. Death and Extinction fortune is unfavorable to Body; further Wealth fortune achieves nothing.” Another: “Unimpaired Seal enjoys complete blessing, official shelter, fields and gardens. Imperial commissions bring abundant Wealth and grain, daily meals costing myriad coins.” Another: “Repeated Seal is pure and remarkable, yet inspect branches closely. Salty Pool in branches and combination in stems make a romantic wanderer ruining the household.” Another: “Repeated Seal enjoys ready-made abundance, but Food Spirit's secret punishment is feared. If not dying young, solitude, departure from home, and chronic illness follow.” Another: “Seal should not have excessively flourishing Body; even without trouble, it is ordinary. Unless the original chart has many Offices or Killings, fame and service as a pillar do not arise.” Another: “Pure flourishing energy for one born with Seal gains spirit from many Offices and Killings. Seal at Death or Extinction and Wealth ground, without rescue, ends beneath the springs.” Combining these accounts reveals Seal and Ribbon's preferences and avoidances.
Translator's note: All five stem-pair/month/Virtue tables, three complete example charts, repeated Ren/You-hour entries, and seven concluding poems are retained. Xun/Kun/Qian and the source's Wu-Wealth phrases are not silently replaced. The contrast between initially praising many Seals and later limiting them, and between avoiding Wealth and permitting it with rooted Seal, remains conditional and explicit. Historical family, illness, longevity, examination, and official claims are translated as source assertions.
Generative Seal in the Hour
A Jia day with Zi hour takes Gui Water within Zi as Seal assisting the Day Ruler. The person is described as intelligent and resourceful, peacefully enjoying Food and Emolument. Xin Office in year or month should generate Seal. Northwestern Office and Seal fortune then makes a noble chart. Heavy Wu and Ji Earth in the pillars, further Wu clashing and breaking, and southeastern fortune put Office and Seal at Decline or Extinction. Nothing succeeds; the person is a petty public official or marketplace worker.
Translator's note: The specific Jia/Zi/Xin mechanism, opposed fortune directions, and all adverse conditions remain historical source judgments.
Womb and Conception Meeting Seal and Ribbon
A classic says: “Womb and Conception meeting Seal and Ribbon enjoy a thousand measures of Emolument.” Examples are Gengyin, Xinmao, Bingshen, and Yiyou, with day, hour, and monthly command meeting Seal and Ribbon ground, indicating nobility. A classic says: “The day/hour Womb-and-Conception configuration, month connected with Seal and Ribbon, and fortune assisted by Killing, Office, and Seal places rank among the Three Dukes.”
Translator's note: All four supplied day examples remain, including Yiyou; no alternative stem is inserted.
Abandoning Seal to Approach Wealth
A classic says: “In abandoning Seal to approach Wealth, distinguish Direct and Indirect.” Seal and Ribbon avoids Wealth: the principle is clear. Direct Seal occupying the monthly command must not see Wealth. If Direct Seal occupies year or hour while monthly command sees Wealth, use only the Wealth configuration, favoring Seal generating Body to contend with Wealth for blessing. With Indirect Seal, Wealth in month, year, or hour does no harm: this is Abandoning Seal to Approach Wealth, discarding the light and using the heavy. Ren born in Shen month or Bing in Yin month sits on Long Life; Wealth in year or hour means flourishing Body favoring Wealth ground. Such transformation must indicate abandoning ancestral foundations and independently establishing a different occupation or property.
Translator's note: The differing treatment of monthly Direct Seal versus annual/hourly Direct Seal and Indirect Seal, and both Long Life examples, are retained rather than reduced to an unconditional Wealth prohibition.
Reversed Food means Indirect Seal, also named Swallowing-and-Devouring Killing, most avoided by Food Spirit. Jia generates Bing Fire as Food; Fire generates Earth as Jia's Wealth; flourishing Wealth generates Metal as Jia's Office. Food Spirit at Birth and Flourishing thus provides both Wealth and Office. Jia seeing Ren is Reversed Food because flourishing Ren conquers Bing Fire. Bing removed cannot generate Earth, leaving Jia no Wealth. Ren combines Ding into action to injure Jia's Xin, leaving Jia no Office. Ren removing Bing lets Geng Killing rest securely and injure Jia Wood, producing calamity. This is why those using Food avoid it. Charts carrying Reversed Food have shallow blessing and early death in the source, unless restraint or combination exists. Jia day seeing Renchen or Renxu has Earth within Chen/Xu restraining and Ding combining; Yi seeing Guiwei or Guichou has Ji within Chou/Wei restraining Gui; Bing sees Jiashen; Ding Yisi or Yiyou; Wu Bingzi, Bingshen, or Bingchen; Ji Dinghai; Geng Wuyin or Wuchen; Xin Jimao or Jihai; Ren Gengwu or Gengxu; Gui Xinsi or Xinwei. These Indirect Seals cannot harm Food because they are restrained. With flourishing Body and both Wealth and Office born, they can be taken as blessing assisting Body. On yang days they can secretly combine Hurting Office to generate Wealth; on yin days secretly combine Wealth Star. Without Food in the pillars, judge only as Indirect Seal. Another account says Food encountering Owl resembles an elder restraining oneself, preventing freedom. Undertakings advance and retreat, with regret and idleness, beginnings without endings, and repeated success and failure in Wealth's source. Appearance is crooked, stature small, courage timid and heart insecure; nothing succeeds, six relations are harmed, mother injured in childhood and wife and children in adulthood. A rhapsody says: “Reversed Food is named Indirect Seal and called Owl Spirit. With flourishing Body, ample Wealth and deep blessing follow; with punishment and Killing, early death and poverty. Wealth Star appearing makes one travel beneath stars and moon without pause; Killing Star born brings carrying burdens with no fixed day of rest. Weak Body repeatedly meeting Indirect Seal fears Yan Hui's injury; proper Food meeting Owl cannot avoid Han Xin's disaster. First encounter brings mental idleness; repeated infringement crooked appearance.” The Wanqi Rhapsody says: “Owl Spirit seeing Office and Killing has much success and failure. Indirect Seal meeting Wealth luminary turns disgrace to honor. Strong Body is noble, weak Body ordinary. Hurting Office gives lifelong abundance; Food Spirit makes life solitary.” An old poem says: “Indirect Seal Star is Owl Spirit, most favoring Wealth Star within the pillars. Flourishing Body with this makes blessing; declining Body with flourishing Owl is more unfeeling.” Bingxu, Bingshen, Jiaxu, Renshen has Jia seeing Bing Food and Ren Reversed Food. Jia born in Shen month is restrained by Killing and without energy; two Bing steal energy, Ren restrains Bing, and Killing acts freely, so there is no reputation or profit. Renshen, Renzi, Jiaxu, Bingyin gathers Seal and returns Emolument, with Water's essence and Fire's spirit, the image of Wood and Fire communicating brightness. Jiwei, Renshen, Jiazi, Bingyin transforms Killing into Seal, returns Emolument with refinement, and has Wood and Fire's communicating brightness and pure, remarkable Water and Wood. The latter two charts are both greatly noble. Previously avoided Reversed Food becomes noble with restraint or combination: never judge harm merely upon seeing it.
Translator's note: All ten day-stem rescue groups, three complete charts, cited character descriptions, and the original author's final rejection of automatic harm judgments are retained. The separate no-Food/Indirect-Seal interpretation and contrasting effects of Wealth, Hurting Office, and Food remain. Medical, family, and death comparisons are historical source assertions.
