Meaning
Six White Metal is the north-west palace, the place of the 乾 trigram, heaven. In the Shuogua's circuit of the year this is a place of contest: "戰乎乾", there is a struggle in 乾, where the light and the dark press against each other as autumn turns to winter. The trigram is the father of the trigram family and stands for heaven and the ruler.
Japanese practitioners read a person whose year star is 六白 as earnest and principled, with a strong sense of justice and responsibility and a strict streak; some say the type comes into its own later in life. Our own text calls it heaven and the sword: principled, disciplined and dignified, a leader who sets standards and keeps them, with rigidity, pride and distance as the shadow side. The Kushi line calls the number 6 Metal and gives it late autumn, the evening and the themes of harvest and completion.
On the boards
六白 is the star of the solar years 1985, 1994, 2003, 2012 and 2021, each from 立春. The year board of 1886, printed in a Meiji almanac handbook shown on the system page, has 六白 in the centre. In a 六白 year the first solar month has the star 五黄, so a 六白 person born in the 戌 month, from 寒露 in early October to 立冬 in early November, has 六白 as their month star too, and the inclination falls on the centre.
With any other month star in the centre, a 六白 year star lands in 坎宮 (month star 1), 離宮 (2), 艮宮 (3), 兌宮 (4), 乾宮 (5), 巽宮 (7), 震宮 (8) or 坤宮 (9).
The north-west palace is the sixth house of the nine-step rhythm, which the tradition reads as the strong phase, a time of authority, completion and recognition for the work done. The tradition counts a direction auspicious for a 六白 person where 二黒 or 八白 stands, the Earth that generates Metal (生気; 五黄 is never counted); where 七赤 stands, the other Metal star (比和); or where 一白 stands, the Water that Metal generates (退気). These are the tradition's readings, shown with their names; we advise no journey or move.
The trigram's classical correspondences
The Shuogua's lists for 乾:
- Family member: the father (父).
- Part of the body: the head (乾為首).
- Image: heaven (乾為天); Legge's translation adds a circle, a ruler, jade and metal among its images.
- Polarity of the trigram: yang, as the father.
These are the trigram's symbols in a classical text, not statements about anyone's body, and no source we found gives the star itself a yin or yang.
Names
The Japanese name reads roppaku kinsei: 六 six, 白 white, 金 metal, 星 star. The Traditional Chinese form is the same; Chinese feng shui also calls it 六白武曲星, after 武曲, the sixth star of the Northern Dipper in the 五行大義. The trigram is read Ken in Japanese and Qián in Chinese; in Zheng Xuan's commentary the spirit Taiyi leaves the centre for 乾, the sixth step of its round. Its doubled form is hexagram 1 of the I Ching, the first of the classic.
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.
- Place in the Later Heaven circuit
- The north-west, where the Shuogua says the light and the dark press on each other; between autumn and winter sourced
- The Kushi line's season and hour
- Late autumn and evening, under the name 6 Metal; a modern Western reading sourced
- Character taught in Japan
- Earnest, with a sense of justice and a strict streak; comes into their own later sourced
- Chinese Dipper name
- 武曲, the sixth star of the Northern Dipper; a name only here sourced
- Our one-line image
- Heaven and the sword our construction
- Our reading of its house
- The strong phase, read as a time of authority, completion and recognition for the work our construction
- Yin or yang of the star itself
- No source gives one; the 乾 trigram is the father and yang disputed
How the schools read it
- Japanese 気学
- Earnest and principled, with a strong sense of justice and responsibility, strict with themselves and others.
- The Kushi line
- "6 Metal": late autumn and evening, harvest and completion.
- Chinese feng shui (Xuan Kong)
- Names the number 六白武曲星 and reads it for the sectors of a building over time; that reading is not about people and is not shown here.
- Eight Mansions feng shui
- A Kua number of 6 is the 乾 life trigram, from a formula that differs for men and women: a different number from the year star.
- EsoTerrier
- Heaven and the sword: principled, disciplined and dignified, a leader who sets standards and keeps them, with rigidity, pride and distance as the shadow side.
Claims about it
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The Chinese flying-star reading of 六白 describes the people born under it.
disputedWhat the record shows: In Xuan Kong feng shui that reading belongs to the number when it flies into a sector of a building. Japanese kigaku reads the birth star as character; we show only the Chinese name.
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Six White Metal rules a part of the body.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: The Shuogua gives the 乾 trigram a part of the body as a symbol; the Western books turned such symbols into body lists for the stars. We give the symbol only in the trigram's block.
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六白 has a fixed yin or yang of its own.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: No Japanese source gives one. The Shuogua makes its trigram, 乾, the father and yang.
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Six White Metal is a star in the sky.
falseWhat the record shows: It is the number 6 of the Lo Shu with its colour and phase; "star" is a counting name.
