TL;DR: A palace on a Tử Vi (Vietnamese astrology) chart is influenced first of all by the tam phương tứ chính: the main palace, the two tam hợp (trine) palaces and the xung chiếu (opposite) palace. There are also the nhị hợp palace, the two adjacent palaces and star cycles such as Thái Tuế (Grand Duke), Lộc Tồn (Prosperity) and Tràng Sinh (Growth). This article draws on four Vietnamese Tử Vi books; on nhị hợp in particular, Tử Vi nghiệm lý toàn thư by Thiên Lương (Celestial Beam) gives it weight, while Tử Vi tổng hợp by Nguyễn Phát Lộc considers it insignificant, so the article states each book's position rather than choosing one side.
What is tam phương tứ chính and which palaces does it include?
This article follows the Vietnamese Tử Vi books: Tử Vi đẩu số tân biên (Vân Đằng Thái Thứ Lang), Tử Vi nghiệm lý toàn thư (Thiên Lương), Tử Vi tổng hợp (Nguyễn Phát Lộc) and Tử Vi áo bí biện chứng học (Việt Viêm Tử). Tam phương tứ chính is the set of four palaces that form the basic linked structure on a chart: the main palace, its two tam hợp palaces and its opposite palace. If Mệnh sits at Ngọ, for example, the main palace is Ngọ, the two tam hợp palaces are Dần and Tuất, and the opposite palace is Tý. Tử Vi đẩu số tân biên instructs: "To read a palace, one must also read the palaces that shine on it", meaning the two tam hợp palaces, one xung chiếu palace and one nhị hợp palace[1]. Thiên Lương writes that Tử Vi has "3 main methods", namely tam hợp, nhị hợp and xung chiếu, in which tam hợp "includes the main and the chiếu": when Mệnh sits at Ngọ, Ngọ is the main palace and Dần and Tuất are the chiếu palaces[2].
The principle of tam hợp rests on the Trường Sinh cycle and the Địa Chi: Dần Ngọ Tuất form the Hỏa tam hợp, Thân Tý Thìn the Thủy tam hợp, Tỵ Dậu Sửu the Kim tam hợp, and Hợi Mão Mùi the Mộc tam hợp. The three palaces of one tam hợp stand at the three positions Sinh, Chính and Mộ (Dần is Sinh, Ngọ is Chính, Tuất is Mộ). Tử Vi nghiệm lý describes tam hợp as "an alliance of three palaces able to stand like a tripod" contending together against the opposing side, the xung chiếu palace[2].
The xung chiếu palace is the palace directly opposite through the centre of the chart, exactly six palaces from the main palace. The six fixed xung chiếu pairs are Tý Ngọ, Sửu Mùi, Dần Thân, Mão Dậu, Thìn Tuất and Tỵ Hợi. According to Tử Vi nghiệm lý, the xung chiếu relation is one of mutual ngũ hành clash: "xung is a relation of clash", never of generation, only khắc xuất or khắc nhập[2].
| Xung chiếu pair | Tam hợp element of the first palace | Tam hợp element of the second palace | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tý, Ngọ | Thủy | Hỏa | Thủy clashes Hỏa |
| Sửu, Mùi | Kim | Mộc | Kim clashes Mộc |
| Dần, Thân | Hỏa | Thủy | Thủy clashes Hỏa |
| Mão, Dậu | Mộc | Kim | Kim clashes Mộc |
| Thìn, Tuất | Thủy | Hỏa | Thủy clashes Hỏa |
| Tỵ, Hợi | Kim | Mộc | Kim clashes Mộc |
The table uses the element of the tam hợp that contains each palace, which is how Thiên Lương reckons it: two opposing palaces always belong to two clashing tam hợp, never to a generating pair. In his account, when the main palace overcomes the opposite palace it gathers what is good there, and when the main palace is overcome by the opposite palace it gains nothing from it[2].
Why can a palace not stand alone?
