Thursday, February 8, 2018

BaZi Analysis - Classical system vs Modern system

A lot of readers are probably thinking that information in this blog can be used to complement the BaZi knowledge they already gained from studying modern books. Well, really that is not the case. Classical BaZi has very different rules from modern BaZi. The two are distinct systems, easily distinguishable from each other.

In this post, I want to present some core differences between the two system. Before that, let me say that I am better versed in the classical system and I might not be totally correct with the modern system

1. The function of the strength of DM

In modern BaZi, the strength of the DM is given the highest priority. In general, Strong DM prefers Outputs, Wealth and Officers while Weak DM prefers Parallels and Seals.

In classical BaZi, the strength of the DM is secondary to chart structure. Strong DM is favorable when the structure is Wealth, Officer or Output. Weak DM is favorable when the structure is Seal.


2. The function of chart structure and useful god

In modern BaZi, chart structure or useful god can be derived from any of the stems or branches in the chart, after referencing the strength of the DM to the month EB

In classical BaZi, chart structure and useful god can only be derived from the month EB, unless the month EB carries no useful god, as in the case of JianLu / YueJie structure.


3. Benevolent and Malevolent Gods

Modern BaZi does not stress the importance of grouping the gods into these two categories, hence, the two polarities often carry the same functions

Classical Bazi stresses heavily on the difference between benevolent and malevolent gods. Benevolent gods are Food god, Wealth, Officer and Seal. Malevolent gods are Hurting Officer, 7K, YangRen and Owl god (Indirect Seal).

A very obvious difference is in modern BaZi, a strong DM does not favor Indirect Seal. In classical BaZi however, DM is preferred to be strong when the structure is Indirect Seal.


4.  The concept of 顺用 'going towards' and 逆用 'going against'

In modern BaZi, this concept is rarely emphasized as the focus of the analysis is on the strength of DM, weighing the DM against all other stems and branches

In classical BaZi, this concept is very important. It is the basis of analyzing BaZi. Without understanding what are they, it is impossible to run an analysis

There are a lot of information in this blog and it is can be overwhelming to BaZi beginners. Also, it can be very confusing to modern bazi practitioners as to why the information in this blog contradicts what they have learnt before.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Di Tian Sui - How to know if someone is poor?

DTS says:

何知其人贫,财神反不真
How to know if the person is poor? Wealth god is not true.

True and Fake is an important concept in DTS. There is a verse that explains it. It goes like this

令上寻其聚得真,
Look for the one on the command for it gathers to be true

假神休要乱真神,
The fake god do not disturb to true god,

真神得用生平贵,
The true god attains usefulness, one's life is noble

用假终为碌碌人。
Use the unreal, one is merely a commoner.

真假参差难辨论,
The mixing of the true and the fake is difficult to analyze,

不明不暗受困顿。
That is not apparent, that is not obscured, is poverty stricken,

提纲不与真神照,
The Outline that is not illuminating with the true god,

暗处寻真也有真。
In obscured places, look for the real, it is also attainable. 

Apparently, this does not explain anything. It is just saying a bunch of random stuff to confuse people even more.

But I believe, that 'not true' refers to not being useful or being malicious. There is a section of QLMG that summarizes this but I disagree with part of it. Anyway I will still post it here just as reference and explain a little why I disagree or agree with QLMG

千里命稿 - 贫贱凶夭篇

伤轻财重。Light HO and Heavy Wealth
I don't agree with this in general. When DM is strong with Wealth as the Useful God, Wealth is preferably strong, and Officer is definitely preferred over HO. But a weak HO is better than a strong HO as strong Wealth does not need to be engendered anymore

财轻官重。Light Wealth and Heavy Officer
If the Useful God is Wealth, naturally Wealth is strong as it is rooted in Month EB, but if it is an Officer structure, with strong Officer, it really does not matter if Wealth is light or heavy.

伤重,印轻,身弱。Heavy HO, Light Seal, Weak Self
First of all, what structure are we talking about? If it is a HO structure, yes, completely true. If it is a Seal structure, Seal would have already been strong because it is from Month EB


财重,劫轻,身弱。Heavy Wealth, Light RobWealth, Weak Self,
I completely disagree with this. For Wealth structure, Weak Self favors Seal, not RobWealth. When Self is weaker than RobWealth, RobWealth will really rob the Wealth stars from DM. Rendering DM penniless.

