Combination of Ten, mountain

Meaning

The Combination of Ten for the mountain stars is one of the Flying Stars’ formations that Ulune names, a pattern that runs through the whole of a home’s chart: in all nine palaces the mountain star and the period star add up to ten, a 1 with a 9, a 2 with an 8, a 5 with a 5.

山星合十, shān xīng hé shí, the mountain stars combine to ten. The classics read it as a chart whose stars work together, for people and the bonds between them, a harmony that runs through the whole home rather than one palace, and they let it soften what else the chart carries.

Of the 216 main charts, the twenty-four facings of each of the nine periods, 12 carry this formation, in Periods 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

In practice

• What practitioners suggest: nothing to change; they read the rooms of the home as carried by the pattern, and give its palaces’ own pairs their usual care.
• In the Home lens: the chart’s reading names its formations. Built in Period 9, a home facing Xun or Si carries this one; built in Period 8, a home facing Wei.
• Near an edge: the replacement chart, which Ulune shows beside the main one for a facing close to the edge of its mountain, has formations of its own, named the same way; it may keep this one or not.

Across traditions

• The Lo Shu’s own pairs: across the centre of the Lo Shu every two numbers make ten, 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, 4 and 6; the Combination of Ten gives each palace that balance within itself.
• The He Tu, the River Chart, pairs its numbers by five, 1 with 6, 2 with 7; the Lo Shu pairs them by ten across its centre, and the Combination of Ten follows the Lo Shu.

Origin and history

The Combination of Ten, 合十, is one of the Xuan Kong school’s classic patterns, and a rare one: twelve of the 216 main charts. It comes with its mirror, the Combination of Ten for the water stars, across the compass, in Period 9 for a home facing Xun or Si on one side and Qian or Hai on the other.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune casts each home’s chart, then checks it against every formation it knows. For this one the rule is: in all nine palaces the mountain star and the period star add up to ten, a 1 with a 9, a 2 with an 8, a 5 with a 5. It is read on the main chart and on the replacement chart alike, each on its own. Ulune’s tests check its formations against charts worked by hand.

An example: a home facing Xun, built in Period 9. The period chart sets 9 in the centre; the mountain star goes to the centre as a 1 and flies backward, the water star as a 8 and flies forward. At the back, in the palace of the north-west, stand mountain star 9 and water star 9; at the front, in the palace of the south-east, mountain star 2 and water star 7. Palace by palace, mountain star and period star: centre 1 + 9, north-west 9 + 1, west 8 + 2, north-east 7 + 3, south 6 + 4, north 5 + 5, south-west 4 + 6, east 3 + 7, south-east 2 + 8.

Correspondences