Tian Fu 天府, the commanding star and storehouse of the board

Meaning

The 全書's dialogue begins:

天府屬土，南斗主令第一星也。

In our translation: Tian Fu belongs to earth; it is the commanding first star of the Southern Dipper.

The lines under 希夷先生 make it the Dipper's star of long life and relief from hardship, the 「上相鎮國之星」, the chief minister who guards the state, and the emperor's deputy. It can make the Ram and Spinning Top its followers and turn the Fire and Bell stars to blessing. A person with it has a fine, unusual bearing and is 「溫良端雅」, mild, good, upright and graceful. Of all the stars it is the one the text calls good wherever it stands: 「不論諸宮皆吉」.

The text also calls it the storehouse of the chart and gives it two palaces to master, 財帛 and Property (田宅). On these pages both are life areas. The 形性賦 gives it 「純和之體」, a pure and even form.

Our chart calls it the Treasury, after the literal "heavenly storehouse" (府 is a storehouse or an office of state), and our gloss reads: stability, prudence and resource management; conserves and protects.

The mirror

Tian Fu is not counted from Zi Wei like the stars of the first series. It is placed as its mirror across the axis from 寅 to 申 (the 全書's 安天府圖): the two share a palace when Zi Wei stands in 寅 or 申, and face each other across the board when it stands in 巳 or 亥. From Tian Fu the second series runs forward: the Moon, Tan Lang, Ju Men, Tian Xiang, Tian Liang, Qi Sha and, after three empty palaces, Po Jun. Qi Sha is always six palaces on, so it faces Tian Fu in every chart.

On the board

Tian Fu shares a palace with Wu Qu in 子 or 午, Zi Wei in 寅 or 申 and Lian Zhen in 辰 or 戌, and stands alone in the six other branches. It is brilliant (廟) in 子, 丑, 寅, 辰, 未 and 戌 and weak or fallen nowhere. It takes no transformation in the common table, though the 全書's own verse gives it 化科 in a 壬 year.

What this page leaves out

The text's promises of land, goods and comfortable living for this star are its own, in the idiom of its age. We record that it makes them and repeat none of them.

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

「天府屬土，南斗主令第一星也。」 Tian Fu belongs to earth: the commanding first star of the Southern Dipper sourced

形性賦, form and nature

「天府尊星，也作純和之體」 Tian Fu, the honoured star, takes a pure and even form; a sketch of a type, never a reading of anyone's body sourced

The name in the sky (symbolic)

The first lord named in the Daoist Southern Dipper scripture; which star of 斗宿 in Sagittarius bears the name is not settled, and the chart reads none sourced

Dipper by series

Listed as a Southern Dipper star on some practitioner pages because it heads the Tian Fu series; the 全書 agrees, but for its own reason, the Dipper seat disputed

化科 in a 壬 year, the 全書 verse

The Wikisource 全書 verse 壬梁紫府武 gives Tian Fu 化科 in a 壬 year, where the common table gives it to 左輔 disputed

Zhongzhou table

Gives Tian Fu 化科 in 庚 and 壬 years disputed

English names elsewhere

Treasury Star (English Wikipedia); empress (iztro), which is not a traditional reading; Heavenly Treasury and Heavenly Mansion on other sites sourced

Our short name and gloss

Treasury: Stability, prudence and resource management; conserves and protects. our construction

How the schools read it

紫微斗數全書, the lines under 希夷先生

The Southern Dipper's star of long life and relief, the "chief minister who guards the state" (上相鎮國之星) and the emperor's deputy; it makes the Ram and Spinning Top its followers and turns Fire and Bell to blessing.

紫微斗數全書, the same lines

A fine, unusual bearing and a nature "mild, good, upright and graceful" (稟性溫良端雅); "whatever the palace, all is well" (不論諸宮皆吉).

紫微斗數全書, 形性賦

The honoured star in a pure and even form (純和之體).

Zhongzhou school (王亭之)

Gives Tian Fu 化科 in 庚 and 壬 years; the common table gives it no transformation.

Three-harmony practice (三合派)

Reads it as the anchor of its series and always with Qi Sha, which faces it in every chart.

EsoTerrier

Short name Treasury, after the literal "heavenly storehouse"; our gloss names stability and prudence, conserving and protecting. No reading of outcome.

Claims about it

• The common table of transformations, in which Tian Fu takes none, is "the 全書 table".

  disputed

  What the record shows: The Wikisource 全書 verse gives Tian Fu 化科 in a 壬 year; the Zhongzhou table gives it in 庚 and 壬 years. We call ours the common table and list the others.

• Tian Fu is a Southern Dipper star whose place in the sky the chart reads.

  disputed

  What the record shows: The name is the first of the Southern Dipper scripture's six lords; which star bears it is not settled, and the chart places Tian Fu as a mirror of Zi Wei.

• The text's lines on Tian Fu promise a person land and possessions.

  unverified

  What the record shows: The 全書 does make such promises for this star. We keep its picture of the deputy and the storehouse.

Elsewhere on EsoTerrier

• Zi Wei 紫微 its mirror across the 寅–申 axis; the two share a palace in 寅 and 申
• Qi Sha 七殺 faces Tian Fu across the board in every chart
• Tai Yin 太陰 one palace ahead: the next star of the series
• Luck Pillars BaZi's ten-year pillars, which run forward or backward by the same rule of year and sex as the decades here