Opening the chapter
Loading the text. Please wait.
Yuanhai Ziping · The Deep Sea of Ziping Astrology
Scrolls I and II
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
On Five-Phase Tombs and Storehouses, Wealth and Resource
For people born under Bing or Ding, Chen is the Officer Storehouse, because Water and Earth are stored in Chen. Wood must occur in the year, month, or hour, or Hai, Mao, and Wei together with Yin, for the configuration to be clear. Without Wood, Earth takes away Bing and Ding's Officer, leaving it turbid and low rather than clear or distinguished.
Marginal note: Resource is the Wood that generates the self. With Wood present, Fire is generated, giving strength within its brightness. Without Wood, Fire generates Earth, which steals its qi. Wood assists because Wood controls Earth.
Examples of What Each Phase Favors and What Harms It in Generation, Control, Restraint and Transformation
Flourishing Metal obtaining Fire can become vessels. Flourishing Fire obtaining Water can achieve mutual aid. Flourishing Water obtaining Earth can form ponds and marshes. Flourishing Earth obtaining Wood can be opened and loosened. Flourishing Wood obtaining Metal can become beams and pillars.
Metal relies on Earth for generation, but much Earth buries Metal. Earth relies on Fire for generation, but much Fire scorches Earth. Fire relies on Wood for generation, but much Wood makes Fire blaze. Wood relies on Water for generation, but much Water makes Wood drift. Water relies on Metal for generation, but much Metal makes Water turbid.
Marginal note: A weak self meeting repeated Resource Seals is harmed by them.
Metal can generate Water, but much Water sinks Metal. Water can generate Wood, but abundant Wood reduces Water. Wood can generate Fire, but much Fire burns Wood. Fire can generate Earth, but much Earth darkens Fire. Earth can generate Metal, but much Metal changes Earth.
Marginal note: This is a weak self with Hurting Officer and Food Spirit excessively flourishing, so harm occurs. It is greatly avoided.
Metal can control Wood, but firm Wood damages Metal. Wood can control Earth, but heavy Earth breaks Wood. Earth can control Water, but much Water washes Earth away. Water can control Fire, but blazing Fire heats Water. Fire can control Metal, but much Metal extinguishes Fire.
Marginal note: A weak self meeting Wealth can instead be harmed by it. A strong self meeting Wealth approaches riches and honor.
Declining Metal meeting Fire must melt. Weak Fire meeting Water must be extinguished. Weak Water meeting Earth must be silted up. Declining Earth meeting Wood must collapse. Weak Wood meeting Metal must be cut and broken.
Marginal note: A weak self meeting flourishing Officer and Killings often has a configuration of injury, poverty, and low standing.
Strong Metal obtaining Water can blunt its edge. Strong Water obtaining Wood can drain its force. Strong Wood obtaining Fire can transform its obstinacy. Strong Fire obtaining Earth can check its flame. Strong Earth obtaining Metal can restrain its harm.
This is a weak self meeting a Ghost: obtaining something to transform it is auspicious. For example, a Jia day injured by arriving Metal Killings can be released by a single Ren or Gui Water in the hour, or by Shen, Zi, and Chen, thereby turning ill fortune into good. Infer the others in the same way.
Marginal note: Officer and Ghost are one influence. A flourishing self meeting it calls it Officer; a weak self meeting it calls it Ghost.
Annotated Song on Ziping's Essentials
In transformation, first examine the day master; judge its decline and flourishing when seated on Officer or Resource.
For someone born on a Jiazi day, Gui Water within it is used. Water can generate Wood as Resource Seal, so this is called being seated on Resource. The others follow the same principle.
Marginal note: The day master is the day on which one was born. Thus a Jiazi birth takes the Jiazi day as master and uses year, month, and hour to discuss Wealth and Officer.
Year, hour, and month's command are called the governing outline: weigh whether the original configuration contains or lacks the influences.
The governing outline is what is concealed in the month branch, whether Metal or Water, taking what is flourishing and vigorous.
In general, the Officer star should be pure; Direct and Indirect mixed in disorder instead lack sympathetic relation.
Once the Officer star is used, clashes and breaking are disliked: this is called lacking sympathetic relation.
Revealed Officer and concealed Killings bring blessings; revealed Killings and concealed Officer are the womb of misfortune.
Revealed Officer brings purity and distinction, making a person prominent. Revealed Killings bring fierceness and cruelty, making a person impatient and violent.
How should both Killings and Officer revealed be judged? With Wealth and Officer mixed, take Wealth for discussion.
When Killings and Officer are both revealed, blessings require that Killings be restrained without injuring Officer, or that Wealth generate it. Otherwise, petty people constrain the exemplary person, preventing the Way from being practiced.
A flourishing Officer fears further Officers and avoids punishment and clash. A light Officer seeing Wealth brings blessings and advantage.
A flourishing Officer fears another Officer, as when two Officers meet. Encountering this in a cycle or year, with a clash, is unfavorable. A light Officer seeing Wealth takes Wealth as Emolument and is auspicious.
Hurting Officer in the year is most objectionable; repeated Hurting Officer is greatly feared and must not be provoked.
Hurting Officer in the year harms the ancestors or ancestral estate. If repeated in month or hour, calamity cannot be avoided.
Hurting Officer using Wealth brings blessings; Wealth cut off and Officer declining likewise bring blessings.
Hurting Officer indicates a person who likes Wealth. With a flourishing Officer but no Wealth, the person lacks blessings.
Greed for combination that forgets Officer leaves honor insufficient; greed for combination that forgets Killings brings blessings to oneself.
Officer is the exemplary person: once combined away, it is no longer available for use. Killings are the fierce and evil petty person: combining them away and not allowing their recklessness puts them in their proper place.
Marginal note: Jia takes Xin as Officer, and Bing combines it away. Jia takes Geng as Killings, and Yi is used to combine it away.
Alas, a weak self fears much Wealth; proceeding further into Officer's domain brings pursuing misfortune.
For example, Jiashen or Jiaxu seeing Wu and Ji as Wealth in the Four Pillars finds this unfavorable when the self is weak. Or a cycle reaching Officer's domain has two Officers contending and must bring misfortune.
With much Wealth and a weak self, the Food Spirit arrives; Food Spirit meeting Killings must bring disaster.
Food Spirit is the child I generate, a spirit that steals qi.
Heavenly meetings and earthly combinations have punishment and control: a discerning scholar should infer and judge them in detail.
Translator's note: The apparently favorable "Wealth cut off and Officer declining" line is retained as supplied, together with its accompanying explanation, without rewriting it to match a different rule. The annotations and marginal notes are part of the translated record.
Mutual Generation of Yin and Yang at the Two Solstices
Within the year, distinguish the Five Phases in detail and match them to the seasonal conditions of the twelve months, each governing Flourishing and Vigor, to determine the useful spirit. The Five Phases are further divided into yin and yang, each governing the qi of Birth and Flourishing within the birth year. Using the one yang at the Winter Solstice gives the principle that Wood first comes to Birth and Flourishing. Consider someone born on a Jia or Yi day before the Winter Solstice: yang qi has not yet moved, and Wood is in Death and Extinction, so that Wood is not very favorable. If born on a Jia or Yi day after the Winter Solstice, yang qi has already arisen and Wood rides warm qi, giving the configuration both longevity and emolument, provided Jia's useful spirit enters a pattern. Likewise, Bing and Ding day stems born before the Winter Solstice are extinguished upon meeting Water; after it, Water's robbing Bing and Ding is not greatly avoided, because they ride Wood's generation. At the Summer Solstice yin is born, giving the principle of Metal being born and Water being used. After the Summer Solstice, yin is born after the Three Fu periods. Geng and Xin born after the Summer Solstice have qi and do not greatly avoid Fire. This principle is especially clear and students must know it.
Marginal note: Yang is born after the Winter Solstice and yin after the Summer Solstice. Each of the Five Phases obtains its qi and is not treated as a weak self, but discussed as balanced and harmonious.
Translator's note: The supplied Jia wording and the sequence linking the Summer Solstice with the Three Fu periods are retained rather than silently corrected or converted into modern dates. The longevity and emolument judgments are historical assertions.
Detailed Explanation of the Discourse on Establishing the True Principles
Taking the birth day as master means carrying out the ruler's command, following the operation of the four seasons, the dispositions of yin and yang, hardness and softness, and the ways of obstruction and passage within and without. Taking the day as master is like a person carrying out the ruler's command: among the Four Pillars, the day is honored as master. Following the four seasons means spring, summer, autumn, and winter. In early spring, Wood flourishes and Fire is born, because Wood can generate Fire. In early summer, Fire flourishes and Earth is born, because Fire can generate Earth. In early autumn, Metal flourishes and Water is born, because Metal can generate Water. In early winter, Water flourishes and Wood is born, because Water can generate Wood. Earth flourishes in the four concluding seasonal months, Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei. Thus the operation of the four seasons is followed.
As for hardness and softness, yin has both hardness and softness, and yang likewise. Possessing qi in the month's command is called hard; lacking qi is called soft. The way of obstruction and passage within and without concerns year, month, day, and hour, with the Three Origins matching the heavenly stems and earthly branches. Heavenly stems and earthly branches revealed outside the day or concealed within the stem concern obstruction, which blocks, and passage, which opens.
In a year's circuit there are twelve months, and in a day twelve double-hours. Hours accumulate to make a year; year and day are the masters of yin and yang. The year's proper court and the day's attendant court correspond to the ruler issuing commands and the minister obeying. The minister receives the ruler's command, extending and carrying it out in his person. Thus a minister carrying out the ruler's command produces distinctions of high and low standing, good and ill. One can deceive the day but not the month; the day can deceive the year but cannot deceive the month. Hence the day is called master. The day as master follows the four seasons and the constant order. Heaven and Earth's qi has four seasons, constantly applying the Five Phases' qi in spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Spring qi is warm, and Wood flourishes for seventy-two days; summer qi is blazing, and Fire flourishes for seventy-two days; autumn qi is cool, and Metal flourishes for seventy-two days; winter qi is cold, and Water flourishes for seventy-two days. In each of the four concluding seasonal months, Earth flourishes for eighteen days, totaling three hundred sixty days to complete the year's work.
The rhapsody says: Spread the year's work through the four seasons to form the year.
As for yin and yang, Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng, and Ren are yang stems; Yi, Ding, Ji, Gui, and Xin are yin stems. In inferring the Five Phases, yin and yang paired without imbalance between above and below form a noble configuration. One-sided yin or yang in the pillars concerns hardness and softness. For example, Wood uses Metal as Officer. If that Metal is born in autumn or carries Water and Fire, Metal is hard. If Metal is born in spring or summer and carries Bing and Ding, Wood is strong and Metal soft. When yin and yang are one-sided and depleted and do not form a pair, although Metal is Wood's Officer or Ghost, Wife and Wealth are not seen; benevolence and righteousness are instead both absent, and hardness and softness fail to aid one another. Marginal note: Wood is benevolence; Metal is righteousness. Thus one-sided yin or yang is called illness. This is what is meant by sympathetic or unsympathetic relation. Practitioners must first understand the dispositions of hardness and softness.
The rhapsody says: Qian and Kun recognize their shou and mu; Metal and Wood determine the abode of hardness and softness.
In examining a configuration, take the Heavenly Origin upon the day as master to determine misfortune, blessings, honor, and decline. The Heavenly Origin above the branch is called outer; what is concealed within the branch is inner. The heavenly stems and what is concealed in earthly branches as Human Origin may become Officer, blessing, or misfortune; only then can good and ill be determined. For a Jia day, Jiazi is Resource Seal, Jiayin is Established Emolument, Jiachen is Wealth Storehouse, Jiawu is Wife and Wealth, Jiashen is Officer and Ghost, and Jiaxu is Wealth and Officer. Birth in the eighth month gives a proper-qi Officer and a greatly noble configuration. Jia takes Xin and You Metal as Officer. If Ding Fire injures Xin Metal's Officer, Gui Water in the pillars restrains Ding Fire. Thus Gui Water is Jia's Resource Seal. Marginal note: The eighth-month Officer star greatly fears Mao and Ding.
One must further examine good and ill within and outside the Four Pillars. An original configuration possessing Wealth and Officer, with a cycle arriving at Wealth and Officer, is generally one of honor and advancement. Without Wealth and Officer originally, proceeding through them again does not bring advancement.
Advance and retreat tip against one another.
