Po Jun in the Life Palace: What the Expenditure Star Says About You

Po Jun is the expenditure star and also the star of pioneering. People with Po Jun in the Life Palace tear down the old to build the new, take risks and do not mind starting from zero, and their lives usually have bigger ups and downs than most. They grow impatient with the status quo, like to start over, and are often the ones who push a group to change.

The Po Jun personality

“Expenditure” means using up, and also renewal. Po Jun people rarely do one thing all their lives; work, home and relationships can all change dramatically. If that destructive force is tempered by Zi Wei, Tian Xiang or Hua Lu, it becomes the power of reform and pioneering; with Sha stars it can mean impulsive spending and relationships that break before they rebuild.

• Career: Entrepreneurship, reform, the military and police, technical work, engineering, transport, and work that needs nerve and change.
• Money: Earns boldly and spends fast, so money comes and goes; putting part of the income somewhere hard to touch works well.
• Love: Direct and passionate in love, and apt to want to change the relationship out of impatience; needs to learn to tend it rather than start over.

Bright and fallen: where Po Jun is strongest

A bright Po Jun is a strong pioneer that grows tougher with each setback; exalted in Zi and Wu, the classics call it “the hero star in its temple”. A fallen Po Jun shares its palace with Lian Zhen and faces Tian Xiang, with more impulsiveness and instability. By the brightness table of the Complete Book used on this site: Exalted: Zi, Wu; Strong: Chou, Chen, Wei, Xu; Favorable: Yin, Shen; Neutral: Si, Hai; Fallen: Mao, You.

The table shows, for each of the twelve branches where Po Jun can sit in the Life Palace, its brightness, the major stars sharing the palace, and the major stars of the opposite, Wealth and Career palaces. These positions are fixed by the placement rules: once Po Jun is placed, every other major star follows, so Po Jun in a given branch always has the same palace group.

“Empty” means that palace has no major star; in a reading you borrow the major stars from its opposite palace and pay extra attention to the minor stars and transformations inside it.

The six combinations of Po Jun in the Life Palace

The twelve branches clash in opposite pairs, and each pair holds the same major stars, so Po Jun in the Life Palace comes in only six combinations. The two branches of a pair differ in brightness and in how things look from the Travel Palace.

Po Jun alone, facing Lian Zhen and Tian Xiang (Zi or Wu)

Zi: Po Jun exalted; Wu: Po Jun exalted. Opposite: Lian Zhen and Tian Xiang; Wealth: Qi Sha; Career: Tan Lang. About 16.0% of people with Po Jun in the Life Palace fall into this group.

Po Jun exalted in Zi or Wu, which the classics call “the hero star in its temple”: very strong pioneering and destructive force, suited to entrepreneurship, reform, the military and police, and technical work. Lian Zhen and Tian Xiang opposite bring rules and responsibility; these people charge ahead, and also know how to clean up afterwards.

Zi Wei with Po Jun (Chou or Wei)

Chou: Po Jun strong, Zi Wei exalted; Wei: Po Jun strong, Zi Wei exalted. Opposite: Tian Xiang; Wealth: Wu Qu and Qi Sha; Career: Lian Zhen and Tan Lang. About 18.5% of people with Po Jun in the Life Palace fall into this group.

The emperor star with the expenditure star: opinionated and with real destructive force, fond of tearing things down and starting over, and unwilling to play by other people’s rules. In work it suits founding, reform and taking over a mess; the weak spots are impatience and a habit of breaking before building, and the big turning points in life are often ones it starts itself. The classics say Zi Wei with Po Jun is “a disloyal minister and an unfilial son”; a modern reading is simply that it does not defer to authority and wants to run its own life. Further reading: Zi Wei in the Life Palace.

Po Jun alone, facing Wu Qu and Tian Xiang (Yin or Shen)

Yin: Po Jun favorable; Shen: Po Jun favorable. Opposite: Wu Qu and Tian Xiang; Wealth: Qi Sha; Career: Tan Lang. About 15.5% of people with Po Jun in the Life Palace fall into this group.

Po Jun, only favorable in Yin or Shen, with Wu Qu and Tian Xiang opposite: willing to take risks and unafraid of starting from zero, with money coming and going in waves. Suited to technical work, sales or work that needs nerve; it needs the practicality of Wu Qu and Tian Xiang opposite to steady it, and should not let impulse drive decisions.

