2017 marks the changing of Period – 8 to Period – 9 for people who subscribes to the school of 2 Cycles 8 Periods 二元八運. People who subscribes to the school of 3 Cycles 9 Periods 三元九運 should re-validate their theories especially the Flying Star Junkies. Period – 8 seems to come and go to pass by without any “fire-works”. The dawn has arrived to welcome the Early Heaven Qian Gua 先天乾卦. What is obvious since the last winter solstice 冬至, is the change in major leadership, policy making, presidencies and various expose involving high ranking officers and the sort leading towards the tipping point of matters that we are so used to it.

1. In China, we witnessed the movement 動 of the “dragon”, with so much capital involvement that it can easily sink any “small” countries with doubtful fundamentals. One major move that is obvious is the creation of a counterweight to the US. Diminishing the controls of the US on the eastern seas by having to take controls of the purportedly islands within the nine-dash line of the South China Sea. Not enough of such, it created the Infrastructure Development Bank to spearhead constructions of roads and rails connecting China to the rest of Europe and Asia, along the way, diminishing Singapore and may also be instrumental in expediting the  Kra Isthmus canal that will end Singapore’s supremacy as an East Asia Entre-port.
2. The US witnessed a surprising change in their Presidency with Trump beating Hillary. It was rather strange if follow the conventional Period – 9 according to the Later Heaven Li Gua 後天離卦, the Lady should be seen as the winning candidate, not Trump. Unfortunately, history has no IF… With Trump up on the pedestal, America First became the new world order. Prices will definitely go up, and all things related to the US will have a large impact to the world at large… Those countries who welcomed TPPA are seems to be at a “lost”, without the “master-mind”.
3. The Philippines witnessed the arrival of the “Trump” of the east and changing the game plans from looking to US to looking to China… bull dozing his way through the fight against the drug lords in his home ground, by being the “Judge Dredd”, prosecutor, judge and executor, the same person, or rather his not so famous instruction – “Kill first, talk later”.
4. The impeachment of the Lady President of South Korea, again speaking about the conventional Period – 9 according to the Later Heaven Li Gua 後天離卦. Taiwan’s new boss on the pedestal, another Lady who seems to bring Taiwan to no-where following her hard approach towards China. Another fallacy of the Period – 9 according to the Later Heaven Li Gua 後天離卦?

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In conclusion, the entire world seems to be at a tipping point, where the impossible happens to be possible. The used-to-be rich and corrupted are at the rim of being exposed. Old empires such as the Lehman Brothers collapsed. New world order seems to be obsolete, overnight. Everyone is waiting for the arrival of the new saviour… This is Period – 9, the Early Heaven Qian Gua 先天乾卦.

In retrospective, Big Sister used to forewarned others of the changing of Period – 7 to Period – 8, in 2004 based on the 3 Cycles 9 Periods 三元九運 with the arrival of Later Heaven Gen Gua 後天艮卦.With limited English language resources at that time, many of the English speaking FengShui enthusiasts ended up spending a fortune to change the period of their houses as the followings: -

1. Changing of their main door by relocation or tilting to tap into the prosperous 8.
2. Opening up the roof and change the wall and floor tiles as in a major renovation for at least 49 days.
3. Move in and out for 100 days.
4. Renovated the Kitchen.
5. Renovated the entire house so as to shift the Heaven’s Heart of the house.
6. Building water dragons such as water features at the Hasten Wealth 催財水 sector of the house based on period – 8.

Many who succumb to such an idea not only having to spent a fortune without seeing results, some proprietor also ended up in trouble, as observed: -

1. Many of the boutiques franchises had closed shops. Those who operates FengShui boutiques that trade in placebo FengShui items did not do well at all in period 8…
2. The former publisher of one of the top FengShui speaker, who did the water dragon, went burst…
3. Even one of the children went into divorce…
4. There is not much “Young Billionaire” produced as supposed to portend by the Later Heaven Gen Gua 後天艮卦…

So much for “good FengShui” activating the 8 wealth star in period – 8.

1996 marks the changing of Period – 7 to Period – 8 for people who subscribes to the school of 2 Cycles 8 Periods 二元八運. The dawn has arrived to welcome the Early Heaven Zhen Gua 先天震卦. What is obvious since the last winter solstice 冬至 of 1995 – 2017, was the shrinking of the world with the birth of the information revolution and the collapsed of Communism both the USSR and China, rightly represented by the trigram  Early Heaven Zhen Gua 先天震卦.

1. Falls of the Communist Iron Curtain – USSR broke up resulting in the Bosnia conflicts and the independent of the former states of USSR into what is known as the Eastern Europe Bloc, providing great opportunity for the new breed of Eastern Europe community. Collectively, pressuring the European Bloc into the formation of Euro. Its counterpart China went into hyper drive, with the Patriarch Deng learning from Singapore and escalate the rise of ShenZhen, the model city of "Capitalist China", as a preamble for the return of HongKong and Macau to the motherland.  Such may ended up in the rise of Rich Chinese "Capitalist", either in the right or wrong ways...
2. The rise of the dot com companies such as Microsoft, Google and even Facebook… the world is getting so much smaller with barriers and walls torn apart. Industrialize countries liked Singapore, HongKong, Taiwan, Korea and even ShenZhen went into the frenzies of producing electronic goods, pop cultures and apparently every single plastic or electrical components come from Taiwan… We have never witness such a border-less world before… even the way business are done through the WWW or e-commerce...
3. Ultimately consume by speed and greed, we experienced what is probably known as the burst of the e-economic bubble for the first time. Along the way, we witnessed the rise of newly minted millionaire either by ways of cronyism, nepotism, kleptocracy or the sort – terms that we hardly heard off.     

