A staff in the Purple Palace: the edge in the name Tianbang
Every star name has an edge, and Tianbang's is plain: a staff enforces. In the Purple Palace it is the guard's weapon beside the kitchen. The school reads two faces into that. Held upright and still, a staff is order kept. Swung, it is force.
Yin suits the image. It is a wood mountain, the tiger, the fortnight around the start of spring. A Yin peak that stands straight, firm and a little apart from the seat carries the first face. A jagged, thrusting peak, or a straight ridge aimed at the site, carries the second.
Reading a staff star: when the school accepts it and when it will not
The star is the school's second opinion, given after the eye has spoken. If the incoming range enters on Yin, the master first asks how it arrives: in strong, clean steps, or in a hard straight rush. The first kind Tianbang confirms as a firm dragon. The second it confirms as rough; an ordinary star cannot soften what the ground does.
A peak on Yin is read as a guard hill, welcome when upright and set back, unwelcome when it leans in like a raised stick. Water from Yin should come with a turn in it, not straight at the front. In the Cuiguan Pian each chapter has its star to answer to; on Yin it is Tianbang, and it only answers.
What this means on the ground
Find Tianbang on the Tianxing ring of the school's luopan under Yin, just past Tianshi. Sight from the seat: behind the stone for a grave, inside the door for a house or shop. Three readings, no steel near the plate.
Turn to each hill and the water mouth and note any bearing between 52.5° and 67.5°. That is Yin, and Tianbang. In a town the staff face is easy to spot on that line: a straight road running at the door, a flagpole, a pylon, a sharp roof edge pointing in. A square, steady building or a sound wall standing off to that side is the staff held upright.
Common mistakes
The first mistake is to turn a stern name into a stern verdict. Tianbang does not foretell trouble; it names a quality, and only the ground says whether it is present. The second is reading it from a phone set to true north; Yin sits between Gen and Jia, and a few degrees moves the peak to a noble star or to Tianyuan.
The third is counting the star before walking the slope, so a quarried, scarred Yin range gets a clean label. The fourth is taking the bearing off a map or a satellite image; a road that looks aimed at the door on a map may be screened by a rise on the ground.
Questions people ask
What star is on Yin mountain?
In the Tianxing school, Yin mountain at 60° east north east carries Tianbang, Heaven's Staff, an ordinary star named for a cudgel in the Purple Palace. The name means enforcing and the punishing rod.
Is Tianbang a bad star?
No star is good or bad on its own. A firm, upright hill or building on Yin reads as discipline; a sharp peak, pylon or straight road aimed at the door on that bearing reads as the rough side of the staff. The ground decides.
Where does Tianbang sit on the luopan?
On the Tianxing ring of the school's luopan, under Yin, between Tianshi on Gen and Tianyuan on Jia. Any bearing from 52.5° to 67.5° taken from the seat falls on it.
If something sharp or straight stands on the east north east of your door or grave, book a site reading with Master Zhang or bring the photos to the field course in Ganzhou.