财轻喜食,伤而印旺。Light Wealth favors Food and HO while Seal is prosperous
For a Wealth structure, Wealth is normally strong. So usually Seal is auspicious. For a Direct Seal structure, Wealth is never preferred. For Indirect Seal structure, Wealth is truly necessary.

财轻劫重,食伤不现。Light Wealth and Heavy RobWealth, outputs are absent.
True, this applicable to RobWealth structure.

财多喜劫,官星制劫。Many Wealth and RobWealth is favorable, Officer is restricting RobWealth
Depends really on what structure the chart is.
For Wealth structure, Officer is always favored
For Officer structure, Wealth is always favored
For Rob Wealth structure, both Officer and Wealth are favored.
I can't think of a scenario where this is applicable

喜印而财星坏印。Favors Seal but Wealth injures Seal
True, for Seal structure with Weak DM, Wealth star is completely unfavorable

忌印而财星生官。Seal is not favorable but Wealth star is engendering Officer

Seal is rarely unfavorable. Unless it is a Food god structure and Indirect Seal is present. In that case, Wealth star is favorable but Wealth engendering Officer is definitely not favorable.

喜财而财神被合。Favors Wealth but Wealth is combined

Yes true, when Wealth is favorable and it got combined, it loses it function and the structure fails.

官杀旺而喜印,财星得局。Officer and 7K are prosperous and Seal is favored but Wealth has the formation (triple combo). 

This, I disagree with. Strong Officer or 7K will always protects Seal from Wealth.

财为忌神。
Wealth as the unfavorable god.
When it is the 7K structure, Wealth becomes unfavorable but if it protrudes then the structure fails completely. I totally with this.

用财而被冲破。

Wealth is the Useful God but it is being clashed or broken.
I am not so sure about this. I am only certain that Officer star should never be clashed or broken. I need to check

凡命局有如上述情形,皆主贫也。

Whichever chart that has the conditions above, all denote poverty.

Well, that's all for this article. 



BaZi: ZPZQ - JianLu / YueJie - RobWealth Structure

Trey's explanation:
JianLu 建禄 - literally 'building prosperity' 

In this case, 

建 Jian (building) refers to things happening in a certain month as in 建子, happening in month of Zi,
禄 Lu refers to Salary, as in 爵禄, JueLu, Salary of a certain rank of nobility 

When a certain DM is born in a certain month, without other useful gods, then only RobWealth structure can be considered


The month DM is born must be of th same element of the DM

DM.        Month
Jia           Yin
Yi.           Yin and Mao
Bing.        Si
Ding.        Si and Wu
Wu.         Si or any of the Chen Xu Chou Wei, when the dominant DHHS falls under earth
Ji.            Si and Wu or any of the earth month when DHHS is earth, same like above
Geng.       Shen
You.         Shen or You
Ren.         Hai
Gui.         Hai and Zi

For the ones listed below, it is considered YangRen structure which is different from JianLu,

Jia in Yin, Bing in Wu, Wu in Wu, Geng in You, Ren in Zi. 

Some practitioners earth has no YangRen but that is really subjective. 

The other element in the month command does not protrude or move (meaning combine in the EB).


Eg if Jia is born in Yin with protruding Bing, it is regarded as Indirect Seal structure, Protruding Wu is regarded as Indirect Wealth structure. When both are absent and another Jia protrudes, then it is considered RobWealth structure.

原文:建禄者,月建逢禄堂也,禄即是劫。
JianLu, is where the month (of birth) sees the 'Salary Hall' (can be regarded as a type of ShenSha), Lu equals to Jie (Rob Wealth).

或以禄堂透出,即可依以用者,非也。
Or if Salary Hall protrudes in HS, then it can be relied on and be used, no, that is not the case.  

故建禄与月劫,可同一格,不必加分,皆以透干支,别取财官煞食为用。
Thus, JianLu and Month RobWealth are one structure, there is no need to separate them, even if they protrude in HS, take others such as Wealth, Officer, Devil or Food as Use (the useful god)


原文:禄格用官,干头透出为奇,又要财印相随,不可孤官无辅。
For Lu structure that uses Officer, Officer protruding in the HS must be accompanied by Wealth and (or) Seal to be a good structure, a solitary Officer without assistance is not good. 

