Void (Xun Kong)

As a concept, Void is the gap between the 10 Heavenly Stems and the 12 Earthly Branches: the 2 branches left without a Heavenly Stem beside them are called Void.

Void has long been a subject of argument the world over, perhaps because the way it is split into details does not follow the system completely, so that Void is not one general thing but splits into many branching cases; and the confusion often lies in the point that "a human being is an animal, but an animal is not necessarily a human being".

How Void is worked out

Void is worked out as follows: stretch out the stem and branch of the Day together, either back to the beginning at Jia or forward to the end at Gui, and the two branches left over are read as Void. Example: on a Geng Chen day, stretching forward to Gui gives Gui Wei, so the two branches after Wei, Shen and You, will be Void; or stretching back to Jia gives Jia Xu, so the two branches before Xu, Shen and You, will be Void.

Ten-day week	The ten days	Void
Week of Jia Zi	Jia Zi · Yi Chou · Bing Yin · Ding Mao · Wu Chen · Ji Si · Geng Wu · Xin Wei · Ren Shen · Gui You	Xu Hai
Week of Jia Xu	Jia Xu · Yi Hai · Bing Zi · Ding Chou · Wu Yin · Ji Mao · Geng Chen · Xin Si · Ren Wu · Gui Wei	Shen You
Week of Jia Shen	Jia Shen · Yi You · Bing Xu · Ding Hai · Wu Zi · Ji Chou · Geng Yin · Xin Mao · Ren Chen · Gui Si	Wu Wei
Week of Jia Wu	Jia Wu · Yi Wei · Bing Shen · Ding You · Wu Xu · Ji Hai · Geng Zi · Xin Chou · Ren Yin · Gui Mao	Chen Si
Week of Jia Chen	Jia Chen · Yi Si · Bing Wu · Ding Wei · Wu Shen · Ji You · Geng Xu · Xin Hai · Ren Zi · Gui Chou	Yin Mao
Week of Jia Yin	Jia Yin · Yi Mao · Bing Chen · Ding Si · Wu Wu · Ji Wei · Geng Shen · Xin You · Ren Xu · Gui Hai	Zi Chou

Still Void

Void basically divides into two kinds: still and moving. The still kind divides into matters not concerning people and matters concerning people.

Matters not concerning people

Matters not concerning people are those not directly about a person, such as money, a career, a house…… They divide into two cases:

If it is Prosperous, look further at where the clash and the filling of this line fall: if an event at a fixed moment falls before the moment the Void is filled or clashed, then that matter counts as spoilt. For example, someone asks about an examination on a Geng Yin day, and Parents at Wu Fire is Void, while the day of the examination is a Chen day, meaning that the day of leaving the Void has not yet come, so the examination is spoilt. If the event has a flowing character, then it succeeds at the moment the Void is clashed or filled, and before that moment it is all to be thrown away.

And a still line that is Resting or Weak and Void counts as a true void, spoilt outright and past saving. This case too answers at the moment the Void is clashed or filled, and it fails then.

The branching cases

Still and Void has these branching cases:

The Opposing line sits on the Self line and is Void, with the Target line Prosperous: here, if the timing of the Target line comes before the timing of the Opposing line, the matter asked about will succeed, but at the moment of the filling of the Self line a loss still occurs. This case holds for Parents, Wealth and Officer. But with Parents or Wealth, for example: on a Jia Shen day, asking about money, Before Completion (Wei Ji) came out:

Before Completion (Wei Ji) Fire (Li) Palace · Fire

Siblings	Si Fire	Resp.
Offspring	Wei Earth
Wealth	You Metal
Siblings	Wu Fire	Self
Offspring	Chen Earth
Parents	Yin Wood

Here the Wealth line coincides with the Day, and Siblings sits on the Self line and is Void; there is money within the day because Wealth coincides with the Day, but on the Zi day, which clashes the Void, the person loses their own money by their own doing, because it clashes Siblings sitting on the Self line, and Siblings on the Self line is the image of ruining one's own Wealth.