None of the books reads a palace in isolation. Tử Vi đẩu số tân biên makes fixing the directions of chiếu a step that comes right after placing the stars[1]. Thiên Lương writes that one tam hợp alone is not enough to see the movement on the board, and that the rules also include nhị hợp and xung chiếu[2].
Việt Viêm Tử's Tử Vi áo bí biện chứng học, when judging a Mệnh palace that has no main star but holds an inauspicious star in miếu, also takes tam phương as its standard: "receiving Khoa Quyền Lộc from tam phương củng chiếu, with inauspicious stars in miếu vị guarding the tam hợp, is a superior pattern"[4]. The ranking into superior or inferior pattern here rests on the stars shining in from tam phương, not only on the star in residence.
For a palace without a main star, Nguyễn Phát Lộc's Tử Vi tổng hợp observes that when the discipline says "one must use the main star in xung chiếu to judge" rather than the main stars in tam chiếu, it is treating "the xung chiếu position as stronger and more decisive" than tam chiếu[3]. He also points to a vague spot: Tử Vi does not fix how strong the main star in xung chiếu is when it shines on a palace without a main star, which makes interpretation "very shaky and inaccurate"[3].
Is the xung chiếu palace stronger or weaker than the palace in residence?
On the main star in xung chiếu compared with the main star in residence, Tử Vi tổng hợp records: "The Tử-Vi discipline regards xung chiếu as weaker than tọa thủ"[3]. The sentence belongs to the passage on palaces without a main star: according to the book, such a palace receives only part of the good and the bad of the main star in xung chiếu.
Tử Vi nghiệm lý toàn thư has a chapter titled after the old saying "the main is not equal to the chiếu, the chiếu is not equal to the giáp"[2]. Thiên Lương does not treat the saying as a general ranking; he examines it. In his reading, "the main is not equal to the chiếu" holds for the Nhật Nguyệt pair: Thái Dương at Ngọ and Thái Âm at Thân both shining on a Mệnh palace without a main star at Dần[2].
As for "the chiếu is not equal to the giáp", he writes that there are "only 2 cases", both of them a giáp by Nhật Nguyệt: Thiên Phủ at Mùi flanked by Thái Dương at Ngọ and Thái Âm at Thân, and Tham Vũ at Sửu flanked by Cự Nhật at Dần and Đồng Âm at Tý[2]. Of giáp in general he writes: "The giáp has strong influence when Mệnh stands in a favourable position"[2].
Is nhị hợp really important?
Nhị hợp is the relation between two palaces whose Địa Chi are in lục hợp: Tý Sửu, Dần Hợi, Mão Tuất, Thìn Dậu, Tỵ Thân, Ngọ Mùi. Tử Vi nghiệm lý toàn thư devotes a chapter titled "The important power of nhị hợp", in which Thiên Lương writes that nhị hợp completes tam hợp with regard to the latent inner capacity that tam hợp cannot lay bare[2].
According to Tử Vi nghiệm lý, the nhị hợp state "always has only generation, never clash, with respect to the main palace", meaning only sinh nhập or sinh xuất[2]. For example the Thìn palace (Thủy tam hợp) is nhị hợp with Dậu (Kim tam hợp), and receiving sinh nhập from Dậu means "all fortunes and misfortunes erupt". Conversely, viewing the Dậu palace as nhị hợp with Thìn means Dậu must give sinh xuất to Thìn, so "all fortunes and misfortunes decline, nothing can be hoped for from nhị hợp"[2].
Nguyễn Phát Lộc in Tử Vi tổng hợp takes the opposite view: "The nhị hợp position truly does not mean much. If it does, that meaning is not present in the decisive pattern"[3]. He argues that one cannot assert the Mệnh palace is strongly governed by the Tật palace merely because it is nhị hợp with Tật, and that "the meaning of nhị hợp does not much depend on the names of the two nhị hợp palaces" but mostly on the stars in those two palaces[3].
This is a clear disagreement between the two books. Tử Vi nghiệm lý treats nhị hợp as one of the three main methods with important power. Tử Vi tổng hợp treats nhị hợp as having almost no decisive meaning, to be interpreted only through the stars in the two palaces. Readers should know both views to compare with their own school.
