1 and 9 · Water and fire in balance
In Chinese: 水火既濟水火既济
The 1 White and the 9 Purple: water over fire, the hexagram Ji Ji, after completion, two stars adding to ten and both timely in Period 9.
Meaning
Ji Ji, 水火既濟, is the one hexagram whose every line stands in its proper place, yang in the odd places and yin in the even, which is why the classics take it for a balance reached. The 1 and the 9 face each other across the Lo Shu, north and south, and in Period 9 both are timely, so this meeting of opposites is read at its most harmonious.
Water over fire, the hexagram Ji Ji, “after completion”, the two adding up to ten: the classics read the meeting of opposites. In season, harmony between different temperaments and things brought to completion; out of season, warmth and reserve argue, and the balance has to be found again.
In practice
- In a home’s chart: a palace whose mountain star and water star are the 1 and the 9, in either order, holds this pairing; the palace’s reading names it and gives the text above, then how the two phases meet and which face applies.
- The 1 as mountain star, the 9 as water star: the mountain star checks the water star, as water checks fire: the people hold back what flows in, a restraint that can steady or slow.
- The 9 as mountain star, the 1 as water star: the water star checks the mountain star, as water checks fire: what comes in presses on the people of the home.
- In Period 9 (2024–2043), both stars are in season: read “in season”, whichever is the mountain star.
Correspondences
- The stars: the 1 White (Tan Lang) and the 9 Purple (You Bi)
- Their phases: Water and Fire
- Their trigrams and homes in the Lo Shu: Kan ☵, in the north; Li ☲, in the south
- Ten: the two add up to ten, as the numbers facing each other across the square’s centre do
- The 1 with the other stars: 1 and 1, 1 and 2, 1 and 3, 1 and 4, 1 and 5, 1 and 6, 1 and 7, 1 and 8
- The 9 with the other stars: 2 and 9, 3 and 9, 4 and 9, 5 and 9, 6 and 9, 7 and 9, 8 and 9, 9 and 9
Related
- 1 White starThe first of the nine stars, Water and the trigram Kan, at home in the north: study, careers and journeys, and timely again in Period 9.
- 9 Purple starThe ninth of the nine stars, Fire and the trigram Li, at home in the south: celebration, recognition and joy, the star of the present period.
- Pairs of starsThe 45 meetings of a mountain star and a water star in one palace of a Flying Star chart, each with the reading the classics give it, in season and out.
- WaterThe phase of depth, rest and stored strength, of winter and the north: still on the surface, moving underneath, preparing the next spring.
- FireThe phase of warmth, light and full expression, of summer and the south: growth at its height, everything most visible.
- Flying Star chartA home’s chart in the Flying Stars: nine palaces, each with a mountain star, a water star and a period star, cast from the home’s period and facing.
Sources
- Zi Bai Jue (Verse of the Purple and White), Xuan Kong school
- Xuan Kong Mi Zhi (Secret Meaning of the Profound Void), Xuan Kong school
- Fei Xing Fu (Rhapsody of the Flying Stars), Xuan Kong school
- Shen Zhureng, Shen shi Xuankong xue, published after 1906