Arrival (Lin Guan) — The Fourth of the Twelve Stages
In a Nutshell
The fourth of the Twelve Stages, also called "Establishing the Salary": the Day Stem arrives at its salary position — Jia Wood's Arrival falls on Yin.
Quick facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Stage | Fourth of the Twelve Stages |
| Alternate name | Establishing the Salary (Jian Lu) |
| Example | Jia Wood's Arrival falls on Yin |
| Note | The Arrival branch is exactly where the Salary Star sits |
What is Arrival (Lin Guan)?
Arrival is the fourth stage of the "Twelve Stages," also known as "Establishing the Salary." The full order is Birth, Bath, Coming of Age, Arrival, Peak, Decline, Sickness, Death, Grave, Extinction, Conception, Nurturing — Arrival follows Coming of Age and precedes Peak. "Lin Guan" means ascending to office, and "lu" means the official's stipend — the Arrival branch is precisely where the Day Stem's Salary Star sits, hence "Establishing the Salary": the founding of one's stipend.
The ordering rule: yang stems move forward, yin stems move backward. Take Jia Wood: Jia's Birth is at Hai, counting forward — Hai is Birth, Zi is Bath, Chou is Coming of Age, Yin is Arrival — so Jia Wood's Arrival falls on Yin. Each stem's Arrival branch: Jia–Yin, Yi–Mao, Bing–Si, Ding–Wu, Wu–Si, Ji–Wu, Geng–Shen, Xin–You, Ren–Hai, Gui–Zi (Wu follows Bing, Ji follows Ding). Compare this with the Salary Star entry's lookup table and the two match exactly: Arrival and the Salary Star are two names for the same position.
In Chart Pattern theory, a month branch that is the Day Stem's Arrival ground is called the "Jian Lu" structure — one of the month-commander chart structures; see the chart-structure entries for details. Note that "Arrival" and "Salary Star," though they point to the same branch, belong to two different vocabularies: the former is a stage name in the Twelve Stages, the latter a Symbolic Star. Lining the two up helps connect the knowledge.
Stage names describe only the rise and fall of the Five Elements' energy, never real-world events directly. This page introduces the stage's meaning, the origin of its alias, and the lookup method, and draws no inferences from it.
Classical sources
"The Five Elements lodge in twelve palaces: Birth, Bathing, Cap and Belt, Official Post, Emperor, Decline, Sickness, Death, Grave, Extinction, Conception, Nurture, circling without end."
Plain words: The fixed order of the Twelve Stages.
Source: *San Ming Tong Hui*, Book 2, "On the Prosperity and Decline of the Five Elements and Their Lodging in the Twelve Palaces" — original: 五行寄生十二宫：长生、沐浴、冠带、临官、帝旺、衰、病、死、墓、绝、胎、养，循环无端，周而复始。
"The San Ming Ti Yao says: … seventh, Official Post: the myriad things are ripe and solid, as a person takes up office."
Plain words: Official Post (also called Establishing Salary) is the stage of maturity, like taking up office; it is where the Salary star sits. Jia Wood is at Official Post in Yin, Yi Wood in Mao.
Source: *San Ming Tong Hui*, Book 2, "On the Prosperity and Decline of the Five Elements and Their Lodging in the Twelve Palaces", quoting the *San Ming Ti Yao* — original: 《三命提要》云：……七曰临官，万物既秀实，如人之临官也。
"Yang gathers and advances, so it runs forward; yin disperses and retreats, so it runs backward. That is why Birth, Bathing and the rest differ, forward for yang and backward for yin."
Plain words: Yang stems count forward, yin stems backward, so the two stems of one element land on different branches.
Source: *Zi Ping Zhen Quan*, "On the Life and Death of Yin and Yang" — original: 阳主聚，以进为进，故主顺；阴主散，以退为退，故主逆。长生沐浴等项，所以有阳顺阴逆之殊也。
*For entertainment purposes only.*