4 and 9 · The He Tu pair of metal
In Chinese: 四九為友四九为友
The 4 Green and the 9 Purple: the He Tu pair of metal, which the classics call friends, wood feeding fire, writing that makes a name.
Meaning
In the River Chart the 4 and the 9 stand together on the right, the west, the place of metal, 四九為友, though their own phases are Wood and Fire; Xun and Li, the eldest and the middle daughters. With the 9 timely in Period 9, the classics read recognition through the arts as coming more readily.
One of the four He Tu pairs, which the classics call friends, with wood feeding fire: the scholar’s success, writing that makes a name, recognition through the arts. In season, study and creative work rewarded; out of season, words that run ahead of the work.
In practice
- In a home’s chart: a palace whose mountain star and water star are the 4 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 4 as mountain star, the 9 as water star: the mountain star feeds the water star, as wood feeds fire: the people’s effort goes into what comes in.
- The 9 as mountain star, the 4 as water star: the water star feeds the mountain star, as wood feeds fire: what comes in supports the people of the home.
- In Period 9 (2024–2043), the 9 is in season and the 4 is not: read “in season” for what the 9 speaks for and “out of season” for what the 4 speaks for, the people of the home when a star is the mountain’s, what comes in when it is the water’s.
Correspondences
- The stars: the 4 Green (Wen Qu) and the 9 Purple (You Bi)
- Their phases: Wood and Fire
- Their trigrams and homes in the Lo Shu: Xun ☴, in the south-east; Li ☲, in the south
- 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 4 with the other stars: 1 and 4, 2 and 4, 3 and 4, 4 and 4, 4 and 5, 4 and 6, 4 and 7, 4 and 8
- The 9 with the other stars: 1 and 9, 2 and 9, 3 and 9, 5 and 9, 6 and 9, 7 and 9, 8 and 9, 9 and 9
Related
- 4 Green starThe fourth of the nine stars, Wood and the trigram Xun, the wind, at home in the south-east: letters, study and the arts.
- 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.
- WoodThe phase of growth and beginnings, of spring and the east: what pushes upwards and outwards towards the light.
- 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