Mixed Qi means Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei. Chen contains Yi, Wu, and Gui and is Water and Earth's Storehouse; Xu contains Xin, Wu, and Ding and is Fire's Storehouse; Chou contains Gui, Xin, and Ji and is Metal's Storehouse; Wei contains Ding, Ji, and Yi and is Wood's Storehouse. According to the hidden energy and one's day stem, each may be Office, Wealth, or Seal. Office blesses Body, Wealth sustains life, and Seal supports Body: all are essential. Each of the Four Storehouses hides three things, Heaven and Earth's non-pure energy, hence Mixed. A classic says: “Wealth, Office, and Seal and Ribbon are all stored within the four season-ending months.” This configuration favors emergence, clash, and punishment, avoiding suppression and concealment. Other preferences and avoidances follow proper-energy Wealth, Office, and Seal. A six-Jia day in Chou month takes Xin Metal as Office, Ji Earth as Wealth, and Gui Water as Seal. Inspect which character emerges for blessing, the solar term's early or late position, and what holds command. Generally emerging Wealth gives riches, Office nobility, and Seal ready-made ancestral blessing and nobility through imperial commission or shelter. Without emergence, slight clash or punishment with flourishing Body is excellent. Weak Body is avoided; excessive clash and punishment disperse gathered blessing. If something already disrupts or harms the pillars, do not meet corresponding fortune again: excess clashes away refined energy and is inauspicious. Without original disruption or harm, clashing or punitive fortune is favored. Jingjian says: “Mixed-Qi Wealth and Office develop with flourishing Body and clash; excess instead gives solitude and poverty.” Another account favors many Wealth Stars in the four pillars; another configuration formed elsewhere should be judged on its own terms. Mixed-Qi Wealth and Office include Direct Office, Indirect Office, Direct Wealth, and Indirect Wealth; Mixed-Qi Seal includes Direct and Indirect Seal. Distinguish them. Indirect Office needs some restraint. Repeated Tombs and Storehouses without original punishment, clash, or emerging noble energy, further suppressed by Wu and Ji above, make youthful advancement hardest. Thus “Wealth and Office locked in youth do not develop the person within Tomb.” Another account says the Four Storehouses are also Decline, Nurture, and Cap-and-Belt territory. In the hour they form Hour Tomb, judged like monthly Tomb but developing later. Dinghai, Wuzi, Bingshen, Jichou uses Chou Tomb as Bing's Wealth Storehouse; Wei fortune clashing Chou develops Wealth. Seeing Ren, Chen is Office's Storehouse, and Xu fortune clashing Chen develops Office. Yet further Wuchen or Jichou suppressing Storehouse prevents both and makes a good chart difficult. Clash encountering combination cannot clash either. Another account takes monthly Storehouse as energy of east, west, south, north, and the four corners: Wei Wood going east, Xu Fire south, Chen Water north, and Chou Metal west reach flourishing Birth ground in fortune and must advance. Monthly Chen Water energy with southern fortune and no gathering or combination is judged only as Earth. Another account says the ancients took the five phases' Tombs as storehouses. Natal Storehouse receiving a phase conquered by the Grand Duke is Wealth Within Storehouse: Wood people obtaining Xinwei, Fire Gengxu, Earth Renchen, Water Jiachen, Metal Guichou. Such people must be abundant. Natal Tomb or Extinction instead receiving a phase the Grand Duke fears is Without Support at Extinction: Wood people Yiwei, Fire Renxu, Earth Wuchen, Metal Jichou, Water Bingchen. Such people must be obstructed. Pure, unbroken phases successively at Storehouse or Tomb, with blessing spirits arriving, form a Two Administrations configuration. Disruption at Birth/Flourishing or Death/Extinction, with blessing spirits, reduces the judgment. Conquest and disruption without blessing spirits give only commoner status. Regardless of rank, the Storehouse/Tomb configuration only flourishes oneself, disadvantages six relations, and makes children difficult. Storehouse-Head Ghost is Jia/Yi people seeing Xinwei, avoiding Dingsi; Bing/Ding Renxu, avoiding Wuyin; Wu/Ji Jiachen, avoiding Gengyin; Geng/Xin Dingchou, avoiding Guisi; Ren/Gui Wuchen, avoiding Jiayin. Also named Carriage Killing, violating its avoidance gives broken carriages, horses' broken feet, women's illness, or theft for ordinary people. The Shenbai Classic says infringement on the birthday can be useful; an hour not violating the avoidance often gives wealth and nobility, early examination success for gentlemen and outstanding skill for ordinary people. Storehouse-Head Wealth is Jia/Yi people Jiwei; Bing/Ding Gengxu; Wu/Ji Renchen; Geng/Xin Yichou; Ren/Gui Bingchen. Gentlemen often administer money and grain, ordinary people enjoy comfortable property: judge as emerging Wealth and Office. Metal seeing Jichou Fire, Wood Yiwei Metal, Water Bingchen Earth, Earth Wuchen Wood, or Fire Renxu Water is Ghost Encountered Within Tomb, exceedingly dangerous and doubtful. An old song says: “Mixed-Qi Wealth and Office use the monthly palace; emerging stems begin abundance. Much Wealth and flourishing Office suit clash and disruption, firmly avoiding heavy suppression by stems and branches.” Another: “Mixed Qi was never pure; emergence in stems makes it real. Strong Body and flourishing Wealth generate Office Emolument; clashing and punitive fortune gathers treasures.” Another: “Do not clash the monthly framework: nine of ten clashing charts are harmful. Only Wealth and Office meeting Tomb Storehouse instead succeed when fortune reaches it.” Another: “Hour Tomb meeting Office develops late, favoring clash and conquest as most remarkable. Without suppression, arrival at noble ground gives both high office and distinction.” Another: “Youthful non-advancement within Tomb means Wealth and Office locked behind Storehouse gates. Disruption and harm open the key; suppression and concealment end in suffering. Ding and Ren originally take Chen as Tomb; Wu Earth injuring turns riches poor. Yimao and Jiayin rescue together; Wealth Star surges out and naturally gives honor.” Another: “Mixed-Qi Wealth and Office resemble Seal. Heavy Ghost Wealth is most avoided; much generation of oneself is best. Though meeting the other is favored, balance is required. Much Wealth should prompt withdrawal from office; flourishing Office gives endless blessing. Remember greed for Wealth ruining Seal: efforts for snail-horn and fly-head gains are wasted.” Another: “Wealth and Office Mixed Qi hide in Storehouse, most favoring generation of Body into flourishing territory. Heavy Killing and light Body need restraint; much Wealth filling Storehouse needs clash and injury. If the five phases offer something, seek another configuration; the unfeeling four pillars have a damaged written-commentary expression instead. Annual and major fortunes reaching flourishing Wealth ground raise reputation daily to great strength.”
Translator's note: All four hidden-stem lists, six Direct/Indirect categories, the complete Hour-Tomb chart, all five-entry Storehouse tables, and seven concluding songs are retained. The source's Ding/Ren-at-Chen Tomb statement and damaged written-commentary phrase are not silently corrected. Clash opening a concealed Storehouse is distinguished from excessive clash dispersing it; suppression and combination exceptions remain.
Supplement on Tomb Fortune
Secret Instructions says: “Youth should not meet Tomb or Storehouse; old age meeting them instead becomes abundant.” Another says: “Flourishing Office, Seal, and Wealth entering Tomb bring calamity; Hurting Office, Food Spirit, and flourishing Body meeting Storehouse raise calamity.” Another: “Flourishing Killing entering Tomb makes allotted lifespan hard to extend.” Thus those using Office, Seal, Hurting Office, or Seven Killings all avoid Tomb/Storehouse fortune; only one's own Storehouse ground in later life is auspicious.
Translator's note: The differing initial list and final Useful-Spirit summary are retained as supplied, together with the explicit late-life exception.
