Kong Wang: placed by year stem, also a catch-all

The two characters of "Kong Wang" appear thirty-eight times

Search juans 1 to 3 of the Quan Shu (紫微斗数全书) as held here and "Kong Wang" (空亡) turns up 38 times, "Jie Lu" (截路) 6 times, "Xun Kong" (旬空) only twice and "Jie Kong" (截空) once. The most used of these words mostly does not point at a star on the chart called Kong Wang. First the star itself:

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The stem table: cells follow the juan 2 rule, and putting Jie Lu first and Kong Wang second is the engine's way of splitting that rule, checked over all sixty year pillars.

The ten stems form five pairs, each stem paired with the one five places after it: Yang Wood goes with Yin Earth, Yin Wood with Yang Metal, Yang Fire with Yin Metal, Yin Fire with Yang Water, and Yang Earth with Yin Water. Both stems of a pair share one pair of cells, and the second one is where Kong Wang sits: Rooster for a Yang Wood or Yin Earth year, Goat for Yin Wood or Yang Metal, Snake for Yang Fire or Yin Metal, Rabbit for Yin Fire or Yang Water, Ox for Yang Earth or Yin Water. The year branch takes no part, so Kong Wang appears at only five cells, and each of them holds twelve of the sixty year pillars.

One rule that the engine splits into two stars

Juan 2 names the rule "Jie Lu Kong Wang", says it works by the birth year, and gives nothing more than five stem pairs with two palaces each:

Yang Wood and Yin Earth: the Monkey and Rooster palaces. Yin Wood and Yang Metal: Horse and Goat. Yang Fire and Yin Metal: Dragon and Snake. Yin Fire and Yang Water: Tiger and Rabbit. Yang Earth and Yin Water: Rat and Ox.

The rule does not name the two palaces separately. The engine records the first palace as Jie Lu and the second as Kong Wang, so one rule becomes two stars. That split is the engine's convention; the original has only the four characters "Jie Lu Kong Wang" written together.

Three jobs for one word

In the text "Kong Wang" has at least three identities, and reading them as one misplaces things:

Take the sentence "Tian Kong is the spirit of Kong Wang": the Kong Wang there is the catch-all, speaking of Tian Kong as one kind of void. It shares neither a placement rule nor a position with the star on the chart called Kong Wang.

Five kinds of void on one chart

Here is a chart for 1 October 2000 (lunar month 9, day 4), a Geng Chen (庚辰) year, born in the Rat hour with the Life palace at Dog, listing every kind of void together:

How often the four year-based voids share a cell across the sixty year pillars:

The two zeros are structural: Kong Wang sits right after Jie Lu and can never share its cell, while Tian Kong takes the opposite yin or yang of the year branch and Xun Kong the same one, so the two can never meet.

Another school, and only one Jie Kong remains

Under the engine's other setting, the Zhong Zhou school, Jie Lu and Kong Wang are gone and a single star called Jie Kong takes their place: in a year with a yang branch it sits where Jie Lu would, in a year with a yin branch where Kong Wang would. The ranking sentence of juan 3 uses exactly this name, "Jie Kong".

Before writing down a Kong Wang

1. 1

   Ask whether it is a catch-all

   On reading "Kong Wang" in the book, decide whether it gathers several kinds of void or names one placement rule; a catch-all corresponds to no fixed cell on a chart.

2. 2

   The star takes the second cell by stem

   Once it is the engine's star, look up the stem pair and take the later cell; record the split in the source column as an engine convention.

3. 3

   Keep it apart from the other voids

   Tian Kong reads the year branch, Xun Kong the decade and Di Kong the hour; a shared cell is coincidence, so do not merge them into one star.

Jie Lu is the first cell of this rule, see Jie Lu; the void placed by decade is Xun Kong; and the BaZi counterpart is drawn in the twelve life stages and void branches.