Surrounded palaces

The surrounded set is the most commonly used reading scope in Zi Wei Dou Shu. A matter cannot be read from its own palace alone: the stars of the opposite palace and the two trine palaces bear on it just as much, and only all four together give the full picture.

The four palaces

All four fields have the type &'a PalaceData (not PalaceRef): their fields read directly, and the methods of the palace object that need no astrolabe context (has, is_empty, has_mutagen, mutagen_stars) are all callable on them. For methods that do trace back to the astrolabe, such as opposite_palace or surrounded_palaces, take sp.target.index and go through chart.palace(...) to get a PalaceRef.

Three ways to get one

// from the astrolabe
let sp = chart.surrounded_palaces(Palace::Soul).unwrap();

// from a palace
let sp = chart.palace(Palace::Soul).unwrap().surrounded_palaces();

// from a star (the surrounded set of the palace it sits in)
let sp = chart.star(StarKey::ZiweiMaj).unwrap().surrounded_palaces();

All three give the same result; pick whichever matches what you already have.

have / not_have / have_one_of

Purpose Test whether the four palaces together hold the given stars.

Zi Wei meaning A phrase like "Ziwei is in the surrounded set" asks exactly whether a star appears anywhere among these four palaces, without asking which one.

Signature

pub fn have(&self, stars: &[StarKey]) -> bool
pub fn not_have(&self, stars: &[StarKey]) -> bool
pub fn have_one_of(&self, stars: &[StarKey]) -> bool

Parameters

Return value

Example

use x_iztro::StarKey::*;

let sp = chart.surrounded_palaces(Palace::Soul).unwrap();

println!("{}", sp.have(&[ZiweiMaj, TianxiangMaj]));
println!("{}", sp.have_one_of(&[QishaMaj, PojunMaj]));
println!("{}", sp.not_have(&[HuoxingMin]));

Output

true
false
true

Ziwei is in the Soul palace and Tianxiang in the Wealth palace — different palaces, but both within the four, so have is true.

Edge cases and pitfalls

have_mutagen / not_have_mutagen

Purpose Test whether the four palaces carry a given natal mutagen.

Zi Wei meaning "Ji is in the surrounded set" means one of these palaces holds a star the birth-year stem sent ji to — a common condition when locating a source of pressure.

Signature

pub fn have_mutagen(&self, mutagen: Mutagen) -> bool
pub fn not_have_mutagen(&self, mutagen: Mutagen) -> bool

Parameters

Return value bool.

Example

let sp = chart.surrounded_palaces(Palace::Soul).unwrap();

println!("lu in the surrounded set: {}", sp.have_mutagen(Mutagen::Lu));
println!("ji in the surrounded set: {}", sp.have_mutagen(Mutagen::Ji));
println!("no ke in the surrounded set: {}", sp.not_have_mutagen(Mutagen::Ke));

Output

lu in the surrounded set: false
ji in the surrounded set: false
no ke in the surrounded set: true

This chart's natal mutagens land in four palaces: Taiyang with lu in Children, Wuqu with quan in Wealth, Taiyin with ke in Friends, Tiantong with ji in Health. The Soul palace's surrounded set is Soul, Surface, Wealth and Career — only the quan is among them, so asking for lu and for ji both give false, while asking for quan would give true.

Edge cases and pitfalls

to_text

Purpose The surrounded palaces' semantic text: one section each for the target palace, its opposite, and the wealth and career positions.

Signature

pub fn to_text(&self, lang: Language) -> String

SurroundedPalaces holds four palace references and records no language, so pass one explicitly — usually chart.language to match the natal chart. The equivalent free function is text::surrounded_palaces_to_text(sp, lang).

Example

let sp = chart.surrounded_palaces(Palace::Soul).unwrap();

println!("{}", sp.to_text(chart.language).lines().next().unwrap());

Output

Target Palace: soul (renwoo)

The full format is on Semantic text.