有用官而印护者,如庚戌、戊子、癸酉、癸亥,金丞相命是也。
Using Officer while being protected by Seal such as

Gui    Gui     Wu     Geng
Hai    You     Zi       Xu

Chart of prime minister Jin

有用官而财助者,如丁酉、丙午、丁巳、壬寅,李知府命是也。
Using Officer and is assisted by Wealth

Ren      Ding      Bing      Ding
Yin        Si          Wu        You

The chart of Governor Lee (approximation of the title of nobility) 

原文:有官而兼带财印者,所谓身强值三奇,尤为贵气。
When there is Officer and is accompanied by Wealth and Seal, Self is strong and it is regarded as SanQi (the three wonders), this is specially a very noble Qi.

三奇者,财官印也,只要以官隔之,使财印两不相伤,其格便大,如庚午、戊子、癸卯、丁巳,王少师命是也。
SanQi is Wealth, Officer and Seal. Officer must be in between Wealth and Seal so the two do not injure each other; this structure is much bigger, such as

Ding     Gui      Wu      Geng
Si         Mao     Zi         Wu

The chart of Grand Preceptor Wang

*Note, The Grand Preceptor, The Grand Tutor and The Grand Protector are collectively known as the Three Excellencies 三公 in ancient China. They are the highest (True first) rank (正一品) any government officer can attain. 

原文:禄劫用财,须带食伤,盖月令为劫而以财作用,二物相克,必以伤食化之,始可转劫生财,如甲子、丙子、癸丑、壬辰,张都统命是也。
When Lu or Rob Wealth uses Wealth, it must carry Food or HO, as the month command is Rob Wealth and the chart uses Wealth, the two elements counter each other, thus the outputs are necessary to solve this, they transform RobWealth into Wealth. Such as

Ren     Gui       Bing      Jia
Chen    Chou     Zi         Zi

The chart of General Zhang (都统 'loosely - general' was the among highest rank (一品) in military service in Qin dynasty)

原文:至于化劫为财,与化劫为生,尤为秀气。
As for transforming RobWealth to Wealth, it transforms disaster into an opportunity, that is especially elegant Qi. 

如己未、己巳、丁未、辛丑,丑与巳会,即以劫财之火为金局之财,安得不为大贵?
Such as

Xin     Ding     Ji      Ji 
Chou   Wei     Si      Wei

Chou and Si combine, that turns the fire that is RobWealth into the Metal structure that is Wealth, how is it not greatly noble? 


所谓化劫为财也。如高尚书命,庚子、甲申、庚子、甲申,即以劫财之金,化为生财之水,所谓化劫为生也。
For transforming Rob Wealth int Wealth, such as 

Jia       Geng        Jia        Geng
Shen     Zi          Shen        Zi

The RobWealth which is metal, is being transformed into water (that engenders Wealth). 
that is the chart of Secretary Gao (The Qin government had 6 departments, each department head is sort of like a secretary)

原文:禄劫用煞,必须制伏,如娄参政命,丁巳、壬子、癸卯、己未,壬合丁财以去其党煞,卯未会局以制伏是也。
RobWealth uses 7K, must be restrained, such as

Ji     Gui     Ren      Ding
Wei  Mao    Zi         Si

Ren combines away Ding (Wealth), which is protecting 7K while Mao and Wei combines to restraint 7K, the chart of high minister Lou

原文:至用煞而又逢财,本为不美,然能去煞存财,又成贵格。戊辰、癸亥、壬午、丙午,合煞存财,袁内阁命是也。
As for 7K that meets Wealth, is originally not good, but to (combine) away 7K and leaves Wealth, it becomes a noble structure.

Bing    Ren     Gui       Wu
Wu       Wu     Hai       Chen

7K is combined and Wealth is left, the chart of Cabinet minister Yuan

原文:其禄劫之格,无财官而用伤食,泄其太过,亦为秀气。
For RobWealth structure that has neither Wealth nor Officer but uses Food or HO to exhausts the over(ly strong DM), it is also considered elegant Qi

唯春木秋金,用之则贵,盖木逢火则明,金生水则灵。
Only for Wood born in Spring and Metal born in Autumn, using this is considered noble, as wood meets fire is bright, metal engenders water is soulful.

