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Chapter 32 of 50
基础知识
The Official Star Pattern (Zheng Guan Ge) is one of the most important patterns in BaZi numerology, with the Official Star in the Month Command at its core. The specific months in which the Official Star enters the pattern are as follows:
| Day Master | Official Star Month Branch | Five Elements Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Jia (甲) | You Month (酉) | Xin Metal controls Jia Wood 🌬 |
| Yi (乙) | Shen Month (申) | Geng Metal controls Yi Wood 🌬 |
| Bing (丙) | Zi Month (子) | Gui Water controls Bing Fire 🌊 |
| Ding (丁) | Hai Month (亥) | Ren Water controls Ding Fire 🌊 |
| Wu (戊) | Mao Month (卯) | Yi Wood controls Wu Earth 🌱 |
| Ji (己) | Yin Month (寅) | Jia Wood controls Ji Earth 🌱 |
| Geng (庚) | Wu Month (午) | Ding Fire controls Geng Metal 🔥 |
| Xin (辛) | Si Month (巳) | Bing Fire controls Xin Metal 🔥 |
In addition to the Official Star patterns in the Four Cardinal months and Four Corner months, if the Official Star in the Four Seasonal months (Chen, Xu, Chou, Wei) is revealed in the Heavenly Stems, it is classified as a Mixed Qi Official Star Pattern. For example: A Ren Day Master born in the Chou month, with Ji Earth hidden in Chou revealed in the Heavenly Stems, forms the Mixed Qi Official Star Pattern; a Bing Day Master born in the Chen month, with Gui Water hidden in Chen revealed in the Heavenly Stems, also falls into this category.
The Official Star Pattern takes the Official Star as its foundation. Within the system of the Four Auspicious Gods (Wealth, Official, Seal, Eating God), the Official Star holds the core position. Auspicious gods must be employed along their natural flow — that is, generating them, protecting them, and supporting them — to maximize their effectiveness. If employed against their flow — that is, controlling them, clashing with them, or draining them — the pattern is damaged. The Official Star is like the pillar of a nation; it requires protection and development, and must never be suppressed or clashed. It most delights in the support of Nobleman Stars and auspicious spirits, and most fears the arrival of Emptiness and Maleficent Stars.
Auspicious gods most delight in thriving strength and most fear decline and lifelessness. In the Four Corner months (Yin, Shen, Si, Hai) and Four Cardinal months (Zi, Wu, Mao, You), the Official Star is inherently in a thriving state, so concerns about vitality are naturally resolved. What truly causes concern is when the Official Star is revealed in a Mixed Qi month yet is declining without support.
For example: A Geng Day Master born in the Wei month, where Ding Fire hidden in Wei is revealed as the Official Star, but if there is no other Wood or Fire in the stems and branches to support and generate it, the Ding Fire stands in isolation — a pity to abandon, yet powerless to employ. Such a pattern is of low caliber, and the subject often falls into the ranks of ordinary people.
When the Official Star receives support from a Wealth Star, it is like a wealthy nation with strong governance and prosperity, where one conducts affairs with grandeur and boldness. At this point, whether Regular Wealth or Partial Wealth, both can generate the Official Star. If the Official Star itself is weak, it is even more necessary to have the Wealth Star to support it; if the Wealth Star is equally weak, the pattern is necessarily limited. So it is with nations, so it is with individuals — a career nourished by resources can proceed steadily and reach far.
To hold office, one must have national appointment, like an imperial edict granting endorsement, ensuring legitimate status, leaving no room for petty individuals to covet or undermine. The Seal Star paired here mostly refers to the Regular Seal (Zheng Yin). If accompanied by the Partial Seal (Pian Yin), the blessing is less than half that of the Regular Seal.
The Seal Star also represents one's ethical and moral bottom line. An official serving a region must benefit that region and cannot act recklessly. With the Regular Seal's endorsement, one can resist the corrosion and attacks of sugar-coated bullets. Not only for court officials, but in all walks of society, if the Official Star represents one's work, it delights in having the Seal Star present. The Official Star generates the Seal Star, and the Seal Star generates the Day Master — honoring the self and protecting life. Especially when the Day Master is weak, the role of the Seal Star is even more pivotal.
When the Official Star pattern encounters the Seven Killings, it is called mixing of Officer and Killer. If the Killing Star is neither controlled nor transformed, the pattern is greatly broken, and not only is one's career harmed, but life and body are also affected. This is because the Killing Star can both destroy the pattern and destroy the person.
For example, when the ruling party is in power, opposition and dissenting forces should abide by the rules and not stir up trouble to undermine stability. There is a principle regarding the mixing of Officer and Killer that requires special attention: Officer and Killer can only be considered "mixed" when they are on the same platform or level — for instance, both in the Heavenly Stems, or both in the Earthly Branches. If one is in the Heavenly Stems and the other in the Earthly Branches, the notion of mixing does not apply.
When the Hurting Officer sees the Official, a hundred calamities ensue. The Hurting Officer is the natural nemesis of the Official Star. No matter from which angle, the Official Star facing the Hurting Officer is like facing a great enemy and should not be underestimated. Even if the Regular Seal is present to control the Hurting Officer, when a day stem or major period activates the Hurting Officer, it will still rise up fiercely and break the pattern. Therefore, in a pattern where the Official Star encounters the Hurting Officer, the Seal Star must be powerful, otherwise harm will come sooner or later.
