BAZI KNOWLEDGE BASE
Concealed Lu / Gong Lu: five day-hour pairs and fill-in examples
Concealed Lu (Gong Lu, 拱禄, sometimes translated Concealed Salary) is a traditional day-hour candidate whose matching stems and flanking branches suggest a missing Lu position. Gui-Hai day with Gui-Chou hour flanks Zi, Gui’s Lu. The inferred position is not an extra birth-pillar character.
The five complete day-hour arrangements
Read the Day Pillar (the two-symbol column for the birth day) first and Hour Pillar (the two-symbol column for the birth hour) second. Both directions of Gui-Hai/Gui-Chou are listed, but the Ding pair here is specifically Ding-Si day with Ding-Wei hour. Visual symmetry alone does not authorize extra rows.
Matching stems are only one requirement: the flanked branch must also be that stem’s Lu. In the source page’s Wu-Chen/Wu-Wu row, the printed Ji character is read as the branch Si, required by both Wu’s Lu and the Chen–Wu interval. An unknown hour leaves a key input missing.
| Day Pillar | Hour Pillar | Arched Lu branch |
|---|---|---|
| Gui-Hai 癸亥 | Gui-Chou 癸丑 | Zi |
| Gui-Chou 癸丑 | Gui-Hai 癸亥 | Zi |
| Ding-Si 丁巳 | Ding-Wei 丁未 | Wu 午 |
| Ji-Wei 己未 | Ji-Si 己巳 | Wu 午 |
| Wu-Chen 戊辰 | Wu-Wu 戊午 | Si |
What changes if Gui-Hai and Gui-Chou also have Zi?
Hai, Zi and Chou are consecutive, and Gui’s Lu is Zi. The pair therefore points to an absent Zi. If Zi already appears at the year or month, the classical fill-in condition changes the missing-position premise.
Fill-in is not a loss of income; it changes the structure being described. A later luck or annual Zi belongs to that timing layer, not to the original birth pillars.
Why is a listed pair only a candidate?
The source also asks about the month command (the seasonal conditions represented by the birth month) and discusses support, disruption and fill-in. A day-hour match meets an entry condition, not every requirement for a completed pattern.
Clarify does not calculate Gong Lu or insert its inferred branch into element counts, hidden stems (the additional element symbols traditionally assigned inside each lower chart symbol) or roots. Keeping actual symbols separate from a structural inference prevents later confusion.
Why is Concealed Salary an incomplete translation?
Lu historically includes stipend, position and support. Gong Lu borrows that vocabulary for a chart structure. Its name cannot establish wages, inheritance, promotion or financial security; actual resources require real-world evidence.