Lian Zhen and its two titles

The last stop of the verse loops back to Zi Wei

The verse lays the six stars of the Zi Wei group on a circle, Lian Zhen is the last stop, and three more steps lead back to Zi Wei. The placement verse printed in the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (紫微斗數全書) ends its first couplet like this:

Skip two more places, and there is the Lian Zhen ground; leave three empty, and Lord Zi Wei appears again.

Add up the steps of the verse. Zi Wei starts; Tian Ji steps back one; skip one and Tai Yang appears; Wu Qu and Tian Tong follow at once; skip two and there is Lian Zhen; leave three empty and you are back at Zi Wei. Six stars plus six skipped palaces make twelve cells, a full lap. Lian Zhen therefore sits eight places before Zi Wei, which is four places after it, four cells from each of Zi Wei and Wu Qu.

One star, a name that depends on the palace

The Lian Zhen line in juan 2's roster of star elements runs longer than the others:

Lian Zhen is Fire, Northern Dipper, turns into slaying and confinement; in Career it rules Career, in the Life palace it is a minor Peach Blossom.

It splits into three layers: Fire and the Northern Dipper; a qi title of "slaying and confinement"; and then two names that depend on the palace it occupies, ruler of Career in the Career palace and minor Peach Blossom in the Life palace.

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Layer sketch: positions follow the placement verse and the titles follow juan 1 and 2 of the Quan Shu; the Yin column comes from the site chart engine, iztro 2.6.0.

Juan 1 spells out the reason for the word "confinement":

Not in Miao or Wang, and on top of that running into the Official Charge, so it is said to turn confinement into killing.

This is a conditional sentence. Now look at Lian Zhen's grade table: Tiger and Monkey are Miao; Rat, Rabbit, Horse and Rooster are Ping; Ox, Dragon, Goat and Dog are Li; Snake and Pig are Xian. Only four grades appear, and no cell is Wang. Taken literally, "not in Miao or Wang" covers ten of the twelve positions. The engine data repeats the table cell for cell and records Lian Zhen as Fire and Yin.

Six co-resident cases, and the book's "likes Tian Xiang beside it"

Lian Zhen has six co-resident cases. The Lian Zhen entry in juan 2 ends with the line "this star likes Tian Xiang in the palace best", and by position Tian Xiang shares Lian Zhen's palace only on Rat and Horse.

A few facts read straight off the table. Tian Xiang (天相) shares the palace only on Rat and Horse, where Lian Zhen is Ping. Snake and Pig are Lian Zhen's only Xian pair, and Tan Lang (貪狼), its co-resident there, is Xian on both cells too. Tiger and Monkey are the only Miao pair and also the only solitary one.

The element example and the grade table are two separate tools

The same juan has a short section on elements acting on stars, and Lian Zhen serves as one of its examples:

Take Lian Zhen, a Fire star, at the Tiger palace: that is a Wood quarter, able to generate Lian Zhen's fire.

The method sets the star's element against the element of the branch it sits on: Tiger is Wood, Wood generates Fire, so it is a favorable quarter for the Fire star. Run the same method on other positions and set the results beside the grade table:

Side by side, the element method explains Tiger and Pig but not Monkey (Metal gives Fire no support and is restrained by it, yet the cell is Miao) or Snake (same Fire yet Xian). The element example in juan 2 is a demonstration of one reading, and the grade table has its own origin; both stand in the book, so cite each with its source and do not derive one from the other.

Working the Pig palace as an example

With Lian Zhen at Pig, Zi Wei sits eight places after Pig, at Goat; Tan Lang shares the Pig palace, where Lian Zhen is Xian; and the opposite Snake holds no major star.

1. 1

   Report the branch and the grade

   "Lian Zhen at Snake, Xian in the juan 2 table": give branch and source together so that a reader can find the same cell.

2. 2

   Ask which palace the book is writing about

   Career ruler and minor Peach Blossom hang on the palace occupied; settle what this cell is called before quoting either title.

3. 3

   Treat the element example as a demonstration

   Wood generating Fire at Tiger is an illustration of a reading; grades stay as the table gives them, and branch elements do not overwrite a cell.

Before Lian Zhen in the verse is Tian Tong and the Wellbeing palace; after the Zi Wei group comes the start of the Tian Fu group, Tian Fu; and when Lian Zhen sits at Pig the opposite palace is empty, a case taken up in empty palaces and borrowed stars.