Hurting Office means what I generate, exemplified by Jia seeing Ding and Yi seeing Bing. Jia uses Xin as Office. Flourishing Ding Fire steals my energy and restrains Xin Metal so it cannot assist Jia's nobility, hence Hurting Office. This configuration must injure Office completely before being judged noble. Original Office Star injured makes the matter severe. A classic says: “Hurting Office seeing Office brings a hundred calamities.” Though harmful, Hurting Office is my own generated thing. Complete injury can generate Wealth, flourishing Wealth can generate Office, and transformation revolves in favorable relation. If the monthly command is Hurting Office and four pillars combine into a configuration entirely on Hurting ground, without clash, disruption, or any Office Star, it is Complete Injury. Monthly-branch Hurting Office, hour Hurting Office, and no Office Star in the four pillars are also Complete Injury. Further flourishing Body and Wealth, or flourishing Seal, give examination fame and first-rank nobility. This configuration describes many talents and skills, contemptuous pride, a dangerous, unscrupulous heart, many plans with few fulfilled, cleverness defeating itself, belief that everyone is inferior, and others' fear and dislike. Hurting Office without Wealth indicates poverty. Food Spirit and Hurting Office generate Wealth energy; Seven Killings and Office Star steal it. Thus Hurting Office needs Wealth, not Office. Jia born in Wu month should not have Wood rush south; Body is too soft for further Metal restraint. Metal steals Earth's energy, hence Office is unwanted. Without Office but also without Wealth to rely upon, intelligence and cleverness give only empty reputation and profit. A classic says: “Hurting Office without Wealth, though clever, must be poor.” This configuration uses Wealth, but some use Seal. The Rhapsody of Heavenly Mystery says: “Hurting Office using Seal should remove Wealth; using Wealth should remove Seal. With both Wealth and Seal complete, how does blessing develop?” Strong Body uses Wealth, weak Body Seal. Using Seal must remove Wealth to develop blessing; using Wealth can prosper without considering Seal. Hurting Office using Seal does not avoid Office or Killing, but develops only after Wealth is removed. Originally infringing Hurting Office needs Wealth for advancement. Wealth fortune is most favored; Seal and Ribbon and Body-flourishing fortune come next. Office territory is disliked. Many Hurting Offices in the pillars with Office appearing should not again enter Hurting fortune; one occurrence does no harm. Another account insists on Complete Injury. Hurting Office with Office Star hidden or exposed, incompletely injured, followed by Office in annual or major fortune flourishing, further punishment, clash, disruption, harm, Blade or Killing conquering Body, weak Body and flourishing Wealth, must bring penal servitude, exile, or death. Rescue within the phases still leaves disability. Four pillars without Office but heavy Hurting and Killing, entering Office territory with the year's ruler meeting it too, must give eye illness or disastrous ruin. A classic says only Fire people with Earth Hurting Office and Earth people with Metal Hurting Office avoid Office Star; Metal people with Water, Water people with Wood, and Wood people with Fire do not. Fire takes Water as Office and Earth as Hurting; Water fears Earth's conquest and Earth gains nothing from Water. Earth takes Wood as Office and Metal as Hurting; Wood fears Metal and Metal gains nothing from Wood. Hence Fire/Earth Hurting configurations avoid Office. Metal takes Water as Hurting and Fire as Office. Though Water conquers Fire, cold Metal and chilly Water need Fire's warmth to benefit things, and Water obtains Fire for mutual completion. Water takes Wood as Hurting and Earth as Office. Though Wood conquers Earth, flooding Water and floating Wood need Earth's restraint to survive, and Wood obtains Earth for cultivation. Wood takes Fire as Hurting and Metal as Office. Though Fire conquers Metal, tangled Wood and resting Fire need Metal's cutting to communicate brightness, and Metal obtains Fire to become useful. Hence Metal, Water, and Wood Hurting configurations do not avoid Office. A classic therefore says: “Fire/Earth Hurting should injure completely; Metal/Water Hurting needs Office. Wood/Fire seeing Office requires flourishing Office. Earth/Metal removing Office instead completes Office. Only Water/Wood Hurting rejoices when both Wealth and Office appear.” Another account says Complete Injury sometimes brings no blessing, while Hurting Office seeing Office sometimes brings no calamity. Dingwei, Dingwei, Bingwu, Bingwu has Bing seated on flourishing Wu, with two Wu, two Ding, and two Wei completely injuring Wealth and Office. Yet Fire is too abundant and energy theft heavy. Southeastern flourishing-Fire fortune has no Wealth; Body flourishes emptily without support, giving extreme poverty. Do not call Complete Injury with strong Body automatically good. A Jia day with Xin Office and Ding Hurting, born in autumn with flourishing Office, may have Ding on Hai or Zi or Wu beneath Ren or Gui. Ding then cannot injure Office, and rank remains. Annual or major fortune meeting Killing, Office, or Seal is auspicious; Body-declining and Defeat fortune is avoided. Do not reject a chart merely because Hurting configuration contains Office Star. Another account says a little original Hurting Office cannot damage noble energy. Office-territory fortune with independently strong Office, Seal fortune restraining Hurting and Killing, Wealth assisting, or following transformation into another configuration can all preserve a good chart. Further Hurting ground is feared, sometimes causing fatal illness, otherwise paperwork disputes, litigation, ruin, and calamities following one another. Original Wealth with Wealth fortune can achieve merit, fame, profit, and Emolument. Office/Killing ground or Wealth's Decline, Defeat, Death, and Extinction loses Wealth and Emolument, with lawsuits or repeated mourning. Another account says annual-stem Hurting Office is heaviest, called Blessing's Foundation Injured, irremovable for life. More in the monthly branch is worse than Body-injuring Seven Killings. Jia using Xin Office, seeing Dingmao year and birth in Yin, Wu, or Xu month, repeatedly infringes Hurting Office. Mao is also Robbing Blade, named Turning Away from Emolument and Pursuing Horse. Character is retreating and regretful, ancestral shelter injured. Office fortune with a matching flowing year, or flourishing Killing and weak Body fortune, must bring calamity. True monthly-command Hurting Office with Office Star includes Jia born in Wu month with Xinwei hour, where Ding within Wu injures Xin; Yi born in Si month seeing Geng or Jiashen hour, where Bing within Si injures Geng; Bing in Wu month seeing Wuzi or Guisi hour, where Ji within Wu injures Gui. Above all the Day Ruler must be healthy and flourishing; further Hurting Office fortune can develop reputation and profit. A weak Day Ruler proceeding through Wealth and Office territory faces indescribable calamity. Another account gives Hurting Office's combining and disrupting remedies: Jia seeing Ding favors Ren combining and Gui disrupting; Yi seeing Bing favors Xin combining and Ren disrupting; Bing seeing Ji favors Jia combining and Yi disrupting; Ding seeing Wu favors Gui combining and Jia disrupting; Wu seeing Xin favors Bing combining and Ding disrupting; Ji seeing Geng favors Yi combining and Bing disrupting; Geng seeing Gui favors Wu combining and Ji disrupting; Gui seeing Jia favors Ji combining and Geng disrupting. Wanqi says: “Hurting Office's natal origin without Office Star, followed by Hurting Office fortune, steals energy excessively: one Wood repeatedly at Fire is called a text of Dispersing Energy, giving poverty or early death. Strong Body and Office territory are favored. Hurting Office seeing Office brings repeated stripping and obstruction, yet Office territory within the configuration can instead be auspicious: Complete Injury then favors Office Star. Hurting Office carrying Wealth and seeing Seal gives considerable calamity. Carrying Seal, Office and Killing do not punish it. Much Hurting suits Seal, as much Food uses Seal; little Hurting followed by Seal territory is Owl Seizing Food. Hurting carrying Seal should not meet Wealth; carrying Office should not enter restraint. Using Wealth should not enter the printed Equal/Robbing expression; using Seal does not avoid Office or Killing. Repeated Office Stars with Hurting should not be judged as Office Stars. Hurting using Office in year or month must strip Office; in day or hour it should not be injured. Once injured, calamity is indescribable. Do not enter Tomb, where allotted lifespan is hard to extend.” Thousand-Li Horse says: “Hurting Office seeing Office marvelously enters Seal and Wealth ground.” Another: “Hurting Office meeting Wealth has children.” The Rhapsody of Reading the Heart says: “Complete Injury has many arts and abilities, scheming and contemptuous pride, guile and ambition, high cheekbones, steep bones, large eyes, and thick brows.” Jingjian says: “Hurting Office without Wealth but with Blade practices cunning.” The Rhapsody of Penetrating Clarity says repeated Hurting Office makes Body toil, and much Hurting with flourishing Body unsupported assures a monk, Daoist, or skilled practitioner. Secret Instructions says: “Excessive Hurting Office must injure children.” Another: “Annual Hurting leaves parents incomplete; monthly Hurting siblings incomplete; hourly Hurting gives fierce children; daily Hurting unworthy wives and concubines.” Another: “Incomplete Injury requires guarding against unexpected disaster. Meeting Wealth enjoys leisure's blessing; Seven Killings together require fear of illness and injury. Flourishing Body unsupported cannot avoid solitude and harm to kin. Hurting meeting Robbing gathers Wealth like willow fluff in wind; Hurting without Seal seeks profit like lotus-coin leaves holding rain.” An old song says: “Hurting Office is originally property's spirit; Complete Injury truly makes great nobility. Incomplete Injury with flourishing Office arriving gives considerable calamity.” Another: “Monthly Office on Hurting ground can tolerate slight injury reducing force, but punishment, clash, disruption, and harm assure short tenure.” Another: “Complete Injury generates Wealth again; flourishing Wealth generates Office in exchange. With no exposed Office in four pillars, declare wealth and nobility without doubt.” Another: “Hurting Office is originally unsuitable; Wealth present and Office absent form blessing's foundation. Day, hour, and month Hurting configuration with flourishing-Wealth fortune is noble without doubt.” Another: “Complete Injury becomes remarkable, yet excessive Hurting may instead be unsuitable. A thousand changes occur within this configuration; careful inference needs thoughtful judgment.” Another: “Hurting Office without Office most avoids stripping; Office-territory fortune instead gives distinction. Seal and Ribbon in annual, major, and natal conditions assure wealth and nobility.” Another: “Hurting Office does not avoid Equal; Seven Killings and Indirect Office follow the same principle. Without Office, Equal should be avoided; flourishing Body dislikes repetition.” Another: “Incomplete Injury seeing Office brings execution, strangulation, servitude, exile, and a hundred calamities. Monthly infringement leaves father and son incomplete; daily infringement injures oneself. Hourly Hurting leaves children distressed; wealth and nobility are incomplete. Hurting Office in the Grand Duke must bring unexpected calamity in that year.” Together these accounts fully show Hurting Office's preferences and avoidances.