For example, Xin Metal takes Bing Fire as Officer. Birth in the nine summer periods turns toward Officer and indicates official advancement. Marginal note: The nine summer periods are the fourth, fifth, and sixth months, ninety days in all. Birth in the eighth month has retreating qi, so the Officer does not advance. If the branch spirit used in the pillars is flourishing and vigorous, honor and celebration follow; in Death, Extinction, Rest, or Imprisonment they do not.
The rhapsody says: What is approaching advances; what has completed its work retreats.
Movement and stillness oppose one another like weapons.
Stems are Heaven: they can move but cannot be still. Branches are Earth: they can be still but cannot move. Jia heads the stems, and Zi heads the earthly branches. They end at Hai and return to Zi, circulating without rest through the twelve branches. One moving and one still, one yin and one yang, are used in alternation until Guihai brings the end. They do not meet the Five Spirits' mutual control; the Three Births determine the configuration. Marginal note: The Five Spirits are Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth; the Three Births are Heavenly, Earthly, and Human Origins. They divide into the sixty patterned Jiazi. Later students must understand movement and stillness to know the essential formula.
Take firmness and passage, and the slowness or urgency of leaving and entering.
Firm means solid, and passage means openness. To know high and low standing, good and ill, first examine the birth day and whether the self's root is firm. Then examine whether Wealth and Officer in the Four Pillars suffer breaking or harm, and passage follows naturally. Leaving and entering mean leaving and entering in luck cycles, as yang men and yin women proceed forward out of Xu and into Hai. A man born on a Ren or Gui day with a cycle in Xu has Fire and Earth gathered there, an auspicious Wealth-and-Officer cycle. Leaving Xu for Hai enters Wealth and Officer's Death and Extinction. Although it reaches a domain of the self's flourishing, the cycle is ultimately inauspicious. What I control is Wife and Wealth; at Birth and Flourishing it brings many blessings and celebrations. All use the same Five Phases' substance and function and yin and yang. A branch that controls the self is Officer or Ghost's domain; a cycle controlled by the day stem is a place where Wealth gathers. Cycles all begin from the birth month. If natal Wealth and Officer do not occupy Rest or Defeat, a cycle reaching their domain brings rapid honor and promotion. If the natal configuration lacks Wealth and Officer, the day stem lacks qi, and the cycle proceeds into flourishing Wealth's domain, all efforts for Wealth retreat and disperse without completion. Even a cycle arriving at auspicious celebration instead turns blessings into misfortune: disaster comes rapidly, while any honor and advancement come slowly.
The rhapsody says: Coming and going, leaving and entering, offend an inauspicious direction.
Seek advance and return, dispersal and gathering, the great and the slight.
Ji means advancing, and fu means retreating: these concern advance and retreat in achievement and reputation. Dispersal means scattering, and gathering means accumulation: these concern possessions. Great means much, and slight means little. These are the omens of high and low standing, misfortune and blessings, received through the Five Phases at birth and the command of configuration and cycles, manifesting in greater or lesser number. Regarding the gathering and dispersal of possessions, if the Four Pillars have Wealth qi, the day stem also flourishes, and Defeating Wealth and Yang Blade are present, a cycle entering Wealth's domain makes Wealth abundant within the configuration and brings great advancement. If Wealth originally exists but is seized by Ghosts, the day master declines, and the cycle reaches flourishing Wealth, no blessings arise: Wealth is necessarily lost and the wife injured. Thus the roots are shallow and blessings scant.
The rhapsody says: A blessing star arriving while misfortune erupts reveals an inauspicious person.
The method of selecting a day has three essentials: stems are Heaven, branches are Earth, and what is concealed in the branches is Human Origin, divided among the Four Pillars. Marginal note: The three essentials are the Three Origins; the Four Pillars are year, month, day, and hour. The year is root, month seedling, day flower, and hour fruit. Select within the Four Pillars as well: the year represents ancestors, revealing the flourishing and decline of the generations and lineage; the month represents parents, revealing inherited support and the presence or absence of reputation and profit. The day is oneself, so infer from its stem. Examine all Eight Characters as the source of generation and control, selection and rejection, within and without. A weak stem seeks reliance on flourishing qi. Marginal note: Reliance means depending on something. Excess seeks an undertaking in what is deficient. With the day as master, examine the presence or absence of Officer, Wealth, and Resource in year and month, and high and low standing can be known. Thus the year is root and seedling: Wealth, Officer, and Resource Seal first present in year and month mean that root and seedling possess qi first. Afterward the inner images of day and hour flower and bear fruit.
The classic says: The root precedes the seedling, and fruit follows flowers. The day is oneself. Examine the Eight Characters for the patterns of auspicious and inauspicious spirits: select what is favored and discard what is avoided.
The rhapsody says: Keep what is favored and abandon what is disliked. A weak day stem seeks reliance on flourishing qi. A flourishing day stem instead dislikes flourishing qi, fearing that excess turns into a deficient configuration and thereby harms Wealth and the wife. This concerns Heavenly Origin and earthly branches: examine carefully the account of root, seedling, flower, and fruit. In the Four Pillars of year, month, day, and hour, high and low standing have their corresponding roots, seedlings, flowers, and fruits. If Wealth and Officer are originally present, a cycle reaching them brings blessings. If absent at birth, a cycle reaching them likewise brings no blessings. The root is born before the seedling, and flowers open before there is fruit. Observe the preceding signs to examine their source: the root precedes the seedling, and fruit follows flowers.
Marginal note: Only upon obtaining the Five Phases and four seasons can the ancestors be discussed; month and hour follow the same principle.
Further select within the Four Pillars. The year is the ancestral foundation, fields, dwellings, and palace of the generations and lineage. If it combines with year, month, and day to form wealth and honor, and the birth month and hour do not punish or harm the birth year, the ancestral foundation is glorious and does not decline. One also obtains ancestral reputation and can truly enjoy ancestral fields and dwellings, with enduring honor. The reverse is otherwise. The birth month is the parents' palace. If it contains flourishing Wealth and Officer stars without clash or breaking, and the birth day's Heavenly Origin occupies Birth or Nurture, the person inherits parental blessings. If the day stem occupies Death or Decline, even parental blessings do not provide lasting inherited support. The day as oneself means the birth day's Heavenly Origin is one's own person. The palace of one's own attainment must be examined in detail. See which palace the birth day's Heavenly Origin reaches, and what patterns occur in year, month, and hour. Nobleman, Emolument, Horse, and similar influences without breaking or harm make a good configuration. Encountering these in Birth and Flourishing without punishment or harm, favor and select them as blessings. If the natal spirit meets Death, Extinction, Rest, or Defeat, together with punishment, clash, breaking, and harm, dislike and discard it as misfortune. A declining day stem seeks reliance on flourishing qi. Ren and Gui with Si and Wu, for example, have a weak self because the birth day's Heavenly Origin reaches Death and Extinction. Ren and Gui take Bing and Ding as Wealth and Wu and Ji as Officer. Si and Wu Fire are at Assuming Office and generative predominance. Birth in summer's ninety days or the four concluding seasonal months adds Officer, Emolument, and Horse stars, bringing the celebration of blessed qi and abundant joy. Ren or Gui born in winter, though the day stem holds flourishing qi, ultimately does not obtain lifelong wealth. Wealth and Officer's qi fear the abundant Water, with Fire dead and Earth imprisoned. Such a person spends life obstructed and rushing about, unable to enjoy what is available. Even with flourishing, success and failure recur; Officer cannot succeed and Wealth cannot stay. A Gengyin day, for example, has weak and declining heavenly-stem qi.
The Three Allotments says: The configuration is much cut down; only upon meeting Ghosts does it receive the Officer's flourishing, and should possess the distinction of Wealth and Officer. Geng Metal takes Yi Wood as Wealth and Ding Fire as Officer. At Yin, Jia Wood is at Assuming Office and Bing Fire at Long Life, making a flourishing place for Officer. Judge the person's Metal share accordingly: spring and summer bring blessings. Those born in autumn or winter need to meet flourishing. Wealth and Officer's qi retreat and disperse, meeting Death, Extinction, Rest, and Imprisonment. Such people constantly undertake what is insufficient; household affairs are lonely and hard to manage. They necessarily harm wife and children. A declining day stem seeks reliance on flourishing qi; excess seeks an undertaking in what is deficient.
Stems of the same kind are siblings. Thus Yi takes Jia as elder brother and avoids heavy Geng, while Jia takes Yi as younger brother and fears much Xin. This is a discussion of injury. Much Xin injures Yi Wood, and much Geng injures Jia Wood, so the siblings suffer control. If useful within the Four Pillars, however, these influences bring official distinction: one principle cannot determine everything. Stems of the same kind as siblings means those matching and harmonizing with the birth day's Heavenly Origin. A Jia day takes Yi as younger brother; much Xin Metal in the pillars controlling Yi Wood means receiving no strength from sisters. An Yi day takes Jia as sibling; heavy Geng Metal in the Four Pillars controlling Jia Wood means receiving no strength from brothers throughout life. Infer the presence or absence of siblings by this example.
Marginal note: Yang stems are elder brothers, and yin branches are also taken as younger sisters. Siblings cannot be distinguished solely by Peers: judging configuration and cycles depends on understanding held in the mind.
What the stem controls is Wife and Wealth. Much Wealth and a flourishing stem bring fulfillment; a declining stem instead brings misfortune. Much Wealth and a flourishing stem mean enough strength to bear Wealth, producing blessings. A weak and declining stem cannot bear Wealth, so misfortune results. The rhapsody says: Much Wealth and a weak self make a poor person in a rich household.
Marginal note: Jiwei, Wuchen, Jiayin, Guiyou have flourishing Wealth and a strong self. Yiyou, Renwu, Renwu, Guimao have flourishing Wealth and a weak self.
Stem and branch of the same kind harm Wealth and injure the wife. Examples are Jiayin and Yimao. Another statement says that a configuration whose earthly branches share the same grouping loses Wealth and injures the wife. If the month's command also has flourishing qi, year and hour reveal no Wealth or Officer, and there is no pattern, poverty must reach the bones. In general, a flourishing stem is Wife and Wealth: Wealth is the star controlled by the birth day stem. If Wealth is abundant in the pillars and the day flourishes, every action fulfills one's wishes.
The classic says: Living peacefully in the world requires Wealth and configuration to possess qi. Conversely, much Wealth with a weak day stem necessarily brings misfortune through Wife and Wealth, because declining strength cannot bear heavy blessings.
An example of much Wealth and a flourishing self is Jiwei year, Wuchen month, Jiayin day, Guiyou hour. Jia takes Wu and Ji as Wealth. Year and month are established in Wealth Storehouse, and the birth year also obtains heavy Jiwei Earth: a Heavenly-Origin Nobleman carrying Wealth. Combining with the Jiayin Emolument day establishment, it has much Official Emolument and Wealth and a flourishing Officer, bringing much fulfillment.
Take another configuration: Yiyou year, Renwu month, Renwu day, Guimao hour. Ren and Gui take Bing and Ding as Wealth. The Wu month relies on flourishing Wealth, and Ding meets Fire's Emolument domain, while Ren and Gui's Womb Origin is in Extinction. Thus the self is weak and cannot bear heavy Wealth. Seeing Ren and Gui as Peers divides Wealth, so misfortune comes through the wife and ends in sudden death in prison.
The classic of the arts says: The six Ren arriving at Wu are called Emolument and Horse in the Same Domain. This is no empty claim. Mao in year, month, day, or hour controls the Ji Earth Officer within Zi and Wu, hence the saying that the six Ren days have Emolument and Horse in the Same Domain.
The rhapsody says: A blessing star arriving while misfortune erupts reveals an inauspicious person. Stem and branch of the same kind, such as Jiayin, though strong and healthy and free from other disability, often indicate lost Wealth and an injured wife. If year, month, day, and hour enter another pattern, or Wealth, Officer, and Resource stars occur in the Four Pillars, this is a distinguished configuration with authority. If the Three Origins contain no other pattern, the Four Pillars lack Wealth, Officer, and Resource, yet birth occurs in a month and day of flourishing qi with Turning Away from Emolument and Pursuing the Horse, the person must be poor to the bone, repeatedly harm wives, and have no lifelong support: an ordinary person.
The rhapsody says: Small gains and great losses may indicate the Robber of Wealth's region.
