Bai Ya and Zhong Zi Qi 伯牙與鍾子期

《列子•湯問》

　　伯牙善鼓琴，鍾子期善聽。伯牙鼓琴，志在高山，鍾子期曰:‘善哉，峨峨兮若泰山！’志在流水，鍾子期曰：‘善哉，洋洋兮若江河！’伯牙所念，鍾子期必得之。子期死，伯牙謂世再無知音。乃破琴绝弦，终身不复鼓。



The story of “Zhi Yin 知音- knowing (my) music” comes from the ancient book Lie Zi 列子：
Bai Ya was skilful in playing the qin 琴. Zhong Zi Qi 鍾子期 excelled in music appreciation. When Bai Ya played the qin with his mind on the lofty mountains, Zhong Zi Qi said, “Wonderful, mountains as lofty as Tai Shan.” When Bai Ya’s mind was at the gurgling waters, Zhong Zi Qi said, “Wonderful, flowing like streams and rivers.” Whatever that was in Bai Ya’s mind, Zhong Zi Qi read it accurately. When Zi Qi died, Bai Ya lamented that no one knew his music in the world anymore. He broke his qin tearing the strings and never played music anymore for the rest of his life.

Today, we use the term "Zhi Yin 知音" to describe a friend who can really understand us and appreciate what we do.

Feng Shui Secret Codes 風水秘诀

This term is not unfamiliar in the Feng Shui world. Before we discuss whether or not there are such secret codes, we have to agree on one thing: Feng Shui methods did not come from Extraterestial visitors. They were invented by clever people in the past, are being invented by people today and will be invented in the future. The methods became secret codes because people in the past did not want to share their findings to unrelated outsiders. The excuse is made noble because these methods are very powerful and if fallen into the hands of unethical people, will violate the natural course of our world under Heaven. For example, the rich and immoral people will enjoy good Feng Shui because they can employ a Feng Shui master while the poor people will not have such blessings.

Well, every school of Feng Shui claims to possess some secret codes. Whether or not these so-called secret codes are of value cannot be examined by knowledgeable and unbiased people. Thus they will forever wear a mysterious mask and no one can tell whether the face behind the mask is beautiful or ugly. You can only use your imagination. Such tradition is the culprit to impede the developement of all branches of Chinese metaphysics.

The way Feng Shui and other metaphysical subjects are openly taught today makes it easier for practitioners to examine and verify the validity of various methods. Of course, there are some people who still claim to hold on to the secrets of their lineage and such secrets are sold only to indoor disciples at a very high price. Either they actually have nothing to sell or they are impeding the further development of metaphysics.

JY

2011 Melodic Element Calendar

I have compiled a NaYin WuXing Calendar for 2011 and packaged it in epp file. Please download it here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/58k7jy

My ebook "Melodic Elements" explains how to use the calendar:

http://www.astro-fengshui.com/misc/NaYinWuXing.html

JY

Let Heaven and Earth be your teacher

When I was 6 years old the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan and the People's Republic of China was established. The city of Canton was bombed by airplanes from Taiwan and my family moved to a small village outside Canton. There I spent two years running on the mountains bare-footed, catching butterflies on the mountains and small crabs by the river. At night, I watched the stars blinking on the dark sky. These two years helped me understand Feng Shui easily later.

When I teach the Form School today, I always ask my students to spend time to watch real mountains and rivers. Classroom teaching can only be guidelines. No teacher can be better than Heaven and Earth.

JY

Barcelona

Just come home from Barcelona where I gave the first Four Pillars Essential Course.

Feng Shui basics

A student asks me recently whether forms are most important in Feng Shui because a master tells him that he should only know forms and forget about stars.

Giving a simple yes/no answer to a question is never my cup of tea. This is what I tell my students all the time:

A person may be good looking or ugly. A person also has his own distinct character. He can be born with a good character or bad character. Most people are born with a mixed character. When an ugly person shows his kindness, he becomes good looking. When a person is rude and unkind, he looks ugly even if he is born handsome.

A person can be influenced by the environment and other people around to show the corresponding part of his character. If you understand this and make a good comparison between stars, forms, other stars around at different times, then you will understand how Feng Shui works.

JY

San Cai 三才

The idea of San Cai is fundamental in all kinds of Chinese studies. In recent years, some people Christianized the idea and created the term Cosmic Trinity.

