Tian Fu in the Friends Palace: What Kind of Friends Surround You

Tian Fu in the Friends Palace means your friends tend to be steady and reliable, people you can talk things over with and lean on when something happens.

Friends, colleagues and team

People with Tian Fu here have a stable, long-lasting circle, and the people who help them are usually down to earth. The lesson is that the circle leans conservative, so meeting new people takes initiative.

• Your circle: Steady, reliable friends and long friendships.
• Colleagues and team: Down-to-earth colleagues and team members you can hand things to.
• Network and mutual help: A solid network; when it counts, someone is there to hold you up.

You and your circle: the Life and Friends Palaces

With Tian Fu in the Friends Palace, the Life Palace star is not fixed: it can be Tian Tong, Tai Yang or Tian Ji, or the Life Palace can be empty.

With Tian Fu in the Friends Palace, the Life Palace star changes with the branch; the table below lists it for each one.

Your work network: the Career and Friends Palaces

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

With Tian Fu in the Friends Palace, the Siblings Palace always holds Qi Sha and the Travel Palace always holds Tai Yin: the people closest to you have strong personalities, while friends from outside turn out to be steady and reliable.

Bright and fallen positions

When bright, friends are a solid backstop. In a favorable position they are just as reliable but have less to offer; with Di Kong or Di Jie they look steady but can give less than it seems. Brightness by branch, from the table of the Complete Book this site uses: Exalted: Zi, Chou, Yin, Chen, Wei, Xu; Strong: Wu, You; Favorable: Mao, Si, Shen, 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 Tian Fu 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

Wu Qu with Tian Fu (Zi or Wu)

Zi: Tian Fu exalted, Wu Qu strong; Wu: Tian Fu strong, Wu Qu strong. Opposite Siblings: Qi Sha; Life: empty palace; Career: Tian Tong. About 17.3% of charts with Tian Fu in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Two wealth stars guard the Friends Palace: friends are practical and steady and can give you concrete support. The downside is that friendships lean practical and lack a little warmth. Further reading: Wu Qu in the Friends Palace.

Tian Fu alone, facing Lian Zhen and Qi Sha (Chou or Wei)

Chou: Tian Fu exalted; Wei: Tian Fu exalted. Opposite Siblings: Lian Zhen and Qi Sha; Life: empty palace; Career: Tai Yang. About 17.3% of charts with Tian Fu in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Tian Fu is exalted in Chou and Wei, so friends are a solid backstop; with Lian Zhen and Qi Sha in the Siblings Palace opposite, the people closest to you are strong-willed and ambitious.

Zi Wei with Tian Fu (Yin or Shen)

Yin: Tian Fu exalted, Zi Wei strong; Shen: Tian Fu favorable, Zi Wei strong. Opposite Siblings: Qi Sha; Life: Tian Tong; Career: Tian Ji. About 17.1% of charts with Tian Fu in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends are steady and well placed, a solid and dependable network. The catch is that everyone cares about face, so when you disagree, nobody wants to back down first. Further reading: Zi Wei in the Friends Palace.

Tian Fu alone, facing Wu Qu and Qi Sha (Mao or You)

Mao: Tian Fu favorable; You: Tian Fu strong. Opposite Siblings: Wu Qu and Qi Sha; Life: Tai Yang; Career: empty palace. About 16.3% of charts with Tian Fu in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends from outside are steady and reliable; with Wu Qu and Qi Sha in the Siblings Palace opposite, the people closest to you are tough and strong-willed. In You, Tian Fu is strong and your network is deeper than in Mao.

Lian Zhen with Tian Fu (Chen or Xu)

Chen: Tian Fu exalted, Lian Zhen fair; Xu: Tian Fu exalted, Lian Zhen fair. Opposite Siblings: Qi Sha; Life: Tian Ji; Career: empty palace. About 16.3% of charts with Tian Fu 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: Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace.

Tian Fu alone, facing Zi Wei and Qi Sha (Si or Hai)

Si: Tian Fu favorable; Hai: Tian Fu favorable. Opposite Siblings: Zi Wei and Qi Sha; Life: empty palace; Career: empty palace. About 15.5% of charts with Tian Fu in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends from outside are steady; with Zi Wei and Qi Sha in the Siblings Palace opposite, the people closest to you have firm views and a commanding presence.

Birth-year transformations in the Friends Palace

Under the Four Transformations table of the Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu, Tian Fu never transforms, so Tian Fu in the Friends Palace never carries a birth-year Hua Lu, Hua Quan, Hua Ke or Hua Ji of its own. For transformations in your friendships, look at any other star sharing the palace, at Lu Cun, and at the Siblings Palace opposite.

Friendship advice

Treasure a stable network, and remember to open up your circle now and then.

About 40.7% of charts with Tian Fu 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