Parents in a job application is different: in the same case as above it means being taken on for a trial period but not taken on officially.

With Officer it is more dangerous: it is the image of receiving the post, but at the timing of the Offspring line the person meets with an accident. Note this most carefully and avoid it.

Void, however Prosperous, still fears the Tomb; if it is in the Tomb the matter is spoilt at once. But if a moving line generates the Void line, then the moment of the filling of the Void is the moment the matter succeeds. These are situations that are not general within the common formula, so note them.

If the question is about a business, a Void Wealth line is the image of being robbed, and not necessarily by an employee. Note this.

Void in matters concerning people

In matters concerning people, whatever the Target line is, Prosperous or Weak, if it is Void it reports that the person's heart is not true, and one must always be on guard and choose a suitable way of behaving. In straightforward hexagrams, such as one Self line and one Target line: if the Target line is Void the person is not true; if the Self line is Void one is not capable enough oneself, going round in circles and losing direction. Why is it not that the Self line is untrue? Because one's own matter one knows oneself; true or not is measured against oneself.

And in composite hexagrams such as a career, one goes by the position of the lines to know who in the company is true to one and who is not, with the element besides to know how everyone regards one, and with the Six Spirits besides to know each person's character.

Moving Void

In principle, a line that is Void or in Month Break and moving is not read as a Void line, and it answers at the moment of the clash or the filling. But what has to be noted about a moving Void line, as against an ordinary line, is that a moving Void line has a timing of its own, at the clash or the filling of the Void, and not at the other branches. This means that if the event does not fall on the 2 points of clash and own branch (for the Hour, the Month or the Year), or the 3 points (for the Day), the matter still fails.

Void that moves is not read as Void, and this includes a changed line that is Void; we still come back to judging the points as above. Basically, at the moments of the clash and the filling of the Void line, that moving line will work like an ordinary line. This leads to dividing matters into fixed and not fixed. With fixed events, the moving line acts on the other lines only if it falls on the point of clash or own branch; if not, the appearance of the moving line only reports something for later — and this holds too for a moving line whose changed line is Void.

But a moving Void line runs up against the case of the Tomb at the changed line, at the Day, or at a moving line; and then, however Prosperous it is, the matter will be spoilt. For example, on a Ren Shen day in the Wu month, the hexagram The Family (Jia Ren) changing into Increase (Yi), asking about the health of a child:

The Family (Jia Ren) changes to Increase (Yi) Wind (Xun) Palace · Wood

Siblings	Mao Wood
Offspring	Si Fire	Resp.
Wealth	Wei Earth
Parents	Hai Water			○		Wealth · Chen Earth
Wealth	Chou Earth	Self
Siblings	Mao Wood

The Offspring line is Prosperous, and although Parents moves, Parents is Void and in the Tomb besides, so the child got over the illness on the Hai day, which clashes the still Offspring line.

Note here, with this hexagram, that if Water moves and changes into the Tomb, then if Water is Prosperous we count the Tomb and not the control, and if it is Weak it is both Tomb and control; the same with Zi changing into Chou.

In this case, supposing there were a moving Metal line generating Parents, health would be in danger at Si and Hai, because a Void line in the Tomb that is generated by a moving line is a usable line after all.

Special cases of a moving Void line

With a moving Void line there are the following special cases. Call the chain of moving line and changed line A → B:

• If A is the Opposing line, and A or B is Void and not clashed by the Day, then the moment of the timing of being controlled is the moment the Void is clashed or filled.
• If A is the Opposing line, B controls A, and A or B is Void, then before the moment of the filling or the clashing of the Void the Target line is still controlled, that is, it is still harmed, until the moment of the clashing or the filling of the Void, when the harm ends; and if the question is about matters tied to a moment, then the moment of the clashing or the filling of the Void is the moment the Opposing line is controlled and the matter succeeds.
• If A is the Source line, and A or B is Void, then at the clash or the filling the Source line will be able to generate for the Target line.
• If A is the Source line, A or B is Void, and B controls A, then before the moment of the clash or the filling of the Void the Source line still generates for the Target line, and only at the moment of the clash or the filling does that generating end. This leads to the choosing of a moment for events where one has the right to choose the time: one need only choose a time before the clash or the filling and act, and the matter will succeed.