The term San Cai first appears in the Ten Wings of the Yi Jing. In Xi Ci Zhuan 繫辭傳, it is said:

There is the Way (Dao) of Heaven, the Way of Man, the Way of Earth.
有天道焉，有人道焉，有地道焉。

In Shuo Gua Zhuan 說卦傳, it is said:

To establish the Way of Heaven, it is called Yin and Yang. To establish the Way of Earth, it is called softness and stiffness. To establish the Way of Man, it is called benevolence and righteousness.
是以立天之道，曰陰與陽；立地之道，曰柔與與剛；立人之道，曰仁與義。

The concept of polarity is obvious. Heaven is described as cycles of growing and decaying of darkness and brightness which in turn implies the cycles of time.

Earth is described as the contrasting pair of qualities of materials. This can be extended to cover flexibility and rigidness in a more abstract form.

Man is described as the basic quality of benevolence and the action of righteousness. This also gives rise to the concept of Body and Application, Ti and Yong (體用).

It is clever to associate San Cai with (year, month, day, hour) stars, house gua and ming gua in Feng Shui studies. At the same time it can be looked upon as abuse of the idea of San Cai. The beauty of the concept is totally lost.

JY

The Principle of Change

This is the principle we adopt in metaphysical studies. Everything is changing with time. Although time may be changing in cycles, there are cycles within cycles and even if a small cycle may be repeated, the enveloping larger cycle may be not and even if the larger cycle has come to the same point, a yet larger enveloping cycle may be not. Nothing can be repeated in identical conditions considering the span of life of human beings or even human civilization.

To require metaphysical theories to obey scientific discipline is simply fundamentally erred as repeatability is denied by the Principle of Change (or the Dao of Yi 易之道).

For example, when I cast coins to obtain a Gua to answer a certain question, even if someone else is casting the same kind of coins at the same location and time asking the same question, the result is unlikely the same. This is because the way I send my message cannot be the same as how others are doing. The human mind as an antenna to send and receive signals is very different from person to person.

Different realms are governed by different principles. Metaphysics has its own value even if a scientific minded person does not agree with this. It has always been my wish that metaphysics will gain the proper recognition for what it is by the scientific world.

JY

Full Moon

More on Master Ghost Valley translation

This book gives a sketch of the life path of a person under different headings. Most of the time, it presents a vivid picture of animals and plants to convey an idea. Sometimes, human beings are also included in the picture. Therefore, when you read this book, read it like appreciation of fine art. Inject life into art and appreciate the beauty. Be inspired to use your imagination with no confinement to what you see directly in the picture.

Master Ghost Valley might have developed a system to enable him to draw the picture of life based on the year and hour stems (and branches). Unfortunately, the system is not disclosed in the book. However, a lot of people have read the book and was impressed with the content. The reading touches the heart of the reader. I am one of them. That is why Foon and I decided to have it translated and offered it in English. Later on it may also be available in other languages. It is our wish that some readers may even be able to discover the theory behind the reading.

There are concerns about whether the readings from this book may be contradictory to readings using the Four Pillars of Destiny. For example, according to the book, life may be difficult in earlier years but enjoyable in old age while according to Four Pillars, the person may be doing well in ealier years and encounter failure in late years.

Since the book is based on the year and the hour, it is likely that the year is the body (Ti 體) while the hour the application (Yong 用). The person may come from a poor family and therefore has a difficult start. But he can do well by his talent and effort. There is no contradiction. In old age, the person may enjoy a deserved retirement according to the book. According to Four Pillars, he may have to suffer from failure in his career at a later stage in life. But it is not necessary that he cannot enjoy a peaceful life thereafter. There is also no contradiction. As a matter of fact, the two systems together provide more guidance to a person how to live a worthy life.

My friend Danny Van den Berghe suggests that the accuracy of the readings to be tested using a scientific method. Judging from the nature of the reading, it is not possible as most of the time it presents a picture like

"Mandarin ducks snooze cozily together,
Amongst blossoms, it’s a beautiful picture.
At night time lots of other birds gather around.
Yet you are still afraid of the rain and wind."

How do you design a scientific test to verify the accuracy?

Life reading is an art. The value is in how it touches the hearts of people and how to benefit from the guidance given. In other words, how to add colours to the picture to make it more beautiful is the way to receive a life reading.

JY

Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection

I always practise what I teach. As a matter of fact, before I am satisfied with the result, I do not teach such practices. Xuan Kong Da Gua is one of my favourite topics. Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection is what I always use before doing something very important.

I early 2008, one day after lunch in a restaurant, I passed by a bank and was invited to go in to take a look at their products. I was interested in their self-serviced online stock and share investment. After watching how simple it was to place orders, I decided to open an account and start trading. Well, I went home and use Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection to find a day and time that the gua qi communicate well with my own hexagram structure and went to open an account on that day and precisely that hour.