Translator's note: Every five-phase exception, named chart, explicit day/month/hour example, eight supplied remedy pairs, quoted qualification, and eight concluding songs is retained. The source supplies no Xin or Ren remedy pair, so none is invented. Jiashen in the Yi-hour example and damaged Equal/Robbing wording remain identified. Conflicting statements about Complete Injury, visible Office, Wealth, Seal, and strengthening fortune are preserved in their stated contexts. Historical bodily, family, legal, illness, and lifespan claims are translated as source assertions.
Food Spirit is the third position counted forward from what the day stem generates, exemplified by Jia feeding upon Bing and Yi upon Ding. Jia generating Bing drains energy; Bing generates Wu as Jia's Indirect Wealth, Heaven's Emolument and naturally arising Wealth, allowing ready-made blessing without personal effort. Jia and Bing have a father/son relation. If the child flourishes and generates Wealth and Emolument to support parents, how could they not enjoy peace? Jia sees Geng as Killing and Wu as Wealth. Bing Food Fire restrains Geng Killing so it cannot injure Jia Wood, and generates Wu Wealth for Jia's use. Wherever charts meet Wealth and Killing with vigorous Food, Killing restrained dares not harm and Wealth generated is inexhaustible. Thus Food Spirit is also Longevity Star and Rank Star, with good reason. Day Ruler and Food must both be born and flourish, without clash or disruption. The person has substantial Wealth, abundant food, broad capacity for blessing, a large, full body, leisure and contentment, children, and longevity. Wealth and Food in year or month give ample ancestral shelter; in day or hour they bless wife and sons. Mother and child both declining or Extinct are feared, making neither successful. A classic says: “Food Spirit needs Food Born and Flourishing, never declining or Extinct.” Another: “Food Spirit Born and Flourishing surpasses Wealth and Office.” Indirect Seal as Reversed Food is greatly avoided, describing beginnings without completion, crooked appearance, small stature, cramped disposition, much anxiety and no achievement. Jia sees Bing as Food, but Ren as Jia Wood's Indirect Seal restrains Bing Fire, preventing generation of Wu Earth and restraint of Geng Metal. Jia Wood is thus restrained and Wealth retreats: how distressing. The Rhapsody of Original Principle says: “Food Spirit restraining Killing, meeting Owl, gives poverty or early death.” Yixing says: “Yang-day Food secretly combines Office Star; yin-day Food secretly combines Direct Seal. Office and Seal should not appear openly; pure Food gives noble Emolument, riches, and longevity.” Food should have only one occurrence, not many, lest original energy be stolen. A classic's damaged expression says: “One Wood repeatedly encountering Fire is named Dispersing Energy's Father.” Much Food should have Seal fortune; little Food should not, as Owl Seizing Food. Food favors flourishing Emolument's assistance, best monthly Established Emolument, next hourly Emolument. Noble Person fortune through Food's Birth and Flourishing greatly develops blessing and Emolument. Avoid declining Body and flourishing Owl. Wealth is favored but should not be many, for excess is impure, making only a rich householder. Repeated Food turns into Hurting Office and gives few children, or children with contrary, disruptive dispositions. It must not enter Tomb: that is Hurting Office Entering Tomb, making lifespan hard to extend. Void is greatly avoided. Further exposed Office and Killing give a physician, shaman, diviner, or practitioner of miscellaneous callings. Food conquered and meeting Void is not noble. Further Death, Extinction, or Owl fortune brings calamity through food or breath, stomach reversal, choking, lack of clothing and food, and endurance of hunger and cold. Another account says Jia day feeding on Bing is good only without Ren, Gui, Hai, or Zi. Water energy restrains Bing and subordinates it to others; unable to stand independently, how can it generate things to nourish its father? Without this restraint it still needs Birth, Flourishing, and movement toward Emolument. Bing born in summer with southeastern fortune has flourishing Fire and Earth, giving Jia abundant usable Wealth. In spring's three months Jia flourishes and Bing receives generation, but Wu and Ji are weak; only southern fortune flourishing Fire and Earth permits blessing. Geng takes Ren as Food. Northern flourishing-Water fortune develops substantial Wealth; eastern flourishing-Wood territory develops blessing intensely. In detail, Ren Food is Born at Shen, which gives deep blessing. It is at sudden Defeat at You and is then unfavorable: Ren generates Jia Wood as Geng's Wealth, one's own generated and distributed Wealth, not a principal wife's marriage Wealth. Jia at You is Wood constrained in Metal territory; Ren itself defeated cannot nourish its father through Wood. Judge this fortune ordinary. Xu fortune with Ren and Jia emerging is only half auspicious, half harmful. Wu gives calamity; Geng slight blessing. Hai fortune is greatly auspicious. Zi fortune brings Gui Hurting Office, heavily draining oneself. Geng is Dead and Jia at Defeat in Zi, indicating calamity and bodily harm. Chou is Geng Metal's Storehouse and flourishing Water territory; Jichou further assists Geng, and Jia reaches adult Cap and Belt ground. Judge advancement during this decade. Yin fortune is also auspicious; Mao fortune brings calamity. Infer others similarly. Another account says some Food does not fear Owl. Jihai does not fear Ding Reversed Food: Ding and Ren combine into Wood, Ren's Emolument at Hai. Bingwu does not fear Jia: Jia and Ji combine into Earth, Ji's Emolument at Wu. Yisi does not fear Gui: Wu and Gui transform Fire, and Yisi is also Fire. Guisi does not fear Xin: Bing and Xin transform Water, and Gui's Nobility is at Si. Geng heads the yangs and does not fear Wu Reversed Food: Wu is the number of yang energy returning to its source and is judged a favorable spirit. The printed Yi-shaped stem is not Reversed Food to Xin, being the source of yin energy's first dispersal. Geng is not Reversed Food to Ren, being the source of yang energy's first dispersal. Xin with Ding does not fear Ji Reversed Food, because Ding nurtures Xin Metal; wherever Ding is, Ji Earth is present, yin and yang interacting to assist pure blessing. Food Spirit is the meeting of the ten stems' blessing and Emolument. Gentlemen obtain distinction and abundance, ordinary people adequate livelihood. On blessing-gathering ground, high office and ample Emolument; on calamity-gathering ground, low rank and thin fate. For Jiazi, Bingzi Food gives Blessing Star Nobility; Bingyin Long Life Emolument, also Emolument and Horse in the Same Homeland and Food Spirit Study Hall Nobility; Bingchen Direct Seal; Bingwu self-punishment disrupting fate; Bingshen conquest of Body and broken Emolument; Bingxu declining Body and broken Void. Infer other stems similarly. Birth, Flourishing, Storehouse, Seal, Heavenly-Yi, Heavenly Office, Canopy, Literary Star, Study Hall, Office, Seal, Emolument, and Horse gather blessing. Conquest, disruption, Void, harmful Killings, punishment, harm, Rest, Defeat, Death, and Extinction gather calamity. Another account lists Jia/Yi Food Bing/Ding on Yin, Mao, Si, or Wu; Bing/Ding Food Wu/Ji on Chen, Xu, Chou, or Wei; Wu/Ji Food Geng/Xin on Si, Wu, Shen, or You; Geng/Xin Food Ren/Gui on Shen, You, Hai, or Zi; Ren/Gui Food Jia/Yi on Hai, Zi, Yin, or Mao. This is Food Seeing Birth and Flourishing. With vigorous Emolument and Horse, civil service reaches the Two Drafting Offices and Two