A man takes what controls his stem as descendants; a woman takes what her stem generates as children. Survival and loss follow these examples. Distinguish the hour's domain to infer poverty, low standing, wealth, and honor. Jia and Yi, for example, take Geng and Xin as children. A woman of Jia or Yi takes Bing and Ding as children. Examine the birth hour's domain, relative weight, Birth, and Flourishing to determine their number. If the Four Pillars contain a star that harms children, one may declare childlessness.
In discussing true and apparent Five Phases, Guiguzi says: A man takes what controls his stem as descendants. For example, a person born on one of the six Geng days in the Wu hour has many children. Geng takes Yi as Wealth; Yi Wood generates Fire, and Fire controlling Geng Metal is the children's star. Wu hour is Fire's domain and Ding Fire's Established Emolument, so there should be many children with noble and distinguished configurations. Birth in Xu, Hai, or Zi hours lies in Metal and Water's domain, where Fire is cut off, so children are few. They must be lonely, poor, and lowly children, or otherwise Buddhist or Daoist renunciants, children transferred to another household, or adopted offspring. A woman taking what her stem generates follows the same principle.
Determine the number of children by examining the birth hour: there will be no failure in ten thousand cases. See which palace the birth hour occupies and infer where the children's star falls. In Long Life, Bathing, Cap and Belt, Assuming Office, or Imperial Flourishing, many descendants are certain, and the children born should be beautiful, rich, and distinguished. In Decline, Illness, Death, Tomb, Extinction, qi-less Womb or Nurture, or domains of clash and punishment, few children are certain, and those born should be lonely, suffering, poor, and lowly.
The Three Allotments says: Geng arriving in Kan's position with the hour declining leaves descendants desolate. Jia reaching Li's palace as autumn descends fills one's sight with children and grandchildren. This is what it means.
Marginal note: For a man taking what controls the stem as descendants, the song gives: Jia man, Xin; Yi man, Geng; Bing, Gui; Ding, Ren; Ren, Ji bring passage. Gui, Wu; Wu and Ji, Yi and Jia are excellent; Geng, Ding; Xin, Bing bring glorious descendants. For a woman taking what her stem generates as children, the song says: Jia generates Bing and Yi generates Ding; Bing produces Wu and Ding produces Ji; Ji generates Xin and Wu generates Geng; Geng with Ren and Xin with Gui should provide descendants; Ren with Jia and Gui with Yi generate one another most prosperously.
The Song for Instructing the Unlearned says: Few know the true and apparent Five Phases; knowing them must disclose Heaven's workings. The common view makes Jiazi Metal in the Sea, yet before Lou Jing the theory of Metal in the sea was unknown. The song's true and apparent Five Phases mean Nayin, the received tones, which are Heaven and Earth's Great Expansion numbers. First take the Great Expansion's forty-nine. Then subtract in sequence the numbers Jia, Ji, Zi, and Wu: nine; Yi, Geng, Chou, and Wei: eight; Bing, Xin, Yin, and Shen: seven; Ding, Ren, Mao, and You: six; Wu, Gui, Chen, and Xu: five; Si and Hai: four. If subtraction does not exhaust the total, subtract further according to the Five Phases' numbers: Water one, Fire two, Wood three, Metal four, Earth five. Use mutual generation to obtain Nayin. For generation, remainder one generates Wood, two generates Earth, three generates Fire, four generates Water, and five generates Metal. For the four characters Jiazi and Yichou, stems and branches subtract thirty-four from forty-nine, leaving fifteen. Subtract ten as two fives, leaving five, which belongs to Earth and generates Metal: thus Jiazi and Yichou are Metal. For Bingyin and Dingmao, stems and branches subtract twenty-six, leaving twenty-three. Subtract twenty as four fives, leaving three, which belongs to Wood and generates Fire: thus Bingyin and Dingmao are Fire. Follow this for the rest. How could there literally be Metal in the sea or Fire in a furnace? Unworthy people, without an enlightened teacher, repeat roadside hearsay, wrongly discuss ancient teaching, and mislead later people. How could that accord with principle? Jiazi and Yichou Metal are compared to Metal in the Sea because Zi and Chou lie near the northern domain where Water flourishes. Bingyin and Dingmao Fire are compared to Fire in the Furnace because Yin and Mao lie near the eastern region that generates Fire. Before Master Lou Jing of the Han there were no such expressions. Ziping's method does not use Womb Origin, minor cycles, or Nayin. It takes only the birth day's Heavenly Origin as master, matching the Eight Characters' stems and branches and the Human Origin concealed within the branches. Whether these become Wealth, Officer, misfortune, or blessing at birth, examine them accordingly. High and low standing, gains and losses, flourishing and decline, wisdom and folly can then be known. The rhapsody says: Recognize its Way, and even a plain explanation seems inspired; only then is the depth of the mystery known.
The song says: Few know true and apparent Five Phases. First lay out the Great Expansion's four and nine. Subtract nine for Jia, Ji, Zi, and Wu; infer eight for Chou, Wei, Yi, and Geng. Bing, Xin, Monkey, and Tiger all subtract seven; Mao, You, Ding, and Ren follow six. Chen, Xu, Wu, and Gui all subtract five; Si and Hai subtract four. Then pursue subtraction by fives; what remains generates its phase, without doubt. Water one, Fire two, Wood three; Metal four, Earth five are most subtle. These are Qian and Kun's true Jiazi: knowing them must disclose Heaven's workings. Another song says: The six decades of Jiazi are subtle and mysterious. Seven times seven is drawn off from Earth and Heaven. Subtract fives and seek the remainder's principle of generation. How many receive this Nayin teaching? Direct Killings of Heaven and Earth: all things are nurtured by Heaven and Earth and moved by the four seasons. Spring enriches all things, which flourish as though returning home. The return and storage of living things never depart from Earth. Earth is Kun and Gen.
The Changes says: Gen is the beginning of all things, and Kun their end. Jia heads Heaven; Zi heads Earth. The two powers circulate and one yang returns, so Jiazi through Renshen gives nine numbers. Jia and Ji combine, and Zi and Wu clash, hence Jia, Ji, Zi, and Wu are nine. Yichou through Renshen gives eight; Yi and Geng combine, and Chou and Wei clash, hence Yi, Geng, Chou, and Wei are eight. Bingyin through Renshen gives seven; Bing and Xin combine, and Yin and Shen clash, hence Bing, Xin, Yin, and Shen are seven. Dingmao through Renshen gives six; Ding and Ren combine, and Mao and You directly clash, hence Ding, Ren, Mao, and You are six. Wuchen through Renshen gives five; Wu and Gui combine, and Chen and Xu directly clash, hence Wu, Gui, Chen, and Xu are five. Jisi through Renshen gives four; Si and Hai clash, so Si and Hai alone receive four.
The rhapsody says: In brief it fixes one thread; investigated deeply, it turns into myriad strands.
Those who take the year as master would then know countless millions of people with identical wealth and honor. A Jiazi birth year may serve as a warning concerning one's natal configuration and avoided days. Those who discuss mysterious configurations in the world all use ancient methods, often making the year master, which would imply countless millions alike. Discussing minor cycles and Nayin leaves matters like spreading Water with nowhere to return: identical wealth and honor is a mistaken claim. Thus Ziping's method takes only the birth day's origin as master, with the branch beneath the day as wife. The birth year is foundation and root, and also the palace of ancestral fields and dwellings. A Jiazi birth makes that the natal Grand Year's honored spirit. Avoid birth day stem and branch clashing with it, joining battle, controlling, or harming it. With natal master and self in discord, one is born unable to rely on ancestral property, with ruined kinship and little support. If birth month and hour meet the natal stems and branches to enter a configuration, or obtain noble Wealth-and-Officer qi, life should possess ancestral fields and dwellings, an abundant foundation, and a fine reputation.
Take the month as siblings. For example, a Fire configuration born in You, Xu, Hai, or Zi month is judged to receive no strength from siblings. The month is siblings' palace; a man takes those of the same kind and harmonious qi as siblings' stars. On one of the six Bing days, Ding Fire is younger brother or sister; on one of the six Ding days, Bing Fire is elder brother or sister. In You, Xu, Hai, or Zi month, siblings give no strength because Fire dies at You, enters Tomb at Xu, has its qi cut off at Hai, and is in Womb at Zi. Infer the rest accordingly.
Marginal note: Only a flourishing and vigorous Five-Phase domain permits judging that siblings provide strength, wealth, or honor.
Take the day as wife. A place of clash, punishment, control, or Killings warrants a judgment of injury to wives and concubines. The birth day's branch is their palace. Nothing controlling it is auspicious. In Emptiness, punishment, control, or harm, wives and concubines are injured; otherwise marriage is repeated. Lighter injury indicates illness.
Marginal note: Bingwu, Wuwu, and Renzi days, when this is offended, also indicate a wife dying by hanging or being killed.
None of these discussions concerns what people themselves bring about: they result from creative yin and yang. Practitioners who overturn the world, ignorant of this principle, secretly confuse common custom. It cannot be conveyed in words alone; investigate its hidden subtlety. The preceding account takes the birth year as ancestors, the palace of parents, generations, lineage, flourishing, and decline. Greatly avoid influences in the Four Pillars that punish, clash with, break, or harm the birth year: they should indicate ancestors ruining the foundation and inherited support on which one cannot rely. The birth month is siblings' palace; those of like and harmonious kind are their stars. In months of Death, Extinction, Tomb, or Womb, siblings give no strength. The day branch is wives and concubines' palace: Emptiness, punishment, control, and harm indicate injury to them. The hour is the children's star. That star arriving in Death, Tomb, or Extinction warrants judging that children are few.
The rhapsody says: Discussing family, examine their Death and Extinction.
The Three Allotments says: Observe the nine kin groups within the Four Pillars; distinguish the six relations among the Three Origins. Parents and ancestors provide support; siblings are like hands and feet; wife and children like heart and belly. Who lacks beloved family? Yet the number, survival, loss, high and low standing, glory and decline, weakness and flourishing of the six relations cannot be made by people. They are truly Heaven and Earth's transformation, brought about by yin and yang, beyond even spirits and ghosts to alter.
An old saying holds that worthy and accomplished scholars since antiquity broadly mastered refined classics, exhausted principle, and set out nature, deeply understanding the beginning of creation and all the Five Phases. Our Master said: Without knowing Heaven's allotment, one cannot be an exemplary person. Today's unworthy practitioners cannot adapt through change or illuminate the hidden principles of yin and yang's transformation. A hair's breadth of error becomes a thousand li of mistaken conclusion. This is what is meant. The path of discerning and communicating through the Five Phases has many gates of selection and use. Thus words alone cannot transmit it: investigate its hidden subtlety.
Marginal note: If year, month, day, and hour all reveal Wealth, Officer, and Resource Seal stars, ancestors and parents must be honored and distinguished, the wife virtuous, and children worthy.
Translator's note: The source's numbers, Nayin assignments and worked calculations, repeated explanations, family-star songs, marginal notes, and historical attributions are retained. Its irregular shou-mu wording, the claim that a flourishing stem is Wife and Wealth, Ji Earth within Zi and Wu, and "four and nine" beside the earlier forty-nine are not silently repaired. The quoted Changes attributions and the rejection of Nayin are the source's own, not independent historical verification. Its categorical health, lifespan, kinship, disability, death, moral, and gender judgments remain historical astrological assertions.
Annotated Chapter on Continuing Goodness
People receive Heaven and Earth, and their allotments belong to yin and yang. Born beneath Heaven's covering and upon Earth's support, they are wholly within the Five Phases. People receive the numbers of the two and the five, just as Heaven and Earth give things form. Possessing the spiritual excellence of all things, people are formed from Heaven and Earth's correct qi. Their yin, yang, and Five Phases never depart from Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.
Marginal note: Heart governs Fire, lungs Metal, liver Wood, spleen Earth, and kidneys Water. Judgments of illness should follow mutual control among the Five Phases.
To know high and low standing, first observe the month's command as governing outline.
The month's command is the Eight Characters' governing framework. Know the depth of the seasonal qi to understand disaster. In Yin, for example, Gen Earth's residual qi occupies seven and a half days, lodged Bing Fire another seven and a half, and Jia Wood's proper portion fifteen. Without distinguishing these three, one cannot know what is used for misfortune or blessing. Direct Officer, Direct Resource, and Food Spirit are auspicious; Hurting Officer and Indirect Resource inauspicious. Song explanation: The governing outline is the month's command. First observe seasonal depth and good or ill. Officer, Resource, and Wealth spirits avoid movement, clash, and punishment. An auspicious encounter in a declining cycle is judged auspicious; an inauspicious one is assessed accordingly. The spirit belonging to the seasonal qi at birth determines high and low standing, poverty and wealth.
