You Bi: counted back from Dog, set against Zuo Fu

Counted back from Dog: the same month, the other direction

In plain words first: You Bi (右弼) uses the same lunar month as Zuo Fu, but it starts on the Dog (戌) branch and counts the other way. Month one goes on Dog, month two on Rooster, and the later the month, the further back it moves.

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Comparison table: Zuo Fu counted forward from Dragon, You Bi counted back from Dog, checked month by month against the engine; the last column sorts the pair by how many branches lie between them.

The table lists both stars side by side for all twelve lunar months. Each row is one month, the middle columns hold Zuo Fu and You Bi, and the last column says how the two sit relative to each other. In month one they face each other across the whole circle. Reading down, one moves forward and the other back, they close in, meet on Goat in month four, pass each other, and meet again on Ox in month ten.

Here is how juan 2 states the counting of You Bi:

You Bi turns backward from the Dog palace: the first month is put in the Dog palace, the second month in the Rooster palace, and the rest follow the same pattern.

The ring below draws You Bi alone. Each circle has a branch and the month in which You Bi lands there: Dog 1, Rooster 2, and on back to Pig 12. The Dragon is marked because that is where Zuo Fu starts.

Twelve months, only four relations

Sort the last column of the table and the twelve months fall into exactly four groups, with no fifth kind:

This is no coincidence. Zuo Fu sits at Dragon plus (month minus one) places and You Bi at Dog minus (month minus one) places, so one steps forward as the other steps back and the gap moves by two each month. The starting points, Dragon and Dog, are six apart, an even number, so in every month the number of branches between the pair is even. It can never be 1, 3 or 5.

Flanking the Life palace: working the book's example through

Juan 3, in its section on stars sharing a palace, has a line about Zuo Fu and You Bi on either side of the Life palace:

If the Life palace is placed on Ox, with Zuo Fu on the Rat palace and You Bi on the Tiger palace: those born in the fourth, seventh, tenth and eleventh months are the case.

The rules above check this item by item. Zuo Fu on Rat is eight places on from Dragon, which is month nine. You Bi on Tiger is eight places back from Dog, which is also month nine. Both conditions point at the same month. Now the Life palace: juan 2, on placing the Life and Body palaces, says to count from Tiger for month one forward to the birth month, then from that month's palace count the Rat hour backward to the birth hour. Month nine falls on Dog, the Rat hour goes on Dog, and counting back to Ox takes nine places, the Rooster hour.

The check turns up a mismatch: the book's month list, "fourth, seventh, tenth and eleventh", does not agree with the months the rules give. By the rules, month four has both stars on Goat, month seven has Dog and Dragon facing each other, and month ten has both on Ox: none flanks anything. However the list is split, as "four, seven, ten, eleven" or "four, seven, eleven", months four and seven cannot flank the Life palace. By juan 2's two rules, the Ox palace is flanked in month nine (Zuo Fu on Rat, You Bi on Tiger) or month eleven (Zuo Fu on Tiger, You Bi on Rat). Whether the months were mis-copied or another placing was meant, this article does not judge; it records the calculation.

Among 144 month-and-hour combinations, exactly four put the Life palace between the two stars:

How the Life palace comes out of month and hour is covered in the Life and Body palaces.

Ba Zuo: counted back from You Bi

You Bi's position is also the start for another star. Right after Santai, the Quan Shu gives Ba Zuo:

For Ba Zuo, look for You Bi: put the first day on the You Bi palace and count backward to the day of birth.

The count runs opposite to Santai: the You Bi palace is the starting square, every later day steps one palace back, and the square reached on the birth day holds Ba Zuo.

Their gap is even for the same reason: Santai moves forward from Zuo Fu by (day minus one) places and Ba Zuo moves back from You Bi by the same number, so the difference is the Zuo Fu and You Bi gap plus twice that number, still even. Ba Zuo itself is read in Ba Zuo.

Writing the pair of one chart as three rows

Last, a practice record on a real chart: lunar month 3, day 18, Dragon hour (April 26, 2024), with the Life palace on Rat and the Body palace on Monkey:

Written out in words: Zuo Fu is in Travel, straight across from Life; You Bi is in Wealth, in trine with Life, and that square is also the Body palace; the two stars flank the Health palace. Each star's position relative to Life says more than the phrase "has Zuo Fu and You Bi". For people born in a Yang Earth year, You Bi also carries Ke; the book's song and the engine's table agree here, and it is covered in Hua Ke.

1. 1

   Put both stars in one row

   Write month, Zuo Fu and You Bi first, then add a column for the relation: same palace, flanking, trine or opposite.

2. 2

   Mark the middle palace when flanking

   If the relation is flanking, write the caught-between branch on its own, because that is the palace to look up next.

3. 3

   Add the position against Life

   Once Life is placed, give each star one more column: Life, opposite, trine, or none of these.

To see the other star's counting, go back to Zuo Fu and compare the forward direction with this one.