Qī Shā

七殺 translates as seven killings, a name for a fixed slot in the chart: six palaces forward of 天府, so always straight across from it. The passages in the book that were checked call it the sixth star of the Southern Dipper and give no reason for the number in its name. Its brightness never reaches fallen, with temple in six palaces, prosperous at 子, 卯, 午 and 酉, and neutral at 巳 and 亥.

The book's image is military: the senior general of the Dipper, with charge of the censors who kept officials in line. 卷一 calls it a harsh star in so many words. It also says that meeting 紫微 converts its force into authority, and a verse sets it at 寅, 申, 子 and 午 with the four borders bowing to a hero. The same section warns about it in flat terms that belong to its period, and other parts of the book insist that harsh stars are never wholly harsh, and that a gentleman's chart can hold them too.

It can share a palace with three stars only: 紫微 at 巳 and 亥, 武曲 at 卯 and 酉, 廉貞 at 丑 and 未. In the book's table of year-stem changes it takes none of the four marks, in either edition read here, which sets it apart from most of the main stars. It belongs with 破軍 and 貪狼 in a triangle the verses name together. Modern popular writing tends toward words such as independence and resolve, which are a later way of speaking of it.