Gong Lu, Jia Lu and Arched Noble: Ten Day–Hour Pairs and Virtual Targets

How do the five Lu pairs flank a middle branch?

The Day and Hour Stems match, and the branches flank one position. All five listed hours fit their Day Stems. Both Gui directions are separately attested; other reversals are not added merely for symmetry. Ji in Ji-Wei is a stem, not the Si branch.

What is Noble in each of the five pairs?

Officer is recalculated for the Day Master (the birth-day element used as the chart’s reference). Tian Yi here uses Chou/Wei for Jia, Wu and Geng, Zi/Shen for Yi and Ji, and Yin/Wu for Xin. You contains Jia’s Xin Officer without being Jia’s Tian Yi; Shen contains Yi’s Geng Officer and is also Yi’s Tian Yi target.

Why does an actual middle branch change the reading?

Gui-Hai day and Gui-Chou hour flank Zi. If Zi already appears in year or month, read that real branch and Gui’s Lu instead of counting another invoked resource. Filling the target ends the absent-target premise; it does not turn an actual Zi into a disaster.

Void is a separate cycle-based lookup, not another word for an absent branch. The source discusses both filling and Void, which should remain distinct.

Can any stems be used when Zi and Yin flank Chou?

Not through the listed ten-pair rule. The source gives Wu-Zi with Jia-Yin and notes Jia controlling Wu. Jia is Wu’s Killings, and Jia-Yin is a valid Yin hour for Wu, but the stems do not match.

Read the month’s actual Wealth, authority, Resource or Output first, then the endpoints and target. The table explains a classical term without deciding exam results, rank or privilege.

Do two adjacent branches create a new branch between them?

No. In Zi–Chou–Yin, Zi and Yin flank Chou. Zi and Chou are already consecutive, leaving no additional branch between them. Describing flanking as two consecutive branches enclosing a new third branch misstates the sequence.

Sanming Tonghui opens its arching entry by relating gong to facing and flanking, then lists specific same-stem Day/Hour pairs. Other flanking accounts discuss Lu locations, Lu nests and surrounding support more broadly. Not every name containing gong or jia shares one simple distance rule.

Does a virtual target enter element counts, hidden stems or roots?

No. Gui-Hai Day and Gui-Chou Hour point to Zi between them without adding a natal Zi. Its hidden Gui cannot be inserted and then used as an invented root proving strength. If Zi is actual, do not count a second invoked Zi.

Virtual means the target is absent from the actual pillars. Void is a different lookup using a cycle segment and reference. A later Zi belongs to that timing layer rather than changing birth data.

Is this a simple divide between Lu Ming using virtual branches and Ziping using only actual ones?

That is too broad. The same Sanming Tonghui passage discusses virtual arching while prioritizing the month command (the seasonal conditions represented by the birth month) when it supplies a usable basis. Different methods coexist in one source; acceptance of a virtual position cannot divide every school into two camps.

Identify the exact account, actual endpoints, target reference and its month, fill-in, clash and Void conditions. Lu and Noble are traditional structural terms. They establish neither invisible resources nor guaranteed benefactors, and fill-in is not a forecast of lost income.

Continue reading

• Special patterns overview

  Distinguish local configurations, whole-chart methods and source cases.

• Flanking Noble and Lu: the wider accounts

  Distinguish Lu locations, nests and surrounding support.

• Officer and actual authority relations

  Return the placement to the month and whole chart.

References

• Sanming Tonghui, Siku edition, vol. 6: 拱禄拱贵
• Gujin Tushu Jicheng, Arts: parallel text
• Clarify editorial method and source principles