Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace: What Kind of Friends Surround You

Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace means your friends have strong personalities and strong feelings: fiercely loyal when things are good, and unbending when you fall out.

Friends, colleagues and team

People with Lian Zhen here choose friends on principle and loyalty, and competition comes easily too. The lesson is emotion and boundaries: do not let grudges between friends drag on, and do not let personal ties get tangled up with work.

• Your circle: Friends with strong personalities who are big on loyalty.
• Colleagues and team: Ambitious colleagues and team members who need clear rules.
• Network and mutual help: When friends back you, they back you hard, but keep favours and interests apart.

You and your circle: the Life and Friends Palaces

With Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace, the Life Palace always holds Tian Ji: you are quick and think a lot, while the friends you make have strong personalities and strong feelings.

This is built into the chart: counting five palaces backward from Lian Zhen always lands on Tian Ji, and the Life Palace always sits five palaces backward from the Friends Palace. Further reading: Tian Ji in the Life Palace.

Your work network: the Career and Friends Palaces

With Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace, the Career Palace star is not fixed; the table below lists it for each branch.

With Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace, neither the Travel Palace star nor the Siblings Palace star is fixed.

Bright and fallen positions

When bright, friends are loyal and have real drive. When fallen, friendships swing emotionally and gossip and disputes come easily. Brightness by branch, from the table of the Complete Book this site uses: Exalted: Yin, Shen; Fair: Chou, Chen, Wei, Xu; Neutral: Zi, Mao, Wu, You; Fallen: Si, Hai.

Opposite the Friends Palace is the Siblings Palace (the Siblings–Friends axis: outsiders and your own people), and its trine is the Children and Parents Palaces; on either side sit the Career and Travel Palaces. The table shows the major stars of the Siblings, Life, Career and Travel Palaces for each of the twelve branches Lian Zhen can occupy in the Friends Palace.

"Empty palace" means the palace has none of the fourteen major stars; in that case you read it through the stars of the opposite palace.

The six combinations

Lian Zhen with Tian Xiang (Zi or Wu)

Zi: Lian Zhen neutral, Tian Xiang exalted; Wu: Lian Zhen neutral, Tian Xiang exalted. Opposite Siblings: Po Jun; Life: Tian Ji; Career: Ju Men. About 17.1% of charts with Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends value principle and follow the rules. Watch for Tian Xiang being squeezed between a punishment star and a Ji: your relationships can be pulled around by outside events. Further reading: Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace.

Lian Zhen with Qi Sha (Chou or Wei)

Chou: Lian Zhen fair, Qi Sha exalted; Wei: Lian Zhen fair, Qi Sha exalted. Opposite Siblings: Tian Fu; Life: Tian Ji and Tai Yin; Career: Tian Liang. About 16.5% of charts with Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends have strong personalities and big ambitions, with competition and mutual help side by side. The old texts say Lian Zhen with Qi Sha in Chou and Wei builds wealth; the modern reading is that your network is built through hard work. Further reading: Qi Sha in the Friends Palace.

Lian Zhen alone, facing Tan Lang (Yin or Shen)

Yin: Lian Zhen exalted; Shen: Lian Zhen exalted. Opposite Siblings: Tan Lang; Life: Tian Ji and Ju Men; Career: empty palace. About 18.2% of charts with Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Lian Zhen is exalted in Yin and Shen, so friends from outside are principled and have drive; with Tan Lang in the Siblings Palace opposite, the people closest to you are lively and changeable.

Lian Zhen with Po Jun (Mao or You)

Mao: Lian Zhen neutral, Po Jun fallen; You: Lian Zhen neutral, Po Jun fallen. Opposite Siblings: Tian Xiang; Life: Tian Ji and Tian Liang; Career: empty palace. About 15.8% of charts with Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Your circle goes through big shifts and big emotional swings. With Hua Lu or auspicious stars, each shift tends to open a new chapter. Further reading: Po Jun in the Friends Palace.

Lian Zhen with Tian Fu (Chen or Xu)

Chen: Lian Zhen fair, Tian Fu exalted; Xu: Lian Zhen fair, Tian Fu exalted. Opposite Siblings: Qi Sha; Life: Tian Ji; Career: empty palace. About 15.1% of charts with Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends are principled and steady, shrewd and dependable. This is the most stable Lian Zhen combination in the Friends Palace. Further reading: Tian Fu in the Friends Palace.

Lian Zhen with Tan Lang (Si or Hai)

Si: Lian Zhen fallen, Tan Lang fallen; Hai: Lian Zhen fallen, Tan Lang fallen. Opposite Siblings: empty palace; Life: Tian Ji; Career: Tai Yin. About 17.2% of charts with Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends are lively and full of character, with plenty of socialising and plenty of emotion. Both stars are fallen in Si and Hai, so boundaries and moderation are the key. Further reading: Tan Lang in the Friends Palace.

Birth-year transformations in the Friends Palace

• Lian Zhen with Hua Lu (born in a Jia year): People born in a Jia year have Lian Zhen Hua Lu in the Friends Palace: friendships are warm and lively, and you often help each other out. In our sample, about 11.4% of charts with Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace carry the birth-year Hua Lu.
• Lian Zhen with Hua Ji (born in a Bing year): People born in a Bing year have Lian Zhen Hua Ji in the Friends Palace: emotional clashes with friends come easily. Cool down first, then talk. In our sample, about 7.9% of charts with Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace carry the birth-year Hua Ji.

Friendship advice

Friendships can run deep, but set the ground rules first; keep personal and work apart and they will last.

About 41.8% of charts with Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace also have at least one of the six Sha stars in that palace, about the same as the 42.4% across all charts. Malefic stars in the Friends Palace usually show up as more friction and more differing opinions in your circle, which calls for firmer boundaries and more talking things through; they do not mean your friends are bad.

What our sample shows

How we counted: this site’s engine cast one Zi Wei chart for every day from 1960 to 2005 (birth hour drawn by a fixed-seed random sample), 16,802 charts in all. These figures describe how chart structures are distributed; they do not measure anyone’s popularity or how reliable their friends are.

Other major stars in the Friends Palace