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Only on 2004 onwards, we noticed that the ugly part of the period – 8 takes position, before it undergoes another transformation in 2016, the changing of Period – 8 to Period – 9 for 2 Cycles 8 Periods 二元八運, Early Heaven Qian Gua 先天乾卦. By 2024, the so called arrival of Period – 9 of Later Heaven Li Gua 後天離卦 based on the 3 Cycles 9 Periods 三元九運, the Later Heaven Li Gua 先天離卦 denotes – Fire, Early Heaven Qian Gua 先天乾卦 denotes – Heaven. Heaven Gua always come before Earth Gua, therefore we derived Qian ☰ above Li ☲, TongRen Gua 同人卦 - Fire burning Heavenly Gates 火烧天门?

This dichotomy between both schools, use to fuel the major debates in Chinese Metaphysics forum as the attitude of, “I am holier than thou…” is always apparent and it usually resulted in a not so gentleman or many times brutal outcomes. Now, almost 20 years is drawing nearer and we all have wised up witnessed that: -

1. The change of Period based on 3 Cycles 9 Periods 三元九運 of Later Heaven Gua 後天卦 don’t come with a big blow.
2. Instead the change of Period based on 2 Cycles 8 Periods 二元八運 of Early Heaven Qian Gua先天乾卦 come with a rather unexpected turn that put the whole world into a tipping point.

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We can come to a compromise that both SanYuan 三元 and ErYuan 二元 schools are valid and in fact, both are subsets of one another. They are the different sides of the same coin where ErYuan 二元 measures the Heaven Qi and SanYuan 三元 measures the Earth Qi. Imagine that both are wheels with gears of different demarcation. As the wheels turn, at some points, both SanYuan 三元 and ErYuan 二元 must meet. Apparently, the Early Heaven 先天 sets the motion and Later Heaven 後天 sets its ending… to be “reborn” again in another period to come, ad-infinitum. This is the natural order…
 
In such similar reflection, do you know as to why your SanYuan 三元 FengShui method sometimes work, sometimes cannot work? Why your XuanKong FeiXing 玄空飞星 cannot work as well as some XuanKong LiuFa 玄空六法 method? The answer is probably you still live in the wrong era…

In the Blog Entry, more con-sult-ant in the makings, “…I was call to go down South to rescue another screwed up job. We do not want to know who this person was but by the way the modus operandi is given, there could only be one answer…”. This time around, while we investigated the property, we were given a rectification works of a Flying Star screwed-up job of changing into period 8. Here is the tale.

Prior to the change of period 8, the house has been lived by a couple with 3 beautiful grown up kids. Business for the father was good but issues with the grown up children was experiencing a roller coaster ride. The elder son was attracted to a married woman with a son. Her marital status was unknown. The parents objected to their relationship and ended up having the elder son leave the family to settle down with the married woman across the border. The youngest son too was having a difficult time with relationship. The wedding of the youngest son was prepared but at the nick of time, the bride pulls out of the wedding, resulting in gross wastage and emotional traumas.

In view of such, they engaged a consultant who spelt out to his client that never to mention his name unless it is for a job reference. In 2004, the makeover include painting of the walls, changing of the roof, changing of the Heaven’s Heart, tilting of the door to capture castle gate formation and vacate for at least 100 days before moving in again. The results were the parents finally agreed to pay up the ransom of the elder son and he married the lady with an illegitimate child. They move into the house. The younger son met up another girl and finally tied the knot.

Is that happily ever after? No, as the elder son begins to feel that the wife he married was unsuitable for him and the younger son’s ex-girlfriend wanted to patch up and be the third party in their relationship. Then business was slapped with the authority issues of invading taxes, since 2008. As we did not do the site investigation, using divination method we manage to prescribe some temporary relieve. True enough, he was off the hook in 2008. However, in 2009 the same problem repeated.

This time around, we were on site to investigate further. The owners were not really cooperative as we need to dig and dig to find more answers. The water exits were wrong and the only good thing was, they may have stirred up the Qi and ended up with the happy occasions of the married of their sons although it may not be long lasting. As usual we discussed a little further in Yifengshui inner teachings. Is this how the Flying Star changing of Period 8 and Castle Gate entrance takes effect? We thought it would last for another 20 years?

It was fun participating in a BaZi pop-quiz organized by JLim in the now ‘reborn’ fivearts.info forum… In this challenge, JLim asked;

“Today is Valentine's day.  Let's have a quiz about love... and separation.  Choose when this lady married and then quickly divorced; 2007 Ding Hai, 2009 Ji Chou, 2011 Xin Mao, 2013 Gui Si, 2015 Yi Wei. Please choose one year only, and your reasoning using any method (Bazi, ZWDS, Liu Yao, QMDJ, Meihua, Tarot, Mahjong divination etc.). +6 karma points for the correct answer with reasoning. A simple reasoning will do.  No karma point for correct answer but without reasoning at all. The Chinese hour is correct with or without adjustment to solar time. I will announce the answer after at least 15 people participate.  But I will only send my Bazi analysis by pm to those who participate.”

True enough, none of the 15 participants participated are BIG NAMES, liked – “You Know Who…”. Those participated are all small fries including JayTee. The Big Names have reputation to keep, imagine what if they answer wrongly? For the small fries liked JayTee, it is a good opportunity to test out their wits and to make sure that they are confident enough to just give – one answer, without having to revise their answer at one go… You just cannot simply say, maybe… might be… could be… in real audits. You have to know your arts well minus the guessing games. This challenge is even more interesting because, JLim wanted the participant to write down, how do they derive their decision… OMG… you must read the commentary as it is the most intriguing dynamics among the various arts on display from the so commonly known ZiPing to ‘No Name’ divination techniques all in one go – Superb! Yet, none of the 15 participants, I presumed, would have known who this BaZi chart belongs to…

Later, JLim broke the news by saying;

“The answer is 2011 XinMao.  She married and divorced in the same year!  Thank you to quiz participants!  Her husband was a policeman, who loved to gamble.  He gambled a lot of their money and lost everything.  Because of this, they got into a huge fight and divorced.  As of end of 2015, she was still single.  I see that she will marry twice in her life.  More Bazi details on how to see wealth loss, her marriage and divorce later through PM.”

