3 and 8 · The He Tu pair of wood
In Chinese: 三八為朋三八为朋
The 3 Jade and the 8 White: the He Tu pair of wood, which the classics call friends, growth and change, property that moves.
Meaning
In the River Chart the 3 and the 8 stand together on the left, the east, the place of wood, 三八為朋; on the compass their trigrams, Zhen and Gen, are thunder and the mountain, movement and stillness. With the 3 dormant and the 8 just past its time, the classics read it now as a restlessness to settle rather than a change to chase.
One of the four He Tu pairs, which the classics call friends: wood over earth, the eldest and the youngest sons. They read growth and change, and property that moves. In season, gains from land and from initiative; out of season, restlessness in the home’s young people, and plans that change course.
In practice
- In a home’s chart: a palace whose mountain star and water star are the 3 and the 8, 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 3 as mountain star, the 8 as water star: the mountain star checks the water star, as wood checks earth: the people hold back what flows in, a restraint that can steady or slow.
- The 8 as mountain star, the 3 as water star: the water star checks the mountain star, as wood checks earth: what comes in presses on the people of the home.
- In Period 9 (2024–2043), neither star is in season, though the 8 has only just passed its time: read “out of season”, more gently for what the 8 speaks for.
Correspondences
- The stars: the 3 Jade (Lu Cun) and the 8 White (Zuo Fu)
- Their phases: Wood and Earth
- Their trigrams and homes in the Lo Shu: Zhen ☳, in the east; Gen ☶, in the north-east
- A He Tu pair: one of the four pairs the River Chart joins, 1 and 6, 2 and 7, 3 and 8, 4 and 9
- The 3 with the other stars: 1 and 3, 2 and 3, 3 and 3, 3 and 4, 3 and 5, 3 and 6, 3 and 7, 3 and 9
- The 8 with the other stars: 1 and 8, 2 and 8, 4 and 8, 5 and 8, 6 and 8, 7 and 8, 8 and 8, 8 and 9
Related
- 3 Jade starThe third of the nine stars, Wood and the trigram Zhen, thunder, at home in the east: drive and initiative, read with patience out of season.
- 8 White starThe eighth of the nine stars, Earth and the trigram Gen, the mountain, at home in the north-east: steadiness and lasting gains, waning in Period 9.
- 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.
- WoodThe phase of growth and beginnings, of spring and the east: what pushes upwards and outwards towards the light.
- EarthThe phase of the centre and of every turning point: the ground that steadies, nourishes and gathers the other four together.
- 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