Tian Cai: counted from Life by the year branch

The start is the Life palace, the step count is the year

With a chart in hand, find the Life palace first. Tian Cai (天才) is where you arrive by counting forward along the branches from the Life palace, as many steps as the number of the birth-year branch.

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Comparison sketch: the placement of Tian Cai follows this site's engine (iztro 2.6.0) and was checked against the sample charts; volume 2 of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu held here has no placement verse for Tian Cai, so the source is still to be verified.

Each row of the picture is a pair of year branches six apart: Rat to Snake on the left, Horse to Pig on the right. A Rat year counts 0 steps, so Tian Cai sits in the Life palace; an Ox year counts 1 step, to the next branch after Life; and so on up to a Pig year at 11 steps. One thing to watch while reading the table: the palace names run against the branches, so counting along the branches makes the names go backward. After Life comes Parents, not Siblings. The order of all twelve names is in the twelve palaces at a glance.

One year branch, one palace name

Moving the Life palace to another branch only turns the whole circle of names, and the names counted out from Life stay the same. So everyone born under one year branch has Tian Cai in one palace name, and only the branch it sits on changes. Look at two charts that are both Snake years:

The number of Snake is 5, and the fifth palace after Life is always Friends. Put differently, the palace name of Tian Cai holds no information about the birth month or hour; it only says the year branch again.

Two charts, worked by hand

The branch comes from adding the Life palace's number to the year-branch number, modulo 12, with the Rat palace as 0. Two charts, two different year branches, which happen to land on the same branch:

In both charts Tian Cai sits on Snake, once in Partner and once in Wellbeing. So with Tian Cai, read the palace name first; the same branch does not mean the same palace.

Beside Long Chi: one fixes the branch, the other the name

Tian Cai and Long Chi both follow the year branch, yet they pin down different things. Side by side:

When the start is a fixed branch (Dragon), the year pins down the branch; when the start is the Life palace, the year pins down the palace name. The same "count by the year branch" with a different start means a different layer to record in your notes.

1. 1

   Find the Life palace

   Confirm which branch the Life palace sits on, and remember that the names run against the branches.

2. 2

   Take the year-branch number

   Once the date is past the lunar new year, turn the year into a branch: Rat 0, Ox 1, up to Pig 11.

3. 3

   Read the name last

   Count that many steps from Life along the branches and read off the palace; the branch only helps you find the spot on the chart.

The Body palace is another start, and counting the same steps from it gives Tian Shou; the difference between Life and Body is set out in Life and Body palaces compared.