Dawn upon the participants that only 4 out of the 15 make the correct predictions. Among these 4 are the so common technique of ZiPing BaZi served raw – no acrobatic pictorial method or something similar… Who says ZiPing BaZi cannot use? The aftermath was a series of self-reflections and soul searching and one in particular, caught our attention;

“The answer is right there! Mao clashes with Subject You and at the same time combines with the Object Xu. Very straight forward, yet is unseen. It is so much easier to read the hexagram when you know the answer eh?”

So, it does really make more sense with post-diction instead of pre-diction, right? That’s life… That is the reason why many BaZi teachers love to use post-diction of known celebrities to showcase their skills. It is simply very exciting when you work backward to narrow down to an observation. Only good teacher would do a life expose of all his/her students without prior notice in class to be testified by the students themselves… If your teacher don’t do that, you better run away far-far…

In fact, the good old fashioned, ZiPing BaZi has not really lost its teeth… Someone did say;

“There are many-many BaZi theories around.
The one used most often is referring to the month as the anchor.
Another theory refers to the month for structure only and not for strength.
Another refers to heaven, earth and man. Meaning calculated using all the 8 palaces.
The least well known theory refers to resources and resources only, nothing else…”
 
You can see, there are many ways to skin the cat… Yet, how many can it be used? That is the Question? 

​Assuming that it is not born in season, it is rendered a weak chart, favouring resource and self. Here we determined the strength of the Day Stem to be in consistent with modern ZiPing approach.
 
Fast forward, narrow down to the spouse star, high possibility is when the Xin辛 is protruding. Why we say, Xin辛 as the spouse star instead of the officer star? Someone did say, “Wei and BingXu are Spouse Stars, while Wu is Spouse Palace.”  This is one problem with ZiPing… What exactly is what?
 
Bing丙 is the officer star to Geng 庚. The Home Palace have Wei未 and Wu午 combination. Will that form fire? Mind you there is a constant clash between Chou丑 and Wei未, how to combine? Different school, different stroke again…
 
Assuming it does not, this Geng 庚 is still sitting on her officer Wu午. Is this officer官 star favourable to Geng 庚? Again this come to the question of Officer and Killing 官杀, different school, different stroke…
 
Someone suggests, “Mao combines to move Wei, so marriage occurred.” Look at this carefully, Mao卯 combine with Xu戌 also forming fire. Will it transform? Which season do we look into? Different school, different stroke… Will Wei未 combine after being clashed by Chou丑?
 
Someone suggests, “Xin as Rob Wealth is inauspicious in this chart.” Look at this carefully again… How can Xin辛 be an unfavourable god to a weak Geng 庚? Isn’t a weak chart favours Self and Resource?   
 
Maybe this is the reason, “The chart works by Geng combining with Yi, but Xin clashing Yi is inauspicious, leading to wealth loss.” Look at this extreme carefully… How do Geng庚 combine with Yi乙 when it is so far apart? Really, cannot figure this out…  
 
The final straw, “The divorce happened in LP Bing Xu, because this LP is the "arrival" of Xu to punish Wei and Mao AP also combines to trigger Xu.”, Look at this extreme carefully… XinMao 辛卯 cannot just come and combine away without negotiating with BingXu 丙戌. Don’t even know if such has already been activated yet… Again, different school, different stroke…

​GengWu 庚午 lady as was described by one website – “… the KING maker. Geng the raw iron is useless when it is not forge, with Ding fire, it forge itself into Axe - a tool that know no fear. Geng the most vicious sitting on Ding its very own Direct Officer which is the cardinal force. This give it the ability to be righteous. Ding fire shine the clear path in times of darkness, it’s the very fire that remove fear, remove all doubt. GengWu has a resilient personality. They get thing done quickly and swift. Ding give them clear sight and detail while still being elegant like the night star in a clear sky.”
 
When Bing meet Xin – “Bing 丙 Fire + Xin 辛 Metal = Water. Water epitomized being stray and betrayal. Bing 丙 Fire is passion while Xin 辛 Metal is beauty, over indulgence in woman, wine & music. Chinese has a saying that see money (Xin) turn into Water 见财化水. Fire countering metal. Bing丙 Fire, pictorially liked a Sun, now will literally melting away the small Xin 辛 Metal.” We seriously don’t know how could that be? The Sun only make the metal shines brighter! “In exchange the transformation produce Wisdom (Water). Transformation only happen in the month of Chen (辰) Dragon, Shen (申) Monkey, Hai (亥) Pig & Zi (子) Rat.”
 
In conclusion, she is hype out being get thing done quickly and swift and marrying the guy. Only to find that see money (Xin) turn into Water 见财化水. Trouble. She took the noble step as Geng the raw iron is useless when it is not forge, with Ding fire, it forge itself into Axe - a tool that know no fear. She divorce him. End of story…

​Let’s contemplate on one of this statement –

1. Is Useful God 用神 useful? Or
2. Is there such thing as useful god 用神?
3. How many times when your useful god appear and your life got no improvement?

Very thought provocative questions… but we love it…

​In contemporary BaZi 八字, the emphasis is in the strength 强弱 of the Day Stem 日主元神. A strong or weak chart will determined the Useful God 用神. This Useful God 用神 is naturally the element favourable to the chart. A weak chart needs to be strengthened and a strong chart needs to be weakened. The elements that strengthened the weak chart or weaken the strong chart are called Favourable God 吉神 while the reverse are called Unfavourable God 忌神. It is useful when you know how to determine the strength 强弱 of the Day Stem 日主元神. This could pose a lot of challenges especially with different schools holding different points of view about many other miscellaneous criteria, supposing the rule of combination and transformations, the rule on earth seasons and so forth… They never seem to agree with one another often resulted in cases liked, strong but not so strong, weak but not so weak…
 
In classical approach, the emphasis is on the Useful God 用神, not the Day Stem 日主元神. This Useful God 用神 is the God in-command 用事之神, determined by the Month Commander月令. It is not necessarily to be your Favourable God 吉神, as it could just be an Unfavourable God 忌神 as well. Therefore, the traditional approaches boil down to the quality of the Useful God 用神. These qualities are known as Having Affection 有情 or Having Strength 有力. Having Affection 有情 means the Useful God 用神 is being used the appropriate ways and Having Strength 有力 means the Useful God 用神 is being used to strengthen the Day Stem 日主元神. They mean different things altogether. It is useful when you know how to use the Useful God 用神 in the manner of Having Affection 有情 or Having Strength 有力 in a way that Favourable God 吉神 are supported and protected, Unfavourable God 忌神 are restraint and transformed. 

