What Is Đẩu Quân and Why Is It Also Called Nguyệt Tướng?
Đẩu Quân is a auxiliary star in Tử Vi, belonging to the Fire element, classified among the malefic stars, governing a personality that is fussy, conservative, frugal, blunt, cold, and values principles and rules. The word Đẩu means measuring, so this star leans toward carefulness, exactness, deliberation, holding the scales, balancing income and expenditure, and handling preservation and regulation. In everyday life, texts liken it to a homemaker who manages the family, or in a nation to the role of budget finance that balances annual revenue and spending.
According to the common presentation on reference sites, Đẩu Quân is a close assistant of Thái Tuế, bearing the title Nguyệt Tướng, and carries out the minor fortune portion in the operation of fortune cycles. One point that is easy to confuse must be stated at once: the word Nguyệt Tướng here is completely different from Nguyệt Tướng of Lục Nhâm. In Lục Nhâm, Nguyệt Tướng is the name of a deity general placed onto the earth plate according to the hour of divination, and Lục Nhâm texts discuss in detail the method of changing Nguyệt Tướng when a person consults many hexagrams in the same hour. That is a concept of the Tam Thức system, unrelated to the star placement method in Tử Vi. The two words are identical but are two different matters, and readers of the literature need to distinguish them clearly.
How Is Đẩu Quân Placed?
The position of Đẩu Quân is determined based on the birth month and birth hour of the native. The method consists of two consecutive counting stages:
- Take the palace containing the Thái Tuế star as the first lunar month, and count counter-clockwise to the birth month. This is the backward counting stage by month.
- From the palace just stopped at, set it as the Tý hour, then count clockwise to the birth hour. The final stopping palace is the position where Đẩu Quân is placed.
In other words, Đẩu Quân is the result of adding two offsets: the offset of the birth month from the Thái Tuế palace, and the offset of the birth hour from the Tý hour. This formulation matches the common description on Tử Vi reference sites, and also matches the general principle of monthly fortune placement methods: count backward by month then count forward by birth hour.
Table of Đẩu Quân's Offset from the Thái Tuế Palace
The table below shows, for each pair (birth month, birth hour), how many palaces Đẩu Quân lies from the Thái Tuế palace. Convention: Thái Tuế is the zero mark, each backward step by month adds 1, each forward step by hour adds 1, and the remainder when divided by 12 is taken. To get the specific palace name, take the Thái Tuế palace on the chart and count backward exactly the number of steps shown in the table.
| Birth month | Tý | Sửu | Dần | Mão | Thìn | Tỵ | Ngọ | Mùi | Thân | Dậu | Tuất | Hợi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Second | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 0 |
| Third | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 1 |
| Fourth | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Fifth | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Sixth | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Seventh | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Eighth | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Ninth | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Tenth | 9 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Eleventh | 10 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Twelfth | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
How to read the table: the cell at the intersection of the birth month row and the birth hour column is the number of steps to count backward from the Thái Tuế palace to reach Đẩu Quân. For example, a person born in the fourth month, Mão hour, looks up the table and gets 6, meaning from the Thái Tuế palace count backward 6 palaces to reach Đẩu Quân. This table is computed by machine according to the two counting stages above, not typed by hand, so it can be used to cross-check with star placement software.
Note on scope of application: the core calculation currently does not place this star, while the Thái Tuế position is already available in the chart data. Therefore the table above is a supplementary tool, helping to look up the offset quickly instead of having to count by hand each time.
Why Is Đẩu Quân Used Only for Reading Monthly Fortune?
Đẩu Quân bears the title Nguyệt Tướng and is described as carrying out the minor fortune portion in the operation of fortune cycles, meaning its role is tied to the short fortune layer, specifically monthly fortune. When reading monthly fortune, the first step is to determine the monthly fortune palace, that is, the palace taken as the month's Mệnh for interpretation. After determining the monthly fortune palace, one examines the stars sitting in and shining to that palace, along with the month's moving stars, to interpret the month's flavor. Determining the correct monthly fortune palace is the foundational step; if this step is wrong, the entire subsequent interpretation will be off.
Đẩu Quân serves as the marker from which the monthly fortune of each month is derived: the Đẩu Quân palace is taken as the first month of the year, and from there the remaining months are derived. This is why it is rarely used as a star for interpreting personality or a fixed palace, but mainly appears in the monthly fortune layer. In other words, the value of Đẩu Quân lies in being the starting point for counting, not in being a star strong in auspiciousness or inauspiciousness.
Monthly Fortune Is the Thinnest Reference Layer
Its importance should be placed correctly. In the system of interpretation by level, people divide Heaven, Earth, and Human for different time layers. One definition: when reading annual fortune, the natal chart is Heaven, the annual is Human, the major cycle is Earth; when reading monthly fortune, take the major cycle as the Thái Cực, the monthly as the Human plate, the annual as the Earth plate; when reading daily fortune, take the annual as the Thái Cực, the daily as the Human plate, the monthly as the Earth plate. This layering shows that the month and day layers lie in the narrowest tiers, dependent on the wider tiers.
