Taiyang Star

In your chart, Taiyang is one of the fourteen major stars, and it stands for reputation, giving and public life. The sun god of Chinese folk religion is a deity, and your sun sign comes from Western astrology. All three are different things.

A chart has twelve cells, called palaces. Each palace covers one area of life. Enter your birth date and hour in the free Ziwei Doushu calculator, then find the cell showing 太陽 (the chart labels are in Chinese). The brightness mark on that cell tells you whether your Sun is bright or dim.

The Life Palace is the cell about you. When the star sits there, this is called Taiyang in the Life Palace (Taiyang Zuo Ming).

Taiyang's element is Fire, and old texts treat it as the star of career. A verse in the Complete Book of Ziwei Doushu says: "Taiyang is Fire by nature, the true ruler of career." Career here means your work and also your role in society.

Taiyang is brightest in Mao and dimmest in Hai and Zi. Each of the twelve cells is marked with an Earthly Branch, running from Zi to Hai. Brightness says how freely a star works in that cell. There are seven levels, from Temple at the top down to Fallen at the bottom.

The branches also stand for times of day. Mao is sunrise, You is sunset and Zi is midnight. Its brightness roughly follows the sun: at Temple in Mao, Prosperous from Yin to Wu, and fading after that until it is Fallen in Hai and Zi.

Tradition says Taiyang favors people born by day and is weaker for those born at night. That looks at your hour of birth, which is separate from the branch Taiyang sits in. Our charts read brightness only from the branch, so a day or night birth reads the same.

With Taiyang in your Life Palace, you tend to be warm and loyal, and ready to stand up for others. You care about your name, and about whether your effort is seen. When busy, you are more likely to forget to look after yourself.

A bright Taiyang and a dim one show up a little differently. Bright means the top two levels, and dim means the bottom two.

When Taiyang is bright

• You are generous with people, and they trust you easily.
• You act in the open and are willing to take charge up front.

When Taiyang is dim

• You give just as much, but more often feel unseen.
• You may work until you are exhausted before noticing you skipped your own needs.

How this plays out also depends on the Three Directions and Four Squares (San Fang Si Zheng). That is the group of four palaces you read together, starting from the Life Palace.

In six branches it shares the palace with one of three other major stars, and in the other six it sits alone. "Sharing the palace" means sitting in the same cell, and the opposite palace is the cell directly across.

Chou and Wei: the Sun and Moon together

It shares the palace with Taiyin, and old texts name the two as a pair. You tend to be cheerful on the outside and sensitive inside, and your moods may swing more. In Chou the Moon is the brighter one; in Wei the Sun is.

Yin and Shen: Taiyang with Jumen

It shares the palace with Jumen, which is at Temple in both. You tend to speak directly and argue well, which suits work built on explaining and persuading. The Sun itself is Prosperous in Yin and Gaining Ground in Shen.

Mao and You: Taiyang with Tianliang

It shares the palace with Tianliang. You tend to enjoy caring for people, and others may see you as a teacher or an elder. In Mao both stars are at Temple; in You the Sun is only Neutral and its partner is Gaining Ground.

The other six branches: Taiyang alone

It is the only major star in your Life Palace, with Tianliang, Taiyin or Jumen opposite. In Zi, Xu and Hai it is dim, so helpful stars in your four key palaces matter more.

Yang Liang Chang Lu counts only when two conditions both hold. Wenchang is a star linked to study and exams, so this pattern often comes up when people talk about exam luck.

• Your Life Palace's four key palaces hold Taiyang, Tianliang and Wenchang, plus Lu Cun or Hua Lu.
• Those four palaces hold none of the six malefic stars, such as Qingyang or Dikong, and no Hua Ji.

This is the modern, widely used definition, and our reports check it on these two points.

The Sun takes Hua Lu in Geng years, Hua Quan in Xin years and Hua Ji in Jia years, and it never takes Hua Ke. The Four Transformations (Si Hua) are changes a star goes through in certain years. Hua Lu leans toward ease and money, Hua Quan toward control, and Hua Ji toward obstacles.

If you were born before Lunar New Year, count the previous year. Each ten-year Decade Cycle (Da Xian) and each single year can also give it one of these three.

Wherever the star sits, that area of life is where you tend to give, and where you get seen.