Secretariats; military service commands armies and defenses. Even without these, substantial assets follow. Food and Emolument both present with harmonious four pillars are excellent. Huzhongzi says Reversed Food in fate often subjects one to obstruction by others; repeated, it means insufficient milk for infants or food for elders. Proper Food in surplus gives wealth and nobility; competing for insufficient Food gives poverty and low status. Surplus is a Jia person obtaining two or three Bing; insufficiency two Jia with only one Bing. Another account calls repeated mutual feeding between Day Ruler and hour stem Swallowing the Brain. Day and hour both feeding indicate head-wind and cranial-discharge illness, early loss of mother and later no son to attend one's death. Swallowing within swallowing, as Jia encountering Ren day and hour and further Geng, indicates poverty and death in a ditch; stem combination resolving it mitigates this. The Rhapsody of Reading the Heart says: “Food Spirit eats and drinks well, has substantial body and loves singing.” Profound Meaning says: “Monthly Food with healthy, flourishing Body gives good appetite and full physique. Auspicious luminaries assisting in four pillars pile gold and jade and display reputation.” The Rhapsody of Hidden Subtlety says: “Food vigorous and flourishing extends longevity into old age.” The Rhapsody of Original Principle says: “Food first and Killing later display merit and fame.” The Rhapsody of the Precious Mirror says: “Food emerging in month and Office in hour give distinguished service in the censorate, assisting the state.” The Wanqi Rhapsody says: “Food is an auspicious luminary restraining Killing, called Longevity Star. Strong stem and flourishing day give a wealthy noble person; flourishing Food and declining Body an obstructed person. Flourishing Wealth spreads food before one; Seal leaves dust at the cooking pot's bottom. One occurrence gives inscriptions on bells and sacrificial vessels; two or three a poor lane's mat and gourd. Repeated Sheep Blade gives lifelong toil; punishment and conquest together lifelong wandering.” An old song says: “Food restraining Killing is extraordinarily auspicious, with flourishing Wealth, honored wife, and stronger sons. The supplied line asks for Swallowing-and-Devouring Killing in the pillars, then promises service to the ruler in the golden hall.” Another: “Food meeting Emolument is Heavenly Kitchen, without clash, conquest, Void, Office, or Killing. Death and Extinction fortune reaching Indirect Seal ground, and Longevity Star combining, have a difficult final clause of blessing joining trust.” Another: “Food should not meet Seal and Ribbon; only Wealth and Office increase blessing. Food likes flourishing-Body ground; Owl or Equal makes everything empty.” Another: “Food Born and Flourishing is praiseworthy; Water, Wood, Earth, and Metal courses alone are fine. No Office or Killing mixing gives lifelong ample clothing, Emolument, and glory.” Another: “Jia seeing Bing originally steals energy; Bing generating Wealth is called Food Spirit. Broad heart, full body, and ample clothing and Emolument follow; Indirect Seal gives solitude and poverty.” Another: “Food Born and Flourishing without punishment or conquest surpasses Wealth and Office. Further strong Body and Wealth ground step into the golden hall in youth.” Another: “Undamaged Food gives continuing lifespan; the secondary mother encountered is hard to bear. Without Indirect Wealth rescuing, fate is autumn grass bearing winter frost.” Another: “Monthly Food is Heavenly Kitchen and gives surplus riches. Carefully avoid Owl openly reducing blessing and clash secretly removing it. Generating Wealth and transforming Ghost, without illness, restraining Killing assures stored auspiciousness. Students profit in examinations; office receives an important post and imperial documents.” Combining these accounts fully reveals Food Spirit's preferences and avoidances.
Translator's note: All explicit stem examples, eight-stage Geng/Ren fortune sequence, Reversed Food exceptions, six Bing-food cases, five branch-group lists, quoted alternatives and eight concluding songs are retained. Dispersing Energy's Father, the Yi-shaped stem before Xin, the first song's request for Devouring Killing, and the second song's awkward blessing clause are supplied irregularities, not silently repaired. The source's one-Food versus surplus-Food and visible-Office exceptions remain distinct. Historical family, bodily, illness, rank, and death claims are translated as source assertions.
Flying Heavenly Emolument and Horse
The Preferences and Avoidances chapter says: “Monthly establishment at Hurting Office, though seemingly harmful, need not be harmful. Within are Reversed Emolument and Flying Clash, avoiding Office Star and binding.” Only four days use this configuration: Gengzi, Renzi, Xinhai, and Guihai, born in the tenth or eleventh month with winter Water purely yin and no Wealth or Office in the pillars. Month, hour, or year must also share the day branch to clash together. Open Office Star prevents Emolument's Flying Clash; a Combining Spirit binding prevents it too. One character in the pillars must combine and retain Emolument and Horse so noble energy does not escape. Hurting Office, Food Spirit, and fortunes of the original stems and branches are favored. Gengzi day takes Ding Fire as Office. Birth in Zi month is monthly Hurting Office, seemingly harmful. Many Zi clash out Ding Fire within Wu, giving Geng Office Star, so do not immediately judge harm. One Wei, Yin, or Xu combining Wu is excellent. Chou binding makes Zi crave combination and unable to clash Emolument within Wu. Ding exposes Office, Bing exposes Killing, Wu fills the position, and Wu Earth devours, reducing the favorable measure. Annual and major fortunes are the same. Renzi day takes Ji Earth as Office. Many Zi clash out Ji within Wu, giving Ren Office Star, with the same preferences as Gengzi. Xinhai takes Bing Fire as Office; Guihai takes Wu Earth. Many Hai in the four pillars clash out Bing and Wu within the printed Ji position, giving Xin and Gui Office Star. One Shen, You, or Chou combining is excellent; many do not fit. Yin binding makes Hai crave combination and unable to clash Emolument within that printed Ji position. Bing, Wu, or Ji appearing exposes Office and reduces the favorable measure. Annual and major fortunes are the same. An old song says: “Direct Clash is Geng and Ren: Zi clashes Office and Emolument naturally prospers. Further Yin, Xu, or Wei in the pillars, any one combines merit and fame.” Another: “Geng and Ren in Zi month are Clashing Office. Wu moves, Ding shifts, and Ji migrates too. Without filled position, disruption, or punishment, heroic fame spreads in every direction.” Another: “Few know Flying Heavenly Emolument and Horse. Geng and Ren with repeated Zi are noble without doubt. No binding in the pillars and Office appearing give easy rise to blue clouds and the Phoenix Pool.” Another: “Xin and Gui Clash Office with repeated Hai days; Bing and Wu Emolument within Si comes honored. One You, Chou, or Shen Combining Spirit gives noble glory.” Another: “Xin and Gui days with Hai branches combine Noble Person through You, Chou, or Shen. Four pillars assisting without Wu or Ji give imposing authority and brilliant fame over a thousand li.”
Translator's note: All four day mechanisms and five complete poems are retained. The prose prints Ji where the later verse has Si; this is identified without silent repair. The third verse's appearing Office is retained despite the prose's prohibition of exposed Office. Wu branch and Wu Earth stem are distinguished.
