Bazi · Four Pillars

Bazi, also known as the Four Pillars (the Year, Month, Day and Hour Pillar), the Ziping method (named after Xu Ziping of the Song dynasty), or the four-pillar school of destiny analysis.

Take a birth at 12:00 on January 1, 2000 (True Solar Time) as an example:

This is written Ji-Mao, Bing-Zi, Wu-Wu, Wu-Wu — an illustration only, not a real chart.

2.1.1What each of the Four Pillars represents

Key principle: the day stem (the Day Master) stands for “I”, and it is the centre of the whole chart. The other seven characters are all defined in relation to that “I”.

2.2.1Pre-Qin: the Mandate of Heaven, Yin-Yang and the Five Elements

• –

  The Yin-Zhou view of the Mandate of Heaven: the Book of Documents (Shang Shu), “Announcement of Shao”, says that “the Mandate of Heaven is never constant”, and the Book of Songs (Shi Jing) says that “Heaven gave birth to the teeming people; where there are things, there are rules.” In this early period “ming” was a political idea — the fate of a dynasty — not the fate of an individual.

• –

  The Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods: the idea of an individual's fate emerged. The Analects (Lun Yu), “Yan Yuan”, says that “death and life have their appointed lot; wealth and honour rest with Heaven.” Mozi's chapter “Against Fatalism” (Fei Ming), by contrast, argued against fatalism — China's earliest systematic critique of it.

• –

  Yin-Yang and the Five Elements:

  • The Book of Documents, “Great Plan” (Hong Fan): “The Five Elements: the first is Water, the second Fire, the third Wood, the fourth Metal, the fifth Earth” — the earliest documentary record of the Five Elements.
  • Zou Yan (c. 305–240 BCE): a leading Yin-Yang thinker and author of the theory of the Five Virtues succeeding one another, which used the Five Elements to explain the rise and fall of dynasties. He is the key figure in the systematisation of Five-Element theory.
  • The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon (Huang Di Nei Jing): applied Yin-Yang and the Five Elements across medicine, establishing the correspondences between the Five Elements, the organs, the seasons and the emotions. That system of correspondences later became a direct source of the “classified images” used in destiny arts.

2.2.2The Han dynasty: the arts of calculation take shape

Key text: the Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall (Bai Hu Tong Yi) fixed the official correspondences between the Five Elements and directions, seasons and musical pitches.

At this stage the dominant approach was “year fate”, read chiefly from the Year Pillar — that is, reading the Melodic Element of the stem-branch pair for a person's birth year, as in “what fate is this year's child?”. The line “what fate am I?” in Romance of the Three Kingdoms refers precisely to this Melodic Element of the birth year.

2.2.3The Wei, Jin and Northern-Southern dynasties: physiognomy alongside fate reading

• –

  Guan Lu (209–256): a diviner of the Three Kingdoms period with a biography in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, skilled in casting lots and in reading faces.

• –

  Guo Pu (276–324): a scholar of the Eastern Jin and author of the Book of Burial (Zang Shu), a founding work of feng shui theory, and of The Jade Radiance Classic of True Determination (Yu Zhao Ding Zhen Jing), which later ages attributed to him. His “Poems on Wandering with Immortals” is also a literary classic.

• –

  Tao Hongjing (456–536): a Daoist thinker of the Southern dynasties who collected and edited a great many texts on the arts of calculation.

• –

  In this period the doctrine of the “three fates” — received fate, encountered fate and accompanying fate — was in vogue, and became known as the three-fates theory.

2.2.4The Tang dynasty: Li Xuzhong and the three pillars

Li Xuzhong (761–813), courtesy name Changrong, was a native of Wei commandery (present-day Daming, Hebei), a holder of the metropolitan degree, and rose to the post of Palace Censor.

His central contribution:

• –

  He was the first to reckon fate from the stem-branch pairs of the year, month and day of birth, a method known to later ages as the three-pillar method or the three-fates method.

