Tuesday, March 26, 2013

BaZi: Between Classical and Contemporary, WuXing and ZiPing

BaZi is technically not really a form of art, it's a form of knowledge, in the old books, BaZi is often called 命理 MingLi, the knowledge of life, or 命术 MingShu, the technique of life. The word 'art' is often written as 艺术 (YiShu) in Chinese, 艺 denotes the art, the expression and performance, the way the artists express themselves to the audience, while 术 Shu denotes technique and skills.

BaZi is a wealth of knowledge, it is a bunch of hypotheses made by the ancient Chinese by observing how nature works around them. BaZi practitioners don't have to be artistic or creative to analyze a chart, nor they need an imaginative brain that can visualize all kinds of images and then translate those imagination into real life events. That's baseless, reading BaZi is not painting pictures. I personally find that practice incorrect, if a BaZi chart can be read like painting pictures, different practitioners would paint different pictures, then we have so many pictures and so many different opinions for the same chart. That does not make sense to me. What the practitioners actually need is a strong fundamental understanding about the theories and hypotheses that builds the knowledge.

Like every fields of knowledge, BaZi is rooted in the classical. The knowledge probably started back in the Autumn and Spring Period 春秋时代 in ancient China, which is like 2700 years ago. The knowledge has been evolving ever since, the evolving theories just never derail themselves from the tracks of YinYang and the Five Elements.

The knowledge of Life or BaZi as we know today is based on the teaching of Xu ZiPing of Tang dynasty, ZiPing method takes the Day Stem as the Master, that is what we call the DayMaster, and analyze the chart based on the interactions between the 10 Gods and they DayMaster. Before Xu ZiPing invented this method, there was already WuXing 五星 method, the method that analyze based on the Year Pillar, NaYin and ShenShas. As a matter of fact, the application of ShenShas predates the use of DayMaster. Ever wonder why some ShenShas are derived from the Year Pillar? Many of the old masters knew about this, they knew that the knowledge of Life is not solely determined by ZiPing, that is why they authored books to include information from both smethods. Even though ZiPing and WuXing are different, there are some similarities between the two.

Master Xu LeWu wrote:

Nowadays, there are people who absurdly discuss the stars because they do not know their origins.

ZiPing method was evolved from WuXing, WuXing uses the Year as the Master, and the stars to determine auspiciousness and inauspiciousness

The stars have their own structures that changes from year to year, that is why in the beginning of ZiPing method, the Year was still regarded as the Master.

Try to look at vlassical books such as The Life Book of Li XuZhong and the commentaries from authors such as Xu ZiPing, Shi TanYing, LiTong and Dong FangMing of Luo LuZi's Poetic Essays "The News of Three Lifes". One can know that at the time, Year was regarded as the Master.

Until the Ming dynasty, SanMing TongHui by Master Wan YuWu regards the Year as the Base and Day as the Master, the method of analyzing actually began in the Ming Era, which is a few hundred years ago.

The book of "Wonderful Selections of the Orchid Stage' discusses only structures, and the Stars and NaYins are all taken from the Year, there are many nouns that are inherited from WuXing books that have not changed.

The method we use today has changed from the Year to Day, the Stars and NaYins are no longer in use. But if we use them as reference, that is not not-allowable , but if it is used to determine disasters and blessings, rather not it be laughable by the knowledgeable people?

Master Xu LeWu knew the differences between ZiPing and WuXing, and he recommended that the Stars can be used as references. This had been the common practice in Ming and Qing dynasty, books like SMTH, SFTK, XPHH are all encyclopedic on both methods. ZPZQ and DTS on the other hand, teach only theories from ZiPing and ignore completely theories from WuXing. One thing that I admire about Master Xu is that he quotes the classics and neo-classics in his works, something that modern authors should do more often, so that we can keep track and verify the sources.

That aside, the other thing that I want to write about is the difference between traditional vs modern ZiPing. I use word ZiPing instead of BaZi, because I don't think there's a modern version of WuXing. Traditional vs modern as in Master Shen XiaoZhan ZPZQ and Liu BoWen DTS vs Master Xu LeWu ZPZQPZ and Master Ren TieQiao DTS. If you have not read any of these books and don't know what I'm saying, don't worry, it's going to be more confusing.

Traditional ZiPing takes the Month's Decree as the Useful God, as in Chapter 8 ZPZQ, Useful God. Modern ZiPing, however takes the balancing element as the Useful God (or the Climate adjuster etc), under the same chapter in ZPZQPZ, it is written

Original text: The useful God of Bazi, seek only from the month's decree, with the Stem of the Day matching with the Month Decree Branch, engendering and countering are different, structures are distinguished. Wealth, Officer, Seal and Food, these are benevolent useful gods, thus should be used in a 'follow' / favorable manner; Devil, Hurting, Robbing and Blade, these are not benevolent gods, used in a reversed / 'against' manner. When it should be in a follow manner and it is in that manner, and when it should be in a reversed manner and it is in a reversed manner, the matching and combination are beneficial, all are noble structures.