In 2008, the stock market was a typical bear market. However, I started with 100,000 dollars and by year end, my account was worth 132,000 dollars. During 2008, Dow Jones fell from 13,000 level to 9,000 level.

In August 2009, I added another 100,000 dollars to my account and by year end, the portfolio was worth 280,000 dollars. The return for the two years was not bad especially 2008 when most people lost money.

I also use Date Selection when I sell a house or lease a house. During the recent 5 years, I have sold my office, two houses and leased a house twice. I selected the date and hour to sign a contract with a realtor each time. The houses were all sold within 1 week with good price. The house for lease was also smoothly rented to people who took good care of the home and it took less than a week to have it rented.

I am sure there are a lot more successful case studies from my students who really practise this art.

JY

Sample ebook

Responding to Danny's good suggestion, I made a sample ebook available for download before making a decision to buy or not to buy:

www.astro-fengshui.com/misc/Sample.exe

It consists of
(1) Table of Contents
(2) Preface
(3) Foreword by Liu Ji, the celebrated military expert who assisted the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty ending the Mongolian rule in China.
(4) Using Chapter to get Margaret Thatcher's chart.
(5) Numeral 17 interpreting Margaret Thatcher's chart.
(6) Links to buy the ebook.

JY

When I was young

I got the first copy of Master Ghost Valley's book when I was 30. A friend found it in a used book store and thought I would love to read it. Well, I read the introduction and thought to myself, "How good can it be just using the year and hour stems to read the life of a person? It divides people into just 100 types. It may be better than reading the animal zodiac but that's it."

One day, when I read about the life of Gui Gu Zi 鬼谷子 I remembered this book and took it out. First I had to shake off the dust on it before opening the book. I turned naturally to the page that should give myself a reading. Then I was shocked. Of course there are some details that do not match my life but it provides some information that I do not want to but have to admit it is true.

The book does not explain how the results are derived from the input. I tried and am still trying to crack the code and had just a little bit of luck and this remains an unfinished project. It is also one of the reasons for the production of this ebook hoping that someone will take up the job of relating the mere info of the birth year and hour stems to the valuable information about the life of a person.


JY

New ebook

These days I have been busy with compiling a new ebook - Chinese Destiny Stars.

This book is a translation of Master Ghost Valley's work which may be a good guideline to see what we face in the future. The book may not really be Gui Gu Zi's work but it surprised a lot of scholars in the past as the description of their lives were amazingly similar to what was written in the book.

It took Foon and I many months to translate the book into English. Please go to my website to take a look:

http://www.astro-fengshui.com/misc/Destiny%20Stars.html

Joseph

Bad money drives out good money

King Henry VIII invented a method to increase the government’s income without raising taxes. He ordered the English shilling to be minted with 40% of the silver replaced by base metals. This was discovered by the people and the good shilling was driven out of circulation becoming a collector’s item for its true value. The result is known as Gresham’s Law: Bad money drives out Good.

When Sir Thomas Gresham explained his findings to Queen Elizabeth I, Henry VIII’s daughter, she called in the bad shillings her father minted, melted them down, extracted the silver and minted pure silver shillings. The bad money was eliminated and soon the pure silver shilling became the most sought after coin internationally leading England to become the super power of the world for many centuries thereafter.

It appears today fake Feng Shui practices drive out true Feng Shui practices. It is not easy to find a Queen Elizabeth I to restore good Feng Shui practices as the desire of living in a good environment cannot compete with the wishful thinking of getting rich instantly. It is even more difficult as such promotional slogans like "Burying in Yin (year) will result in getting rich in Mao (year) 寅葬卯发" were used by so-called "Great Feng Shui Masters" and people never questioned the credibility. It becomes almost a religious slogan and those who doubt this claim are looked upon as "not knowing genuine Feng Shui secrets" outsiders.

JY

What comes immediately after the Nina Wang Estate case

Waiting to change their luck paying a humble HK$8,800 (US$1 = HK$7.8).





Master Szeto using a hammer and a kitchen knife to remove sins from the man. The man will have to bathe himself for 7 days using flowers supplied by Master Szeto to seal up his body with the good luck injected in the ceremony.

About 100 men and women bought the service that took the master 6 minutes for each client and a total of about 10 hours to finish. The luck of both the master and the clients changed immeidately of course, the former $880,000 richer and the latter $8,800 each poorer.

JY

QMDJ analysis of a much-talked-about litigation

I asked my students to use Qi Men Dun Jia to give an analysis of the verdict based on the date and time when the verdict was delivered.