How do the two flanking palaces influence a palace?
Giáp refers to the two palaces immediately on either side of a palace; if Mệnh sits at Ngọ, for example, the two flanking palaces are Tỵ and Mùi. Nguyễn Phát Lộc's Tử Vi tổng hợp concludes that the influence of giáp depends on the case: some cases show a direct and strong influence of both flanking palaces, some involve only one of them, and some hold only along one line of reasoning[3].
Thiên Lương is also reserved about giáp. He writes "Giáp is only a neighbour", and when he examines the giáp of Tử Phủ he calls it "the ideal of an unsettled and mournful life": the pattern exists only when Mệnh is at Dần or Thân, and in that case the Mệnh palace either holds Thiên Cơ and Thái Âm or has no main star[2]. Concretely, with Tử Vi at Sửu and Thiên Phủ at Mão the Dần palace has no main star; with Tử Vi at Mão and Thiên Phủ at Sửu the Dần palace holds Thiên Cơ and Thái Âm.
Are the Thái Tuế, Lộc Tồn and Tràng Sinh cycles "palaces" of influence?
The three cycles Thái Tuế, Lộc Tồn and Tràng Sinh are not palaces in the sense of địa chi, but they run through the palaces and exert influence on each palace they pass. Tử Vi nghiệm lý defines them: "Thái tuế: conduct and character. Lộc Tồn: a life of glory. Tràng sinh: the long road of dealing with the world"[2]. The book also asserts: "the fundamental priority of Tử Vi is the Thái Tuế cycle"[2].
Thus when judging a palace, besides tam phương tứ chính, nhị hợp and giáp, one must also consider whether that palace lies in the Thái Tuế, Lộc Tồn or Tràng Sinh cycle. For example, if the Mệnh palace sits at the Thái Tuế position, then according to Tử Vi nghiệm lý, even within the Dục Suy Tuyệt tam hợp of the Tràng Sinh cycle, the person still "cannot fail to awaken" and keeps to "keeping the tattered paper in order"[2].
Summary of the order of priority when judging a palace
Putting the points above together, these are the things to examine when judging a palace (the order is this article's arrangement; the books give no common ranking):
- Main palace: the main star in residence, auxiliary stars, and the four transformations in place.
- Tam hợp: the two tam hợp palaces shining in, with their main and auxiliary stars.
- Xung chiếu: the opposite palace; Tử Vi tổng hợp records that the discipline uses the main star in xung chiếu to judge a palace without a main star.
- Nhị hợp: the lục hợp palace; Thiên Lương gives it weight, Nguyễn Phát Lộc finds it negligible.
- Giáp: the two flanking palaces; both books say it depends on the case, and Thiên Lương likens it to a neighbour.
- The three cycles Thái Tuế, Lộc Tồn, Tràng Sinh: according to Thiên Lương, they correspond to conduct and character, the fortune of a lifetime and the long road of dealing with the world.
Tử Vi áo bí biện chứng học likewise sorts the patterns of a Mệnh palace without a main star by the stars in tam phương: with Khoa Quyền Lộc in củng chiếu the book ranks it a superior pattern, while a mix of auspicious and inauspicious stars across tam phương xung hợp, with no Triệt at the Mệnh palace, is ranked by the book as a pattern of wandering[4].
Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion
Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: to see which palaces bear on a given palace, cast the chart and mark the four palaces of tam phương tứ chính (the palace in question, the two palaces four places away on either side, and the opposite palace), then the nhị hợp palace and the two flanking palaces. When reading a book's interpretation, check what that book says about nhị hợp and giáp, because Tử Vi nghiệm lý toàn thư and Tử Vi tổng hợp differ on these two points.
Tử Vi is a system of interpretation, not a predictive science. Thiên Lương himself writes: "Divination of fate only sets out openings and closings without definitive certainty, for many hesitations inevitably lead at times to misreading the direction"[2].