• –

  Han Yu of the Tang wrote the Epitaph for Mr. Li, Palace Censor (Dian Zhong Shi Yu Shi Li Jun Mu Zhi Ming), calling him the man most deeply versed in the books of the Five Elements, one who “weighed the mutual production and overcoming, the waxing and waning, of the day-stem and of the stems and branches of a person's birth year, month and day, to judge whether a life would be long or short, noble or base, smooth or blocked, and who could set down the year and hour in advance, and was not mistaken in a hundred cases but one or two.”

• –

  This is the earliest reliable documentary evidence for the art of Bazi.

The character of Li Xuzhong's system: it took the Year Pillar as the leading factor (the year as the root), valued the Five Elements of the Melodic Element, and had not yet introduced the Hour Pillar.

2.2.5From the Five Dynasties to the Song: Xu Ziping establishes the Four Pillars

Xu Ziping (dates unknown, active c. 907–960), also known as Xu Juyi, lived in the Five Dynasties and the early Song and retired to Mount Huayang.

His central contributions:

• –

  He added the Hour Pillar, turning the three pillars into the Four Pillars; Bazi took its fixed form from this point.

• –

  He made the day stem the centre (“the day stem is the self”) — the most significant paradigm shift in the history of destiny arts, from reading the year to reading the individual.

• –

  He established the framework of the Ten Gods (defining relations with the other stems and branches by reference to the day stem).

• –

  Because of these contributions, later ages called the art of Bazi the “Ziping method” or the “Ziping school”.

The influence of the name “Ziping”: Yuanhai Ziping takes its title from it. Every school that centres on the day stem and reads fate through the Ten Gods belongs to the Ziping lineage.

2.2.6The Song dynasty: the classical texts assembled

Shao Yong (1011–1077) wrote the Huangji Jingshi (Supreme Principles Governing the World), which extrapolates cosmic history through the cycles of yuan, hui, yun and shi. It is the summit of image-and-number reasoning, but it belongs to Yi learning rather than to destiny arts.

Other important arts of calculation in the Song: Maji Shenxiang (physiognomy) and *Zi Wei Dou Shu* (Purple Star Astrology), traditionally credited to Chen Tuan but in fact taking shape in the Ming.

2.2.7The Ming dynasty: a double peak in theory and practice

Zhang Nan's place in history: he was the first to criticise the proliferation of Shen Sha in a systematic way. He argued for returning to the root of Five-Element generation and restraint, and against heaping a mass of Shen Sha onto a chart. That “simplifying” stance still has something to say today.

2.2.8The Qing dynasty: Pattern theory and Adjustment theory come of age

The two most important lines of divergence in the Qing:

That divergence continues to this day and is the main scholarly split in contemporary destiny arts.

2.2.9The Republican era: the foundations of modern destiny arts

The Republican era was the period in which destiny arts “modernised”; its leading figures are known as the “three great masters of the Republican era”:

Other important figures:

• –

  Lin Gengbai (1897–1941): a poet and practitioner of destiny arts who prided himself on the subject and wrote Renjian: Mingli Cunyan. He met his end in Hong Kong all the same, and his case is often cited as an example of destiny arts failing to prove their own claims.

• –

  Wu Junmin (Taiwan): Mingli Xinlun, which founded the system of destiny-arts education in Taiwan.

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  Chen Pinhong and Liang Xiangrun (Taiwan): the latter wrote Ziping Jichu Gaiyao and is an important modern teacher of destiny arts.

2.2.10The present day: revival in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland

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  The Hong Kong and Taiwan line: Liang Xiangrun, Liaowu Jushi, Li Juming, Yang Weijie, Zhong Yiming (mainly Zi Wei Dou Shu), among others.

• –

  The mainland line: after the 1980s the field gradually revived, producing a great many popular books and chart-casting programs.

• –

  The trend toward technical tools: from the 1990s chart-casting programs of every kind appeared, automating complicated calendar calculations so that “casting a chart” no longer required memorising masses of mnemonic verse. In effect this shifted the centre of gravity of destiny arts from calculation to interpretation.

