Strength and interactions

Strength (Wang Shuai)

By Vi Nhật Sơn · Updated 2026-09-21

Vượng suy

Strength (Wang Shuai) — what is it? Strength (Wang Shuai) in Liu Yao: Prosperous, Weak, Rootless, Resting and Excessive make the scale for a line's nature. A Prosperous line is one you can use.

Strength — with Prosperous, Weak, Rootless, Resting and Excessive strength, this is what is called the scale for the nature of a line.

A Prosperous line

What is called a Prosperous line? Simply put, a Prosperous line is a line that can be used: if the Target line is Prosperous, that Target line can be read further, and if nothing comes in from outside such as a moving line or the Self line, the matter asked about will basically succeed.

Resting

Resting likewise resembles a middling state, but an ordinary matter only succeeds or fails — there is no half-way. So Resting–Confined is divided according to whether one asks about a near or a distant matter, about a person or an event, and decided as yes or no: for a distant matter counted by Year or Month, within an event, Resting counts as a Prosperous line; and for a near matter counted by Day or Hour, Resting counts as a Weak line.

A Weak line

A Weak line is almost the opposite of a Prosperous one: if the Target line is Weak then, without the action of a moving line or a changed line, the matter will certainly fail.

A Rootless line

A Rootless line is a state of certain failure: even generated by a moving line, it will still spoil the matter. The one exception is where a changed line generates the corresponding Rootless moving line — the nature of that line, over the span referred to the Day and Hour axes, counts as Weak, and on the Month and Year axes counts as Prosperous.

A line with Excessive strength

With a line of Excessive strength, one must wait for the moment the line enters the Tomb before the matter succeeds.

Table of states and how they are counted in Six Lines

Whether a line is Excessive, Prosperous, Resting, Weak or Rootless is determined from the following table:

State	Day	Month	Moving line	Changed line	Additional condition
Prosperous	Generated / Coinciding	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	—
	Neither generated nor controlled	Generated / Coinciding	—	—	—
	Controlled	Generated / Coinciding	—	—	—
	Generated / Coinciding	Controlled	—	—	—
	Neither, plus combined	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	—
	Neither generated nor controlled	Neither, plus combined	—	—	—
	Neither generated nor controlled	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	Generated by a moving line
Resting	Neither generated nor controlled	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	—
Weak	Neither generated nor controlled	Controlled	—	—	—
	Controlled	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	—
	Neither generated nor controlled	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	Retreating
	Neither generated nor controlled	Controlled	—	—	Retreating
	Controlled	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	Retreating
	Controlled	Controlled	—	—	Retreating
Rootless	Controlled	Controlled	—	—	—
	—	Clashes	—	—	Still
	Neither; clashed	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	—
True Void	Neither generated nor controlled	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	Void
	Controlled	Neither generated nor controlled	—	—	Void
	Neither generated nor controlled	Controlled	—	—	Void
	Controlled	Controlled	—	—	Void
Tomb	Tomb	—	Tomb	Tomb	—
Birth	Birth	—	—	Birth	—
Peak	Peak	—	—	Peak	—
Extinction	Extinction	—	—	Extinction	—
Hidden movement	Clashes	—	—	—	Prosperous
Day Break	Clashes	—	—	—	Weak / Resting / Rootless
Month Break	—	Clashes	—	—	—
Repeating clash	—	—	—	Clashes	—
Stagnant repetition	—	—	—	Identical	—

Each row is one combination that produces the state on the left. “Coinciding”: the line shares its branch with the Day or Month. Excessive strength: see its own entry.