Empty Death (Void) (空亡) — How to Identify in Your BaZi Chart

The Empty Void: How the 空亡 (Kōng Wáng) Finds You

Not all BaZi markers are active forces. Empty Death (空亡, Kōng Wáng) is an absence—a hole in the fabric where an Earthly Branch should be. It doesn't announce itself; it reveals what is missing. This page focuses solely on identification: how to derive which branches are void, step by step, so you can spot 空亡 in any chart.

Defining the Star

Empty Death (空亡) refers to two consecutive Earthly Branches in a 60-year cycle (六十甲子) that are considered “empty” or “void” for a given Day Pillar (日柱). Classical sources, such as 《李虚中命书·空亡》 (Li Xuzhong's Life-Writing, the Empty Death chapter), describe it as a place where qi dissipates—neither destructive nor creative, but simply absent.

The Derivation Rule

The identification of 空亡 depends on the Day Pillar (日柱) of the person—specifically, the Heavenly Stem (天干) of the Day Pillar. The rule is:

> For each Heavenly Stem, there exists a pair of Earthly Branches that are “empty” in the chart. These are determined by the 10-Stem / 12-Branch cycle alignment.

Memorize this mapping:

| Heavenly Stem | Empty Branches (空亡) | |---------------|-----------------------| | 甲 (Jia) | 戌 (Xu) – 亥 (Hai) | | 乙 (Yi) | 戌 – 亥 | | 丙 (Bing) | 申 (Shen) – 酉 (You) | | 丁 (Ding) | 申 – 酉 | | 戊 (Wu) | 申 – 酉 | | 己 (Ji) | 申 – 酉 | | 庚 (Geng) | 午 (Wu) – 未 (Wei) | | 辛 (Xin) | 午 – 未 | | 壬 (Ren) | 辰 (Chen) – 巳 (Si) | | 癸 (Gui) | 辰 – 巳 |

Memory trick: Pair the Heavenly Stems by yin-yang: Jia & Yi share empty branches (戌亥), Bing & Wu & Ding & Ji share empty branches (申酉), Geng & Xin share (午未), Ren & Gui share (辰巳).

Step-by-Step Location Method

1. Find the Day Pillar in your chart. The Day Pillar is the third pair ( heavenly stem + earthly branch ) in the four pillars. Example: 丙申 (Bing Shen). 2. Check the Heavenly Stem of the Day Pillar: e.g., 丙 (Bing). 3. Use the table above to find the corresponding empty branches: for Bing, the empty branches are 申 and 酉. 4. Scan all branches in the Four Pillars (year, month, day, hour). If any branch matches either of the two empty branches (申 or 酉), that branch is considered “occupied” by Empty Death. If the empty branches appear, they are “emptied”.

Critical nuance: The empty branches are applied to the entire chart—not just the Day Pillar—but the Day Pillar is the key. If the Day Pillar itself has one of its empty branches, that Day Branch is also voided, but the self is not automatically empty. The most impactful empties are on the Year and Hour Pillars.

Worked Example

Sample Chart: Birth on 1990-08-15 14:00 (Beijing time, not adjusted for daylight savings). Calculation yields:

- Year Pillar: 庚午 (Geng Wu) - Month Pillar: 甲申 (Jia Shen) - Day Pillar: 丙申 (Bing Shen) - Hour Pillar: 乙未 (Yi Wei)

1. Day Heavenly Stem = 丙 (Bing). 2. Empty branches for Bing = 申 (Shen) and 酉 (You). 3. Scan branches: Year branch 午 (Wu), Month branch 申 (Shen), Day branch 申 (Shen), Hour branch 未 (Wei). 4. 申 appears in both Month and Day Pillars → both are voided (空亡).

Meaning in this chart: the Day Pillar (丙申) is a self-empty—the person’s own destiny palace is empty—and the Month Pillar (甲申) is also empty. This often indicates a tendency toward sudden changes, difficulty consolidating resources, or a spiritual detachment from worldly gains.

Classical Commentary

《李虚中命书》states: “空亡者，旬中之所缺也。凡遇此，主谋事难成，多虚少实。” (“Empty Death is what is missing within the ten-day cycle. Whenever it is encountered, it indicates that plans are difficult to achieve, much emptiness and little substance.”)

Li Xuzhong placed great emphasis on the “voidness” as a counterbalance to strong elements. An empty branch is like a cabinet with shelves—it invites filling, but also suggests instability.

Modern Interpretation in Daily Practice

Today, practitioners use 空亡 as a nuance rather than a fatalistic marker. In a chart analysis:

- Empty Year Branch (年柱空亡): Ancestral roots disrupted; family support may be unreliable or inherited wealth lost. - Empty Month Branch (月柱空亡): Career or interpersonal difficulties early in life; the element of that branch is weakened. - Empty Day Branch (日柱空亡): The self (especially if Day Master is in that branch) can feel hollow or disconnected; relationships may lack depth. - Empty Hour Branch (时柱空亡): Later-life projects or children may not fulfill expectations.

An empty branch that is also the Seed (驿马) or Peach Blossom (桃花) can double its volatility. Conversely, an empty branch that is filled (by a strong stem in the same pillar or by a Luck Pillar that matches the empty branch) balances the chart.

> This interpretive framework is a tool for self-reflection, not a deterministic reading. Like all shen-sha, context matters more than a single marker.

Practical Tips for Identification

- Use a free BaZi chart calculator to generate your chart; it will often mark 空亡 automatically. - The empty branches are always a pair; if the Day Stem is from the first of the 10 Heavenly Stems, the empty pair is the last two of the 12 Branches (戌亥); for stems 3-6, it's 申酉; for 7-8, it's 午未; for 9-10, it's 辰巳. - Temporal units (Luck Pillars, years) can also be empty if their branch is one of the empty pair from the Day Pillar.

Understanding 空亡 identification is the first step. To see how it interacts with other elements, consider an in-depth BaZi reading or explore the BaZi insight library for deeper patterns.

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