Marginal note: The month's command is like a minister carrying out the ruler's order, governing a month's discipline. Generation and killing both come from it, hence the name governing outline.
Next judge good and ill, using the day stem alone as master and root. The Three Origins must form a pattern; the Four Pillars welcome Wealth and Officer.
Heavenly stems are Heavenly Origin, earthly branches Earthly Origin, and what is concealed within branches Human Origin. Year, month, day, and hour are the Four Pillars. Match the birth day's stem with the Four Pillars and Three Origins to form a pattern, welcoming Wealth and Officer especially.
The useful spirit must not be injured; the day master most needs established flourishing.
Officer in the month's command must not be injured, Wealth must not be robbed, and Resource must not be broken. No useful spirit in the pillars may be harmed. The day stem must also be strong enough to bear Wealth and Officer. Song explanation: Take the day stem alone as master, then examine Resource Seal, Wealth, and Officer. Jiazi born in You month requires detailed examination of Official Emolument. Yin, Wu, and Xu dislike Bing and Ding, and also resent Peer, Robber, and Hurting Officer. Broken Resource instead brings lowliness and injury; without robbery, a Wealth cycle is fragrant. Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei leave ancestral grain, while Wu and Ji enter the golden examination list. Another verse: To ask what to take from the Three Origins, consider Heaven's timing, Earth's advantage, and human harmony. For a Jiazi day, follow this example without error: Jia is the heavenly stem; earth and Gui as human bring smiles. Resource Seal and true Officer deserve congratulations. With these unharmed, the self attracts heavenly fragrance and sits in the high court. Select Direct Officer as the example for use, disliking robbery, breaking, and Hurting Officer. One Direct Wealth is excellent; much Wealth seated on Killings brings calamity. Peer cycles lose flourishing; a man encountering this displays ability and goodness. A declining self in a Wealth cycle cannot withstand misfortune; a vigorous self brings a prosperous household and flourishing blessings.
Marginal note: Officer is an upright, exemplary person and thus fears injury. Jia using Xin as Officer, for example, avoids Ding Fire injuring it.
The year injuring the day stem means discord between root and master.
If the day stem is Jia or Yi and the year shows controlling Geng or Xin, natal root and master disagree, meaning father and son do not accord. Seven Killings in the year controlling the day leave the ancestors powerless and bring transfer to another household. If Returning Emolument meets Wealth within day, month, and hour, early death follows. Flourishing Killings met in a cycle bring misfortune; Resource generation brings many auspicious blessings. Flourishing Peer cycles and Tomb suggest death, leaving only a single quilt and paper bed-curtains. The source gives pronunciation glosses for the words for death and quilt.
Marginal note: Day stem is master; year is ancestral foundation; month is parents and siblings; day branch is wife; hour is children.
In year, month, and hour, greatly fear a mixture of Officer and Killings.
An Officer star together with Seven Killings in year, month, or hour is inauspicious. Match them carefully before judging, so misfortune and blessings have a basis. Song explanation: Wealth, Officer, Resource, and Food all depend on the birth month for use. Seeing Wealth, judge Wealth; meeting Officer, discuss Officer; meeting Resource, discuss Resource. Consider the qi's depth. Compare Death, Extinction, Defeat, and Decline with birth year, month, and cycles. Much distinction and many foundations bring leaving the lineage to seek distinction.
Marginal note: Restrained Killings become Officer and goodness; unrestrained, they are Seven Killings and mixture. If Officer is present, avoid them.
Select the use from the birth month and investigate its depth. Manifestation lies in day and hour: examine strength and weakness in detail.
The useful influence is what the month's command conceals. Jia Wood born in the eleventh month, the month establishing Zi, takes Gui Water concealed in Zi as useful spirit. Gui is Jia's mother and avoids Earth's control. Day and hour must assist it; flourishing, vigorous qi and a solid substance suffice. Infer the others accordingly.
The Officer star's proper qi avoids punishment and clash.
The Song of Jade says: Do not mix the Officer star's proper qi, and do not encounter much Wealth, Hurt, or Food. An Yimao day seeing a Gengchen hour meets a clash in the Xu month. Jia born in Si, You, or Chou month should not meet a Wu-and-Wei Fire configuration. If a flourishing Officer sees Shen, Resource in the hour, when seen, is auspicious for use.
Marginal note: Yi born in the seventh month takes Geng Metal as Direct Officer, avoiding Yin and Shen's punishment and clash. A proper-qi Officer star has no Killings or Hurt mixed in.
Indirect Wealth in the hour fears siblings.
Jia seeing a Wuchen hour has Indirect Wealth. Seeing Yi as Peer or Robber in the domain makes the configuration inauspicious.
Marginal note: This discusses the Indirect Wealth in the Hour pattern.
Generating qi as Resource Seal benefits from Officer cycles and fears Wealth's domain.
Jia and Yi seeing Hai or Zi month have Resource, and welcome Geng, Xin, Shen, and You cycles for Wealth to arise. Wu, Ji, Chen, and Xu cycles are inauspicious. Song explanation: Year, month, and hour generating the day are Resource Seal sustaining the self. Officer-and-Resource cycles raise pearls; flourishing Wealth cycles break Resource. Flourishing Resource without restraint brings lonely obstruction. Balanced Officer and Resource surpass the multitude. Flourishing in the south breaks Resource and sends the life into the clouds; Officer cycles suggest a noble configuration.
Marginal note: Resource must use Officer. Without Officer to govern it, is its use not empty and wasted?
Seven Killings and Indirect Officer welcome restraint, but not excessive restraint.
A Ren day seeing Wu as Seven Killings needs Jia Wood to restrain it for good fortune and distinction. Much Jia Wood is excessive, like a petty person controlled by an exemplary person: excess must cause rebellion. Song explanation: Without restraint it is Seven Killings; restrained Seven Killings are Indirect Officer. Restraint together with Killings is good, and one restraint to one subjugation is best. Excessive restraint brings poverty and stupidity, welcoming Seven Killings' domain. A flourishing self without restraint is strong in its flourishing and needs cycles toward Killings.
Marginal note: Unrestrained Seven Killings bring misfortune; restrained, they become pure, namely Indirect Officer combining with the day.
Hurting Officer proceeding again through an Officer cycle brings unforeseen disaster. Yang Blade clashing or combining with the annual sovereign brings sudden misfortune.
For a Jia day, Mao is Yang Blade. You Metal clashes with it and Xu combines with it, bringing misfortune. If the natal Four Pillars already have Yang Blade, its sudden opposition, control, and breaking of the annual Grand Year, or a threefold combination inviting harm to the annual sovereign, brings abrupt calamity. In an Yisi year, a Jia day with Yihai in the Four Pillars directly clashes, while Si, You, and Chou may also bring misfortune. Song explanation: Discuss carefully Hurting Officer's favor and avoidance; what is avoided must not join the arriving Officer. Annual sovereign, month's establishment, and day branch suspect one another, producing especially severe punishment and harm. Like enemies meeting, anger leads to fighting that is hard to turn back. Jiazi day with Mao in the hour is counted as Yang Blade's effect. If Xinyou year and cycle meet, Ding breaks Xin and Mao is useless. A Bing day born in Jiazi hour, in a year meeting Cheng and Ji, is alike. Jia can break Wu, and Wu and Zi clash; restraint instead turns it auspicious for use.
Marginal note: A useful Hurting Officer in the month's command proceeding through a Hurting Officer cycle is like two tigers contending or enemies meeting, indicating ill fortune. Yang Blade combining with the annual sovereign is the same.
Riches and honor must come from flourishing Wealth generating Officer.
The classic says: Much Wealth generating Officer requires a strong self. Much Wealth steals qi, making one's own self yielding. Jia and Yi take Geng and Xin as Officer, and Wu and Ji as Wealth. With the heavenly stems' qi in Birth and Flourishing, Earth generates Metal, Wood's Officer, indicating poverty first and wealth later. This is flourishing Wealth generating Officer. Flourishing Wealth should be concealed; the day master must also be in Birth and Flourishing to bear the arriving Officer. A weak self cannot bear it. Song explanation: Riches and honor must come from flourishing Wealth generating Officer. A strong self with accumulated Wealth has blessings like a mountain; repeated exposure of Wealth and the steward brings drifting. If the master is weak and cannot generate, it is necessarily a poor man in a rich household.
Premature death or poverty must come from a declining self encountering Ghosts.
The classic says: Flourishing turns Killings into authority; decline turns Officer into Ghost. Jia or Yi born with Wu or Hai as bodily calamity loses Heaven's timing. Geng, Xin, Shen, or You arriving to control it brings early death, poverty, or low standing. Jia with Geng Metal, flourishing in autumn while the self declines: how can blessings be claimed? Song explanation: Jia with Geng Metal flourishing in autumn has a declining self that finds restraint hard to bear. Yin and Mao in the hour call for guarding against early death. Who knows that Wei is cut off and Metal flourishes? Without illness, misfortune is heavy; lonely suffering and early advancement must end in premature death. Blade and Food need Resource: examine misfortune in detail, along with distinguished, wealthy commoners and accomplished scholars.
The six Ren born at Wu are called Emolument and Horse in the Same Domain.
Ren takes Ding as Wealth-Horse and Ji as Emolument-Officer. Ding and Ji both have Emolument at Wu, hence the name. This pattern welcomes autumn birth, with Geng and Xin Metal restraining Jia and Yi so no harm occurs. Flourishing Yin and Mao bring literary refinement without clarity. Winter birth gives the Dark Warrior authority, with Fire Wealth disputed. Spring birth has Jia and Yi flourishing; Yin or Mao hour gathers inauspicious Killings. The pattern also fears Wealth and Officer exposed and injured by years and cycles. Song explanation: A Ren day born at Wu, with Wu hour pairing Si's Wealth and Officer, requires examining Yin, Wu, and Xu. It most welcomes punishment, clash, and flourishing Officer and Killings, but fears Wealth and Officer exposed and Kui-Hurt in years and cycles bringing calamity. Direct Officer is Emolument, and Horse is Wealth's domain; Wu month, hour, and cycle are alike.
A Gui day born toward Si's palace has Both Wealth and Officer Excellent.
Gui takes Wu as Officer and Bing as Wealth; Bing and Wu have Emolument at Si. Thus both are excellent. The Four Pillars should not contain a Water configuration, yet Guichou hour is not inauspicious. Why? Wu Earth within Si and Gui Water's residual qi within Chou are the Wealth-Horse. This pattern most avoids Officer concealed and Killings exposed in years and cycles, which reduce blessings and bring hardship. Song explanation: A Gui day born at Si has what Wealth-and-Officer blessings and emolument? Bing and Wu concealed in Si are most exceptional: Bing is Wealth spirit and Wu Officer. Month, hour, and cycle similarly bring reverse clash and punishment, with poverty and much doubt. Years and cycles clearly revealing Officer and Killings merely reduce blessings and bring hardship.
Much Wealth and a weak self make a poor person in a rich household.
For example, Jiashen year, Renshen month, Bingshen day, Xinmao hour have Geng Metal in Shen, making much Wealth. Ren Water also appears as Seven Killings restraining the day master, making the self extremely weak. This is the configuration of a poor son in a rich household. Song explanation: Wealth spirit repeated two or three times leaves the self declining and blessings too shallow to bear. First riches accumulate pearls and jewels, then the household breaks like an echo. If Resource assists the day master, wealth and honor first appear. Somewhat poor, with Direct Wealth riding flourishing, one relies on the wife's honor, while undertaking affairs amid unsettled fascination with flowers.
Marginal note: A weak self with much Wealth especially welcomes Peers to divide it; otherwise it harms life.
Turning Killings into authority must make a noble guest from a poor household.
In general, Seven Killings turn into Officer. Bing avoids Ren as Killings, but Si and Wu Wealth instead rely on Earth's force, so Ren Water cannot harm it. Killings become Officer, bringing advancement from a humble white house. With Earth in the Four Pillars, Bing meeting Ren hour becomes distinction of the highest rank. Song explanation: A Gui day advancing to Guichou has the two heavenly-stem qi connected. Though meeting Killings, the self is firm; Zi and Chou's yu wording makes Killings shallow. Wei and the year's stem and branch Killings, with self and Killings balanced, are also disliked. Such wealth and honor are complete together, glorifying ancestors, spreading reputation, and securing blessings and emolument. Another verse: Meeting Killings, especially examine Resource. Resource Seal transforms Killings into authority. Much Killings should use Food's restraint; later wealth must pass through obstruction. A Jia day seeing Gengshen Killings welcomes flourishing Wood and eastern movement. Bing and Ding with Yin and Wu make Fire dry; excessive restraint of Geng instead brings low standing.