Traditionally, useful God 用神 is derived from the Month Branch that is commonly known as a Month Commander月令. A branch may concealed more than one elements. The Commanding God 用事之神 must be the most dominant element hidden within the Month Branch. This is to qualify as the Commanding God 用事之神 of a particular Solar Term. How to decide on the most dominant element is again, different school different stroke… This Month Branch may also subject to movement and stillness 动静. As to how it move and kept still 动静 is again, different school different stroke… This is a problem! Ultimately, there is a Useful God 用神 subject that one understand clearly as to how to identify the dominant element and determine its movement and stillness 动静.
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Modern approach, useful God 用神 is derived from the strength of the Day Stem 强弱. This goes by the mantra of In-Season 挡候, In-Location 挡位 and In-Formation 挡局.These three factors that contributed to the Day Stem 日主元神 require the Useful God 用神 to arbitrate 扶抑, to medicate 病药 or to adjust 调候. There is a Useful God 用神 of different technique for different situation. Ultimately, reaching to a near perfect chart of CaiGuan Yin 财官印.

This is a compounded question. First, how many times when your Useful God appear? Second, if it appears, why your life got no improvement?

Let’s attempt the first limb of the question. Useful God may appear many times, through the dynamic part of your BaZi – the Luck Pillar and the Annual Pillar. Assuming, that your useful god is fire. This year DingYou 丁酉 may bring about the fire Qi require. A number of Chinese Academies such as Money squeezing Academy of chinese metaphysics (MsAocm), may say that DingYou 丁酉 comes in after LiChun 3 February 2017, Friday 10:36pm. Therefore you suppose to bank in money during this day to activate the “丁”… Is that true?

We also need to ask when is the actual arrival of the Useful God 用神? One conventional way state that, the first half of the year is governed by Ding 丁 while the second half is governed by You 酉? Is that also true? When will the Ding丁 or the You 酉 have impact on you? Will the You 酉 TaiSui full-fledged force be impacted upon you on the Yin寅 month or the Si巳-You酉-Chou丑 month or the Chen辰 month? Many stroke, different outcome.
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One method probably coined Qi Flow Method 氣流法 go as far as to measure the actual progresses or retrograde of these elements through various means such as star conjunctions, planetary movements and eclipses. In such case, even if the Ding丁 is observed, with the real absent of the fire Qi, will you still get to enjoy the fire Qi? Probably such gave the answer to the second limb of the question - even when your useful god appear why your life still got no improvement? 

This is an interesting chart.

Yi wood born in summer, supported by the branch and but not the stem. Technically a weak chart. So, favoring water, metal and wood. Liked the chart of the millionaire, he too should have been a millionaire indeed? With rooted resource, wealth and self, yet this person is only of a working class. Why? So, does owning a so called, "Cai, Guan and Yin" means a millionaire chart? Think about it... Then, what happened to him at the following day, with technically, in DingHai Luck Pillar?

辛 戊 癸 己
酉 午 酉 丑

Here is another example of "Cai Guan Yin". There is a reason to call it in the order of Cai, Guan and Yin, being resource is kept to the left. In this chart it is called Yin, Guan and Cai, a reverse order. What difference would that make? Anyway, it is still Cai, Guan Yin structure. Not supported by season, neither are the stems and the branches with the exception of Xin. Can this chart be a fake follower chart? Officer and wealth rooted. He is a well to do corporate figure. Only 2 roots as compared to 3 roots and yet make such a big difference, why?

I gathered a number of emails pertaining to the topic of Cai GuanYin and I took the liberty of saying it is quite a number of fans for Cai GuanYin. One question remains, is Cai GuanYin a perfect chart? Along our experiences of reading charts we found that profiling Cai GuanYin to the profile of a Tycoon is rather misleading. There is a subtle different between a Cai GuanYin chart of a rich guy with the Cai GuanYin chart of a poor one. Rooted-ness and Stem-liness are just one of the criteria and there are many more to come.

Our student of BaZi workshop has so much knowledge regarding such to take home as one of them was saying, "I thoroughly enjoyed Master Ng's Bazi class. His easy style of teaching made learning fun and naturally, encouraged students participation. All questions were answered. Unlike other masters where some answers would only be made available at higher modules. Most importantly, he offered a different perspective to Bazi reading and his interpretations and disclosures were striking. Those three days of learning had been very enlightening. Thank you Master Ng and your organizing team, David and Lenny".

As for the new year 2011 to come, we are planning for another workshop stretching for at least 6 days for our students covering both BaZi and FengShui simultaneous applications. Our students knew well the depth we had covered in ourpreparatory workshop and there is much more to come, to gear up one to be a competent practitioner.

Back to Cai GuanYin, one email we received was quite fascinating as an Indonesian Chinese was thinking along that he has inherited a Cai GuanYin formation and being a weak day master, he would had benefited from it. The following correspondence with him would had shed some light into the nature of Cai GuanYin.  As his BaZi has been made available in other blogs, we had taken some steps to keep it anonymous. 

Please feel free to comment if you have any doubt.

J: I always wondered what's with the fascination with the structure of "Cai GuanYin" ? Excuse me, let me introduce myself. My name is J and I know BaziDiary and have met him one time in Penang and talked Bazi over Soft Drinks in KFC. Anyway, I have heard that the structure of Self, Output, and Wealth is better than "Cai GuanYin". What are your thoughts on "Cai GuanYin" charts? Pleased to meet you. P.S. My chart is also "Cai,Guan,Yin" with all elements rooted as well as self and a weak DM. I am trying to learn more the nature of this interesting yet peculiar structure. 

