Meaning
劫財 is the companion of the other polarity: the stem of the day master's own element with the opposite charge. For a 甲 day master it is 乙, for a 乙 day master 甲, for a 丙 day master 丁. Where the Friend is a double, Rob Wealth is a near twin.
The name is a piece of chart grammar, and it is the clearest guide to how the texts think of this god. The stems the day master controls are its wealth. A stem of the same element controls them too, so a companion is a second claimant on the same wealth: it "robs" it. The 三命通會 puts the whole family in four characters, 「財怕劫」, wealth fears the robber, and the reason is structural, not moral.
The 淵海子平 gives Rob Wealth more than the Friend. It has its own essay; it is "also called 逆刃", the reverse blade; and when a yang day master meets the yin stem of its own element the book calls it 敗財, ruined wealth. Its opening table also attaches harms to particular relatives, the kind of line the texts use for every god, which we record as history and do not repeat as a statement about anyone.
Modern English teaching reads the god as siblings and rivals, competition for the same resources. Our chart's own one-line nature, labelled as ours, is "rivals, shared resources, risk, collaboration": the same structure seen from both sides, since a peer can contend for what one has or share in building it.
In a luck pillar
A Rob Wealth pillar has a stem of the day master's element in the other polarity. The tradition reads it as the companion decade of the other polarity: the same strengthening of the day master as a Friend pillar, read by the texts as contention over what the day master controls. The 三命通會's rule is that wealth wants a luck that supports it, not one that robs it (「財欲運扶，不欲運劫」).
How far that matters depends, in the tradition, on the chart's balance: the same decade is said to steady a weak day master and to crowd a strong one. EsoTerrier does not weigh strength, so our chart names the pillar and its relations with the natal pillars and leaves the judgment unmade.
The 淵海子平 adds two cautions that apply to every god on these pages: the luck pillar is weighed mostly by its branch, not its stem (「大運看支」), and its own list of decades is a fixed rule given only as illustration. Its verdicts on loss and strife are not reproduced here.
Rob Wealth for each day master
The stem of the same element, the other polarity: the pairs of the ten stems simply swap.
| Day master | Rob Wealth |
|---|---|
| 甲 Jiǎ (yang wood) | 乙 Yǐ |
| 乙 Yǐ (yin wood) | 甲 Jiǎ |
| 丙 Bǐng (yang fire) | 丁 Dīng |
| 丁 Dīng (yin fire) | 丙 Bǐng |
| 戊 Wù (yang earth) | 己 Jǐ |
| 己 Jǐ (yin earth) | 戊 Wù |
| 庚 Gēng (yang metal) | 辛 Xīn |
| 辛 Xīn (yin metal) | 庚 Gēng |
| 壬 Rén (yang water) | 癸 Guǐ |
| 癸 Guǐ (yin water) | 壬 Rén |
In the classical texts
The 滴天髓's verses on the ten stems name stems, not gods, but some of them describe this relation. Of 乙 it says a vine tied to 甲 does well in spring and autumn (「籐蘿繫甲」): 甲 is 乙's Rob Wealth, the companion it leans on. Of 壬 it says that with roots, and with 癸 showing, it rushes through heaven and earth: 癸 is 壬's Rob Wealth.
The family table of the 淵海子平 names the companions together as brothers and sisters, and 任鐵樵 keeps that. Chinese Wikipedia treats Rob Wealth and the blade (羊刃) as one thing; the 淵海子平 keeps the blade as a branch, so our records keep them apart.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Other classical names
- 逆刃, "the reverse blade" (「亦名逆刃」), and 敗財, "ruined wealth", for a yang stem meeting a yin one, both in the 淵海子平 sourced
- Classical name, 乙 day master
- 逐馬, "chasing the horse", in the 淵海子平's opening table sourced
- The blade (羊刃)
- Chinese Wikipedia treats Rob Wealth and the blade as one; the 淵海子平 keeps the blade as a branch, the one after the stem's 祿, so we keep them apart disputed
- Family role in the 六親 table
- Brothers and sisters, named with the Friend; recorded as history disputed
- In the stem verses
- The 滴天髓 on 乙: a vine tied to 甲 does well in spring and autumn (「籐蘿繫甲」); 甲 is 乙's Rob Wealth sourced
- Other English names
- Robber of Wealth, Competitor sourced
- Our one-line nature
- Rivals, shared resources, risk, collaboration our construction
How the schools read it
- *淵海子平* (Song material, Ming printing)
- Gives it two further names, 逆刃 and 敗財, and its own essay; the verdicts its table attaches to kin are not reproduced here.
- *三命通會* (Ming)
- Sums up the companions with 「財怕劫」: wealth fears the robber, a peer that controls the same element.
- *滴天髓* (verse of disputed date)
- Names the stems, not the gods: 乙 leaning on 甲 like a vine, 壬 surging when 癸 shows.
- Modern English teaching
- Siblings and rivals; competition for the same resources.
- EsoTerrier
- Our chart's line, a modern reading of our own: rivals, shared resources, risk, collaboration.
Claims about it
-
Rob Wealth harms particular relatives and spells loss.
told as loreWhat the record shows: These are the 淵海子平's pronouncements in the idiom of its age, recorded as history. We take the name and the rule from the text and nothing about anyone's family or fortunes.
-
A Rob Wealth decade is a time to guard your money, as a matter of course.
falseWhat the record shows: The texts read the pillar's Ten God as a relation to the day master, weighed against the whole chart. A page that turns it into advice about money is giving advice the texts do not give.
-
Rob Wealth is one of ten fixed personality profiles.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: A modern branded set, not the tradition. The Ten Gods are relations between stems.
