Star of command · Metal

Qi Sha (the Commander)

If you're going to fight, fight — don't dawdle

Your capacity to act is very strong: decided is started, and you don't look back much. Openings suit you and hard fights suit you; the more others won't take something on, the more you want it. Under pressure you really can gnaw a thing through. The cost is that you go too fast: often it isn't that the judgement was wrong, it's that you didn't wait for the moment — and once you've taken a setback the rebound is large too. You meet people hard, without much cushion.

In the Self palace: where you move easily

• You'll make the decision others won't; at the critical moment you're unambiguous.
• You take pressure; the harder the situation, the more it draws out of you.
• You don't linger — when it's done, it's done.

In the Self palace: what it tends to cost

• You don't wait for the timing; a lot of failures are half a beat early rather than wrong.
• You speak bluntly and hold hard, and give offence without noticing.
• Your rebound after a setback catches people who had nothing to do with it, yourself included.

In another palace

In another palace, that's where you're most decisive — and where you most easily come down too hard.