2.3.1The Ten Gods: the central concept of Bazi

The Ten Gods are ten “roles” defined with the day stem (the Day Master) as the point of reference, by the generation and restraint relations among the Five Elements and by whether the Yin-Yang polarity is the same or different between the other stems and branches and the day stem.

The defining rules:

Points to remember:

• –

  “Same” gives the indirect form and “different” the direct form — except for Peer and Rob Wealth: Peer is “same”, yet it is a “peer” rather than an “indirect” role.

• –

  More precisely: where the polarity differs, generation or restraint gives the “direct” god; where it is the same, it gives the “indirect” god.

  • Direct Wealth: I restrain it and the polarity differs → a “direct” pairing
  • Indirect Wealth: I restrain it and the polarity is the same → an “indirect” pairing
  • Direct Officer: it restrains me and the polarity differs
  • Seven Killings: it restrains me and the polarity is the same

The Ten Gods at a glance (day stems down the side, other Heavenly Stems across the top):

2.3.2The Ten Gods in detail

The Ten Gods and the “six relations” (traditional):

A caution: schools differ over these correspondences, and the table gives the most common version. The “direct and indirect” distinction, which belonged to the context of polygamy in earlier times, is better understood today as marking “relationships of different kinds”, and should not be applied mechanically.

2.3.3The five states of an element: prosperous, strong, resting, confined, dead

How the Five Elements stand in each season:

A mnemonic: “What holds the season is prosperous; what the season generates is strong; what generates the season is resting; what restrains the season is confined; what the season restrains is dead.”

(1) The Month Command is the guide. The Month Command (the month branch) is the single most important factor in judging the strength of the Five Elements. The strength or weakness of the Day Master is read from the Month Command first.

(2) Rooting. When a Heavenly Stem finds an element of the same kind in the branches (Hidden Stems included), it is said to have a “root”. A stem without a root is unmoored and without force.

• –

  A strong root: a root in the branch's own element (for example Jia meeting Yin)

• –

  A weak root: a root in a residual element (for example Jia meeting the Yi wood hidden in Chen)

• –

  No root: the stem stands alone

(3) Gaining ground, gaining support, gaining the season

2.3.4The Twelve Stages

This describes the “life-cycle state” of a Heavenly Stem in each of the twelve Earthly Branches:

The sequence: Birth → Bathing → Capping → Approaching Office → Imperial Prosperity → Decline → Illness → Death → Tomb → Extinction → Conception → Nurture

The Twelve Stages by stem (yang stems run forward, yin stems backward):

A point to remember: Earth follows Fire (Wu follows Bing, Ji follows Ding).

How the Twelve Stages are commonly used:

• –

  Imperial Prosperity: the greatest strength — but “at the height of prosperity, decline must follow”

• –

  Birth: life begins; it governs growth

• –

  Tomb: storage, drawing in, accumulation; entering the tomb is not necessarily a bad thing (it carries the image of a “storehouse” in which things are kept)

• –

  Extinction: extreme weakness — though it is also said that “at the point of extinction, life is found”

2.3.5Patterns

The Pattern is the steering wheel of a Bazi reading. Shen Xiaozhan's central claim in Ziping Zhenquan is that “in a Bazi chart the Useful God is sought from the Month Command alone” — that is, the Pattern is set by the Ten God that the Month Command brings to the surface among the stems.

The eight regular Patterns

Outside Patterns (special configurations)

A scholarly note: the criteria for Outside Patterns are extremely strict, and “false following” and “false transformation” are frequent points of dispute. Modern scholars tend to hold that “it is better not to follow at all than to follow rashly”.

2.3.6The Useful God: four ways of choosing it

The Useful God is the one element a Bazi chart most needs, and the key to the whole chart. Traditionally there are four approaches:

The Adjustment Useful God at a glance (a simplified version):

The three roles around the Useful God:

2.3.7Major Luck and Annual Fortune

Major Luck is the cycle of fortune that runs through a life in ten-year periods; Annual Fortune is the fortune of each single year.