Reversed Clash Emolument
Within monthly Hurting Office is Reversed Clash Emolument and Horse, with the same preferences and avoidances as Flying Heavenly, except that the hour is not considered. Only Bingwu and Dingsi days form it, summer days of pure yang. Bing takes Gui Water as Office and needs many powerful Wu in the pillars clashing out Gui within Zi to obtain Office Star. Ding takes Ren Water as Office and needs many powerful Si clashing out Ren within Hai. One Chou, Yin, Shen, Chen, Mao, or Wei further combining and retaining Emolument and Horse is excellent; many do not fit. Bingwu fears Wei; Dingsi fears binding by Shen, Chen, and similar characters, making Si and Wu crave combination and unable to clash Emolument within Zi and Hai. Hai, Ren, Zi, or Gui exposing Killing or Office reduces the favorable measure. Annual and major fortunes are the same. An old song says: “Bing day without Office and many Wu reversely clashes Emolument and Horse, Gui Office harmonizing. Without Wei binding, Gui or Zi, blessing is lofty.” Another: “Reversed Clash noble energy is exceptional. Bingwu flies to clash Zi's Emolument Spirit. Gui Water conquering is Noble Emolument; punishment, injury, or filled position makes an ordinary person.” Another: “Reversed Clash Emolument and Horse is extraordinarily noble; Bing day with many Wu is fine. Without Seven Killings and entangling bonds, a commoner rises straight into court.” Another: “Ding day with many Snakes is Reversed Clash. Office Star flies from Qian palace. No Hai or Ren in the pillars and no Chen retaining Snake give flourishing noble blessing.” Another: “Ding day clashing Office needs strong Si. Hai is Ren's Emolument and Noble Person territory. Without Chen, Ren, or Gui, annual and major fortunes assisting make blessing and Emolument prosper.”
Translator's note: Both day mechanisms, the complete combining/binding lists, and all five songs are retained without standardizing their different exclusions.
Blessing-Star Noble Person
This is Jia people seeing Bingyin or Bingzi, Yi people Dinghai or Dingchou: deriving the true Food Spirit within one's own cycle gives natural enjoyment. Those encountering it are rich even if not noble; infer the rest in reverse. Earlier writers' Song of Jia and Bing Inviting One Another into Tiger Territory uses the year, hence Bingyin and Bingzi. Deriving it by the day does not give the same result.
Translator's note: The distinction between year-based and day-based derivation and all four examples remain.
Food Spirit Sharing a Nest
Jia feeds upon Bing, as a Jiazi person seeing Bingzi. At thirteen positions it matches, belonging to one's own household. Those obtaining it are rich if not noble. Month is inferior to day, day to hour. Exchanging Birth and Flourishing with Emolument makes the noble greatly noble. Examples are Han, Duke of Wei: Wushen, Gengshen, Gengchen, Gengchen; Song's Qin Hui: Gengwu, Jichou, Yimao, Renwu; and Ming Junior Protector Wang Chonggu: Yihai, Xinsi, Wushen, Gengshen. Reversed Food of one's own household, as Jiazi year with Renzi hour or Gengzi year with Wuzi hour, is also noble but injures children.
Translator's note: The thirteen-position count, month/day/hour order, all three complete named charts, and both Reversed Food examples are retained.
Food Spirit Carrying Combination
Examples are Jia people seeing Bing with Xin combining, Ji seeing Xin with Bing combining, Yi seeing Ding and Ren, Geng Ren and Ding, Bing Wu and Gui, and Xin Gui and Wu. These indicate official authority and seals.
Translator's note: All six pairings remain as supplied, including Ji's Xin/Bing example.
Red Luan Heavenly Seal
Bing feeding upon Wu obtains Wuxu; Xin feeding upon Gui obtains Guichou; Ren obtains Jiachen; Yi Dingwei. Obtained in day or hour, these indicate wealth and nobility.
Translator's note: All four compact stem/pillar examples and the day/hour restriction are retained.
Ink Pool and Gushing Spring
This is Xinsi obtaining Guisi and Guihai. Chen, titled Chaoyi, had Xinsi, Renchen, Guisi, Guihai. By analogy, Bingyin favors Wuyin, Wushen Gengshen, Jisi Xinhai, Gengwu Renshen, Jiaxu Bingyin, and Renchen Jiashen. All belong to this configuration and indicate literary nobility.
Translator's note: The complete Chen chart and all six analogous pairs remain, without an invented biography or extra condition.
Yang Blade — Read with the Earlier Sheep-Blade Killing Discussion
Yang is yin and yang's yang; Blade is a knife's edge. It is one position ahead of Emolument, flourishing beyond its allotted measure and therefore dangerous. Jia seeing Mao finds Yi Wood within it, Jia's younger brother, able to rob his elder's Wealth, clash away Xin Office within You, and combine Geng as wife in the supplied wording. Geng is Jia's Seven Killings. Robbing Wealth, clashing Office, and combining a damaged Ao expression make it extremely harmful. Only Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng, and Ren, the five yang stems, have Blade; Yi, Ding, Ji, Xin, and Gui, the five yin stems, do not, hence Yang Blade. Hurting Office shares its harm, so Yi seeing Bing is also called Blade: Bing injures Yi's Geng Office, combines Xin Killing, and makes it conquer Yi Wood. Yin Metal conquering yin Wood is most poisonous, so its harm equals Yang Blade. There are three Blades: Robbing-Wealth Blade, Jia seeing Yi, unfavorable for Wealth and Office configurations; Emolument-Protecting Blade, Jia seeing Mao, greatly favorable for Returning Emolument; Emolument-Abandoning Blade, Yi seeing Bing, greatly favorable for Removing Office and Retaining Killing. The Preferences and Avoidances chapter says: “Robbing Wealth and Yang Blade are firmly avoided in the hour. Annual and major fortunes arriving together bring immediate calamity.” Yang Blade in the hour is specifically heavier than year, month, or day. Jia day with Yimao hour is true Blade. Blade already carries the seed of wife injury, Wealth loss, and calamity. A flowing year and major or annual fortune meeting Sheep Blade again is Arriving Together. Si and You clash with the year's ruler; Hai, Wei, and Xu combine it. Yang Blade is a harmful Killing, Grand Duke a harmful spirit. Grand Duke assisted by auspicious spirits combines auspiciously, but harmful Blade clashing or combining the year's ruler piles harm upon Killing, making calamity unavoidable. A classic says: “Yang Blade clashing or combining the year's ruler brings sudden calamity.” Distinguish carefully: a shallow natal origin truly meets this, but flourishing fate with deep energy, or Heavenly and Monthly Virtue and the rescuing Pardon Document, leaves only the awkward floating/substantial occurrence and no great blame. Original Blade in the day pillar seeing clash or combination, with annual and major fortunes repeating these, is greatly harmful. If only year or only major fortune clashes or combines, reduce calamity by half. Another account says an energy-less day stem with hour Yang Blade is not harmful. Birthday Heavenly Origin at Death, Extinction, Decline, Illness, or sudden Defeat, unconnected with monthly energy, cannot carry Wealth and Office. Blade can rob Wealth and transform Killing: a weak elder brother burdened with Wealth gains his younger brother's help to carry it and use it, hence no harmful judgment. Weak Body with Wealth and Office favors Blade sharing Wealth and combining Killing; weak Body drained by Food/Hurting also favors Blade support. With Seal and Ribbon, the day stem is no longer energy-less. Earlier avoidance concerns strong Body able to carry Wealth, disliking seizure; later favor concerns weak Body unable to carry Wealth, not avoiding seizure. Each has its meaning. Like Hurting Office, this configuration describes large eyes, yellowish beard, hard nature and proud heart, no compassion, an exploitative, unfeeling disposition, chronic illness, insatiable greed and violence, hesitant advance and retreat, secondary-parentage birth, departure from ancestors or adoption into another household, harm to father and wife. Three punishments, self-punishment, or Chief Strength may give advancement at the frontiers. Further unfavorable relations or flourishing Wealth give harm. Complete punishment and harm, all obtaining ground, with a rescuing spirit, instead give indescribable nobility. Another account generally avoids Wealth territory because it can clash Blade into action. Wu day has Blade at Wu and avoids Zi Direct Wealth fortune; Ren Blade at Zi avoids Wu Direct Wealth; Geng Blade at You avoids Mao Direct Wealth. Jia Blade at Mao alone does not mind Si, Wu, Chen, Xu, Chou, or Wei Wealth fortune, but avoids You. Bing Blade at Wu does not mind Shen, You, Geng, Xin, or Chou Wealth fortune, but avoids Zi. Thus Wu/Wu meeting Zi Wealth, Ren/Zi meeting Wu Wealth, and Geng/You meeting Mao Wealth avoid Wealth that clashes. Jia/Mao does not avoid Wu and Ji or Si and Wu Wealth, but You Office; Bing/Wu does not avoid Geng and Xin or Shen and You Wealth, but Zi Office. How can all Wealth be called forbidden? Heavenly-stem Wealth generating Office as Useful Spirit is favored, not avoided. Mirror