如张状元命,甲子、丙寅、甲子、丙寅,木火通明也;。
Like this guy's chart who got the first place in the imperial exam

Bing     Jia      Bing       Jia
Yin        Zi       Yin        Zi 

又癸卯、庚申、庚子、庚辰,金水相涵也
and  

Geng     Geng      Geng     Gui
Chen      Zi          Shen     Mao

原文:更有禄劫而官煞竞出,必取清方为贵格。
Also, there are charts where both Officer and 7K are protruding. They (DO or 7K) have to be cleared to be regarded as noble

如一平章命,辛丑、庚寅、甲辰、乙亥、合煞留这也
Such as 

Yi      Jia      Geng      Xin
Hai    Chen   Yin       Chou

7K is combined away and DO is left 

;如辛亥、庚寅、甲申、丙寅,制煞留官也。

Bing     Jia      Geng     Xin
Yin      Shen     Yin       Hai

7K is being restraint and DO is saved


原文:倘或两官竞出,亦须制伏,所谓争正官不可无伤也
Or, if two DO are protruding, they must also be restrained. As in the saying 'Competing Officers must be injured' 

原文:若夫用官而孤官无辅,格局更小,难于取贵,若透伤食便不破格。
If the structure uses DO and DO is without assistance (without Wealth or Seal), it becomes a small structure (low ranking), difficult to be regarded as noble, if HO or Food are protruding, it is regarded as broken structure.

然亦有官伤并透而贵者,何也?
But there are cases where DO is used and HO protruding that is noble, why?

如己酉、乙亥、壬戌、庚子,庚合乙而去伤存官,王总兵命也。
Such as

Geng     Ren     Yi      Ji
Zi           Xu     Hai     You

Geng combines away Yi to leave save Officer, the chart of General Wang (True second rank 正二品 ) 

原文:用财而不透伤食,便难于发端,然干头透一位而不杂,地支根多,亦可取富,但不贵耳。
Use Wealth but the outputs are not protruding, it is very difficult to be successful. If one is protruding in the HS and is not 'messy' while having many roots in the EBs, that can be regarded as wealthy but not noble.

原文:用官煞重而无制伏,运行制伏,亦可发财,但不可官煞太重,致令身危也
Use Officer or 7K but without restraint, when Luck Pillars go to restraint, one can also become wealthy, but the Officers should not be too heavy, as that endangers Self.

End

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Chart structure: DiTianSui: Follow output 顺局 - Forward Structure

Forward structure, sometimes referred as follow output or follow son, is well, a follow structure. Follow output is rather special compared to other follow structures because it does not take into account the strength of DM. 

DTS says:

一出门来只见儿,
Once getting out of the door only the son is seen,

吾儿成气构门闾:
My son gets the Qi to form the gates (of the village and the city)

从儿不管身强弱,
Follow son does not matter if self is strong or weak, 

只要吾儿又得儿。
As long as my son also gets (his) son.


Door, obviously refers to the month EB, Firstly, output must be seen in the month EB. Secondly, the phrase talks about getting out of the door, which I think refers to protruding in the HS. Thus, the criteria for a follow output chart should be

1. DM born in the months of the output
2. Output protrudes in the HS

The second phrase talks about getting the Qi and forming the gates. In my opinion, It implies that the Qi of the output must be so strong it encompasses the Qi of other elements.

The third phrase is self explanatory. It does not matter if DM is strong or weak when it comes to follow output. 

The fourth phrase emphasize on the presence of Wealth elements in the chart. My son is clearly the output, My son's son is clearly the wealth. 

In summary, to get a good follow output structure. The criteria are:

1. Month EB must be output
2. Output must protrude in the HS
3. The Qi of output is the strongest
4. Wealth element must be present in the chart
5. Regardless weather DM's strength is strong or weak, as long as output and wealth are strong, it can be considered a good chart.
6. Output has to be strong and engendering Wealth

Like for example this chart










Chart of a president of a country

1. Output is overwhelmingly strong in Month EB and hour EB
2. Output protrudes in Year and Hour HS
3. Wealth protrudes in Month HS and is moved by Yin-Wu combination
4. DM is weak but it really does not matter
5. Strong output engendering strong wealth 








Thursday, January 18, 2018

BaZi: DTS DiTianSui and 何知章 How to know if a person is wealthy?


