It's Good to be Creative (4)

The Gan-Zhi system (Stem-Branch) was created by Da Nao 大撓 by order of the Yellow Emperor. Legend also talked about how the Mysterious Lady of the Nine Heavens 九天玄女 gave the system to the Yellow Emperor. It remains only a legend. Anyway, the Gan-Zhi system led to the creation of the calendar using the sixty Stem-Branch binomials to label the year, month, day and hour. It is easy to find that the year and month are derived from the revolution of the earth around the sun while the day and hour are derived from the rotation of the earth about its own axis. We are amazed at the intelligence of the ancient people if we do not want to believe that the system was a gift from aliens from the outer space who visited our earth in the form of gods and goddesses.

With the assignment of the five elements to the stems and branches together with the concept of strength and weakness of the elements according to the time of the year, the study of the Four Pillars of Destiny was invented. Obviously the strength of the stems and branches depend of the time of the year and the location of the place we are referring to. 

Some people are creative to say that the calendar for the northern hemisphere cannot be the same as the calendar for the southern hemisphere. They say that summer in the northern hemisphere is winter in the southern hemisphere and therefore, they should not use the same calendar. When it is the Zi month 子月 in the northern hemisphere it should be the Wu month 午月in the southern hemisphere. When it is the Yin month 寅月in the northern hemisphere it should be the Shen month 申月in the southern hemisphere.  Superficially it sounds reasonable but what is under the superficial coat is something that can be easily overruled. 

The strength of the five elements depends on time (Heaven), geographical location (Earth) and the input by people (Man). The stem and branch are determined by time alone as the revolution of the earth around the sun is not affected by where you are on earth. The strength of the stem and branch depends on the location and the human activities because of the local climatic conditions. Even in the northern hemisphere, there is a marked difference in the strength of the stem and branch near the north pole and near the equator. The temperature control in buildings and the human activities also changes the strength of the five elements. 

The names of the 24 seasonal points have meaning only in temperate zones in the northern hemisphere. This is true. The names were created to help the farmers in ancient times in China. We can replace them by numbers or alphabets if we choose to. Then people in the southern hemisphere will feel more comfortable when they study the Four Pillars of Destiny. 

One more point I want to bring out is that the five elements are further classified in terms of yin and yang. When we study the twelve stages of life of an element, we must not forget the rule of "yin is born when yang is dead and vice versa" 隂死陽生，陽死隂生. Yin and yang also go through the twelve stages in the anti-clockwise and clockwise directions respectively.

It is good to be creative, but only if it is not done with a skin-deep understanding.

 

It's Good to be Creative (3)

There are a lot of technical problems we encounter when we practice Chinese Metaphysics. For example, in studying the Four Pillars of Destiny, how should we take the hour of birth so as to obtain the correct chart?

Theoretically, we should use the true local solar time of birth of the person. In ancient days, ordinary people watched the shadow of the sun and told the time from experience. At night, the government used a graduated cylinder of water to tell the hour and employed people to announce the hour walking every street. Obviously, the time cannot be reliable. Therefore, astrologers in China in the old days followed this rule: When in doubt, test three hours to find out which one applies 不準但作三時看.

Today, we have the clock that tells time reasonably accurately. However, the time zone covers 15 degrees of longitude and each degree is equal to 4 minutes of time. The true local solar time for 2 places within the same time zone can differ by as much as 1 hour although the clocks read the same in the two places. To be more accurate, the equation of time tells even more accurately the true local solar time. However, we must not rigidly say that the supposedly most accurate method of using the equation of time must be employed for the purpose of erecting the correct hour pillar. This is because there is another principle in science that is ignored. In using a formula that consists of several variables, the accuracy is determined by the product of the individual accuracies of all the variables. The accuracy of the birth hour depends on how we get this value and of course the other factors that affect the deviation of the "clock time" from the true local solar time. You can see that in the old days when the clock was not used, the hour was very questionable. Today, it is much more reliable. However, we do not know when the time of birth is recorded in the delivery room. You can imagine the doctor and nurses must be very busy taking care of the mother and baby. How accurate will the birth time on record be? 