High examination success comes when the Officer star arrives in an unbroken palace.
A proper-qi Officer star, without Hurting Officer or mixed Killings in the Four Pillars, proceeding through a flourishing cycle must bring examination success in youth. Song explanation: A Bing day generating Officer, in Chou month, has Wealth and Officer Returning to Emolument and a renowned name. Storehouse contents welcome an opening clash, and punishment or clash outside the pillars is welcome. The configuration becomes noble through clash, passing examinations and reaching the office of associate administrator. If punishment or clash is already within the pillars, meeting it again in cycles is inauspicious.
Marginal note: Jia born in You month has a proper-qi Officer star; meeting Ding gives Hurting Officer.
Offering grain to obtain a registered name comes when Wealth Storehouse occupies Birth and Flourishing.
This is the Tomb and Storehouse pattern. A Tomb or Storehouse of Wealth or Officer needs something to open it. Such people rarely rise in youth. The classic says: Youthful advancement is difficult for one within a Storehouse. One only fears something pressing it down. A flourishing Wealth cycle or an opened Storehouse gives the saying about offering grain to obtain a name. Song explanation: A Dingsi day paired with Jichou's outline and Xinchou hour has complete Wealth. Yimao in the year assists a firm self, and Si Fire emerges to refine. Who expected much Wealth to return to Storehouse, with Earth and Metal's two luminaries joining affinity? Clearly one offers grain and goes to court; for the scholar, Yi Wood is Wealth. Another verse: Geng born in Wei month has Yi Wood in Wei as Wealth. The Wealth star in Storehouse requires a clash to open: no leap at Hongmen, a bright cry. A Shen day with Wuchen has heavy Earth; a clash brings excellent wealth and honor. Wealth brings riches and distinction arrayed in vermilion; cash strings rot and grain grows old in grandeur.
Marginal note: With qi it is a Storehouse, opened for use. Without qi it is a Tomb, useless even if opened.
Excessive official nobility must topple when Wealth reaches flourishing.
Jia and Yi using Geng, Xin, Shen, and You as Officer, with Si, You, and Chou as well, have numerous Officer stars. Without restraint in the Four Pillars, further flourishing Officer cycles make creation excessive and bring untold misfortune. Song explanation: Excessively flourishing Officer in the pillars instead makes a strong self's blessings exceptional. Only discuss this with a flourishing master and no clash. A Wealth-domain cycle enriches the household. A declining self painfully entering Wealth's region turns Officer into Ghost and must topple in danger. If Resource Seal welcomes reliance on Wealth, the father dies early and distinction does not last.
Marginal note: One residing at the utmost height of distinction, if not upright, loses one's life and household.
If Resource Seal is injured, any glory may not last.
Resource Seal is the source of generating qi and must not be injured. Injury comes from seeing Wealth and diminishes blessings: even an emolument-bearing position soon fails. This is Greed for Wealth Ruining Resource. Repeated Wealth gives little cause for boasting. Song explanation: The six Jia born in Gui's domain most dislike invasion by Wu and Ji. If Wealth in the pillars is met outside in a cycle, retreat into concealment to avoid disaster and punishment. A cycle without Wealth is excellent; talent in the pillars surpasses the multitude. Broad reading of poetry and books brings much knowledge and a high name on the tiger examination list.
Marginal note: Resource is like the court's credential of authority. When its holder sees Wealth and covets it, official duty is lost.
Officer and Resource unharmed make material for the halls of state.
Officer and Resource here are those concealed in Mixed Qi. Guiguzi says: Gang contains Yi, and Kui conceals Xin. These are Mixed-Qi Resource Seal, Wealth, and Officer, whose Storehouse occupants do not rise in youth. For example, Bingyin, Xinchou, Jiachen, Bingyin form a fine life-extending configuration. Jia uses Xin as Officer, Ji Earth as Wealth, and Gui Water as Resource. The governing outline has Gui Water's residual qi, Xin Metal's Tomb and Storehouse, and flourishing Ji Earth, thus obtaining distinction with added enfeoffment. This pattern avoids Food Spirit injuring Resource; Hurt or Food is inauspicious. Song explanation: Meeting Resource is best, and meeting Officer or Killings is auspicious. Distinguish Officer and Killings and do not make them too hard; wealth, honor, and a name on the golden list follow. Most avoided is Wealth breaking Resource; Hurt and Food breaking Officer are also disliked. With the cycle proceeding correctly, one eats imperial grain; there can also be household ruin and injury.
Without Officer or Resource, a pattern still makes one useful to the court.
Proper Qi and Mixed Qi rely on Wealth, Officer, and Resource Seal for noble patterns and configurations of wealth and honor. Yet when another pattern forms, complete absence of Wealth and Officer is needed for wealth and honor. Jiwei, Renshen, Wuzi, Gengshen is the configuration of Chief Minister Xie of the Left, exclusively the Food Combining with Emolument pattern. The Four Pillars contain no Wealth, Officer, or Resource Seal: Wu uses Yi as Officer, Gui as Wealth, and Ding as Resource, none present. Wu takes Gengshen as Food, while Wu's Emolument at Si forms a Six Combination with Shen, giving the named pattern. Song explanation: Without Officer or Resource, examine the exceptional pattern: Ren Riding the Back, Flying or Remotely Inviting Si, Facing the Sun, reverse-clash examples, Food, Hurt, and Mixed Qi; Kuigang, Day Emolument in the Hour, Metal Spirit, Rat Nobility, and Well-Rail. If unbroken, transformation and generation bring distinction.
Marginal note: Without Officer or Resource, all these are judged as external patterns. Seeing Officer must break the configuration.
A name on the golden examination list requires a flourishing self meeting Officer. Assisting a sage ruler comes from flourishing nobility, clashing with Officer, and meeting combination.
A flourishing self meeting a proper-qi Officer star and proceeding through a flourishing cycle must pass the examinations. Flying Emolument and Horse in the Four Pillars, clashing with Officer and combining with Emolument, bring a minister's utmost distinction. Only four days clash with Officer: Gengzi, Renzi, Xinhai, and Guihai; they fear clash. Song explanation: Examine the principle with a strong day master and an Officer possessing qi in season. Wealth and Resource assisting the foundation, without breaking, bring success in the literary field. Do not meet Hurt, Food, or Robber of Wealth. Wealth and Officer's flourishing qi bring authority, first place on the tiger list, the Phoenix Pool, black hat, golden cap, and rosy ceremonial robe. Another verse: Hai clashes with Si, the store of Bing as Official Emolument. A Bing-and-Ding configuration already brings a chen-pronounced calamity; Bing in return links with Chen's binding. Guihai finds Bing and Xu concealed in Si, making Official Emolument lofty. Without meeting Yin, Wu, and Ji's domains, one may expect a purple robe and ministerial position. Another discussion: If one's Heavenly Origin is weak, even obtaining an Officer star gives glory that does not last.
Song explanation: Examine carefully what is neither pattern nor configuration: breaking and injury to the spirit are the cause. A weak self with many Officers brings distinction first and poverty later, exhausting body and mind. Such a self in office finds advancement difficult; cycles of flourishing self and Wealth bring honor. One or two weak Officers cause no resentment; balance with the day makes a noble configuration.
Marginal note: Breaking and injury to the spirit mean failure to form a pattern. A weak self in office cannot bear its duties.
Even a petty person's configuration has a proper-qi Officer star.
Resource Seal fears Wealth qi ruining it; Officer fears Hurting Officer and must fail when it appears. Though the Four Pillars possess Wealth, Officer, and Resource Seal, their injury prevents a true name and instead brings ferocity and evil. Is this not a petty person?
Marginal note: This means a proper-qi Officer star having its refined qi seized by evil Killings.
Even an exemplary person's pattern includes Seven Killings and Yang Blade.
Restrained Seven Killings become Officer; Yang Blade without clash is exceedingly noble. Indirect Officer rises from a humble white house, and Yang Blade rises from frontier garrisons, making generals and chief ministers. Are these not exemplary people? Blade and Killings govern the authority to execute. With the Killings star restrained, their way brings distinction. Song explanation: A petty person may have Direct Officer and Direct Resource amid injury, control, punishment, and clash; much evil and little good turn them into Killings. Much good and little evil meeting make the Killings star welcome Blade and Seven together. Restraining Killings with a strong self makes noble use.
A fondness for killing must involve Yang Blade offending Indirect Officer.
Yang Blade in Heaven is the Purple-Dark Star, exclusively carrying out executions; on Earth it is Yang Blade Killing. Indirect Officer is Seven Killings' hidden Ghost. Yang Blade also offending Seven Killings often makes a person fierce. An auspicious Nobleman encounter prevents great evil. Song explanation: Yang Blade meeting Seven Killings gives a poisonous heart that harms the people. Wealth and honor are in vain, without lasting greatness, yet with a loud and imposing manner. A Jia day sees Geng as Killings and Mao clearly as Blade. Auspicious Resource makes seeking reputation favorable; connected Killings also require examining Blade.
Marginal note: Seven Killings and Yang Blade with Resource must bring authority and distinction. With evil in conquest, one must instead descend into banditry.
Vegetarian food and a compassionate heart come when Resource Seal encounters Heavenly Virtue.
A configuration originally afflicted by inauspicious spirits and evil Killings, if rescued by Heavenly and Monthly Virtue, cannot have its ill fortune run rampant. Resource Seal is itself a kindly spirit; with the Two Virtues' assistance it brings compassion and vegetarian fasting. Heavenly and Monthly Virtue resolve evil and allow goodness. Song explanation: Repeated flourishing Resource with Heavenly and Monthly Virtue aiding good preserves benevolence, righteousness, ritual propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. One delights in goodness, aids people, and benefits things. Wealth and honor surpass others; advancement comes with a kindly heart. One reveres the Dao and Buddha, finishing what one begins and thinking three times before acting. Flourishing Wealth instead makes the person changeable.
Few illnesses throughout life come from a strong day master.
A day master flourishing of itself relies on flourishing Killings. The natal master has obtained its place and relies on a flourishing domain. The person avoids deep-seated illness, retains firm teeth and black hair in old age, and has a strong body and bones. Heavenly Origin meeting flourishing follows the self and distances harm: a cheerful configuration free of anxiety and content with Heaven.
Marginal note: A strong day master means the Five Phases occupy Assuming Office or Imperial Flourishing.
A peaceful lifetime comes when Wealth and configuration possess qi.
Wealth here is Wife and Wealth, the Horse. Flourishing Wealth with qi assists me while my self rides flourishing, so I must enjoy and use Wealth, obtaining peaceful delight. Jia born in Chen, Xu, Chou, or Wei's domain is always treated as Wealth possessing qi. Song explanation: Yin and Mao especially dislike a domain of battle and control. A crane-like lifespan has few calamities, and blessings rise like swelling seas. Jia born in Chen, Xu, Chou, or Wei has peaceful, prosperous Wealth and configuration. Flourishing Wealth, Officer, and Resource Seal are good; only a broad and generous heart can bring a little good fortune.
Marginal note: This means the Five Phases obtaining flourishing Wealth's domain. Without Robber, judge it likewise.
Freedom from official punishment comes with Resource Seal and Heavenly Virtue sharing the Officer's place.
The Five Phases obtaining Heaven's timing are called seasonally flourishing. Resource Seal supporting the self, together with Heavenly and Monthly Virtue, warrants judging lifelong freedom from official punishment. Kindness turns ill fortune into good.
Marginal note: Discussing Resource together with Heavenly and Monthly Virtue indicates a kindly person.
Little joy and much sorrow result from the day master's own weakness.
A day master lacking qi and falling into Decline also loses Heavenly Origin's qi, occupying Ghost and Defeat's domain. It often places one beneath servants, with Solitude and Widowhood at the Five Tombs, bringing lifelong worry and insufficiency. Song explanation: Resource Seal welcomes Heavenly Virtue, giving lifelong blessings, emolument, and a fragrant reputation. An Yi day in You month has hard, strong Killings and also dislikes Si and Chou making Metal flourish. Without restraint, it dreams the yellow-millet dream; hardship and sorrow seek escape from death. If the day master declines, the configuration is certainly poor.
