Tian Kong: the cell after the birth-year branch

One cell after the year branch

Two stars carry the character for "empty", yet they read different things: one reads the birth year, the other the birth hour. The year-based one first.

In the engine Tian Kong (天空) uses only the branch of the birth year. It sits one cell after that branch: a single step, with no other calculation. A Horse year lands at Goat, and a Pig year wraps around to Rat.

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The ring lists the twelve branches and each arc runs from the birth-year branch to Tian Kong; positions follow the site engine and were checked over all sixty year pillars.

Both arcs are one cell long. Pig is the last of the twelve branches, and the cell after it is the first, Rat, so for a Pig year Tian Kong "wraps around" on the chart. The engine code leaves a single comment on this rule, which reads roughly "the place one ahead when counting forward from the birth-year branch"; "one ahead" there means the next cell in branch order.

Twelve year branches, each one step on

Every step forward in the year branch moves Tian Kong one step forward too, so each of the twelve landing points shows up exactly once. The table splits the twelve years into two halves and reads them side by side:

The book's "Tian Kong" is another star

Juan 2 of the Quan Shu (紫微斗数全书) writes Tian Kong together with Di Jie (地劫) in one rule, and the note under the rule's name says it works "from the birth hour": start at Pig, count forward to place Di Jie, count backward to place Tian Kong. Under that rule the book's Tian Kong is decided by the birth hour, and it agrees hour by hour with the star the engine calls Di Kong (地空). The rule and the book's three examples are checked line by line in the Di Kong article, so only the conclusion is recorded here.

The entry on Tian Kong in the book opens with a short sentence:

Tian Kong is the spirit of the void.

One year, and the hour that collides

Tian Kong travels with the year and Di Kong with the hour, so whether the two share a cell depends on how a year and an hour pair up. Twelve year branches times twelve hours make a hundred and forty-four combinations, and only twelve of them coincide: each year branch has exactly one hour that lands on its Tian Kong. The table lists, for every year branch, that hour and the cell where the two stars meet:

In a Ren Shen (壬申) year the colliding hour is the Tiger hour: Tian Kong is at Rooster and so is Di Kong. Born in the Rat hour instead, Di Kong steps back to Pig and the two part ways. On the chart with the Life palace at Goat, Tian Kong sits at Rooster, which is the Wellbeing palace, and Di Kong at Pig, the Career palace.

Recording a Tian Kong: sort out three things first

1. 1

   Ask what the input is

   On meeting "Tian Kong", ask whether it is placed by year branch or by hour; a different input means a different star.

2. 2

   Then check where the passage comes from

   When citing the book, say that its "Tian Kong" is the one placed by hour; the engine's year-based Tian Kong has no matching page, so mark it "source to be checked".

3. 3

   Finally turn the branch into a palace

   Both stars give only a branch. The palace name is settled by this chart's Life palace, so a new Life palace means a new name.

The same-named star is Di Kong, its paired star is Di Jie, the void placed by decade is Xun Kong, and the whole family of minor stars is covered in supporting, malefic and minor stars.