Lian Zhen with Po Jun (Mao or You)

Mao: Po Jun fallen, Lian Zhen neutral; You: Po Jun fallen, Lian Zhen neutral. Opposite: Tian Xiang; Wealth: Zi Wei and Qi Sha; Career: Wu Qu and Tan Lang. About 17.1% of people with Po Jun in the Life Palace fall into this group.

The restraint star with the expenditure star: neither is strong in Mao or You, giving a rebellious character willing to break and rebuild, and a life with big ups and downs. Suited to technical work, the military and police, and pioneering roles. The lesson is impulsiveness and instability; with Hua Lu, Hua Quan or auspicious stars, the destructive force turns into creative force. Further reading: Lian Zhen in the Life Palace.

Po Jun alone, facing Zi Wei and Tian Xiang (Chen or Xu)

Chen: Po Jun strong; Xu: Po Jun strong. Opposite: Zi Wei and Tian Xiang; Wealth: Qi Sha; Career: Tan Lang. About 16.3% of people with Po Jun in the Life Palace fall into this group.

Po Jun strong in Chen or Xu, with Zi Wei and Tian Xiang opposite: destructive force reined in by Zi Wei’s dignity and Tian Xiang’s rules, giving the temperament of a reformer. Chen and Xu are the “net of heaven and earth”; the early years bring many limits, and from midlife these people often drive major change within an organisation.

Wu Qu with Po Jun (Si or Hai)

Si: Po Jun neutral, Wu Qu neutral; Hai: Po Jun neutral, Wu Qu neutral. Opposite: Tian Xiang; Wealth: Lian Zhen and Qi Sha; Career: Zi Wei and Tan Lang. About 16.6% of people with Po Jun in the Life Palace fall into this group.

The wealth star with the expenditure star: willing to gamble and charge ahead, with money coming and going in big waves, suited to pioneering, technical or nerve-testing work. This pair sits in Si and Hai, where neither star is at its strongest, and the classics are cautious about it, saying “wealth and imprisonment are at odds”. A modern reading: rely on professional skill rather than speculation, and the money stays. Further reading: Wu Qu in the Life Palace.

Birth-year transformations in the Life Palace

• Po Jun with Hua Lu (born in a Gui year): Po Jun with Hua Lu turns destruction into creation; change tends to pay off, suited to entrepreneurial and reform-minded work. In our sample, about 10.3% of people with Po Jun in the Life Palace have the birth-year Hua Lu there.
• Po Jun with Hua Quan (born in a Jia year): Po Jun with Hua Quan has tremendous drive and command, suited to leading the charge and pushing change, though it becomes more forceful too. In our sample, about 12.1% of people with Po Jun in the Life Palace have the birth-year Hua Quan there.

Men’s and women’s charts

Men: The classics say a man with Po Jun is “hard-natured, competitive, with thin family ties”. A modern reading: he has the nerve and drive to pioneer, suited to entrepreneurship, technical and reform work; with people he should learn to build before he breaks, rather than cutting ties at the first disagreement.

Women: The classics are conservative about women with Po Jun. A modern reading: she is brave, independent and willing to change, often the first in her family or team to take a different road; in love she needs a partner who can live with change.

The classics were written in a traditional society, and their comments on men’s and women’s charts often carry the gender expectations of their time. We give the classical sayings alongside a modern reading, but we read charts for tendencies of character and never rank people by gender.

With auspicious stars, with Sha stars

With auspicious stars: With Zi Wei or Tian Xiang, destructive force is tempered into reform; with Hua Lu or Hua Quan, pioneering often pays off.

With Sha stars: With Qing Yang, Tuo Luo, Huo Xing or Ling Xing, the risk of impulsive decisions and losses rises; with Di Kong or Di Jie, be even more wary of speculation.

In our sample, about 41.6% of people with Po Jun in the Life Palace have at least one of the six Sha stars there, about the same as the 41.8% for all charts. Sha stars are normal; what matters is which star they sit with and how bright it is. See the six auspicious and six Sha stars.

What the data says

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 say nothing about whether anyone’s destiny is good or bad.

Other major stars in the Life Palace