Marginal note: In youth one should leave the ancestral home, transfer to another household, and be adopted to rely on others.
A strong self and light Killings borrow Killings as authority.
A Bingxu day with Renchen hour, born in the fourth or fifth month, is judged this way. The Song of Jade says: How are Killings transformed into authority? Jia born in Yin or Mao, also meeting Hai, Mao, and Wei in a row, need not fear Geng Metal forming a faction. Yi born in Si, You, or Chou month welcomes a matching Wood configuration; if Hai, Mao, and Wei produce calamity, life is difficult and poor. Borrowing means taking on loan: a flourishing self without Killings must lack Officer. It borrows the Killings' might to deepen its own flourishing.
Heavy Killings and a light self bring lifelong damage.
Wuyin, Renxu, Renxu, Jiyou is an example. Month and hour secretly contain Wu Earth as Seven Killings, thus injuring the self. Song explanation: Yin not born, three Yiyou; Xinsi hour brings little good fortune. A light self and heavy Killings are hardest to bear; illness, wealth and honor, and early death follow. Like tender grass meeting frost, or willow fluff blown by wind, one drifts about.
Marginal note: This pattern is like declining grass meeting frost. Further Killings cycles bring premature death without doubt.
Decline turns Officer into Ghost; flourishing turns Ghost into Officer.
A weak and declining day master cannot withstand even an Officer star, so Officer turns into Ghost. A flourishing day master causes even Seven Killings to submit naturally, turning Ghost into Officer and indicating great wealth and distinction. Song explanation: A day master born declining and weak has many Officers turn into Ghost calamity. A flourishing master makes arriving Killings submit, turning Ghost into Officer for an accomplished scholar. Many Officers are hard to receive; heavy unrestrained Killings bring early death. Examine declining and flourishing self carefully: transforming Killings is most welcome.
Marginal note: Officer and Ghost are one. With a weak self, discuss it as Officer; with a weak self, discuss it as Ghost.
The month generating the day stem does not welcome cycles in Wealth's domain.
Month generating day stem is Resource Seal, the mother, so Wealth breaking it is avoided. A cycle entering Wealth's domain is Greed for Wealth Ruining Resource. It resembles an official holding a seal and coveting the people's wealth: this is not good. Marginal note: Wood uses Water as Resource and sees Earth as Wealth.
A day master without support instead welcomes cycles in Wealth's region.
Jia or Yi born in spring with no Wealth or Officer in the pillars is called unsupported. Cycles in Chen, Xu, Chou, or Wei use Earth as Wealth and can then produce blessings. Infer the others accordingly; adverse cycles cannot be called blessed. Song explanation: The month generating the day stem is Resource, unsuited to a Wealth cycle breaking and injuring it. Jia born in Hai or Zi has Resource without clash, while Si, Wu, Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei harm the day master. Birth and Flourishing become excessive; if no pattern meets Resource, who knows that a flourishing self nevertheless lacks support? Cycles welcome Wealth's domain, yet often lack a measure of blessings.
Marginal note: Wealth nourishes life and Officer supports the self. Without them, what can a person undertake?
The hour returning the day's Emolument never welcomes the Officer star.
A configuration with Day Emolument in the Hour most fears Officer: strong Officer breaks Emolument and turns distinction into low standing. Seeing Officer strips Emolument away. Song explanation: Day Emolument in the Hour is most excellent. Year and governing outline fear strong Killings and Officer stars. Officer restraining Emolument makes it hard for Emolument to return. Seeing an Officer-star pattern, examine the month's outline. Cycles welcome Wealth's region; without office, one's name is prominent. An Officer star in the heavenly stems makes cycles welcome Food and Hurt for peaceful blessings.
Marginal note: Jia obtains Emolument in Yin hour; the Four Pillars should not see Xin Officer.
If yin Faces the Sun, avoid Bing and Ding in Li's position.
This means the six Xin days seeing Wuzi hour. Bing and Ding in year or month are southern Fire injuring Xin Metal, preventing Facing the Sun from becoming a true pattern. Without Bing or Ding, the configuration indicates great wealth and distinction, with office of the first rank. The Favor and Avoidance chapter says: The six Xin days meeting Wuzi hour dislike Wu and welcome western cycles, avoiding a Bing character that reveals the Officer star. Ding is Seven Killings controlling Xin. This is no empty statement. Song explanation: The six Xin in Wuzi hour are called Yin Departing to Face the Sun. Western cycles sound one's name, and one attempt heads the golden examination list. Still avoid Bing and Ding in Li's position, especially Officer and Killings injuring one another. Those stars concealed in year and hour are most feared, leaving only a long career as a trader.
Marginal note: Zi is yang and Xin yin, hence yin faces it. Only Officer is avoided: Bing comes to combine, so Facing the Sun fails, leaving only a great merchant.
The Grand Year masters all Killings. A person's configuration offending it must bring disaster; in a domain of punishment and battle, punishment must fall on the natal configuration.
The Grand Year is the ruler of one year, commanding all Killings; it cannot immediately be judged inauspicious. If Yang Blade, other Killings, or the day master punish or control the annual sovereign, it is a minister offending the ruler and must invite battle. Song explanation: The year images the human ruler and cannot immediately be called inauspicious. Natal Yang Blade controlling the annual influence brings serious disaster and punishment if not death. Clashing with and breaking the annual sovereign brings misfortune like a minister offending his ruler. The Master suffers Chen in Cai's land, just as the six states swallow Qin.
Marginal note: The Grand Year meeting auspicious stars is auspicious; encountering evil Killings is inauspicious.
The year injuring the day stem brings lighter misfortune; the day offending the annual sovereign brings heavier calamity.
The Grand Year controlling the day stem is a father angry with his son, whose situation is pardonable. The day controlling the annual sovereign is a son angry with his father, an unpardonable offense. Geng or Xin as Grand Year with a Jia or Yi day stem brings light disaster. Geng or Xin day stem with Jia or Yi as Grand Year, without rescue, brings heavy disaster. Song explanation: The year injuring the day is a father angry with his son, with lighter, pardonable misfortune. The day offending the year is a son angry with his father: the inferior offending the superior finds passage difficult. Day stem resembles minister or son, Grand Year ruler or father. In an inauspicious cycle disaster is heavy; auspicious disaster is arrayed. Inauspicious pillars determine the annual outcome.
Marginal note: A superior offending an inferior is light; an inferior offending a superior is heavy, as in discord between ruler and minister or father and son. The year injuring the day stem is light; the day offending the annual sovereign is heavy.
With rescue among the Five Phases, that year must instead bring Wealth. With no sympathetic relation in the Four Pillars, it is called Controlling the Year.
This concerns the day offending the annual sovereign. Natal rescue halves the misfortune and instead attracts Wealth that year. Without Food Spirit to rescue it, the intent of the configuration is poor, harming the annual sovereign and also the day master. If a Jia day controls a Wu year but Ji is present, husband and wife greedily combine in sympathetic relation. An Yi day controls Ji; with Geng atop the annual sovereign's stem, husband and wife likewise greedily combine. Without pairing, combination, control, or restraint, sympathy is absent and misfortune unavoidable. Song explanation: Jia day master meeting Wu is called the day offending the annual sovereign. Geng and Xin restraining in the pillars give substantial blessings; if absent from the pillars, seek them in cycles. Geng and Xin, day master, stem Jia: the year injuring the day stem brings slight illness. Food Spirit and Resource Seal restrain for clarity and peace; without restraint, disaster and punishment join.
Marginal note: Wealth in the Four Pillars means misfortune first and blessings later. Without Wealth, judge inauspicious misfortune definitely.
Geng and Xin coming to injure Jia and Yi cause no danger if Bing and Ding appear first.
Geng and Xin Metal controlling Jia and Yi Wood have rescue if Bing, Ding, Si, or Wu Fire are in the pillars. Infer the rest likewise. Bing and Ding in turn control Geng and Xin, but meeting Ren and Gui removes fear. Wu and Ji worry over Jia and Yi and need Geng and Xin in the stems. Ren and Gui fear Wu and Ji but find rescue in arriving Jia and Yi. Ren coming to control Bing needs Wu to withstand it at the front. Gui injuring Ding welcomes Ji restraining it.
Marginal note: Bing and Ding Fire control Geng and Xin Metal, which, restrained, cannot injure Wood.
Geng obtaining its son Ren to restrain Bing Fire turns early death into long life. Jia marrying its younger sister Yi to Geng turns ill fortune into an auspicious omen.
Geng Metal most fears Bing Fire; Ren Water restraining it instead brings good fortune. Jia and Yi avoid Geng Metal, but Yi as younger sister marrying Geng makes Jia the wife's elder brother, turning ill into good. Song explanation: Geng's son Ren restrains Bing; a child rescues the mother from illness. Jia's sister Yi matches Geng, taking on fierceness to make auspicious celebration. Thus intention changes into affection, and indeed there is no wish to injure. Greed for pleasure and delight in combining with Killings forget punishment, bringing flourishing blessings, renowned name, and flourishing Wealth.
Marginal note: Ren is Geng's child. Bing controlling Geng is a child rescuing its mother; Jia marrying sister Yi to Geng follows the same principle.
Heavenly Origin flourishing but without support makes an ordinary person. A yielding, weak day master, even meeting Wealth and Officer, remains a poor scholar.
The Song of Jade says: An excessively flourishing Heavenly-Origin day master, with year, hour, and month's Resource, Wealth, and Officer failing to manifest among the Three Powers, indicates poverty, a Buddhist or Daoist renunciant, or a solitary afflicted man. A yielding day lacking Birth and Flourishing has much Wealth and Officer instead produce calamity. Unable to bear them, one passes cold windows, keeping to an appearance like an emptied bag.
A woman without Killings and carrying the Two Virtues receives enfeoffment over two generations.
For a woman's configuration, Indirect Officer is undesirable. Complete Heavenly and Monthly Virtue must bring imperial grants. These Two Virtues make the person kindly, generous, gentle, and good, suppressing all Killings so they dare not offend. Song explanation: A woman takes Officer as the husband's star and should not have Seven Killings contending for merit. Without Officer, Seven Killings are the husband's palace and do not welcome mixed Officer stars. Wealth, Officer, and Resource Seal all present bring an honored husband and distinguished household. Two layers of Heavenly and Monthly Virtue meet, giving responsibility and grants from the imperial house.
Marginal note: A woman with these is born into a distinguished noble family and receives imperial enfeoffment through office.
A man's strong self meeting the Three Wonders brings distinction of the first rank.
The formula says: A strong day master brings wealth and honor, with Wealth, Officer, and Resource Seal all complete. Jia meeting Xin, Ji, and Gui has Emolument; Yi may see Wu, Geng, and Ren. Bing takes Gui, Xin, and Yi's positions; Ding, Ren, Geng, and Jia brings high promotion. Wu welcomes Gui, Yi, and Ding together; Ji has Ren, Jia, and Bing as Three Wonders. Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui follow the preceding examples. Without breaking, the name enters the golden palace.
Marginal note: The Three Wonders specifically take Wealth, Officer, and Resource as exceptional. Without punishment, clash, or breaking, position reaches the utmost of a minister's rank.
Jia meeting Ji in Birth and Flourishing necessarily harbors an impartial and upright heart.
The formula says: Jia meeting Ji Earth, combining in Birth and Flourishing, assures measurable riches, distinction, glory, and splendor. An impartial, upright heart wins people, and a Nobleman encounter may be expected. Jia occupies eastern Birth-and-Flourishing qi and governs benevolence. Earth belongs to the center's thick, weighty qi and governs trustworthiness. Jia and Ji transform into Earth; with further Birth and Flourishing in the Four Pillars, the person is loyal, honest, and upright.
Marginal note: Jia and Ji combining and transforming into Earth indicate benevolence and trustworthiness: one does not break trust, acts sincerely, and is exemplary.
Ding meeting Ren excessively must bring licentious misconduct and disorder.
