Dominant structure

Meaning

The dominant structure, 專旺格 zhuānwàng gé, “flourishing alone”, is the name some schools give a chart almost filled with the Day Master’s own phase and the phase that produces it, with nothing to control it. An ordinary reading would call such a Day Master very strong and look for what can spend its strength; these schools read it the other way round. Ulune’s reading puts it so: a dominant chart is filled with the Day Master’s own phase, and some schools read it as following that phase all the way, helped by more of it rather than less.

The tradition reads a single note sounded throughout: a person of one strong colour, wholehearted and consistent, at their best going with their own grain rather than against it. The older manuals give each phase’s dominant chart a name of its own, taken from the Great Plan chapter of the Book of Documents: 曲直 qūzhí, “bending and straight”, for Wood; 炎上 yánshàng, “blazing upwards”, for Fire; 稼穡 jiàsè (稼穑), “sowing and reaping”, for Earth; 從革 cónggé (从革), “yielding and changing”, for Metal; 潤下 rùnxià (润下), “soaking downwards”, for Water.

It is a disputed reading, and Ulune says so. The flag stands beside the month’s structure, which it does not replace, and the favourable phases are shown turned round, with the reminder that schools disagree: a possibility to weigh, never a verdict.

In practice

• When Ulune flags it: when the Day Master’s own phase and the one producing it hold at least 80% of the chart’s points, and no stem of the year, month or hour is of the phase that controls it.
• Beside the structure: Ulune still names the month’s structure; the dominant flag is added in the analysis and in the structure’s reading, with the share of support that raised it.
• The favourable phases turn round: when the chart is read as dominant, the helpful phases are the Day Master’s own, the one producing it and the one it produces, phases the chart is already full of; those the Day Master controls and is controlled by are the least helpful.
• With strength: such a Day Master is almost always strong by Ulune’s three tests, sometimes balanced; the flag looks at the whole count rather than at the tests.
• What the classics ask: more than Ulune’s check. Their dominant charts are born in the season of their phase, with the branches gathered round it and nothing of the controlling phase anywhere; Ulune’s check is broader, and says so.

Across traditions

• In Japan and Korea the structure is the sen’ō-kaku of Shichū Suimei and the jeonwang-gyeok of saju.
• In Western astrology the closest picture is a stellium, many planets gathered in one sign, or a chart dominated by one element: a single note read from the spread of the planets rather than from the phases.

Origin and history

The one-phase charts are old. The San Ming Tong Hui of Wan Minying, in the 16th century, lists them among its outer structures under their Great Plan names, the Wood chart “bending and straight”, the Water chart “soaking downwards”. The Di Tian Sui, with Ren Tieqiao’s commentary under the Qing, gives them their reasoning: a chart whose whole force runs one way is to be followed rather than opposed. Shen Xiaozhan’s Ziping Zhenquan, which reads every chart from its month, keeps them to the margins, and modern teachers still disagree on how often a chart truly qualifies, which is why Ulune flags rather than decides.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune counts the five phases, each visible stem one point and each hidden stem by its weight, the month’s twice, and divides the points of the Day Master’s own phase and of the phase producing it by the total. At 80% or more, with no stem of the controlling phase among the year, month and hour, it flags the dominant structure. It does not ask for the season or for a gathering of branches, and it does not name the phase’s classical structure.

Correspondences