The start of the first Major Luck: the rules

Step one: decide whether the sequence runs forward or backward

A mnemonic: for a man in a yang year and a woman in a yin year, run forward; for a man in a yin year and a woman in a yang year, run backward.

Step two: work out the starting age of the first Major Luck

• –

  Forward sequence: count the days from the birth date to the next sectional term

• –

  Backward sequence: count the days from the birth date back to the previous sectional term

How the days are converted:

Example: with a forward sequence the birth date is 15 days from the next sectional term → 15 ÷ 3 = 5 → the first Major Luck begins at age 5 (whether this is counted by nominal age or by full years depends on the school)

Step three: lay out the stem-branch pairs of the Major Luck

Beginning from the Month Pillar's stem-branch, take the next pair in a forward sequence or the previous pair in a backward sequence, and so on until ten pairs are laid out — one hundred years.

Example: the Month Pillar is Bing-Zi, and for a man in a yang year the sequence runs forward: Ding-Chou → Wu-Yin → Ji-Mao → Geng-Chen → Xin-Si → Ren-Wu → Gui-Wei → Jia-Shen → Yi-You → Bing-Xu

Annual Fortune

The Annual Fortune is the stem-branch pair of each year (with Start of Spring as the boundary). In judging whether a year is favorable, the usual things to look at are:

• 1.

  the relation between the year's stem-branch and the Useful God (whether it is favorable or unfavorable)

• 2.

  how the year interacts with the Day Pillar and the Month Pillar (Combination, Clash, Punishment and Harm)

• 3.

  how the year relates to the Major Luck currently in force

• 4.

  which key Shen Sha are activated

2.3.8Shen Sha (Stars & Spirits)

Shen Sha (Stars & Spirits) are extra markers within destiny arts and were the main content of early luming practice. Their standing declined after the Song, but they remain widely used.

An important reminder: Zhang Nan's Shenfeng Tongkao criticised the proliferation of Shen Sha and argued that the generation and restraint of the Five Elements should be the foundation. Most contemporary practitioners agree that Shen Sha serve only as supporting reference and can never settle a conclusion on their own.

Common auspicious spirits

Common ill-omened spirits (and their two-sidedness)

Emptiness (the void of a decade)

See Chapter 01, §1.4.6. In Bazi, the six relations and palaces represented by a branch in Emptiness are traditionally held to have “weakened force” or “loosened ties”.

This is the core procedure for casting a chart — and the single most important step in understanding where your own Bazi comes from.

Step one: establish the exact time of birth

The conversions to make:

Clock time (Beijing time)
  ↓ subtract the longitude correction
Local mean solar time
  ↓ add the equation of time
True Solar Time — this is the time used to cast the chart

You must also confirm:

• –

  Whether the birth date falls before Start of Spring (this affects the Year Pillar)

• –

  Whether the birth date falls before a sectional term (this affects the Month Pillar)

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  Whether the birth falls between 23:00 and 24:00 (which brings in the dispute over the early and late Zi double-hour)

• –

  Historical time-zone problems (before 1949 China used several time zones; from 1986 to 1991 China observed daylight saving time, so an hour has to be subtracted)

The daylight-saving trap: China observed daylight saving time from 4 May 1986 to 15 September 1991. Anyone born in that window has to have an hour taken off the clock time to recover true standard time. This is one of the commonest sources of error in casting a chart.

Step two: set out the Year Pillar

The rule: the Year Pillar changes at Start of Spring — not at the first day of the first lunar month, and not at New Year's Day.

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  Born before Start of Spring → the Stem-Branch of the previous year

• –

  Born after Start of Spring → the Stem-Branch of that year

Example: a birth on 3 February 2024 (in 2024, Start of Spring fell at 16:27 on 4 February) → the Year Pillar is Gui-Mao, the Stem-Branch of 2023, not Jia-Chen.