YiBaZi: Can you share your Bazi with us? I do not know where to start but to just say that most millionaires are this structure. There is some exceptional case which we had discussed at length during the last workshop. If you understand the significant of a weak chart, you will understand why cai guanyin is so crucial. Hope to meet you someday.

J: I was surprised that you would reply back. BaZiDiary has posted my chart on his site under "law of attraction". You might want to see that first to know his comments on my chart. No, Cai GuanYin was ever mentioned. I found out about it during September this year. By the way, I disagree on his view that my DM is strong just because it's born in the supporting season. However, I will be interested to know your views and what is not and please do let me know if you want more information to confirm with me. By the way, is my chart going to be posted on your blog? And oh yeah, I am not a millionaire YET. I want to believe the remaining LP I have will help me to achieve my dreams. One more thing about my chart, I don't know if it has any significant whatsoever, but all the right stars fall in the right palace in my chart, Grandparent star is in my year branch, mother star is in my month branch, wife star is in my day branch and children star is in my hour branch. My chart is strange. Anyway, I hope to meet you soon too if you ever come to Australia or I go to Penang again.

YiBaZi: Let me look at your chart first and revert to you for more information. Yes, you are right,my approach and BaZiDiary are somewhat different as we may be from different school.Just for curiosity, are you an Indonesian Chinese?

J: Yeh, it just made me sound desperate which I am not that kind of a person. Yes, I am a Chindo (Chinese Indonesia). BaZiDiary learn all his skills from JY and I don't really apply much from JY himself. Not saying he is bad. What I consider good is when the reading is accurate in reading future not only past. Since I have been studying my chart for quite sometimes I'm sure we can have good banter about my chart. As matter of fact let me start a sneak yet critical preview about my chart. My useful God is fire and it is in season as well as rooted. The bad thing about my chart is the FanYin involving month branch and day branch an It is quite severe one.

YiBaZi: No wonder you did not match up a Cai Guan Yin profile! You are a strong chart, my friend! So, BaZiDiary has given you a correct interpretation as to the strength of your chart. Just be a little careful when the Wei comes in.

J: Now I am a strong chart? I thought it was weak due to the fan yin involved. I might be a one of this confusing chart like Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey charts. Why do I say my DM is weak because in year of BIngXu 2006 I was having a great year that time? If I were strong then BingXu year would be awful for me. Just out of curiousity, Cai guanyin don’t work with strong DM?

YiBaZi: Your chart is easy to read. It is not because I agree with Chris the way a chart's strength is determined only by the month, it is because of something else which I do not wish to disclose. Wouldn't it is strange when BingXu comes in; you would have screwed up, but not? Why? If you understand the rules of transformation, you will see the true picture. A Cai GuanYin is preferred for a weak chart. When the LP and AP come in, a weak chart is better in handling the 5 elements compared to the rest.

J: Thanks for your help in casting a light on the strength of my chart. I kind of understand where are you coming from now. Too bad I got all the right stars and now it is a strong chart.Well, according to ShenSha which I dun like using, my month branch is in Kong Wang but the Wei LP is already over and my life is much better now. Thanks for your help.

The correspondences continue…

My question is, Mr J has been reading more than hundred charts and yet the most profound and fundamental question of the strength of the chart is still prevailing and that has not account to, the accuracy of catching of the useful gods or YongShen. This may not be an isolated case. Unless otherwise, one speaks out liked Mr J did, one will not understand as to why after investing a fortune in BaZi courses and consultations, readings the chart is still way off the actual life events.Something must be so damn wrong, somewhere.  It proof s one thing, you are still your own best teacher. 

We would like to hear your view.

BingBazi introduces us a near perfect chart for discussion, apparently a date selections for C-Section. Jia wood born in winter. Strong self? If it is a weak chart, then on a superficial level, everything seems to fall into place. Perfect star in the correct palace? No clash, punishment and of the sort. Impeccable stillness. Is that really so?  It is a blessings that the students of the currently completed workshop has an opportunity to understand more layers beyond just strong or weak. More importantly do you think this is a chart befitting an emperor?

​The art of BaZi reading has many layers. Besides the ZiPing 子平 method, later scholars came out with many ways to read a chart. There are in the market today, not less than 10 methods 十推论 could be identified such as;

Each variant has its own strength and weaknesses. These weaknesses are basically, things that are not disclosed to the public and were kept as lineage secrets. Therefore, a lot of the stuff that are served today, are by itself, incomplete.

Many conceals these shortcomings by reinventing the wheel and as a result, there are more than one method to read a BaZi chart and the most intriguing thing is that most who had learnt these stuff eventually liked a Mixed-Martial Artist MMA, combined them all and used them simultaneously overlapping one another. Nothing wrong with that.

However, you may come across, from time to time, there are people bold enough to say, “There is no such thing as weak and strong chart in Bazi… Most importantly there is no such thing as positive and negative stars.” Statement like these will cast doubt onto others especially those who has just spent a fortune learning BaZi, the Strong and Weak Method 强弱 way…

Determining the strength 强弱 of the Day Stem is very important. Without this, identification of Favourable and Unfavourable Gods 吉忌神 would be close to impossible. With the failure of identifying the Favourable and Unfavourable Gods 吉忌神, locating the Useful God 用神 would be futile. Therefore a foundation study of BaZi would be structured as the followings: -
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1. Locating the Day Stem 日主元神
2. Determining the Strength 强弱
3. Identification of Favourable and Unfavourable Gods 吉忌神
4. Locating the Useful God 用神

;These 4 steps are crucial. However, step 4 - Locating the Useful God 用神.  Useful God 用神 has its own Failure and Success. This is attributed by the ‘health’ of the Useful God 用神 itself in relation to the season the Day Stem was born and the remedy for its failure are further defined as the following techniques: -
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1.       Moderating 扶抑
2.       Arbitrating 通關
3.       Regulating or Temperature Adjustment 調候
4.       Medicating 病藥
5.       Dominant 專旺
 
The last and most crucial part of reading the BaZi is what is known as Event Reading. Some called it Qi Dynamics but generally it is related to;
 
1.       Stillness and Movement 动静
2.       Star and Palace Interplay 星宫
3.       Inter-Intra Palace (Shifting Palace)  移宫
 
However, when contemplating step 4 - Locating the Useful God 用神, some scholars formulate other fringe techniques to make step 2 - Determining the Strength and  step 3 - 强弱Identification of Favourable and Unfavourable Gods 吉忌神 rather obsolete. They base their findings largely from this 2 classics namely;
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1. QiongTong BaoJian 穷通宝鉴, attributed to Xu LeWu 徐樂吾.
2. DiTian Sui 滴天髄, attributed to Liu BoWen 刘伯温, based on the principle laid by JingTu 京圖.