Yes, we should try to be as accurate as possible to get the true local solar time with every scientific adjustment. We still must not forget the rule used by ancient astrologers - when in doubt, try three hours to see which one is true. Remember that one Shi 時 is equivalent to 2 hours of today. The rule should be quite enough. To use the clock time without any adjustment is ignorance. To say that using scientific adjustment the hour will be free from mistakes is arrogant. Use adjustments but never forget the ancient rule of testing for truth.

Well, today there are "creative" people who advocate the use of the clock time without any adjustment, even the artificial daylight savings time should not be adjusted. This, they say, is because they use the principle of synchronicity. What I can say is that destiny reading is the study of qi in terms of the yin and yang and five elements. It is NOT divination and therefore the principle of synchronicity does not apply.

If destiny reading is divination, then why not just use any date and time that strikes your mind when someone wants a reading? This solves the problem when someone really does not know when he was born.

It is good to be creative only with sound reasoning.

It's Good to be Creative (2)

In the same way, if one tries to use the Lunar Calendar for Four Pillars of Destiny, one should aim at developing a complete system. The year begins on Lunar New Year Day. Each month begins with the first day of the lunar month. In other words, the Year Pillar changes on the first day of the lunar year. The Month Pillar changes on the first day of each lunar month. The problem arises with the Lunar Leap Year (Ren Nian 閏年). If there is an additional month, then  this month will consist of double the number of days of an ordinary month. The consideration of the strength of the five elements will also be quite awkward. If one is using the lunar calendar, then one must not refer to the solar calendar to define the 12 stages of life. 

Furthermore, the luck pillars will also have to be defined according to the lunar calendar referring to the first day of the month and not to the Jie. 

In other words, there are just too many problems arising from using the lunar calendar. To mix the two calendars in one system is just a joke. It is not the attitude of a serious researcher. 

Joseph Yu

It is Good to be Creative (1)

Chinese Metaphysics consists of living systems. They are living in the sense that they are not passed down by extraterrestrial beings from outer space and passed down from generation to generation without changes.

In the study of Four Pillars of Destiny, the late Mr. Wu Jun Min 吴俊民 invented the theory of changing the Year Pillar at Dong Zhi 冬至起年. He had some followers and I am of the opinion that his attitude was right.

However, I am also of the opinion that his findings are premature as he failed to establish a complete system. Merely moving the starting point of a year to Winter Solstice is definitely not enough. The beginning of a year should also be the beginning of a month – the first month of the year. Thus, the month should also begin at Zhong Qi 中氣 and not Jie 節. The word Zhong 中 should also be omitted from the term Zhong Qi 中氣 because it is not the middle of a month but the beginning of a month now.

The way luck pillars are derived should also change. Instead of counting the birth day towards the previous/next Jie, the counting should be towards the previous/next Qi. This is because Qi instead of Jie is the beginning of a month now.

If anyone wants to do research work in this direction, he is most encouraged. I find Mr. Wu’s case studies simply disprove his ideas. I showed the case of Astrologer Liu of Min Xiong 民雄柳相士 in an article I wrote on this blog several months ago. If anyone wants to advocate that the month begins with Qi instead of Jie and the year begins with Winter Solstice, it becomes legitimate provided convincing case studies accompany the hypothesis.

Joseph Yu

The ugliest building in China

This is the newly crowned ugliest building in China. This is the building of Ren Min Ri Bao 人民日報 - People's Daily. Does it mean that all you can find in the newspaper is FXXXing rubbish?

If the goal is different, then ...

If a person has in mind nothing but getting rich to the extent of dreaming to be the richest man on earth, then I doubt how many men will walk the same path as he.

Joseph Yu

The Way to Work Together

The way for different people to work together towards the same goal is to tolerate and respect each other. For example, there are different Feng Shui schools. As long as different schools work with the same mission - to help people live in harmony with Nature to improve their lives, then it does not matter how they achieve this end. These different schools should exchange their findings to help each other improve their technique. If a school can produce a lot of good teachers, it is a good school because they help each other to walk on the right path.

Joseph Yu