of the Heart says: “Repeated Yang Blade further seeing Wealth gives wealth, nobility, and abundant gold and silk.” Another view says Jia, Wu, and Geng Blade meeting clash often verifies calamity, while Ren and Bing meeting Zi/Wu clash often do not: Bing seeing Zi and Ren seeing Wu both have Direct Office and are judged as noble energy instead. Another account says Jia takes Ji as Wife Wealth. Mao and Yi in the four pillars injure Ji Earth so it cannot support Jia, indicating loss of wife and children. Annual and major fortunes repeating vigorous Robbing and Blade make this unavoidable. Geng, Xin, You, or Shen elsewhere can reverse harm: Geng invites Yi as wife and becomes family rather than Jia's Seven Killings; Xin assists Jia's nobility and conquers Yi Killing. A classic says: “Jia marries younger sister Yi to Geng, turning harm into an auspicious sign.” Infer other stems similarly. Another account says six-Jia days with Yimao are harmful, Xinmao auspicious. Jiashen with Dingmao is not Blade: Geng within Shen combines Yi Wood within Mao as Wealth. Exposed Wealth is nevertheless harmful: Ding Hurting Office and Yi seizing Wealth, with annual and major fortunes arriving together, make calamity unavoidable. Yiyou day with Gengchen hour is not Blade: Yi sits under Geng, with Xin Metal within You restraining Yi Wood within Chen. Bingzi day with Jiawu hour is not Blade: Gui within Zi restrains Ding within Wu. Dinghai with Dingwei is not Blade: the printed Wu Water within Hai combines Ding. Gengwu with Yiyou is not Blade: Ding within Wu restrains Xin. Renwu with Gengzi is not Blade: Ji within Wu restrains Gui. Xinsi with Wuxu is not Blade: Bing within Si combines Xin. Guisi with Guichou is not Blade: Wu within Si combines Gui. These days should not meet punishment, clash, disruption, or harm; without them judge a good chart. Another account calls Yang Blade Heaven's harmful star and the human world's malign Killing, favoring Indirect Office and Seal, avoiding Reversed Repetition, Repeated Repetition, Chief Strength, and three harmonies. Broadly it resembles Seven Killings, so each favors the other, two harmful influences restraining one another just as Direct Office favors Direct Seal, good meeting good for blessing. A classic says: “Killing without Blade does not display; Blade without Killing has no authority. Both complete are absent from ordinary people.” Strong Body without Hurting Office is further excellent. Natal Killing and Blade repeated in fortune, or Blade without Killing encountering Killing fortune, both give great blessing. Blade and Seal without Killing, encountering Killing fortune, turn into deep blessing. Without natal Blade or Killing and with a Wealth/Office configuration, fortune meeting Blade and Killing gives a year of obstruction, Wealth disputes, brothers separating, and separation from wives and concubines. No original Blade followed by Blade fortune may do no general harm but still indicates wife injury. Original Blade must not recur in fortune or meet Hurting Office or Wealth ground. Original Hurting Office or Wealth repeated in fortune gives extremely heavy harm, especially with weak Body. Another account has only three Day Blades, Wuwu, Bingwu, and Renzi, using Yang Blade's method. A classic says: “Red and yellow Horses sleep alone; black Rat guards an empty room. Men obstruct wives, women husbands.” It means these three days. Punishment, clash, disruption, harm, three gatherings, and six combinations are disliked. Seven Killings restraint and Office/Seal fortune make a good chart. A rhapsody says: “Day Blade greatly avoids clash and combination, favors Office and Killing restraining. Combination and punishment are harmful; Seal auspicious. Killing without Blade gives courage without authority; Blade without Killing gives turbid, undistinguished action. No Killing meeting Killing fears invasive calamity; Blade meeting Blade fears dangerous disaster. Blade Born and Body Dead make that year hard to call auspicious; flourishing Wealth and injured Office need not make that year harmful.” Another account says Wuwu day with much Fire in year and month is judged as Seal; Renzi with many Zi in month and hour as Flying Heavenly Emolument and Horse; Bingwu with many Wu as Reversed Clash Emolument and Horse. Self Blade is called three days but lists four: Guichou, Dingchou, Dingwei, and Jiwei, because Equal and Yang Blade sit beneath them. Flying Blade has four days, Bingzi, Dingchou, Wuzi, and Jichou, whose seats clash out Yang Blade. Preferences largely match Day Blade. Yearly and hourly Yang Blade are heaviest. Annual Blade ruins ancestral foundations, receives no parental property, and repays kindness with resentment. Hourly Blade injures wife and children and leaves no late-life result; repetition in four pillars gives limb disease and injury. Monthly is lighter, daily lighter still. Much Wealth in month/day stems and branches with declining day stem makes hourly Yang Blade harmless. Monthly Seven Killings and hourly Yang Blade with energized Day Ruler give great nobility; monthly Yang Blade with only slight hourly Office cannot be restrained and is harmful. Another account says men seeing Defeating/Robbing and Hurting Office must injure wife and children; women husbands. A rhapsody says: “Defeating Wealth is Equal's luminary and seizure's spirit. Much Wealth and weak Body find it remarkable; weak Wealth and strong Body find calamity. Wealth meeting Robbing and entering Wealth fortune can establish a household. No Wealth meeting Robbing must still see ruin even outside a Wealth year. Original Robbing with Robbing fortune stays desolate in poverty; flourishing Body with Seal's assistance must instead gain glory and blessing.” The Rhapsody of Reading the Heart says: “Robbing Wealth and Sheep Blade leave ancestors to establish a household, outwardly humble, harmonious, and righteous, inwardly cruel and ignorant, exploitative without kindness.” Mirror of the Heart says repeated Yang Blade with Killing gives great nobility and examination success. Thousand-Li Horse says restrained Yang Blade and Indirect Office wield military command; men with weak Body find Yang Blade remarkable; Sheep Blade and Seven Killings gain fame in office; Sheep Blade entering Office/Killing subdues the frontiers. The Jade Casket Rhapsody says: “Fire and Metal Yang Blade: Lüzhu falls from a high tower.” Another says three or four repeated Yang Blades must give disease, blindness, or deafness. The Rhapsody that Startles Spirits says a chart full of Yang Blade must suffer bodily dismemberment. Determining the True says Yang Blade with Seal, even rich, carries disability. On Making Subtlety says Yang Blade meeting the Five Breaths must repeatedly face servitude or exile. The author has seen many Sheep-Blade charts with blindness: Guiyou, Wuwu, Wuyin, Guichou; Bingyin, Gengyin, Bingwu, Yiwei; Dingmao, Guimao, Jiazi, Yihai. All three lacked sight. An old song says: “Hourly Yang Blade favors Indirect Office; Wealth Star brings a hundred calamities. Annual and major fortunes clashing and combining suddenly raise harm at the door.” Another: “Repeated Yang Blade with combination has injury, proud and strong temperament. Excessive punishment and clash bring many disasters; only restraint preserves prosperity.” Another: “Blade with Seven Killings admires Office territory, fearing punishment and clash making Emolument unprosperous. Gatherings, combinations, and flourishing Wealth fortune require guarding against bodily calamity.” Another: “Equal and Yang Blade are extraordinary; Office Star and Killing territory are needed. Without natal Office or Killing restraint, further Equal/Robbing brings unbearable calamity.” Another: “Weak Wealth Star and strong Blade find Body-flourishing territory greatly inauspicious. Solitary phoenixes lament clear nights; wives are injured two or three pairs.” Another: “Blade with Seven Killings in Office fortune has extraordinary nobility through disruption, harm, punishment, and clash. Carefully avoid combination with flourishing Wealth ground, where calamity instead brings punitive injury.” Another: “Day Blade is like Sheep Blade, favoring Office Star and Seven Killings in branches. If the year's ruler does not injure Blade, branch clashes and punishments establish military merit.” Another: “Sheep Blade always sits before Emolument, hard, decisive, and little compassionate. Gathering and combination risk calamity; Wealth Star must entangle harm. Office or Killing displays fame; no clash or disruption promotes Emolument. Added punishment, harm, and Chief Strength give frontier advancement and great authority.” Renshen, Renzi, Wuwu, Yimao sits on Yang Blade. Two Ren with Shen and Zi give abundant, flourishing Wealth. Though Zi and Wu clash, the source says Shen and Zi gather Wu so clash cannot act. Hourly Office restrains Yang Blade, so only the Wealth/Office configuration is used, giving great nobility. Bingxu, Guisi, Wuwu, Dingsi has Wu returning to Emolument at Si. Though Wu is Sheep Blade, it provides Emolument, and Seal transforms Blade, hence nobility.