Calculating the year's stem and branch:

Stem index = (Gregorian year − 4) mod 10   (0 = Jia, 1 = Yi, …, 9 = Gui)
Branch index = (Gregorian year − 4) mod 12   (0 = Zi, 1 = Chou, …, 11 = Hai)

Check: for 2024 → (2024−4) mod 10 = 2020 mod 10 = 0 → Jia; (2024−4) mod 12 = 2020 mod 12 = 4 → Chen. That gives Jia-Chen, which is correct.

Step three: set out the Month Pillar

The rule: the month changes at the twelve sectional terms, not at the median terms.

The twelve sectional terms and the branches of their months:

Deriving the month stem: the “Five Tigers” rule (Wu Hu Dun)

In a Jia or Ji year, Bing takes the lead; in a Yi or Geng year, Wu stands at the head; for Bing and Xin one must start from Geng; for Ding and Ren, Ren holds its place and flows on in order; and for Wu and Gui, where should one look? Seek it from Jia-Yin, and there begin.

The remaining months follow in order.

Example: in a Jia-Chen year (year stem Jia) → the Yin month is Bing-Yin, the Mao month Ding-Mao, the Chen month Wu-Chen…

Step four: set out the Day Pillar

The rule: the Stem-Branch day count has run on without a break, and in more than two thousand years not one day has been misnumbered. The methods of calculation:

Method A: consult a perpetual calendar (the most reliable)

Method B: the Julian Day algorithm

1. Compute the Julian Day Number, JDN
   If M ≤ 2, then Y' = Y − 1, M' = M + 12; otherwise Y' = Y, M' = M
   A = floor(Y'/100)
   B = 2 − A + floor(A/4)                    (Gregorian calendar)
   JDN = floor(365.25×(Y'+4716)) + floor(30.6001×(M'+1)) + D + B − 1524

2. Index of the day's Stem-Branch (0 = Jia-Zi) = (JDN + 49) mod 60

Note: the constant terms differ from source to source, according to the calendrical epoch and the definition of the day boundary that they use. In any implementation, the results must be calibrated against an authoritative astronomical library (such as the Swiss Ephemeris) or against data from the Purple Mountain Observatory, and covered by regression tests.

Method C: take 1 January 1900 as the epoch (the Stem-Branch of that day has to be verified before use), count the days elapsed, then take the result mod 60.

The question of the day boundary: there are two views on where the Day Pillar turns over:

• –

  At the start of the Zi double-hour (23:00) (the mainstream view)

• –

  At the middle of the Zi double-hour (00:00)

Step five: set out the Hour Pillar

The rule: the branch of the double-hour is fixed (the Zi double-hour begins at 23:00), and the stem is derived from the day stem by the “Five Rats” rule (Wu Shu Dun).

With Jia and Ji, add Jia once again; with Yi and Geng, Bing comes first; with Bing and Xin, begin from Wu; with Ding and Ren, Geng-Zi is the seat; and for Wu and Gui, where do they issue from? Ren-Zi is the true road.

The Twelve Double-Hours:

Step six: set out the Major Luck periods

Following the rules in §2.3.7, decide whether the sequence runs forward or backward, work out the starting age of the first Major Luck, and set out the Stem-Branch pairs of ten Major Luck periods.

Step seven: assign the Ten Gods, judge strength and weakness, choose the Useful God, and determine the Pattern

• 1.

  Assign the Ten Gods: label every stem other than the day stem, and every Hidden Stem within the branches, with its Ten Gods relation, according to §2.3.1

• 2.

  Judge strength and weakness: weigh together whether the Day Master holds the command, has ground and has support, and decide whether the chart is strong, weak or balanced

• 3.

  Choose the Useful God: by one of the four approaches — Support/Regulation, Adjustment, bridging (Tong Guan), or illness and remedy

• 4.

  Determine the Pattern: fix the Pattern chiefly from the Month Command, and judge whether it is formed or broken

• 5.

