On How the Order of Support and Control Divides Fortune from Misfortune (Sheng Ke Xian Hou)

The Same Characters, a Different Order

Two charts can hold exactly the same gods and still turn out differently, because the year, month, day and hour are not interchangeable: what arrives first frames what arrives later. Shen runs the principle through the officer, the seal, the food god and the killings, in each case showing that a rescue coming early and a rescue coming late are not the same rescue. He then explains how a single separating character — wealth standing between wounding officer and officer — is often the whole difference.