Translator's note: All three Blade categories, five yang-stem Wealth/clash distinctions, eight non-Blade examples, day/self/flying Blade lists, quoted alternatives, five complete example charts and eight concluding poems are retained. Ao, floating/substantial, Wu Water within Hai, the three-called/four-listed Self Blades, and Shen/Zi gathering Wu are supplied irregularities. Hourly versus annual weight, weak- versus strong-Body rules, and alternative configurations remain explicit. Historical moral, family, bodily, legal, illness, violence, and death assertions are translated as source claims.
Established Emolument — Read with the Earlier Emolument Discussion
Established Emolument means Jia day in Yin month, Yi day in Mao month, the five phases at Assuming Office. Jia uses Metal as Office, yet Metal is Extinct in Yin; Earth as Wealth, yet Earth is Ill in Yin. Excessive Body flourishing obtains neither Wealth nor Office. Without other usable Wealth or Office, further Robbing and seizure leave Horse unsupportive and Emolument unnourishing, often indicating poverty and low status. Hour Indirect Office, Indirect Wealth, or Food Spirit is particularly appropriate; examine what emerges in year or hour for use. Only a little Wealth or Office instead attracts contention and seizure and is inauspicious. Monthly Established Emolument generally makes ancestral property difficult, lifelong Wealth hard to accumulate, but illness little and life long. Further Equal fortune harms wife, father, or children, or brings official disputes and lost Wealth, or competition over wife, children, and assets. Originally present Wealth or Office within or beyond the Eight Characters, led to flourishing and proper ground, changes this. Assisted Office with energized Office fortune is noble; assisted Wealth with flourishing-Wealth fortune rich; both flourishing give wealth and nobility. Hour Wealth Storehouse with Wealth-territory fortune must give great riches late in life. Assisted annual Wealth and Office must enjoy ancestral shelter. Without original Wealth or Office anywhere, even their fortune gives only empty blossoms. No Wealth or Office followed by Equal fortune gives lifelong poverty and obstruction. A rhapsody says: “Root precedes shoot; fruit follows flower.” Roots must precede shoots, flowers precede fruit. Without Wealth and Office in the original birth year, even auspicious Wealth/Office fortune develops little blessing. Jia day in Yin month with many Yi, Mao, and Wei has no ancestral Wealth, harms wife, lives solitary and poor, acts deceptively, and assumes a grand manner. Yi day in Mao month with Geng, Xin, Si, You, Chou, Shen, Wu, Ji, Si, Wu, Chen, or Xu has many Wealth and Office influences and is noble. Ren, Gui, Shen, Zi, Chen, and Hai Water Seal forming a configuration is also fine, especially when fortune meets it again. Without Wealth, Office, Seal, or Food, judge as above. Bing born in Si month, with year/hour stems and branches forming Water and Metal configurations and fortune through flourishing Wealth and Office, also has wealth and nobility. Ding born in Wu month has defeated Metal and Extinct Water, both Wealth and Office turned away. Forward fortune harms a wife; reverse fortune three wives. Yet Si, You, Chou, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui, Hai, Shen, Zi, or Chen in the pillars with flourishing Wealth/Office fortune also develops blessing. Using Killing or Seal values abundance; only Established Emolument is judged as before. Wu day in Si month without Water in year, day, or hour harms wife, lacks ancestral property, and has many unworthy sons. Many Offices are auspicious; Indirect Office gives honored nobility. Much Fire in year/month or Seal and Ribbon is auspicious even without Wealth and Office. Hidden or exposed Ren, Gui, Hai, Shen, Zi, or Chen Water configuration gives one or two late sons. Jia, Yin, Yi, Mao, Hai, and Wei Wood configuration also develops in flourishing-Wealth/Office fortune. Ji born in Wu month uses Ren Water as Wealth. Water imprisoned in the fifth month means no ancestral property, wife injury, and few sons. Yin/Jia Direct Office emerging in year/hour finds Jia Dead in the fifth month, so rank must be low. Hai, Mao, Wei, and Yi are favored: strong Body seeing Office or Killing is excellent, Indirect Wealth also fine. Geng day in Shen month born in its first ten days is close to Wood's residual energy and has little ancestral Wealth. Though the solar term approaches Water's Extinction territory, three or four tenths of Storehouse Wealth remain as blessing. Bingxu fortune exhausts Wealth. Much Wealth in year/day/hour makes a good chart. Bing, Ding, Si, Wu, Yin, or Xu Fire configuration gives Office through transforming Killing into Office, but rank is small and undistinguished. Ren, Gui, Hai, and Zi conquering Office are feared and prevent completion. Xin day in You month has no ancestral Wealth. Many dividing and seizing influences give solitary poverty without wife, or wife injury without Wealth. Born and flourishing Wood and Fire instead give wealth and nobility. No original Wealth or Office followed by generative ground makes Robbing calamity especially heavy. Xin with You can also be Exclusive Emolument; Wealth, Office, Seal, or Food, repeated in fortune, is especially fine. Reverse southern fortune is auspicious; forward northern fortune achieves nothing. Xinmao or Xinwei day sits on Wealth and permits clothing and Emolument. Xinsi day has Nobility but Office Emolument is slight. Ren day/Hai month and Gui day/Zi month both lack ancestral property. Much Fire and Earth indicate independent establishment with office; much overflowing Water gives no achievement, wife injury, poverty, and scant means. Another account gives preferred hours: Jia/Yin month the damaged Ren-Zao; Yi/Mao Xinsi; Bing/Si Jihai; Ding/Wu Gengzi; Wu/Si Jiayin; Ji/Wu Yichou; Geng/Shen Bingxu; Xin/You Dingyou; Ren/Hai Wushen; Gui/Zi Jiwei. This takes Killing for nobility, but it must not be excessive. Annual and major fortune returning to Killing ground indicates early death. An incomplete example gives only Renshen year and a damaged no-Emolument phrase, then says annual and major fortune clashed and gathered Hurting Office/Killing. Established Emolument uses Wealth and Office; Bing Fire injured and removed caused early death. Walking Alone says: “Monthly Established Emolument mostly lacks ancestral houses; one encounter with Wealth and Office naturally makes blessing.” Another: “Established Emolument in the birth framework favors Wealth and Office emerging in Heaven. Body should not flourish again; only abundant Wealth's origin is favored.” The Rhapsody of Illuminated Understanding says: “Established, Seated, or Residing Emolument, alone meeting Wealth, Office, and Seal and Ribbon, gives wealth, nobility, and long years.” Together these accounts show Ziping's Established Emolument and the ancients' Emolument use radically different selections. In the author's view, Yang Blade, Equal, Defeating Wealth, and Established Emolument have different names but are spirits of one family and energy. In branches they are Blade and Emolument; in stems Equal and Robbing. Their selection is broadly similar, hence Established Emolument follows Yang Blade. There was formerly no Established Emolument configuration. Recent writers take it when the monthly branch offers no usable configuration but the stems may have noble Wealth/Office energy. They treat Established Emolument like Equal and Robbing specifically to clarify this meaning.
Translator's note: All ten stem/month discussions, ten preferred-hour entries, quoted alternatives, and the concluding distinction between ancient Emolument and Ziping's configuration are retained. Ren-Zao and the incomplete Renshen-year example are not rebuilt into invented pillars. Repeated branch lists, Geng's residual-Wood/Water-Extinction wording, and forward/reverse marital claims remain as supplied. The author's conditional use of Wealth, Office, Seal, and Food is preserved.
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