On Reading the Luck Cycles (Lun Xing Yun)

The Luck Cycles Are Read the Same Way

A luck cycle is not a separate art: each character it brings is set against the chart exactly as the chart's own characters are set against the month. Shen first lists what makes a luck fine and what spoils it, then spends the rest of the chapter on the traps — luck that looks fine but is not, stems and branches that behave differently even when they are of the same kind, clashes that never land because the chart already gathers them away, and a single clash that doubles.