The ugly thing about DTS is that it is so cryptic. It is so difficult to digest.

The beautiful thing about this cryptic poem is that every single word was chosen to mean something. Translating a single word incorrectly or omitting just one word from translation will give an entirely different meaning.

DiTianSui literally means Drips of Heavenly Marrow. Marrow in this context more likely means 'Essence'. as in 精髓 JingSui. So Di Tian Sui most likely means Drips of Heavenly Essence.

It is just drips, it's not the entire body of watery essence. Just drops of essences to get us intrigued. That is why it is so cryptic. It's not meant to tell us the entire picture.

I was talking about the Original DTS without any of the annotations or commentary. Commentaries can be good but they may or may not represent the original author's point of view. That is a debatable subject and it is for us to come to our own conclusions.

This is one part of the poem that I wasn't able to figure out.

DTS says:

何知其人富,财气通门户
How to know if a person is wealthy? The Wealth Qi connects through the portals

How do we know if a person is wealthy just by looking at his Bazi chart? That's easy, just see if the Wealth Qi connects through the portals 门户.

Okay, what the heck are the portals? Note that it's a plural term

The Chinese word for portals 门户 MenHu is made of two words, 门 'Men' and 户 'Hu'

门 Men is actually doors with two panels like this, the traditional chinese character is more graphical and it looks like this 門, which looks like the picture below














While 户 Hu means a single panel door that looks like this














Okay.... So DTS says if one is rich, Wealth Qi must connect through the doors in the Bazi chart.

Where are the doors in a Bazi chart?

Well, I am pretty sure that one of the doors is the Month EB or YueLing. I think I read it in one of the old classics that Month EB is sometimes referred to as the door but I can't figure out which one of the classics.

And since the two panel doors refer to the Month EB, the only logical deduction for where the one panel door is, is the Hour EB.

This is the only deduction that make sense. Other classics like SMTH analyzes heavily on both Month and Hour EB.

How to know if someone is rich? when Wealth Qi connects through the Month and Hour EB.

In modern words: Wealth star needs to participate in the dynamics that comes from the Month and Hour EB


So let's take an example, this guy












Month EB -> Owl God, Malevolent Deity, it needs to be suppressed by Wealth
Minister God -> Wealth Ding protruding directly on top of Wei n hour EB


So Wealth is in the dynamics of the two doors. Is that how to see if one is rich?

I am afraid there is no concrete answer to this. We will have to come to our own understandings. Or, if you choose to study the annotations and commentaries, you will get to the commentators understanding.







Case Study: An old request to read a chart

Found this post among a pile of posts that I didn't publish

This post was to help a reader of this blog to decipher a set of BaZi.

Male,

Born 5th Sept 1981

in Hong Kong.

After time adjustment, I find the LAT to be 3.16 AM

This is the BaZi chart:


bazi-calculator.com















Bing DM born three days before White Dew, the Month Command is Geng Metal.

Shen-You-Xu forms a full metal frame in the EB.

Bing on the month pillar and Xin on the year pillar are combined and transformed (to metal)

Chart structure: Wealth First, Seal After 先财后印
The god in charge (YueLing): Wealth
Minister god XiangSheng: Seal
Positive: Strong Wealth structure with slightly strong DM rooted in hour.
Negative: Neither Seal nor Officer are protruding
Favorable: Seal stars: wood

So much metal.. So much wealth

Wealth structure, DM is ChangSheng in Yin and entombed in Xu. DM has Qi and is strong

This guy should be successful in his old age (where Seal resides)

先财后印, 反成其福
First Wealth and Seal after, inadvertently becomes fortune. 

Friday, January 5, 2018

Case Study - Warren Buffet












I was browsing through some charts and this one particularly sparked my interest

1. Ren Water born in Shen month with protruding Geng is clearly Indirect Seal structure.
2. Indirect Seal structure favors 2 conditions
     -  Wealth star
     -  Strong Self
    Both conditions are met within the chart.

3. Wealth is the minister god 相神. Wealth Ding is supported by Jia and is rooted in Wu and Wei. It is strong
4. Strong Indirect Seal, Strong DM and Strong Wealth star, satisfy all the conditions for a good chart.

More information on how to analyze an Indirect Seal structure:

1. Discussing Indirect Seal from SMTH part 1
2. Discussing Indirect Seal from SMTH part 2