This classic gave another approach to ZiPing 子平 by introducing a technique called Temperature Adjustment - 调候. Besides the 10 stems, balancing the 5 elements is essential. This classic introduces the consideration to Regulate the Useful God 调用神 by adjusting the temperature of the 5 elements. The coldness 冷, warmness 暖, wetness 湿 and dryness 燥 affects the balance of the 5 elements. For example, dry earth cannot produce metal. Wet wood will not fuel fire. When the Day Stem日主 is too cold or dry, it is difficult for that element to survive or simply function. These coldness 冷, warmness 暖, wetness 湿 and dryness 燥 are dependent on the 10 stems born in different seasonal Qi. The month branch affects the survival of the Day Stem 日主.
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As a result, we are able to discard the strength of the Day Stem 日主 and move quickly into evaluating the quality of the Day Stem 日主 itself. There is no longer the problem of weak… but not too weak, strong… but not too strong. There is only the chart is either too cold or too warm, too dry or too wet. How beautiful… and there is a shortcut to these. Whenever you see this Day Stem 日主 as the followings, the elements that adjust its temperature must present itself in the stems not otherwise it is rendered inferior;

​Caveat, the crust of the theories are deeper than these short-cuts, please take note… We just simplified it for casual discussion. Eventually, what the Day Stem 日主, likes and dislikes constitute how to adjust the temperature 调候 of the useful gods 用神. When the Day Stem 日主 is too cold 冷, it requires to be kept warm 暖. When the Day Stem 日主 is too warm 暖, it requires to be kept cold 冷. When the Day Stem 日主 is too dry 燥, it requires to be kept wet 湿. When the Day Stem 日主 is too wet 湿, it requires to be kept dry 燥. These coldness 冷, warmness 暖, wetness 湿 and dryness 燥 are the Useful God 用神. Here you don’t particularly need to distil your favourable god 吉神 and unfavourable god 凶神. As this technique has already been made available in the internet, largely used by most schools, there is no reason as to why it should be kept as a secret. 

​Nicked name the Heavenly Marrow Distillation, this classic brought about the notion of 理氣象, typically SanYuan 三元 approach to BaZi. The Ten Stem 十干 is now visualized as an imagery or pictorial – Xiang 象, the Ten Gods 十神 – Qi 氣 and the interactions – Li 理. The crux of this technique require first to visualize to 10 stems 十干 in pictorial form with its characteristic such as;

​甲: A Big Tree with Huge Canopy and Deep Rooted.
乙: A Creeper Shrub that climb with high tendency to grow.
丙: The Sun parallel to no others with Rays and Warmth the Grow.
丁: A Candle wick Fire that has the tendency to Burn everything to Dust.
戊: An Immovable Huge Mountain overlooking others.
己: Soft Mud highly Organic capable to Grow anything.
庚: An Axe toughen and Baptised by Fire.  
辛: A Jewellery so Shining and Bright as the Stars in the Skies.
壬: An Ocean without boundaries but a Horizon where all Water Returns.
癸: A Mist that Float and Filled the air without Form, Shape and Smell.

When combined with the 12 Earthly Branches will give you a matrix of 60 JiaZi, with each JiaZi 甲子 has its very own Imagery. For example;
 
JiaZi 甲子 is a Withering Tree growing at the riverbank. First understand the supporting earth and its foundation as a Big Tree require a good soil for its root to penetrate and hold onto. Secondly study the Stem in order to determine the structure. Should there be Wu 午 clashing the root, this person is unlucky.  In other words, Jia 甲 wood sitting on Gui 癸 water, the main Qi of Zi 子.  Gui 癸 is the Direct Resource 正印 to Jia甲. Jia 甲 represents Growth, as a tree grow upward. A  Jia 甲 Day Stem person has a tendency to pursue growth. These people are survival as long as resource 印 is available. Gui 癸 water also represent wisdom and Direct Resource 正印 means knowledgeable. This person is well educated and they have sheer fighting power and perseverance to wait for an opportunity to grow. Jia 甲 wood is a lone tree that require space to grow. So they are naturally bone loner. When countered with negative Direct Resource 正印, they could be jealous and intellectually combative. Such isolation reflects on their cold shoulder appearances. This JiaZi 甲子 favour Bing 丙, the Eating God 食神, as the Sun with Rays and Warmth present it to Grow.
 
Points to note - the tree is just a metaphor. One needs to think further to grab the real meaning behind the picture. Jia甲 wood embodies the idea of ‘growth’. It is about production and progress, starting of a journey or a cycle, etc. Regrettably, the ‘literal meaning’ has been taken out of context resulting in people having wear green, or plant big trees in their residence as a Medicating 病藥 technique. This concept has been taken out of context.
 
Also this technique of reading Pillar 柱 to Pillar 柱 eliminates the necessities to step 1 - Determining the Strength 强弱 and step 2 - Identification of Favourable and Unfavourable Gods 吉忌神. This technique also has the ability to read a Single Pillar to determine auspicious or otherwise 一柱定吉凶. 

