Tian Fu: the mirror of Zi Wei

Zi Wei and Tian Fu, a mirror across Tiger and Monkey

Tian Fu (天府) is the first of the eight Tian Fu-group stars, and its position needs no separate lookup. It comes from holding Zi Wei up to a mirror: wherever Zi Wei lands, Tian Fu is on the branch symmetrical to it about the Tiger-Monkey axis.

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Ring sketch: the mirror relation comes from the placement verse and was checked in the site engine, iztro, for all twelve Zi Wei positions; each arc joins Zi Wei's branch to Tian Fu's.

Each arc in the picture joins a pair of branches, Zi Wei's at one end and Tian Fu's at the other; the five arcs run parallel and all stand square to the Tiger-Monkey axis. Tiger and Monkey lie on the axis itself, so when Zi Wei lands there Tian Fu shares its palace.

On Tian Fu, the first juan records this remark of Master Xiyi in the Zi Wei classic (紫微斗數全書):

It is the emperor's deputy.

A deputy stands beside the principal. By position Tian Fu always mirrors Zi Wei, and the relation takes only a few fixed forms:

Counting the eight stars forward from Tian Fu

The second half of the placement verse begins with Tian Fu:

Tian Fu, Tai Yin and Tan Lang, Ju Men, Tian Xiang and Tian Liang, Qi Sha, leave three empty, then Po Jun's place: count the eight forward in order and study them closely.

Work it through. Let Zi Wei be at Rat; the mirror puts Tian Fu at Dragon. Then count forward along the branches, one star to a cell.

Qi Sha lands on Dog, three cells are left empty (Pig, Rat, Ox), and Po Jun falls on Tiger. This is the same kind of verse as the Zi Wei group's back, skip one, skip two, skip three, only running in the other direction.

The opposite palace is always Qi Sha, and only three partners share the palace

Qi Sha is six places after Tian Fu, and the relative positions in the Tian Fu group are fixed, so Qi Sha always stands exactly opposite. Cast all twelve Zi Wei landings and there is no exception. Turn it round: with Tian Fu at Pig, the opposite Snake holds both Zi Wei and Qi Sha, because Zi Wei at Snake shares its palace with Qi Sha.

Tian Fu has only three co-resident partners, and it stands alone on the other six positions:

How opposite, flanking and converging palaces differ is set out in opposite, flanking and converging palaces. For now keep one thing in hand: with Tian Fu located, the star in the opposite palace is known at once.

The table stops at De, and a second grading goes by palace

Tian Fu's grade table uses only three grades. Miao falls on Rat, Ox, Tiger, Dragon, Goat and Dog; Wang on Horse and Rooster; De on Rabbit, Snake, Monkey and Pig. There is no Ping, no Bu and no Xian. In juan 1 Master Xiyi also gives a different kind of grading, by palace rather than branch:

Property and Wealth are its strong places, Friends and Appearance its sunken, weak ones, Siblings an ordinary one.

The two gradings ask different questions: one asks "which branch does it land on", the other "which palace does it enter". The book sets them down side by side and gives no conversion. One caution: "Appearance" (相貌) is a palace name in juan 1, while the list of twelve in juan 2 ends with Parents; the book does not say they correspond, so we record it as written.

That Tian Fu's table has nothing below De matches the tone of the blanket line; Tian Tong, whose table does hold a Xian cell, is a different case, taken up in its own article.

1. 1

   Find Tian Fu by the mirror

   Once the branch of Zi Wei is fixed, take Tian Fu symmetrically about the Tiger-Monkey axis; there is no need for a second verse.

2. 2

   Fill in the eight stars by counting forward

   Count along the branches from Tian Fu, leave three empty after Qi Sha and land on Po Jun; the opposite palace is Qi Sha, a handy cross-check.

3. 3

   Give each grading its own source

   The branch grading comes from the table and the palace grading from Xiyi's one line; there is no conversion, so do not blend them into one grade.

Before Tian Fu comes Lian Zhen and after it Tai Yin; its mirror partner is Zi Wei and its twelve landing points.