Wealth, Official, Seal, and Eating God are all auspicious gods — why does the Official Star not delight in the Eating God? The reason lies in: the Eating God controls the Official Star in terms of Five Elements. But since the Eating God is after all an auspicious god, when the Official Star meets the Eating God, one must carefully differentiate the specifics — it cannot be arbitrarily declared broken, nor should it be ignored.
The key lies in the Eating God's thriving or declining state:
| Eating God State | Pattern Assessment | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Eating God thriving | Greedy for combination, forgetting honor | When strong, it has the power to control the Official; the Day Master suffers due to greed, and the pattern is damaged |
| Eating God weak and lifeless | Follows the combination and aids honor | An auspicious god without vitality cannot muster the power to control the Official; the Day Master may accept it without harm |
The Official Star most delights in thriving and most fears decline. A corrupt and failing leader or job inflicts endless harm upon a person — not only failing to earn money, but also wasting one's life. The same applies to a nation: when the government is incompetent, the people suffer; puppets are the most detestable. Extending this to human destiny, a career delights in thriving, not in decline — the principle holds true.
The Official Star is like one's foundation, delighting in longevity and permanence. When subjected to clashes, it is like a great enemy approaching, shaking stability. However, this must be assessed by circumstance:
The same applies to careers: the stable growth phase most fears disruptive shocks.
When the Official Star stands isolated without support, it is like a general without an army — having no subordinates, no wealth, unable to issue orders, and unable to accomplish anything. Having lost the governing function inherent to the Official Star, this is unfavorable.
The "dividing" here does not refer to the Official Star splitting itself, but rather someone coming to divide it. The Official Star is like a treasure, wealth, political power, or career — it delights in unity and concentration, properly belonging to one person alone, and does not delight in others dividing it. Once divided, it is lost. The Ten Gods element that does this "dividing" is the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Comrade (Bi Jian) — among the Ten Gods, the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Comrade is the one that divides all that belongs to the Day Master. For a discussion of why the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Comrade divides, please refer to earlier articles on the inner meaning of the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Comrade on the Tongren Yixue public account.
The core of the Official Star Pattern lies in the single character "protection". The Official Star is like state power, requiring law (Seal Star) to grant legitimacy, requiring economy (Wealth Star) to provide support, requiring the elimination of rivals (controlling the Seven Killings) to consolidate its position, and requiring the prevention of internal unrest (controlling the Hurting Officer) to maintain order. Employed along its flow, it flourishes; employed against its flow, it perishes — eight characters that exhaust the entire essence of the Official Star Pattern.
At a deeper level, the Official Star Pattern embodies the power of order and rules. The Official Star represents social norms, institutional constraints, and legitimate authority. Its essence is that of a "public instrument". Public instruments must be public, never privately used; must be stable, never shaken; must be nourished, never overextended.
In contemporary society, the meaning of the Official Star Pattern far exceeds the narrow scope of "holding office." In BaZi, the Official Star also represents:
The core principles of the Official Star Pattern apply equally in the modern workplace: Official met with Wealth generation parallels a project with adequate budget; Official paired with Seal parallels proper position authorization and credential verification; mixing of Officer and Killer parallels multiple management chains and unclear lines of authority; Hurting Officer seeing the Official parallels intense conflict between personal talent and institutional constraints.
Determining career direction: Those with a clear Official Star Pattern are suited for entry into government institutions, large enterprises, and standardized organizations, pursuing careers in management, administration, legal affairs, public affairs, and other rule-empowered professions.
Identifying risk points: The Official Star Pattern most fears the entry of the Hurting Officer and Seven Killings into the chart. If the natal chart carries such hidden dangers, special attention should be paid when major periods or yearly cycles activate them:
Optimizing pattern configuration: If the Official Star in one's chart is weak, one may "supplement Wealth to generate the Official" by choosing environments with abundant resources and sound institutions; if the Official Star stands isolated without support, one may "pair with the Seal to protect the Official" by focusing on building teams and developing subordinates.
The preferences and avoidances of the Official Star Pattern reflect the profound reflections within traditional Chinese political philosophy concerning the legitimacy and sustainability of power. The Official Star requires "thriving vitality" — power must have something to rest upon and cannot exist in a vacuum; the Official Star requires "pairing with the Seal" — power must obtain institutional endorsement and cannot overstep legal boundaries; the Official Star fears the "Hurting Officer" — power most dreads talented individuals from within challenging the existing order; the Official Star fears "Shoulder-to-Shoulder Comrades dividing the Official" — power most avoids peer rivalry, as the world cannot have two masters.
These rules appear to discuss destiny on the surface, yet in reality they project the ancients' complete imagination of social order construction: a good power structure ought to be one supported by resources, safeguarded by institutions, immune to internal erosion, and capable of effectively eliminating chaos — a stable structure. This structuralist thinking retains exceptionally strong explanatory power in contemporary organizational management theory even today.
| Concept | Relationship with the Official Star Pattern |
|---|---|
| Four Auspicious Gods | Wealth, Official, Seal, Eating God; the Official is one of them, all requiring employment along their natural flow |
| Four Maleficent Gods | Killing, Robbing Seal, Hurting Officer, Robbing Wealth; the Official Star Pattern avoids the Killing and Hurting Officer entering the chart |
| Month Command as the Guiding Outline | The Official Star Pattern takes the Month Command officer star as the foundation of the pattern |
| Mixed Qi Revealed in Heavenly Stems | In the Four Seasonal months, revelation in the Heavenly Stems is required to constitute the Mixed Qi Official Star Pattern |
| Mixing of Officer and Killer | Officer and Killer appearing together on the same level; a major taboo of the pattern |
Contemporary BaZi research offers the following extended discussions on the Official Star Pattern: