Tian-Peng

The fiercest temperament of the nine stars: clever, nerved up for a gamble, and most at ease working in the unlit part of a matter, where the dealing never gets put on the table. What it points at runs far off, runs long and runs deep — a distance to travel, a thing that drags, a situation that has to be thought through. Very little of it settles the same day it starts. And the same nerve reads two ways depending on who is holding it: reckless in a speculator, formidable in a general posted to a frontier.

• People and roles: boatmen, people who travel a long way, people arriving from somewhere distant. Also the merchant willing to bet heavily, and the sort of figure who works the wrong side of a line.
• The unlit side, and risk: dealings that are never put on the table, matters conducted privately. Questions about theft and questions about a dispute very often bring this star out.
• And the other end of it: the same nerve, put into a general holding a frontier or a businessman willing to take a large risk, reads as force of character and considerable intelligence.
• Body and objects: the ears, the kidneys and bladder, the eliminative system; umbrellas, fishing tackle, paint.

"Greatly inauspicious" is the default reading of this star, not a verdict on the matter. The same Tian-Peng gives two entirely different answers to a question about a speculation and a question about a theft — what is being asked is what decides which face of it is in play this time.

Nature

What drives the person involved is wanting to win, wanting more, wanting one more breakthrough. Standing still is unbearable and so is being ordinary; the further ahead someone else gets, and the harder the lid is held down, the hotter it burns underneath.

Style

Take the position first and work out the route afterwards. The result is the point; a process that drags gets short treatment. Being supervised or being slowed down produces a kickback, and it comes back very directly.

Strength

The less rulebook a situation has, the clearer it looks from here — even a closed position will yield a crack somewhere. A sharp nose for where the money sits, who is holding the resources, and how one introduction connects to the next.

Impression

Shrewd, practical, socially fluent — obviously someone who knows how things actually work, not easy to fool and not worth provoking. The first meeting is not necessarily a warm one, and hardly anybody walks away from it underestimating them.

Pitfall

Too fast, too much, and wanting to win everything on the table at once — the moment the person involved is in a hurry, the judgement tilts along with them. When the urge to control takes hold and nothing can be let go of, the line that should have been held is the one that gets crossed.

At the feng shui layer a star answers for objects and for places — one class of thing and one class of location. Everything on the Tian-Peng list circles around water and around concealment.

• Character: hidden, and highly mobile; it governs cleverness, secrecy and risk.
• Objects: umbrellas, fishing tackle, paint, tents, wine and other drinks, washbasins and taps, and black clothing.
• Places: houses, pavilions and courtyards, and anywhere close to water — rivers, lakes and sea, reservoirs, wells, bathtubs, groundwater.

What a star answers for in feng shui is objects and places. Which room of a house is the bedroom and which is the kitchen is settled at the gate and stem layers instead, not by the stars.