Meaning
七殺 is the stem that controls the day master and shares its polarity. Metal controls wood, so for a 甲 day master it is 庚, yang metal; for a 乙 day master 辛; for a 庚 day master, controlled by fire, 丙.
The harsh name is explained in the 三命通會 itself. Count the stems from 甲 and 庚 is the seventh, so the controller "strikes from seven places away": the seven killings. The other name, 偏官, the indirect officer, comes from the polarity rule: two of the same polarity do not pair, the book says, as two men do not share a house, so the same-polarity controller is the "indirect" officer and the opposite-polarity one the "direct".
Which name a chart's 庚 deserves, in the texts, depends on the chart. The 三命通會 pictures the god as a ruffian who needs the restraint of law and sets the rule that defines its two faces: restrained, it is the indirect officer; unrestrained, the seven killings. The 淵海子平 agrees, a strong day master turning it into an officer and a weak one without restraint leaving it a killing, and then warns against calling it bad outright, since it belongs to many of the greatest charts.
Modern English teaching reads pressure and drive. Our chart's one-line nature, labelled as ours, is "pressure, drive, authority taken": what is pressed on the day master from outside, and what the day master can make of it. Our chart's line used to end with a heroic type name; it leaned towards violence and echoed a modern branded set of profiles, so we dropped it.
In a luck pillar
A Seven Killings pillar has a stem that controls the day master in its own polarity. The tradition reads it as a decade of pressure. The 淵海子平 lists luck in 庚, 辛, 申 and 酉 for a 甲 or 乙 day master as the country of the killing and the officer, and the 三命通會 says the killing wants a luck that restrains it, not one that helps it (「煞欲運制，不欲運助」).
What the texts look for in such a decade is in the natal chart: a strong day master, or an Eating God to hold the killing in check, or a seal to turn its pressure into support. That is a judgment of strength and of the useful god, which EsoTerrier does not make. Our chart names the pillar, gives its branch and hidden stems and the relations it forms with the natal pillars, and says nothing about what the decade brings. The texts' darker verdicts are not reproduced.
Seven Killings for each day master
The controlling element, in the same polarity.
| Day master | Seven Killings |
|---|---|
| 甲 Jiǎ (yang wood) | 庚 Gēng |
| 乙 Yǐ (yin wood) | 辛 Xīn |
| 丙 Bǐng (yang fire) | 壬 Rén |
| 丁 Dīng (yin fire) | 癸 Guǐ |
| 戊 Wù (yang earth) | 甲 Jiǎ |
| 己 Jǐ (yin earth) | 乙 Yǐ |
| 庚 Gēng (yang metal) | 丙 Bǐng |
| 辛 Xīn (yin metal) | 丁 Dīng |
| 壬 Rén (yang water) | 戊 Wù |
| 癸 Guǐ (yin water) | 己 Jǐ |
In the classical texts
The 滴天髓's verse on 丙 says it "can smelt 庚" (「能煆庚金」): 丙 is 庚's Seven Killings, and the verse makes the pressure a forge. Its verse on 辛 says that in the cold it likes 丁: 丁 is 辛's Seven Killings, welcome as warmth in a cold chart. The same relation, read by season.
The 淵海子平's table names the god 七殺, 官鬼 and 將星, the general's star, and for a yin day master the go-between. Its family table gives a man's son and a woman's second husband; 任鐵樵 rejected the officer gods as children and made what controls the day master the grandfather. All of it is recorded as history, labelled disputed, and never applied to a family.
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
- 偏官, the indirect officer (「亦名偏官」 in the 淵海子平); 官鬼, the official-ghost, and 將星, the general's star, in its table sourced
- Classical name, 乙 day master
- The go-between (媒人), in the 淵海子平's opening table sourced
- Two names, one stem
- In the 三命通會, 偏官 when the chart restrains it and 七煞 when it does not sourced
- Family role in the 六親 table
- For a man the son, for a woman a second husband; 任鐵樵 rejected the officer gods as children. Recorded as history disputed
- In the stem verses
- The 滴天髓 on 丙: it can smelt 庚 (「能煆庚金」); 丙 is 庚's Seven Killings sourced
- Other English names
- Indirect Officer, Seven Killing, Qi Sha sourced
- Our one-line nature
- Pressure, drive, authority taken our construction
How the schools read it
- *淵海子平* (Song material, Ming printing)
- A strong day master makes it an officer, a weak one without restraint a killing; warns against calling it bad outright, since it sits in many of the greatest charts.
- *三命通會* (Ming)
- Explains both names, draws it as a ruffian who needs the restraint of law, and wants a luck that restrains it rather than one that helps it.
- *滴天髓* (verse of disputed date)
- Shows the relation in both directions: 丙 smelting 庚, and 丁 as welcome warmth for a 辛 in a cold chart.
- Modern English teaching
- Pressure, authority and drive under strain.
- EsoTerrier
- Our chart's line, a modern reading of our own: pressure, drive, authority taken.
Claims about it
-
An unrestrained Seven Killings spells ruin for its owner.
told as loreWhat the record shows: The 三命通會's verdicts in the idiom of its age, recorded as history. The 淵海子平 itself warns against reading the god as simply bad.
-
A Seven Killings decade can flatten a weak day master.
falseWhat the record shows: The wording of our own earlier page. The texts read the pillar as a relation weighed against the whole chart; the claim is withdrawn.
-
Seven Killings is the Power stem of the opposite polarity.
falseWhat the record shows: The reverse: the 三命通會 says 甲 sees 庚 as the indirect officer and 辛 as the direct. English Wikipedia's table has this pair reversed.
-
Seven Killings is a fixed personality type with a heroic name.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: A modern branded set of profiles, not the tradition; we use none of its names.
