Meaning
The 全書's dialogue begins:
破軍屬水，北斗第七星也……在天為殺氣，在數為耗星，故化氣曰耗。
In our translation: Po Jun belongs to water, the seventh star of the Northern Dipper ... in heaven it is killing breath, in the numbers the star of wearing away, and so its epithet is 耗.
The text makes it the presiding spirit of the Spouse, Children and Servants palaces and gives it its brightest places in 子 and 午. Its character sketch is the harshest in the book: fierce, cunning, a poor companion. It has one cure: 「惟天梁可制其惡，天祿可解其狂」, only Tian Liang can check its harm, and 祿 can calm its wildness.
The 形性賦 puts the star's force in one line: 「情懷似火鋒沖，此誠破耗之威權」, a temper like a rushing flame, the power of breaking and wearing away.
The name means "army breaker". Modern readers take the same star as the breaker of the old that makes room for the new, and our chart follows them: it calls the star the Pioneer, keeps the literal only in quotation marks in its detail label, and glosses it as change and reinvention; clears the old to build anew. That reading is the modern one and ours, not the 全書's.
The name
破軍 is the Sui 五行大義's name for the seventh star of the Northern Dipper, the end of the handle (瑤光, Alkaid), and the Daoist Northern Dipper scripture repeats it. The chart borrows the name and observes nothing. Chinese feng shui gives it to the number seven of the nine stars, the star Nine Star Ki calls Seven Red Metal. Our earlier page called it "the Demolisher"; the word is withdrawn.
On the board
Po Jun is ten palaces ahead of Tian Fu, after three empty palaces, so it always faces Tian Xiang. It shares a palace with Zi Wei in 丑 or 未, Lian Zhen in 卯 or 酉 and Wu Qu in 巳 or 亥, and stands alone in 子, 寅, 辰, 午, 申 and 戌. It is brilliant (廟) in 子 and 午 and fallen (陷) in 卯 and 酉. In the common table it takes 化祿 in a 癸 year and 化權 in a 甲 year. It is the Life Master (命主) when the Life Palace is in 午.
What this page leaves out
The dialogue goes through the twelve palaces with Po Jun as it does with Ju Men, and finds loss in most of them. We note the register and repeat none of it.
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.
- 諸星問答論, the opening line
- 「破軍屬水，北斗第七星也……在天為殺氣，在數為耗星，故化氣曰耗。」 Po Jun belongs to water, the seventh star of the Northern Dipper ... in heaven it is killing breath, in the numbers the star of wearing away; so its epithet is 耗 sourced
- 形性賦, form and nature
- 「情懷似火鋒沖，此誠破耗之威權」 a temper like a rushing flame: this is the power of breaking and wearing away; a sketch of a type, never a reading of anyone's body sourced
- Namesake in the sky (symbolic)
- 瑤光 (標光 in the 五行大義), the seventh star of the Northern Dipper (Alkaid, η Ursae Majoris), named 破軍 in the Sui 五行大義's quotation; the chart does not read it sourced
- Dipper by series
- Listed as a Southern Dipper star on some practitioner pages because it belongs to the Tian Fu series; the 全書 seats it seventh in the Northern Dipper disputed
- English names elsewhere
- "Army Breaker" (English Wikipedia), which our chart keeps only in quotation marks; rebel (iztro); Pioneer and Vanguard on other sites sourced
- Our short name and gloss
- Pioneer: Change and reinvention; clears the old to build anew. our construction
How the schools read it
- 紫微斗數全書, 諸星問答論
- Killing breath in heaven, wearing away in the numbers; the presiding spirit of the Spouse, Children and Servants palaces; brilliant in 子 and 午. Its character sketch is the harshest in the book.
- 紫微斗數全書, the same dialogue
- 「惟天梁可制其惡，天祿可解其狂」: only Tian Liang can check its harm, and 祿 can calm its wildness.
- 紫微斗數全書, 形性賦
- A temper like a rushing flame, "the power of breaking and wearing away".
- Three-harmony practice (三合派)
- Reads it with Qi Sha and Tan Lang, the group the 全書 names 殺破狼, and as the breaker of the old that makes room for the new.
- English teaching
- "Army Breaker" or Broken Army; Pioneer and Vanguard on a few sites; our old page's "Demolisher" is withdrawn.
- EsoTerrier
- Short name Pioneer, the literal "Army Breaker" kept in quotation marks in the detail label; our gloss names change and reinvention. No reading of outcome.
Claims about it
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Po Jun is the seventh star of the Dipper, and the chart reads where it stands.
disputedWhat the record shows: 破軍 is the Sui 五行大義's name for the seventh Dipper star; the chart places Po Jun by counting from Tian Fu.
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As a star of the Tian Fu series, Po Jun belongs to the Southern Dipper.
falseWhat the record shows: The series is a placement grouping. The 全書 seats Po Jun seventh in the Northern Dipper.
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The text's lines on Po Jun condemn a person's character and foretell ruin in each palace.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: The 全書 speaks that way of this star. Those lines are its historical register and none of them is ours.