Eduardo Hess, one of my best students, has done a good job. Here is what he posted to the QMDJ group:

Dear Joseph, all


I haven't followed well this case (sorry) and I'm bit behind on
litigation analysis, but I'll give it a try.

It looks that ChinaChem had won the case

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8492596.stm
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/02/02/2010-02-02_feng_shui_master_denied_billionaire_businesswoman_nina_wangs_fortune_in_hong_kon.html


yang ju #3, gui wei day, ding si hour

Plaintiff (ChinaChem) is the guest as it initiated the case, and Tony
Chan (defendant) is the host.
Commander (plaintiff) is found in Li, and Hero, the Tian Yi
(defendant) is found in Qian. That also coincide with DS palace and HS
palace. Since Li controls Qian it looks as a clear cut victory on the
plaintiff side.
The judge (Open Door in Xun) favours the plaintiff and even though
witness statements and evidences (Harmonies in Qian) had some impact
on judge's decision, the plaintiff could rule them out. Actually the
judge felt much more convinced by plaintiff's statements (View in
Kan).
The lawyer (Shocking Door in Zhen) hasn't done his best for the
defendant, This palace favours the plaintiff palace and had
disagreement with the defendant palace.

Door Fan Yin chart makes the decision quick and fierce from the judge
side, yet plaintiff and defendant both on external palaces speak about
continuation.. this case does not seem to having ended here (going to
appeal?)

"Snake struggling twining" in plaintiff palace (Li) indicates
litigation about documents, with guest (Gui) controlling host (Ding)
within the palace, plaintiff had the upper hand by effectivly laid a
trap to discredit the will.
"Crimson Bird into jail" in defendant palace (Qian) - criminal
released and officer steps down, the cause has been lost and the
defendant is very disappointed and could fire his lawyer
"Trapped dragon injured" in lawyer palace (Zhen) is a loss in a
lawsuit. Defendant is angry at him (Qian controls Zhen)
"Fire star into imprisonment" into judge palace is about contracts and
agreements. Open in Xun is also about signatures, with strong Grass to
bridge metal and wood makes it quite effective on generating plaintiff
palace Li. Bing also represent money, Grass takes it and Heaven flies
the money out to plaintiff palace Li.

Special features:

"Earth Borrow" in defendent palace stands for hiding, making
preparation and exploring into secret affairs. To me indicates a
change in strategy while preparing future moves.
"Wonder wandering into Lu location" in judge palace is a positive
feature, it appears that judge's verdict will be hailed as a good and
wise decision by pubblic opinion. However "Heaven Dominance" over the
year stem Ji, had made him impatient and wishing to conclude the case
in the most socially acceptable way. There might be regrets in the
future.
"Dancing Snake struggling twining" in plaintiff palace: even though he
won the case, it has been accomplished with twisted means, his fortune
cames most from the judge's ideas than from his own ability (official
in the palace also makes him quite stubborn)
"Venus entering Mars" in plaintiff statements palace is an indication
of how he presented the case: Nina Wong's will has been forged and
documentation is fake. However the palace is Void acording to the
hour. That would likely stand for inconsistencies on his assertions
and a cause for further developments.
"Forbidden Five Hours", hour stem clashes day stem (actually the date
is a full clash with the month too), not a positive feature at all.
The story doesn't end here, there will be future consequences.


Conclusions: this interpretation comes out purely from my attempt to
read the chart with no background about the case. Hope it doesn't
appear as a complete nonsense :-)


Best of Qi

Edu

Nina Wang Estate Case

The judgement was announced yesterday:

The 2006 Will is a forgery.
It is not a Fung Shui Will.

The part of the verdict related to Fung Shui is worth our attention:

"Fung Shui is not a universally accredited discipline being taught in our formal education system. As far as Hong Kong is concerned, any person can run a Fung Shui class or held himself out as a Fung Shui practitioner or master based on his or her own knowledge or understanding of Fung Shui. There is no independent objective assessment (and by the inherent nature of the subject I doubt if there can be such assessment) and thus no quality assurance whatsoever. Against such background, it is rather futile to debate whether a person is a good Fung Shui master or whether a particular Fung Shui theory or practice is sound."

It is absolutely true and I am afraid that no matter how hard we try to treat Fung Shui studies parallel to scientific methods, our effort will be brutally crushed by the supersitious nature of human kind.