​Imagery method may look convenient but image can be deceiving… What look like a tree to you may look like a spinach to me… the way these 2 classics had been interpreted has absolutely deviated from the truth, for example;
 
“甲木，参天” or “甲，木参天?” The former is Jia Wood while the latter is Jia, as in item (1), then wood grows upward… remember that classical Chinese has no annotation whatsoever…
 
The truth, Jia甲 wood is NO TREE… Yi乙 wood is NO CREEPER SHRUB… Bing丙 fire is NO SUN… The YinYang 陰陽 understanding of the elements are all WRONG! Saying that, we should leave it for another day.

​Has not been updating this BaZi blog lately, just for a start let us warm up by introducing to you another way of reading BaZi in a pictorial manner, by using the above lady’s chart – career woman. We all know too well that this lady is a Wu person sitting on Zi water. What sort of imagery, Xiang, would WuZi bring to you? Ice capped mountain or mountain hidden by clouds? Is this a beautiful mountain? That tells you how beautiful are this person. The solid water pillar, we nicknamed it as stubborn pillar, also paints you another side of her story in relation to the hour pillar, among others representing her career palace. How do you think she strive in her career?

Ask yourself, what is the useful god (UG) for a Wu earth mountain, so solidify, so stubborn, so hard and too trustworthy? Hardened soil needs to be loosened. In this case Jia or Yi wood? What quality of Jia found in the month stem? Skinny tree or rain forest tree? Rooted in Mao, injured by Xin (pen knife) and not clashed by Geng (axe), what does it means? The tree is still alive, not seen to be growing upward, but has deep penetrating roots among others signify what? That paints the imagery of her superior, quite robust outlook with a very good PR intrinsically – another form of extrapolation? So, her useful god is usable but the question is she doesn’t know how to use it to her advantage. 

Using the 10 gods, Jia among others is her superior. Xin is her action. When Xin is countering Jia, her useful god is countered, meaning that her actions displeased her superior in what degree? Her actions, if it is unmonitored, will brings her more harm in a long run, as Xin is sited on Mao, penknife cutting twig? This means to say, her opportunity to establish networking with others through her superior may be hampered, thus rendering her useful god weakened. So, the real useful god has been shifted from authority to her output. The next question is, would she able to control her action? 

That depends on how wisely she would think – resource. Wu Mountain is best at keeping things and that includes her action? The more resource she has, how she may becomes? However, in her case, the action is revealed! So how good may she control her action, especially when provoked? Would it last as it has no root? She has the tendency to blunder in the month/year of what? So, burying her action is also important, her useful god has been shifted to resource and self.

Her actions produce her solid wealth, water as seen in the career palace. Wu and Gui tendency to combine but not transform, indicating her career mindedness. What sort of quality water does GuiHai represent? The imagery of GuiHai is liked a clouded sky above the still lake. That is a beautiful version! The ugly version is a huge storm in the middle of the cold sea – inhumane! Water wants to be untainted, sentimental and contained. With the tendency to combine but cannot transform and with overabundant of water, will this uproot the Jia and break the Wu? How beautiful is this water? So, has she, the tendency to be superstitious and depressed especially related to her career and in the process affecting her resource, thinking and decision? Is she prone to make the wrong decision in relating to her career which will ultimately make her lose money, in the short run? 

Now, coming back to WuZi, the misty mountain, would the already clouded mountain wished to be clouded further? You have the answer.

In this attempt, there is no tendency to look into the strength of chart. All that is matter is the quality of the elements that present itself as the 10 gods with reference to the self. It is all pictorial; to see what the elements needs most as its useful gods and hate most as its unusable gods, thus using one to arbitrate the others (Thong Guan). Even all the elements are usable. 

Meaningful coincidence… One one hand, received an email from another school of Chinese Metaphysics, promoting their BaZi 八字 courses that sounded like this;

“Retrenchment or Resignation is not a Dirty word. It is an opportune time you take a breather to consolidate your thoughts and do a reality check on the job that you have been putting your heart and soul into it. Have you ever wondered that you have been doing something that does not even align with your passion and talent? So, where does your talent lie? What career or business should you consider so that you can unleash your great potentials? What skillset should you have to embark on your Unique Success Path? Successful people know what they want. So, I want you to know what destiny has for you in your BaZi  八字 to be successful too…”.
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On another hand I was reading 180 pages book by a young author, entitled Being Happy and Successful – Managing Yourself and Others, hardly costs USD10.00 and I must confessed that this simple book has so much information that easily knocked out any BaZi  八字 course in the market today, that just teach you how to do Personality Profiling, the BaZi 八字 way, almost as the course advert that I received through my email as mentioned earlier. 

​First, is to attempt to understand yourself better – Who am I? Why am I born like this? How come I have such an ego? Where can I proceed to be a better person? These questions are reflected in everyone’s BaZi 八字.

BaZi 八字 – a set of system to enable a person to know his own Fate 命 and Destiny  运. Collectively known as the 4 pillars eight characters 四柱八字, it uses the 10 Heavenly stems  天干 and 12 Earthly branches 地支, such GanZhi 干支 system existed since the Xia Dynasty,  to construct a matrix of 4 pillars comprising of the Hour, Day, Month and Year, in 8 characters. A GanZhi 干支 is also called a JiaZi 甲子. There are 60 JiaZi in a complete cycle. That is where it is called - 4 pillars 8 characters 四柱八字.
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The set of 8 characters are the static chart, known as the natal chart. You are born with it – fated 命. Deriving from the month where one is born, another chart is derived. This is called the dynamic chart of Luck Cycle. It comprises of another 8 permutations, each lasting 10 years. They are collectively known as the 10 years luck cycle – destiny 运.  

​The BaZi chart is rather universal in appearance, but the way and the manner of reading the chart differ from one school to another. The earliest school is known to be the ShenSha 神煞, known to have been credited to Lee ChunFeng 李淳风. The drawback of this system is the lack of a consistent manner of reading a chart. Such resulted in a creation of a system called the ZiPing 子平 method, credited to a person called Xu ZiPing 徐子平. Some schools believed that the ZiPing 子平 method comes from a lineage rather than a person with such a name as ZiPing 子平. It is a secret method that would guarantee every generation to be peaceful ZiSun PingAnn 子孙平安. ZiPing 子平 places the emphasis on the Day Stem日主 to be the point of reference instead of the other pillars to derived the auspicious or inauspicious Gods 吉凶神 in the spectrum of the 10 gods 十神.