  Read Major Luck and Annual Fortune: taking the Useful God as the standard, see what each period of Major Luck and each year brings into play

Worked example: born in Beijing at 12:00 on 1 January 2000 (116.4° E, 39.9° N)

Step one: convert the time

Beijing's longitude is 116.4°; the standard meridian is 120°
Longitude difference = (116.4 − 120) × 4 = −14.4 minutes
Local mean solar time = 12:00 − 14.4 min ≈ 11:46

On 1 January the equation of time is about −3 minutes
True Solar Time ≈ 11:46 − 3 min = 11:43

This falls in the Wu double-hour (11:00–13:00) ✓

Step two: the Year Pillar

In 2000, Start of Spring fell on 4 February. 1 January lies before it → the Year Pillar belongs to 1999 (Ji-Mao).

Stem = (1999 − 4) mod 10 = 1995 mod 10 = 5 → Ji
Branch = (1999 − 4) mod 12 = 1995 mod 12 = 3 → Mao
Year Pillar = Ji-Mao ✓

Step three: the Month Pillar

1 January falls between Major Snow (7 December 1999) and Minor Cold (6 January 2000), so the month is the Zi month.

The year stem is Ji → by the “Five Tigers” rule, “in a Jia or Ji year, Bing takes the lead”, the Yin month is Bing-Yin. Counting forward to the Zi month: Yin (Bing) → Mao (Ding) → Chen (Wu) → Si (Ji) → Wu (Geng) → Wei (Xin) → Shen (Ren) → You (Gui) → Xu (Jia) → Hai (Yi) → Zi (Bing)

Month Pillar = Bing-Zi ✓

Step four: the Day Pillar

A perpetual calendar gives the day's Stem-Branch for 1 January 2000 as Wu-Wu.

Step five: the Hour Pillar

The day stem is Wu → by the “Five Rats” rule, “and for Wu and Gui, where do they issue from? Ren-Zi is the true road”, the Zi double-hour begins with Ren-Zi. Counting forward: Zi (Ren) → Chou (Gui) → Yin (Jia) → Mao (Yi) → Chen (Bing) → Si (Ding) → Wu (Wu)

Hour Pillar = Wu-Wu ✓

The resulting chart:

A simplified reading (for teaching only, not to be taken as any kind of conclusion):

• –

  The Day Master is Wu Earth, born in the Zi month (Water prosperous, Earth confined) → it lacks the command

• –

  The Wu fire in the branches (a Resource star) gives it a root, and a Peer — the stem Wu Earth — supports it → it has ground and support

• –

  Taken together: the chart is weak, but the Day Master is not rootless, and traditional practice would consider Fire (Resource) to warm the chart and Earth (Peer) to strengthen the self

• –

  The Zi month is cold, so on the principle of Adjustment the inclination is likewise toward Fire

2.6.1Li Xuzhong (761–813)

Courtesy name Changrong, a native of Wei commandery (present-day Daming, Hebei). A Tang dynasty metropolitan graduate, he rose to the post of Palace Censor. He studied under the Daoist priest Yin Yin and received the transmission of the “books of the Five Elements”.

Historical standing: the founding father of the art of Bazi. He was the first to read fate from the three pillars of year, month and day, and is the earliest practitioner of destiny arts for whom there is firm documentary evidence.

Key document: Han Yu's Epitaph for Mr. Li, Palace Censor (Dian Zhong Shi Yu Shi Li Jun Mu Zhi Ming). This epitaph is the earliest reliable historical source for the art of Bazi; it says of him that he “weighed the mutual generation and restraint, the waxing and waning, of the day-stem and of the stems and branches of a person's birth year, month and day … to judge whether a life would be long or short, noble or base, smooth or blocked, and could set down the year and hour in advance, not mistaken in a hundred cases but one or two”.

Scholarly limitations: no hour pillar was used; the year was the root; and the Melodic Element carried great weight. All three were thoroughly reformed at the hands of Xu Ziping.