The judgement continues to elaborate:

"Therefore, the evidence of Mr. Joseph Yu, focussing on the validity and consistency of the alleged Fung Shui practices with some Fung Shui theories, based on his own research by reading some works on Fung Shui and logic and common sense, were quite beside the point. I do not find such evidence to be of much assistance in this trial. Even though Fung Shui is not a science, Mr. Yu developed his Fung Shui theory by making use of mathematical methods and his own logical deductions. It is not my function to adjudicate whether such an approach is sound. But there is no evidence that his approach is shared by many practitioners in Hong Kong. Mr. Yu taught classes and practised his Fung Shui overseas but not in Hong Kong or the mainland or Taiwan. Therefore he cannot give useful evidence as regards local practices. He frankly admitted that he had no knowledge of Taoist practices and Fa discipline. He did not practise planting of life base though he had researched into it on a theoretical level. He was thereofore not in a position to dispute Master Szeto's evidence that the Celestial Altas (as shown in the Fung Shui notes compiled by Mr. Leung) was about planting of life base, Mao Shan art of divination and closely related to the Fa discipline."

Well, when gimmicks and even malpractices are offered with good marketing to prey on the foolish side of human nature, the rigorous discipline of Fung Shui is looked upon as an obsolete game played by a few stubborn old men. I admitted earlier that I could not provide evidence to disprove that the will was not a Fung Shui will. I also pointed out that if it eventually is ruled as not a Fung Shui will, it is because Master Szeto cannot provide evidence to prove that it is.

JY

A story of two different lives with the same chart

This is a real story that is about a century old.

A servant of a rich man had a son born and the four pillars were taken to a famous astrologer for a reading. The astrologer said, "The baby has the famous Yi supported by a noble rat type of chart. His achievement will be great." The servant went home happily.

The rich man also had a son born on the same day at the same time. He also asked the same astrologer for a reading. The astrologer said, "This baby will live a happy normal life without much achievement." The wealthy man was very disappointed and said angrily to the astrologer, "Why do you give two entirely different readings on the same chart? My servant's son was born at the same time as my son. Why will he have great achievement while my son will be ordinary? You don't deserve the great name you earned."

The astrologer said in a calm voice, "Well, the rat works well in the dark. Your servant's son was born without much light as he is from a poor family. Your son was born with so much light in the room as if he was born in day time. The rat cannot work well in a bright environment. Therefore, the rat for your son is not the noble rat."

The story tells us a lot, right?

JY

What will be, will be!

A man went to an astrologer for a reading. The astrologer told him that he would die 3 days later being hit by a car. The man thought, "If I stay home, then I will not be hit by a car and I will not die."

Three days later, the man stayed inside his house enjoying a well-earned holiday at home. It was a house with a loft overlooking the living room where he watched TV. His five-year old son was playing with a diecast alloy car on the loft. The car flew off the loft, dropped and hit the man's head. He died.

The astrologer was very accurate, right? The story passes out a fatalistic message that no matter what you do, you cannot change your fate.

There is a song in the fifties: Que Sara Sara. This is the first part of the lyric:

When I was just a little girl,
I asked my mother, "What will I be?
Will I be pretty, will I be rich?"
Here's what she said to me:

Que sara sara,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see.
Que sara sara,
What will be, will be.

A lot of people misinterpret this song as saying "Whatever will be cannot be change no matter what we do. " Therefore, will a child grow up to be pretty and rich will all be predetermined. There is no need to know our future. Just accept whatever come to us.

In fact, the line "The future's not ours to see" is the essence of this song. It tells us that the future depends on what we do today. Therefore it is not ours to see today. What will be, will be the result of what we do now.

Astrology can be accurate about what comes to us. It cannot be accurate about the outcome because we have a choice what to do and what not to do. This affects the outcome.

JY

Experimental Error

When we collect data to be applied to a formula, we talk about accuracy. That is to say, we want the accuracy to be as close to 100% as possible. This involves the accuracies of the instruments used to get the data. This also involves the way the measurement is taken.


Let us say, we have to measure 4 items: A, B, C and D.

Assume that A can be measured correct to 1 decimal place, B correct to 2 decimal places, C correct to 3 decimal places while D correct to the nearest whole number.Then the accuracy of the experiment is not even correct to the nearest whole number.


The problem of using the birth year, month, day and hour to get the correct natal chart is from the birth hour. Yes, we use true solar time to define the birth hour. Since we are using the clock to measure time, we have to take care of the accuracy of the clock, we have to adjust to standard time if there is Dayligh Savings Time. We have to adjust to longitude and we have to take care of the equation of time. All these are in our control.

However, we do not know for sure how and when the birth hour is taken. It may be half an hour after the baby is born as it is very busy in the delivery room.

Well, then the accuracy is not better than half an hour off no matter how careful we have taken care of all other items.

Therefore, there is nothing to boast about how accurate the natal chart is. The ancient astrologers have taught us that if the chart does not reflect the life of a person, then we must examine two other charts.

JY