Jie Lu: five cells, two back each pair

The broken bridge first, then Jie Lu

The four characters "broken bridge, Jie Lu" appear side by side in an ode in juan 1 of the Quan Shu (紫微斗数全书). They are two names, though: "broken bridge" (断桥, Duan Qiao) is an alias the book gives to Tian Kong, while Jie Lu (截路) is a minor star the site places by the year stem, with only five places to land.

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The ring lists the twelve branches; the green cells are the five where Jie Lu lands, each with its stem pair. Cells follow the juan 2 rule and were checked pillar by pillar.

The five green cells in the picture are every place Jie Lu can be. Monkey goes with Yang Wood and Yin Earth years, Horse with Yin Wood and Yang Metal, Dragon with Yang Fire and Yin Metal, Tiger with Yin Fire and Yang Water, and Rat with Yang Earth and Yin Water; the arcs run from Monkey to Rat and each stem pair moves two cells back.

Where the Tian Kong in question comes from is explained in the Tian Kong article.

Five cells, two back with each stem pair

Take the stem number modulo five and you have its pair: Yang Wood and Yin Earth leave the same remainder, and so do Yin Wood and Yang Metal. Both stems of a pair land on the same cell, and with each step of the pair number the cell moves two back. The table also lists the first three years from 1984 on in which each stem appears:

Each stem comes round six times in sixty years, and whichever branch it pairs with, Jie Lu stays in the same cell. Among the sixty pillars each of the five cells holds twelve, with no cell richer or poorer than the others.

Where the book sets it beside Lu and Horse

The Tian Ma entry in juan 3 has a line that lists Jie Lu among the things Lu and Ma should avoid:

Lu and Horse most enjoy galloping together; they should avoid meeting Sha (杀), Yang (羊) and Huo (火), or Jie Lu and Kong Wang.

The Tian Ma entry in juan 2 has a line in the same direction, "best when meeting Lu Cun, most to be avoided: Jie Lu and Kong Wang". The book writes Jie Lu in one breath with Lu Cun (禄存) and Tian Ma (天马), and the engine can count in which year pillars they share a cell:

Same pillar, a new palace name with each Life palace

Same stem, same cell; what the table varies is the Life palace. Three year pillars are each cast twice, once with Life at Tiger and once with Life at Horse:

The first row for Ding Mao deserves a second look: Jie Lu lands on the Life palace only because the Life branch happens to be Tiger; the position did not step aside for the Life palace and did not move because of it.

Three checks before writing down a Jie Lu

1. 1

   Find the pair of the year stem

   Each stem pair owns one cell: Monkey (Yang Wood, Yin Earth), Horse (Yin Wood, Yang Metal), Dragon (Yang Fire, Yin Metal), Tiger (Yin Fire, Yang Water), Rat (Yang Earth, Yin Water); the year branch is never consulted.

2. 2

   Keep it apart from the broken bridge

   The book's broken bridge means Tian Kong, placed by hour; the site's Jie Lu is placed by year stem, and a note records them separately.

3. 3

   A shared cell is only a count

   Year pillars in which it shares a cell with Lu Cun or Tian Ma can be listed, but should not be written up as "Lu cut off" or "the Horse stopped".

The cell right after Jie Lu in the same rule is Kong Wang, the void counted by decade is Xun Kong, and the minor stars as a family begin at supporting, malefic and minor stars.