Master Xu commentary: Useful God, is the God that is used by the BaZi, the Gods are Wealth, Officer, Food, Seal, Indirect Wealth, Indirect Officer, Indirect Seal, Hurting Officer, Rob and Blade. Within the BaZi, look at its Strong/Weak and Likes/Dislikes, to support or to restrain, that would use the God that supports or restrains as the Useful God, Useful God is the fulcrum of BaZi. If the Useful God that is determined is not correct, then the analysis cannot be accurate, thus determining the Useful God is the most important part of analyzing a Life (BaZi). The method of determining Useful God, at first must be taken from the month's decree as the God in the month decree is having the prosperous Qi. If there's nothing usable within the month's decree, then it should be searched from the Year, Day and Hour Stems and Branches. Even though the Useful God is taken from somewhere else, the crucial point is still at the month's decree. For example if the month's decree is 'Lu', Rob or Seal and the DM is prosperous, then look for other that counters or exhausts the DM as the Useful God; even though the Useful God is not from the month's decree, the crucial point is still the month's decree. If in the four pillars, there are many Gods that exhausts and counters the DM, DM becomes weak, and the Rob and Seal from the month's decree can be used. That is what meant by 'Useful God seek only from the month's decree' and DM is matched with the EB of month decree, look if it is prosperous or waning, strong or weak to determine the Useful God.

There's more than one way to determine the Useful God, in summary, it can be categorized into five ways as below:

1. Support and Restrain. DM that is strong is restrained, DM that is weak is supported, that is the Useful God from Support and Restrain. If the God of the month decree is too strong, it is restrained, if the God of the month decree is too weak, it is supported, that is to Support or Restrain the month's decree as the Useful God

2. Sickness and Medicine, if (DM) is favorable to be supported, then (the God) that injures the supporter is the sickness. if (DM) is favorable to be restrained, then (the God) that get rids of the restrainer is the sickness. The God that eliminate the sickness is called medicine. This is Sickness and Medicine Useful God.

3. Adjusting Climate, Metal Water born in Winter months, Wood and Fire born in Summer months, the climate is either too cold or too parched, then to adjust the climate is urgent. This is Climate adjustment as Useful God.

4. Turning Prosperous (as in Follow chart or transformed Chart). The Qi and intensity of the four pillars, if they are is prosperous at one side, it should not go against its intensity, then only follow its intensity can be used, to follow or to transform, those that are one sided and structures that turn prosperous.

5. Getting through the Pass (some people call mediator). Two gods that are mutually confronting, equally strong or weak, both are equal, then harmony is needed to be good, that is to use 'connecting the pass'

Originally ZPZQ categorized the Gods into two groups, the benevolent Gods and not benevolent Gods, the benevolent Gods should be used in the 'follow' way and the not benevolent Gods should be used in the 'against' way. However, in Master Xu commentary, he did not say anything about benevolent and not benevolent Gods, or the way they are used. He wrote something that is completely different from what the original text meant. What Master Xu proposed as Useful God is not really invalid in my opinion and I do not think they are wrong even though it contradicts the original text. It's just that the concept of Useful God by Master Xu is not the same as the concept of Useful God by Master Shen. In my opinion, Master's Xu Useful God concept is almost the same as the Minister God concept by Master Shen. What Master Xu proposed are actually some basic concepts derived from many classics:.

1.  扶抑 FuYi - Support and Restrain, is a fundamental concept contained in Chapter 9, The Great Meaning of Five Elements, a very early classic written by Lv Cai. However, the original concept in The Great Meaning is different from the one proposed by Master Xu. (AFAIK, Master Xu was not the first person to propose the concept, it had been around for sometime before the Ming dynasty). This FuYi concept is widely applied by contemporary BaZi analysts. Even though balance is a very important point in BaZi, the DM, Useful God and BaZi in overall must not be analyzed in this way (in my opinion). This cause a gross over-generalization that overlooks many important concepts of BaZi, like the ones below for example.

2.  病药 BingYao - A popular concept in SFTK, which is derived from 五言独步, 

有病方为贵, 无伤不是奇 - With sickness, medicine is noble, without injury it is not wonderful. A popular phrase that says charts with a Taboo God and a Rescue Response (in ZPZQ terms) are good charts.

3. 调候 TiaoHou - Climate adjustment, a basic concept of BaZi, I have the ZPZQ section translated. DTS also discuss this topic  in chapter 29 寒暖 Cold and Warmth and 30 燥湿 parched and wet.  

4. 专旺 ZhuanWang - Turning Prosperous, a concept that is applicable to Follow and Transformed structures. ZPZQ agrees to this point of view. 

5. 通关 TongGuan - Getting through the Pass, a concept contained in chapter 20 DTS, Liu BoWen annotated that there  are many hindrances that can be considered as the Pass, 

Liu BoWen wrote:

In between, top and bottom, or separately further away, with something in between, from to back is very far, or if it is punished or clashed, or if it robbed or occupied, or if it is separated by one thing, these are all called the 'Pass'

These 5 concepts of Useful Gods proposed by Master Xu are very commonly applied by modern BaZi practitioners, they are all derived from the classics. That is what I meant when I say contemporary is rooted in the classical. I have read articles by modern practitioners that call the classics illogical and erroneous, and thus I feel the need to write this article. Things that we do not understand does not necessarily mean they are illogical, it just means that we do not understand enough to explain what they are.

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