2.6.2Xu Ziping (c. 907–960)

Also known as Xu Juyi, he lived in the Five Dynasties and early Song and retired to Mount Huayang (in present-day Sichuan).

Historical standing: the true founder of the art of Bazi.

Three major contributions:

• 1.

  He added the Hour Pillar: three pillars became four, and the information available grew from six characters to eight

• 2.

  He made the day stem the “self” — the most fundamental paradigm shift of all, turning fate reading from a reading of the collective character of a year into a reading of an individual's structure

• 3.

  He established the earliest form of the Ten Gods system

Later influence: for this reason the art of Bazi came to be called the Ziping method. Every school that centres on the day stem and reads fate through the Ten Gods belongs to the Ziping lineage. In the Southern Song, Xu Dasheng arranged his teaching into Yuanhai Ziping, which became the classic textbook of the Ziping method.

A point of dispute: the sources on Xu Ziping himself are extremely thin, and some scholars hold that “Ziping” may be an assumed name, or the name of a school rather than of one definite person. His standing as the founder in the history of destiny arts, however, is unshakeable.

2.6.3Jing Tu and Liu Ji (the questions surrounding Ditiansui)

Jing Tu: traditionally the original author of Ditiansui (Drops of Heavenly Marrow), a figure no longer traceable; the usual view is that a Song-dynasty writer put his own work out under this name.

Liu Ji (1311–1375): courtesy name Bowen, a native of Qingtian, Zhejiang, and a founding statesman of the early Ming, ennobled as Earl of Chengyi (Chengyi Bo). He is said to have written a commentary on Ditiansui. Liu Ji was thoroughly versed in astronomy, calendrical reckoning and the arts of calculation, and popular tradition turned him into a figure who “knew five hundred years ahead”.

A scholarly caution: the authorship and date of Ditiansui, and whether Liu Ji really commented on it, are all contested. It was Ren Tieqiao's Qing-dynasty commentary, Ditiansui Chanwei (Elucidating the Subtleties of Ditiansui), that truly spread the book and gave rise to the strength-and-weakness school.

2.6.4Wan Minying (1521–1603)

Courtesy name Ruhao, style name Yuwu, a native of Quanzhou, Fujian. He took the metropolitan degree in the twenty-ninth year of the Jiajing era (1550) and rose to be Censor of the Henan Circuit and Assistant Defence Commissioner of Fujian.

Principal works: Sanming Tonghui (Comprehensive Compendium of the Three Fates), in twelve fascicles; *Xingxue Dacheng (Great Compendium of Astral Learning), on astral fate reading; and Lantai Miaoxuan* (Choice Selections from the Orchid Terrace), on physiognomy.

The standing of Sanming Tonghui:

• –

  The encyclopaedia of Chinese destiny arts, gathering almost every text on the subject from the pre-Qin period down to the Ming

• –

  It preserves a great deal of older material (Melodic Element, Shen Sha, rhymed expositions) that has been lost from other books

• –

  It is a core text that no history of the field can pass over

• –

  It was included in the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries (Siku Quanshu)

Its scholarly character: it draws on every school and prunes nothing. That is both its value — it preserves texts — and its weakness, for the material is unwieldy and contradicts itself in many places. The reader has to bring judgement of their own.

2.6.5Zhang Nan (style name Shenfengzi, Ming dynasty)

Principal work: Shenfeng Tongkao (Comprehensive Examination by Shenfeng), in full *Shenfeng Zhang Xiansheng Tongkao Mingli Zhengzong Pimi Daquan* — “Mr Shenfeng Zhang's Comprehensive Examination of the Orthodox Destiny Method and Complete Refutation of Errors”.

His central positions:

• 1.

  The “illness and remedy” theory — “a chart is prized for what ails it; without a flaw there is nothing remarkable.” Only when a chart has an “illness” (a defect) is there anything to call a “remedy” (the Useful God); a chart with no illness is merely ordinary.

