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Your sign vs year's Tai Sui
Fan Tai Sui is the traditional Chinese system that judges a year's fortune by the relationship between your birth-year branch and the year's Tai Sui branch. It falls into five types — Zhi (same sign), Chong (clash), Xing (punishment), Hai (hidden harm), Po (disruption) — and also shows the Tai Sui and Sui Po directions and the year's Tai Sui general.
Tai Sui began as an astronomical concept. As Jupiter (歲星, the Year Star) circles the sky in about twelve years, an imaginary counter-star running the mirrored opposite course was posited — that is Tai Sui, later deified as the god governing a year's fortune.
Each of the sixty ganzhi pairs has a Tai Sui assigned, and the sixty Tai Sui Star Lords (太歲星君) take turns ruling the year on a sixty-year cycle. The Sanming Tonghui's (三命通會) 'Discourse on Tai Sui' defines Tai Sui as 'the master of the year and chief of the spirits,' judging fortune by whether it is in harmony with the person.
The year's duty Tai Sui is called Youxing Tai Sui (遊行太歲); the Tai Sui of one's birth year is Dangsheng Tai Sui (當生太歲). Fan Tai Sui (犯太歲) looks precisely at the relation between the two — the clash between your birth-year branch and that year's Tai Sui branch.
Since the Ming dynasty, the sixty Tai Sui Star Lords have been systematized as 'Grand Generals' (大將軍), each with a name, image, and office. The Jiazi Tai Sui is General Jin Bian (金辨), the Yichou Tai Sui is General Chen Cai (陳材) — all are regarded as incarnations of loyal ministers and fine generals through the ages.
Great temples in Taiwan and Hong Kong have a Tai Sui Hall or Yuanchen Hall where the sixty stand in a row, presided over by Doumu Yuanjun (斗姆元君) with the year's duty Tai Sui placed foremost. Your birth-year Tai Sui is called Benming Yuanchen (本命元辰), and there is a tradition of paying it separate respects.
Zhi Tai Sui (值太歲) is when your birth-year animal is the same as the year's Tai Sui — the benmingnian (本命年). Energy crests at its peak, making it a year of great fluctuation.
Chong Tai Sui (沖太歲) is the animal directly clashing with Tai Sui (the sign six seats away). It is seen as a year prone to major change — moving, job shifts, relationship turns — so convention counsels care in big decisions.
Xing Tai Sui (刑太歲) is the animal in a xing (punishment) relation with Tai Sui — a year to guard against disputes, misunderstanding, and legal trouble; Hai Tai Sui (害太歲) warns of unseen obstruction and betrayal; Po Tai Sui (破太歲) cautions about setbacks, losses, and wealth leaking away.
Tai Sui also takes a seat in space. The direction pointed to by the year's branch is the Tai Sui direction (太歲方); its direct opposite — the clashing direction — is the Sui Po direction (歲破方). Tradition avoids breaking ground or earthworks in the Tai Sui direction and major moves toward Sui Po.
The proverb 'digging earth on Tai Sui's head' (太歲頭上動土) comes from this — meaning to invite calamity by provoking an authority that must not be touched, still in wide use today.
Those who are fan tai sui have a custom of enshrining (安) Tai Sui at a temple in the new year to pray for a peaceful year. One writes one's birth data and installs a tablet in the Tai Sui hall, closing the cycle with Xie Tai Sui (謝太歲, thanking Tai Sui) on the Send-off-the-Gods day, the 24th of the twelfth lunar month.
Some temples, like Taipei's Xingtian Temple, hand out Tai Sui talismans; in Hong Kong, the Yuanchen Hall of Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple is famous for Tai Sui worship.
Enter your birth date and pick a target year, and the service judges the relation between that year's Tai Sui branch and your birth-year branch as one of the five types — zhi, chong, xing, hai, po — and also shows the duty Grand General and the Tai Sui and Sui Po directions.
The ruling system follows the Tai Sui conventions of the Qinding Xieji Bianfangshu and the Tung Shu, and the year boundary is converted by orthodox calendrical reckoning anchored on Lichun.
Fan Tai Sui is folk tradition's notice to 'move through that year with care.' Just as the Sanming Tonghui itself held that other elements of one's chart can harmonize the relation and change the fortune, the accurate traditional reading is not to fix a whole year by the type ruling alone.
Qinding Xieji Bianfangshu (1739) & Tung Shu Tai Sui conventions — five types zhi/chong/xing/hai/po, the Sixty Jiazi Grand Generals, Tai Sui & Sui Po directions, Sanming Tonghui 'Discourse on Tai Sui'; lunar-javascript lunar engine
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Tai Sui began as an astronomical concept. As Jupiter (歲星, the Year Star) circles the sky in about twelve years, an imaginary counter-star running the mirrored opposite course was posited — that is Tai Sui, later deified as the god governing a year's fortune.
Since the Ming dynasty, the sixty Tai Sui Star Lords have been systematized as 'Grand Generals' (大將軍), each with a name, image, and office. The Jiazi Tai Sui is General Jin Bian (金辨), the Yichou Tai Sui is General Chen Cai (陳材) — all are regarded as incarnations of loyal ministers and fine generals through the ages.
**Zhi Tai Sui (值太歲)** is when your birth-year animal is the same as the year's Tai Sui — the benmingnian (本命年). Energy crests at its peak, making it a year of great fluctuation.
Fan Tai Sui(犯太歲), Korean Yihak - Genius Young Master Cheongjae, Jiaobei(擲筊), Liushijiazi(六十甲子籤), Xiao Liu Ren(小六壬), Cezi(測字), Tung Shing(通勝)