Tài Yáng

Going backward from 紫微, the placing verse skips one palace after 天機 and sets 太陽 down, so it always lies three steps away. Its row in the brightness table has it temple at 卯, prosperous at 寅, 辰, 巳 and 午, gaining at 未 and 申, neutral at 酉, not gaining at 丑 and 戌, and fallen at 亥 and 子.

The book treats it as a literal sun and calls it the lord of the Career palace, an emblem of rank. Its image of the sky is the passage credited to 玉蟾先生, which walks the star round the branches: first rising at 寅 and 卯, climbing the hall at 辰 and 巳, the sun at its height at 午, slanting at 未 and 申, setting at 酉, and without light at 戌, 亥 and 子. 卷二 adds that the hour matters as well, with a day birth counted bright and a night birth dim.

Light is the whole question for this star, and the chart around it decides how that light is read. It may share a palace with 太陰 at 丑 and 未, with 巨門 at 寅 and 申, and with 天梁 at 卯 and 酉. The book delights in the moon as a partner and is wary of 巨門, whose transformed energy it calls 暗, darkness, so the sun and that star make a deliberate contrast. Year stems 庚, 辛 and 甲 give it 化祿, 化權 and 化忌 respectively.