The Tomb meeting Void

Among the cases of Void there is a special note about the case where the moving line is the Tomb but is Void, where the changed line is the Tomb but is Void, or where the moving line is the Tomb but changes into Void. In all three cases we read it as certainly not being the Tomb, and at the clash of the Tomb it is clashed as an ordinary line and does not count as the Tomb. For example: on a Jia Zi day, The Clinging (Li) changing into Abundance (Feng):

The Clinging (Li) changes to Abundance (Feng) Fire (Li) Palace · Fire

Siblings	Si Fire	Self		○		Offspring · Xu Earth
Offspring	Wei Earth
Wealth	You Metal
Officer line	Hai Water	Resp.
Offspring	Chou Earth
Parents	Mao Wood

Here, because Xu Earth is Void, at the clash or the filling of the Void Xu Earth line it will not count as changing into the Tomb again but only as changing into draining.

Likewise: if it were Biting Through (Shi He) changing into The Clinging (Li), on a Jia Zi day:

Biting Through (Shi He) changes to The Clinging (Li) Wind (Xun) Palace · Wood

Offspring	Si Fire
Wealth	Wei Earth	Self
Officer line	You Metal
Wealth	Chen Earth			×		Parents · Hai Water
Siblings	Yin Wood	Resp.
Parents	Zi Water

If the question is about Parents, then at the filling or the clash the changed line at Hai Water will not count as the Tomb of Parents but is counted as the timing of the Opposing line; note that this Opposing line still counts as Prosperous, because Earth is Prosperous at Zi. Note further that in questions about papers where Wealth changes into Parents, if it is not at the Self line it reports the matter asked about succeeding through the use of money, but if it is at the Self line, in a job application, it is the image of being taken on for a trial period but not taken on officially. The hexagram Biting Through changing into The Clinging on a Jia Wu day carries the same sense.

Speaking of the Tomb, it is worth noting that the same holds for Month Break as for Void, but not entirely for a clash by the Day.

If the Day clashes the Tomb line, the Tomb never counts; but if the moving line is the Tomb and has a changed line clashed by the Day, it does not count that way.

If the Tomb line changes into control, or is Weak, the changed line included, it will not count as the Tomb; but if the Tomb is Resting it still counts as the Tomb, answering at the moment the changed line controls the Tomb line and the matter succeeds. For example: The Clinging (Li) changing into Great Possession (Da You):

The Clinging (Li) changes to Great Possession (Da You) Fire (Li) Palace · Fire

Siblings	Si Fire	Self
Offspring	Wei Earth
Wealth	You Metal
Officer line	Hai Water	Resp.
Offspring	Chou Earth			×		Parents · Yin Wood
Parents	Mao Wood

Supposing Wealth were the Target line, it would not count as the Tomb at the moving line, because the Tomb has already been controlled away, whether the changed line at Yin Wood is Prosperous or Weak. The case of a Source line that is the Tomb and is controlled is not like the ordinary cases of a Source line being controlled, but counts as there being no Tomb. For example, in the same situation above, if Chou were not the Tomb of Wealth the matter would fail; but because it is the Tomb of Wealth the matter succeeds. So note these fine points, and avoid mistakes.

Likewise on a Yin day in the Shen month, The Clinging (Li) changing into Biting Through (Shi He): line 3 does not count as moving and changing into the Tomb either, but only as moving and changing into control.

The Clinging (Li) changes to Biting Through (Shi He) Fire (Li) Palace · Fire

Siblings	Si Fire	Self
Offspring	Wei Earth
Wealth	You Metal
Officer line	Hai Water	Resp.		○		Offspring · Chen Earth
Offspring	Chou Earth
Parents	Mao Wood

See also

• Day Branch and Month Command (Ri Chen, Yue Ling), Month Break
• Tomb, Life stages — Void fears the Tomb
• Timing, Six Clashes
• Opposing line, Source line