The formula says: Ding meeting Ren excessively, with much yin and solitary yang, must bring licentious misconduct. Men collapse and die early through wine and sensual pleasure; women have many private affairs and inner disorders. Ding and Ren combine. A Ding day over-controlled by Ren Water indicates lust. Ding and Ren combining and meeting Geng and Xin indicate a lustful woman, with singing and instrumental performance in pleasure quarters. This pattern needs Earth cycles to obtain blessings. Song explanation: A Ji day born with the six Jia holds benevolence, righteousness, loyalty, and goodness in the heart. Jia and Ji in day and hour are Wealth and Officer transforming into flourishing, making household and blessings prosper. A Ding day meeting excessive Ren transforms Officer into Ghost and calamity. Two or three in the pillars make a clever prostitute; with many husbands, one sings and plays from door to door.
Marginal note: Ding and Ren combining and meeting Geng and Xin indicate a lustful woman.
Bing arriving at Shen and meeting yang Water finds it hard to extend life.
The formula says: Bing arriving at Shen has fiery radiance, but yang Water makes life insecure. Earth rescuing and assisting instead adds blessings and longevity. A Bingshen day master proceeding through Renshen, Renchen, or Renzi cycles indicates early death. Song explanation: A Bing day born at Shen's position, with Long Life at Shen and Water circulating, meets Renshen, Renzi, and Chen, whose hard, strong Seven Killings bring heavy misfortune. Renwu, Renyin, and Renxu bring lighter, ineffective misfortune. Many Killings and a weak self must be inauspicious; examine carefully, for the principle is the same.
Marginal note: This pattern finds Earth cycles auspicious.
Ji entering Hai's palace and seeing yin Wood ultimately loses longevity.
A Jihai day master proceeding through Yi Wood and Hai, Mao, or Wei cycles indicates shortened life. The formula says: Ji as strong Earth seeing the Double Fish, when yin Wood arrives, must have sparse years. Without Metal rescue in the Four Pillars, Fengdu and the Sacred Peaks leave no empty lifespan. This pattern must meet Metal to obtain blessings. Song explanation: A Jihai birth meets misfortune when Yi Wood's branches contend. Hai holds Wood's Long Life, and without restraint early death and obstruction follow. Yisi, Yichou, and Yiyou use righteousness to conceal affection among Killings. Yiwei, Yihai, and dense Mao bring either death or poverty and obstruction.
Marginal note: This pattern finds Metal cycles excellent.
Geng at Yin meeting Bing has no danger if the master flourishes.
A Gengyin day master with Bing Fire in the pillars, if Geng Metal is abundant, likewise has no harm. Abundance generates Gen Earth, which in turn generates Metal, so there is no danger. The formula says: Geng meeting Yin has Emolument exercising authority. Repeated Bing Fire makes longevity insecure. A flourishing self with declining Ghost can still restrain it, turning Ghost and Killings into authority. Song explanation: A Gengyin day master is born under Bing Fire's hard Killings. Gen Earth in Yin instead becomes auspicious, with Killings transformed into authority as best. A Geng day born in Shen has Returning Emolument and strong, flourishing qi, instead turning Bing Fire into Officer and escaping danger through timely discernment.
Marginal note: Geng Metal is in Extinction at Yin, but Wu Earth in Yin generates and assists Metal; thus even flourishing Bing is not feared.
Yi at Si seeing Xin suffers misfortune when the self declines.
An Yisi day master with much Xin Metal in the pillars has declining Yi Wood and flourishing Killings, hence misfortune. The formula says: Yi meeting the Double Maiden has declining, damaged Wood. Xin Metal must make longevity difficult. If Bing or Ding rescues it, peaceful Wood can instead become joyful.
Marginal note: Yi Wood is born at Wu and defeated at Si, so Wood is fundamentally weak: how could it withstand Xin Killings' harm? One cannot call it auspicious, but can call it misfortune.
Yi meeting flourishing Geng constantly maintains benevolence and righteousness.
The formula says: A manner of benevolence and righteousness occurs in such cases as an Yi day seeing Shen month. This pattern describes a benevolent and righteous person. The formula says: Yi meeting flourishing Geng has the Officer star and should rank among chief ministers. If the Five Phases suffer no clash or breaking, benevolence and righteousness are maintained while guarding the frontier. Song explanation: Yi Wood born at Si has a declining self, misfortune, and little good omen. Bing, Xin, Geng, and Yi pair like luan and phoenix, giving unsurpassed lasting blessings in the world. Yin Wood meeting Geng's domain spreads its name like spring wind across the Four Seas. Above and below are harmonious, bringing ease to the Three Bonds; surpassing the age, the exemplary person has few troubles.
Marginal note: Yi governs benevolence and Geng righteousness. Punishment, injury, control, or breaking in this pattern may instead indicate unrighteousness.
Bing combining with Xin in generation commands a post of imposing authority.
A Bing day seeing Xinyou month, or a Xin day seeing Si month, forms a pattern of authority. The formula says: Bing combining with Xin in generation is not lowly. Resounding reputation and profit are truly enviable. Otherwise, high ministers are distinguished in the yellow pavilion; holding military power, they are hard to dislodge. Punishment, injury, control, or breaking instead makes the pattern unfavorable: it cannot immediately be judged noble. Song explanation: Bing combining with Xin in generation in summer, with much Xin in year, month, and hour, has ambitions of the Dragon's Strategy and Leopard's Plans, yet fears punishment, injury, control, and breaking. A Xin day seeing Bing obtains combination, Birth, Emolument, and harmony. Cycles of flourishing Officer bring lofty blessings and a name spread across the Four Seas.
One Wood repeatedly meeting Fire's position is called the configuration of dispersed qi.
Jia and Yi days repeatedly seeing Bing and Ding Fire have their qi drained. The poem says: Wood generating Fire is originally glorious and prosperous; transparent Wood and Fire assist the halls of state. One Wood repeatedly meeting Li Fire's position drains qi throughout life and falls to literary composition. Song explanation: One Wood repeatedly meets Fire's position; summer birth repeatedly meets Bing and Ding. Fire transforms Wood's qi: who knows it achieves nothing, leaving undertakings incomplete and days poor? The branches welcome Yin, Wu, Xu, and Si, with Wu and Ji Wealth communicating. Fire and Wood transform without ill fortune, bringing leisurely blessings, emolument, and a prosperous household.
Marginal note: It cannot immediately be judged noble.
Single Water encountering Geng and Xin three times is called the image of a complete body.
A Ren day repeatedly seeing Gengshen and Xinyou has Resource Seal generating the self and indicates wealth and honor. The poem says: Single Water encountering heavy Geng and Xin three times has Metal generating Water, and Water remains of the same kind. The year's birth gives a refined bone structure and natural lifespan; reputation and profit are both complete, with abundant blessings and emolument. It indicates great wealth and honor. Song explanation: Ren and Gui meeting two Geng and Xin welcome true generation in year, day, and hour. Gui born with two Xin also meets Geng, useful in year, day, and hour. Do not refuse to discuss it because Resource is numerous: one Indirect and one Direct are not inauspicious. Thus it is called Complete Body's achievement, with stipends of the Five Hegemons and feudal lords.
Marginal note: This means many mothers and many children.
Water returning to winter's flourishing brings lifelong delight without anxiety.
Jia and Yi born in spring's three months, Bing and Ding in summer's three months, Geng and Xin in autumn's three months, and Ren and Gui in each three months, with Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei belonging to Wu and Ji's flourishing, all lie within their seasonal qi and indicate longevity without worry. Song explanation: Ren and Gui linked with two Geng and Xin welcome generation in year, day, and hour. The outline and hour's Hurt and Robber proceed through southern cycles, most welcoming Food, Wealth, Officer, and Resource. A teacher dwells at Hanshan; taking down three hundred surnamed Chen. Yet flourishing Officer's place instead brings resentment, with punishment and a hundred kinds of illness.
Wood growing toward spring brings peaceful life and certain longevity.
A Jia day born in spring with repeated Yin and Mao in the pillars gives a gentle disposition and necessarily kindly heart, still employed by history and the court. Wealth, Food, Resource, and Officer in flourishing places, if excessive, instead bring early death and poverty. Practitioners investigating precisely resemble the Mean: discussing configurations requires seeking what is useful.
Weak Metal meeting blazing Fire's domain unquestionably brings disorders of blood.
Metal governs heart and lungs, the heart's flowery canopy. Fire clashing with Metal must bring illness through wine and sensual pleasure, injuring lungs and heart, with vomiting blood and swelling disorders. Song explanation: Geng born in Fire's region with repeated Bing and Ding, and complete Yin, Wu, and Xu, must guard against serious disease even if not already ill. Men have madness, consumption, disease, and gu affliction; women have childbirth blood exhaustion. Without restraint in year and hour, hasten to prepare coffin and tomb.
Marginal note: Metal born in Fire's region with repeated Bing and Ding gives men phlegm consumption and women severe uterine bleeding.
Empty Earth meeting flourishing Wood certainly brings injury to the spleen.
Earth governs spleen and stomach. Wood controlling it must bring abdominal cold disorders. Song explanation: Jiazi year, Dingmao outline, Jichou day, and Yihai hour have Wood roaming the year, hour, and outline's route. Heavy Killings bring spleen cold and illness. Cycles in Kan bring early death; a Wood-domain year must bring disaster. The southwest alone can produce money and Wealth, with fine scholars as Minqiu's descendants.
Pain in sinews and bones comes from Wood injured by Metal.
The formula says: A declining, nonflourishing Jia Wood self with Xinyou or Gengshen in cycle or outline and Si, You, and Chou arriving in the year brings damaged eyes, wind madness, and aberrant disorders. Judge a declining Yi day similarly. Si, You, and Chou punish one another; before reaching this region the four limbs are peaceful. It must be regarded as unsuitable: do not be self-satisfied.
Marginal note: The day master's Wood injured by Metal brings pain in sinews and bones.
Dim and darkened eyes must result from Fire controlled by Water.
Liver belongs to Wood, heart to Fire, and kidneys to Water. Water controls Fire without a path of mutual generation, hence disorders of dim eyes and sight.
Marginal note: The eyes possess Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, receiving the essence of all Five Phases. Lacking one produces the source's "cave brightness."
Cold disorders of the lower origin must come from Water meeting Fire's injury.
Kidneys govern northern Water and heart belongs to southern Fire. Kidney Water rising and heart Fire descending make Already Fording. If above and below fail to communicate, cold disorders arise. Bing and Ding born in Kan's region likewise have a weak self.
Metal meeting Gen and encountering Earth is called Returning the Soul.
Geng and Xin Metal receive qi at Yin and Mao. Obtaining Earth to generate Metal is therefore called Returning the Soul.
Song explanation: If a Wu day in the heavenly stems is met, one may grasp the cassia branch and climb the cloud ladder. Repeated Bing and Ding controlling bring short life and poverty. Without Bing and Ding, meeting Wu and Ji assures a wealthy household with a thousand granaries.
A Water person in Xun seeing Metal is called Not Cut Off.
Ren Water receives qi at Si. Water obtaining Metal that can generate Water is therefore called Not Cut Off. Water reaches Extinction at Si, and also fears Metal being born at Si.
Song explanation: Ren and Gui born in Si's domain are originally regarded as wealthy and distinguished. The pillars dislike Wu and Ji making calamity and favor meeting Geng Metal above all. Ren Water receives qi at Si; Water obtaining its mother enters Long Life. It can generate Water, hence the phrase about Water entering, and so forth.
Earth arriving at Mao loses heart before middle age. Metal encountering Fire's domain must have its aspirations frustrated even in youth or prime.
Wu Earth born as far as Mao is afflicted at Bathing. Though this concerns advance and retreat in middle age, the Five Phases meeting Death must frustrate aspirations. Metal at Wu meets violent Defeat and Bathing; a man arriving there must have his ambitions frustrated. Song explanation: A Ji day with Mao in the outline, a strong self under restraint, brings nobility. Much Wealth without restraint and a light self bring suffering and a heart lacking correctness. Geng and Xin cycling through flourishing Killings have youthful aspirations frustrated and achieve nothing. A hundred undertakings, temper and cycles dry, censure inviting punishment: flourishing restraint can make a wealthy and noble configuration.
Marginal note: With a weak master in this pattern, a hundred plans fail. An agitated temper incurs punishment. A flourishing cycle restraining it permits a judgment of blessings.
Metal and Wood crossing in punishment and battle leave neither benevolence nor righteousness. Water and Fire repeatedly injuring one another bring daily disputes over right and wrong.
The rhapsody says: Without benevolence or righteousness, Geng and Xin contend with Jia and Yi. Now right, now wrong, Ren and Gui and Bing and Ding fear one another, and so forth.