Another presentation in Đẩu Số texts speaks of the focus of the issue: in each major cycle, annual, monthly, daily, and hourly, one or two unpleasant matters may arise, and the palace hit or opposed by the Hóa Kỵ of the heavenly stem, especially the opposed palace, is precisely the focus palace of that time layer. The severity also depends on the auspiciousness of the natal chart, the strength of the focus palace, whether there is a double Kỵ, whether there is a malefic star in opposition, and whether that focus palace is a heavy illness point of the original chart. This reinforces the view that monthly fortune is only a reference layer, not standing independently.
Therefore, reading a month should only be seen as reading a brushstroke in a larger picture. One should not turn the monthly fortune table into a calendar of good and bad months for choosing days for major work, and even less should one use it to assert that a month is certainly good or certainly bad.
Where Do Sources Disagree?
Is the Base the Birth Year's Thái Tuế or the Year Branch Being Read?
This is the most important difference. The common approach in Vietnamese texts takes Đẩu Quân from the birth year's Thái Tuế, meaning the Đẩu Quân position is fixed on the natal chart and does not change over the years. According to the Đẩu số tinh thành text, there is an approach taking it from the branch of the year being read, meaning this position changes each year according to the branch of the year being read. These two approaches give different results when reading the same person in two different years, so when consulting documents one must clearly determine which approach that document follows, to avoid mixing the two methods in one reading.
How Many Ways Are There to Place Monthly Fortune?
Regarding monthly fortune in general, in practice there are about six to seven different placement methods among schools. Some common directions:
| Starting point | Principle description |
|---|---|
| From the Tiểu Vận palace | Take the year's minor fortune palace as the base, then calculate the month palace |
| From the Lưu Thái Tuế palace | Take the year's Lưu Thái Tuế palace as the base to calculate months |
| From the Dần palace | Some methods start from the fixed Dần palace |
The two methods considered standard and most common by many are starting from the Tiểu Vận palace or the Lưu Thái Tuế palace, then counting backward by month and forward by birth hour to get the monthly fortune palace. Because the method involves birth month and birth hour, each person's monthly fortune differs, even within the same calendar month. This is also why the Đẩu Quân placement method above is only one of the approaches, and learners should note clearly which approach they follow.
The Name Nguyệt Tướng Is Easily Confused with Lục Nhâm
As stated at the beginning, Nguyệt Tướng in Tử Vi is the title of Đẩu Quân, while Nguyệt Tướng in Lục Nhâm is a deity general placed onto the earth plate according to the hour of divination, with its own method of swapping generals when changing hexagrams. Lục Nhâm texts present in some detail the changing of the Nguyệt Tướng name according to even or odd hexagrams, forward or reverse, and always place it onto the current hour palace. These are two different systems, sharing one word but not the same concept. Readers looking up by keyword should pay attention to context to avoid mixing documents from one system into the other.
Đẩu Quân in Various Palaces and Points to Note
According to reference sites, when Đẩu Quân enters a palace it usually makes that palace lean toward rules, calculation, stability, and handling practical matters. At the Mệnh palace, the native is often stern, strict, meticulous, careful, may live in solitude with few friends due to being hard to approach and stubborn; this quality resembles Cô Thần and Quả Tú. At the Tài Bạch and Điền Trạch palaces, this star governs preservation, saving, and protecting assets, but can also make the native petty and fussy about food and drink and less close to neighbors. At the Tật Ách palace, it is often tied to mental tension, insomnia, and anxiety; if meeting Thiên Hình and Kình Dương, it easily corresponds to needing injections or surgery. At the Tử Tức palace, some documents note signs related to children, but this is only one aspect among many factors forming a chart. To interpret children, one must comprehensively examine the interaction among the Tử Tức, Thiên Di, and Phúc Đức palaces along with the stars shining in and factors such as Thiên Diêu, Đào Hoa, Hồng Loan, including influence from major cycles and annual fortune. Đẩu Quân at Mệnh is only a small factor, and one should not jump to conclusions.
When in a good position, whichever palace receives Đẩu Quân has a prominent aspect. When meeting Tuần Triệt, texts liken it to a defeated general, prone to hardship and struggle, but still with integrity and possibly earning a reputation. When surrounded by the six malefic stars, texts liken it to a fierce tiger powerless before a pack of foxes. In the case of Mệnh and Thân in the same palace in the Thái Tuế triangle with Đẩu Quân added, it is considered not an ordinary lowly person, at least having a distinct temperament and status.
All the descriptions above are traditional readings, for reference. They are not fixed conclusions about a person, and should not be used to assert certainty about anyone's finances, health, or destiny.