BaZi Personality Profiling (BPP) is to merge the tools of modern Profiling techniques such as DISC that stands for Dominance (D), Inducement (I), Submission (S), and Compliance (C) and DOPE which stands for Dove (D), Owl (O), Peacock (P) and Eagle (E) with the aged old traditional BaZi Ten Gods 十神 structure comprising Friend 比, Wealth 财, Officer 官, Resource 印 and Produce 子, with its corresponding YinYang that produce the 10 profiles.
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Taking the essence of the modern DOPE profiling tool interpretation, we have the proprietary bird’s profile of phoenix (正财), dodo (偏财), dove (正官), vulture (七杀), sparrow (比肩), eagle (劫财), peacock (食神), parrot (伤官), ostrich (正印) and owl (偏印). 4 out of 10 are the original DOPE birds. This is an attempt of moving away from the BaZi 八字 personality profiling system developed by other schools. In short, there is nothing new – just the same 10 gods 十神 system that you so frequently acquainted in BaZi 八字 and now called it by another name.

This idea of determining the strength of chart becomes important because a perfect and ideal chart should have all the 5 elements 五行 BALANCED. One element is good enough, TWO is plenty. In reality such chart DOES NOT EXIST.

In a larger picture, when your Day Stem 日主 is WEAK, you prefer to see Resource 印 to make you stronger and Friends 比 to make you better. So, technically, Resource 印 and Friends 比 are your favourable god 吉神 known also as Positive Stars. That make Wealth 财 and Produce子 your unfavourable god 凶神 also known as Negative Stars, because both stars will weaken the Day Stem 日主 further.

Likewise, when your Day Stem 日主 is STRONG, you prefer to see Wealth 财 to enrich you and Produce 子 to weaken you. So, technically, Wealth 财 and Produce 子 are your favourable god 吉神 known also as Positive Stars. That make Resource 印 and Friends 比 your unfavourable god 凶神 also known as Negative Stars, because both stars will overly strengthen the Day Stem 日主.

The Positive Stars are your Positive Attributes while the Negative Stars are your Negative Attributes. Your Positive Attributes are your Strength while the Negative Attributes are your Weakness. These Strength and Weakness can only be distilled from the natal chart by first knowing if the Natal Chart is a weak or a strong chart.
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This technique is called – BALANCING THE CHART 扶抑. It is the most fundamental way in attempting to read a BaZi chart. The true art is not only to know how to differentiate between a weak and a strong chart but the secret technique of using the Officer star 官 as a Nobleman 贵人 instead of a Petty People 小人 as your Useful God 用神. 

​The SEASON you are born at determine the Main Qi that will have deep impact on you particularly your behavior. If the season that you are born same as you, the structure you are born in is called Friend Structure. If the season that you are born produce you, the structure you are born in is called Resource Structure. If the season that you are born controls you, the structure you are born in is called Officer Structure. If the season that you are born is the element produced by you, the structure you are born in is called Produce Structure. If the season that you are born is the element you control, the structure you are born in is called Wealth Structure. Structure will determine your PRIMARY PROFILE. Taking into considerations of your Day Stem polarity, you will be drawn to take up these 10 Primary profiles – phoenix (正财), dodo (偏财), dove (正官), vulture (七杀), sparrow (比肩), eagle (劫财), peacock (食神), parrot (伤官), ostrich (正印) and owl (偏印).          

ZiPing ZhenQuan  子平真诠 has this to say;

It means to say, the Useful God is found in the Month's Pillar Earthly Branches in relation to the Day Stem. Therefore, the STRUCTURE that determine your Primary Profile is your Useful God! 

​Your Day Stem indicates you – BORN TO BE PROFILE

The Strength of the Day Stem tells you your natural behavioral weakness and strength.

Your Structure indicates your useful god – PRIMARY PROFILE

This tell you 2 things –

1. Your most prominent character.
2. Your most obvious inclination.

Used these to your advantages.

But, you still need to deal with your “Inner Devil” – weaknesses…

This is where your altered ego comes into play – SECONDARY PROFILE

Everybody is born with a main behaviour and many secondary behaviours. Life is complicated. Sometimes we are like an eagle, while other time a parrot or a peacock. These 10 characteristic stereotypes knowing their strength and weaknesses enable us to use them effectively at our disposal. This art is called – USING THE 10 GODS.
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Let just assume you are the executioner type Vulture. Your positive set of value is this… and your weaknesses is this… You must altered your ego to be Resource and take the personality profile as an Owl to weaken your primary profile vulture. What installed as the positive attribute of the Owl will offset the negative value of the vulture. Resource grows you and weakened the Officer. This is the use of the SECONDARY PROFILE within you in the 10 Gods interplay.

Recap, in BaZi Personality Profiling, the main reference point is You. Therefore, you have this profile called, BORN TO BE PROFILE. It sticks with you forever and ever. It also shows your Personality Strength and Weaknesses. In BaZi jargon it is called Favorable and Unfavorable Gods. 

When you grew up, you will tend to take upon another set of Behavioral Patterns. This is your PRIMARY PROFILE. It tells you 2 things namely, your most prominent character and your most obvious inclination. They are your natural self - your Ego. In BaZi jargon it is called your Structure. It is where your Useful God is to be found.

​Useful God may be so useful but how do you use it to counter your dislikes and weaknesses? This is where you need to alter your Ego and use your SECONDARY PROFILE. In another words, use also your Unfavorable Gods by taking up other profiles. This is called mitigation. In BaZi jargon, you use the 10 Gods to your advantages through the art of WuXin ShengKe 五行生克法. 

One BaZi enthusiast says –
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“There is no such thing as weak and strong chart in Bazi… Most importantly there is no such thing as positive and negative stars.” 

... We will address this later ;-)