Song explanation: Jia, Yi, Geng, and Xin to left and right; Yi meets Geng and Xin on both sides. Geng, Xin, Shen, and You make the branch spirit flourish: how can temperament remain consistent from beginning to end? Officer and Killings are also mixed, making conduct neither benevolent nor righteous. Blessings arising in Wealth's domain require more mental labor; Wealth filling the source can prevail.
Marginal note: Jia and Yi repeatedly meeting Geng and Xin amid flourishing lack benevolence and righteousness. Xinchou, Gengzi, Jiashen, Jichou is Fan Duan's configuration.
Wood is nourished by Water, but abundant Water makes Wood drift.
Water generates weak Wood, which uses Metal and Earth as Wealth and Officer; excess causes loss of Officer. Xinhai year, Gengzi outline, Jiashen day, Yichou hour, meeting a Dingyou cycle in the year, cannot avoid Jia Wood's drowning disaster. Song explanation: Jia and Yi born in Zi's domain find just one or two exceptional. Ren, Gui, Hai, and Zi repeated in stems and branches make Wood drift without support. Xinhai year, Gengzi outline, Jiashen and Yichou interlace branches. Meeting Dingyou cycle in the year, Shen follows to nourish Water: thus Min Wu is auspicious.
Metal relies on Earth for generation, but thick Earth buries Metal.
Metal takes Wood and Fire as Wealth and Officer. Excessive Earth buries Metal and deprives it of radiance. Song explanation: Geng or Xin day with repeated Earth in stems and branches, and Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei all present, if Fire and Earth repeat in stems and branches, has heavy Earth burying qi-less Metal. Though possessing ten thousand hu of gold and pearls, one can hardly grasp the moon-cassia immortal branch. Examine carefully in the West River Moon verses; do not say configurations are too trivial. The source glosses the pronunciation of hu.
Marginal note: A Geng or Xin day born in Chou, Wei, Chen, or Xu's region, also proceeding through Earth cycles, suffers repeated obstruction and delay and is judged a servant.
Thus the Five Phases must not be one-sided or depleted, but must receive balanced and harmonious qi. One must also extinguish worries and forget preoccupations, so that the configuration's mirror has no error.
Examine the depth of the seasonal qi, Flourishing and Vigor, Rest and Imprisonment, removal, retention, extension, pairing, forward and reverse, and turning toward or away. Only balance and harmony make a noble configuration, and Flourishing and Vigor make blessings. Rest, Imprisonment, Death, and Extinction, without pattern or configuration, bring low standing. Song explanation: In judging a configuration, first observe the day master, then examine year, month, hour, and branches. Remove, retain, and distribute strength and weakness; investigate weight and depth by principle. Receive the seasonal qi's balance and harmony, and compare whether cycles appropriately turn toward or away. When the Three Powers produce Indirect and Direct influences is all concealed within the West River Moon verses.
The Five Phases' governing outline: in judging any configuration, set out the Eight Characters and take the day stem as master. Take the year as root, ancestors and property, to know the lineage's flourishing and decline. Take the month as seedling and parents, to know the presence or absence of inherited support. The day stem is oneself, the day branch wife and concubines, revealing their worthiness. The hour is flower and fruit and children, revealing the continuation of descendants. The method distinguishes depth in the month's qi and possession or loss of command. Wealth and Officer revealed in year and hour require a flourishing self. A declining self with flourishing Wealth instead often loses Wealth and injures the wife. A flourishing self with much, flourishing Wealth finds much fulfillment. Without Wealth and Officer, next examine Resource Seal and its configuration, then judge good and ill. Students must not cling rigidly and fail to understand adaptation.
Marginal note: The secret method takes year stem as grandfather and year branch as grandmother; month stem as father and month branch as mother, with siblings attached; day as oneself and its branch as wife and concubines; hour stem as son and hour branch as daughter. Examine the day master's decline, flourishing, punishment, and control to determine good and ill in the Four Pillars, sufficiently understanding how the person establishes a life and acts.
Translator's note: All 199 supplied paragraphs are retained, including the line-by-line song explanations, marginal notes, examples, names, numerical tables, and pronunciation glosses. Their opposed or irregular readings are not harmonized: notably both occurrences of "weak self" in the Officer/Ghost note; Wood and Metal conditions; Ren and Gui born in "each three months" beneath a winter heading; fear of Metal at Si beside reliance on Metal; the six states swallowing Qin; and the auspicious Min Wu ending after a drowning prediction. The compressed Jia/earth/Gui verse, Cheng-Ji, Kui-Hurt, shou-related expressions, the Hanshan/three-hundred-Chen and Minqiu clauses, "cave brightness," the Hongmen phrase, and several compressed song lines remain uncertain. These translations do not claim a restored edition. The organ correspondences, health, disability, death, character, social rank, kinship, and gender judgments are assertions of the historical text, not established medical or personal predictions.
On the Indirect Officer
Indirect Officer means such a case as Jia Wood seeing Geng Metal. Yang seeing yang, or yin seeing yin, is called Indirect Officer and does not form a mating pair. As the classic says: Two women cannot share a dwelling, nor two men remain together.
Indirect Officer is Seven Killings and requires restraint. Seven Killings and Indirect Officer represent petty people, who are ignorant, often fierce and violent, and without restraint, yet can labor to sustain exemplary people. Those who serve, protect, and defend exemplary people are petty people. Without punishment, admonition, and a method of control, however, they cannot be tamed for use. Thus Master Yang says: Govern them by the proper way and they submit or serve; lose the proper way and they deceive or become enemies. The source glosses the pronunciation of the word preceding deception. Petty people have such deception, so control must follow the proper way. Losing control lets them gain authority, and misfortune appears at once. The classic says: Having Indirect Officer is like sleeping while embracing a tiger. Though borrowing its might suffices to frighten all the beasts, a slight failure in guarding against it must bring irreparable regret at its bite. This must be considered.
If the Three Punishments are complete, Yang Blade occupies day and hour, Six Harms also occur, and Kuigang further clashes, such a person's ill fortune cannot be fully described. Restraint properly placed, with cycles passing through a restraining domain, makes a greatly noble configuration. But if, as above, inauspicious spirits all gather and cycles travel through flourishing Killings, unspeakable harm can be known.
With a single Killings influence restrained two or three times, further restraining cycles instead bring no blessings. Why? Exhausting law leaves no people: though fierce as a wolf, it cannot be restrained. Thus restraint alone cannot be the exclusive rule. Weight must be appropriate, neither excessive nor deficient. Examine it carefully before speaking, and misfortune and blessings follow as shadow and echo.
Another statement says: With restraint it is Indirect Officer; without restraint, Seven Killings. Like petty people, governed properly they can be used; governed improperly they are difficult enemies. It depends on our way of controlling them. Do not immediately pronounce this Killings influence inauspicious: many noble configurations carry it. Three Punishments, Six Harms, Yang Blade, and a Kuigang clash do not constitute restraint. But cycles of restraint make this a noble person's configuration. If inauspicious spirits gather as above and cycles further enter flourishing Killings, misfortune is beyond words.
In general, Hurting Officer and Seven Killings most welcome a flourishing self and find excellence in restraint. With original restraint, one may proceed through flourishing Killings cycles. Without original restraint, one may proceed through restraining cycles. A flourishing self transforming it makes Indirect Officer; a weak self without restraint makes Seven Killings. Restraint followed by restraining cycles is excessive, leaving nothing over of Indirect Officer. The month's qi fears clash, punishment, and Yang Blade. With a weak self and strong Killings, restraint may be difficult. A strong self with light Killings borrows Killings as authority and Blade; alternatively Seven Killings may not fear punishment and clash. Examine this carefully.
Marginal note: Jia sees Geng as Indirect Officer; Yi sees Xin; Bing sees Ren; Ding sees Gui; Wu sees Jia; Ji sees Yi; Geng sees Bing; Xin sees Ding; Ren sees Wu; Gui sees Ji. Seven Killings means that counting from Jia to Geng gives seven, and Geng controlling Jia is Killing, hence the name. The Five Phases follow the same principle. The formula says: If restraint transforms the Killings and the self flourishes, literary achievement must arise. If the ruler also comes in sympathetic combination, accomplishment and reputation become a hundred or thousand times strong. Another formula: Indirect Officer and Indirect Resource are hardest to understand. Above and below generating one another bring profit and reputation; Four Storehouses seated on Wealth head straight toward distinction, easily rising to dukes and ministers. This discusses Indirect Resource generating, bringing distinguished achievement and reputation. With Blade and a flourishing self, it indicates power and distinction.
On the Yang Blade
Yang Blade is called an inauspicious star in Heaven and an evil killing influence among people. It is one position ahead of Emolument: Jia has Emolument at Yin and Blade at Mao. It welcomes Indirect Officer, Seven Killings, and Resource Seal. It avoids Reverse and Repeated Chant, Kuigang, and threefold combinations. Why Yang Blade? The five yang, Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng, and Ren, have Blades; the five yin, Yi, Ji, Ding, Xin, and Gui, do not. Hence it is called Yang Blade.
A Blade in the configuration cannot immediately be called inauspicious. Broadly it resembles Seven Killings. Many with a Blade are rich and distinguished and welcome Indirect Officer and Seven Killings. Killings without Blade lack prominence; Blade without Killings lacks might. Both complete are not found in ordinary people. The self must flourish, with cycles in its flourishing domain; do not see Hurting Officer and flourishing Blade cycles. If the configuration originally has Killings and Blade and years or cycles repeat them, the excess is extraordinary. Blade without Killings, meeting a flourishing Killings domain in years or cycles, brings a turn toward life and instead creates abundant blessings. Hurting Officer with flourishing Wealth, or a weak self with flourishing Killings, is most avoided.
For example:
Gengshen, Jimao, Jiayin, Bingyin. This Jia day sees Mao as Blade and Geng as Seven Killings. Seven Killings originally injure the self, but Yi Wood within Mao is borrowed to pair and combine with them. The Killings have sympathetic relation and cannot injure the self. This is precisely Jia marrying its younger sister Yi to Geng. Its self flourishes in southern cycles, hence distinction.
Another example:
Wuwu, Wuwu, Wuwu, Jiayin. This configuration has both Killings and Blade and also takes Wu Fire as Resource, hence distinction. The Favor and Avoidance chapter says: A Wu day in Wu month must not be read as Blade. Much Fire in year and hour is instead Resource Seal.
Another example:
Xinyou, Jiawu, Wuzi, Jiayin. Killings and Blade are both complete and Resource Seal is present, but Xin Hurting Officer is undesirably revealed in the year stem. Proceeding through Xinmao cycle offends the original Hurting Officer's station. Ren is Wealth; in the Renchen year, an affair led to death by entering Water. Ren Water controls Fire Resource and generates Jia's Seven Killings: Generating Killings and Ruining Resource. Xin is Hurting Officer here. Xinmao cycle avoids Officer. Ding Fire in Wu is Resource Seal and most avoids Hurting Officer and Wealth meeting, because Water generates Wood that controls the self.
Another example:
Guiwei, Yimao, Jiazi, Jisi. Mao is Blade and Gui Resource, but Jisi in the hour undesirably breaks Resource. In Xinhai cycle, Hai, Mao, and Wei combine to raise Yang Blade. In Xinyou year, Xin Metal flourishes at You and clashes up Mao Blade. Two Xin are excessive. Much Metal seeing Jia means that even a distinguished self suffers punishment. Though Xin gives distinction, the avoided Yang Blade must not receive both one combination and one clash.
Marginal note: The formula says: Do not regard Yang Blade and Robber of Wealth as inauspicious. A light self with the father's assistance instead becomes inauspicious. Only avoid their mutual appearance in year and month; do not say the birth hour sits in a flourishing palace. Seeing it in the hour brings a thousand kinds of misfortune. Greatly avoided are flourishing Wealth and what is called a threefold combination: severed fingers, killing injury, and an incomplete body. In Heaven this pattern governs conquest; on Earth it holds the power of punishment, execution, generation, and killing. Yang Blade with Killings and Resource makes an official. Without Resource Seal, or combined with evil Killings, it makes thieves, bandits, or butchers. Further annual encounters with evil Killings indicate death; many Yang Blades must indicate beheading.
Translator's note: All four examples and their stem-and-branch sequences are retained. The supplied phrase about a light self receiving the father's assistance is not silently changed to a more conventional support rule. The categorical death, punishment, injury, and character judgments belong to the historical source.
Use ← / → or swipe left or right to change chapters