• 2.

  He attacked the proliferation of Shen Sha, arguing for a return to the true path of generation and restraint among the Five Elements and against heaping up star-spirits.

• 3.

  He opposed a fatalistic attitude, stressing that destiny arts offer nothing more than a point of reference.

Historical significance: he was the first systematic “simplifier” in the history of destiny arts. In the Qing his ideas were taken up by Chen Su'an and Shen Xiaozhan and became the mainstream position that weighted Pattern heavily and Shen Sha lightly.

2.6.6Shen Xiaozhan (1710–?)

Personal name Yi, courtesy name Xiaozhan, a native of Shanyin in Zhejiang (present-day Shaoxing). He took the metropolitan degree in the fourth year of the Qianlong era (1739) and rose to be a secretary in the Ministry of Personnel.

Principal work: Ziping Zhenquan.

His central contributions:

• –

  A systematic theory of Pattern: “for the Useful God of a Bazi chart, look to the Month Command alone” — the Pattern is fixed by the Ten Gods that the Month Command reveals in the stems

• –

  An analysis of how the eight Patterns are formed and broken (Direct Officer, Seven Killings, Direct Wealth, Indirect Wealth, Direct Resource, Indirect Resource, Eating God and Hurting Officer)

• –

  The concept of the supporting god (xiangshen): the star that assists the Useful God is its “minister”, and if such a star is damaged the Pattern is broken

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  Its language is compact and its logic tight, and it has been called the most orderly of all books on destiny arts

Commentaries: Xu Lewu's Republican-era Ziping Zhenquan Pingzhu (Annotated Ziping Zhenquan) is the most widely circulated edition, adding a great deal of modern explanation and many worked cases.

Scholarly standing: the supreme classic of the Pattern school (also called the Month Command school). The split in contemporary destiny arts between the Pattern school and the strength-and-weakness school begins here.

2.6.7Ren Tieqiao (1773–?)

Personal name Jian, style name Tieqiao, a native of Zhejiang and a destiny-arts practitioner of the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns.

Principal work: Ditiansui Chanwei (Elucidating the Subtleties of Ditiansui), also known as *Ditiansui Zhengyi* (Evidence for the Meaning of Ditiansui).

His central contributions:

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  He annotated the obscure original of Ditiansui sentence by sentence and supplied a great many real charts as examples

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  He established as the leading principle of fate reading that the Five Elements generate and restrain one another, and that central harmony is what matters most

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  He set out practical principles such as the Useful God must not be damaged, and the Day Master is best when strong and vigorous

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  He insisted that the whole art lies in reading flexibly, and opposed mechanical application

Historical standing: the founder of the strength-and-weakness school (the balance school). His commentary is what made Ditiansui genuinely usable as a teaching text.

It is striking that Ren Tieqiao himself wrote in his commentary that his life had been one of hardship, and that understanding came to him only late. Later writers often cite this as evidence that students of destiny arts rarely verify their own charts — and it serves as a reminder that, as an explanatory system, destiny arts raise two separate questions: how well they explain, and how well they predict.

2.6.8Xu Lewu (1886–1949)

Personal name Zhaorui, courtesy name Lewu, a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu.

Principal works:

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  Ziping Zhenquan Pingzhu

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  Ditiansui Buzhu (Supplementary Notes on Ditiansui)

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  Qiongtong Baojian Pingzhu (Annotated Qiongtong Baojian)

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  Mingli Xunyuan (Tracing the Sources of Destiny Studies)

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  Gujin Mingren Mingjian (A Mirror of Fate for Notable Figures Past and Present)

His central contributions:

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  The great synthesiser among the commentators. He annotated all three of the most important Qing classics (Ziping Zhenquan, Ditiansui and Qiongtong Baojian), producing a complete set of modern reading editions.

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  He restated classical theory in modern language and added many charts of Republican-era figures.

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  He attempted a reconciliation between the Pattern school and the strength-and-weakness school.

Scholarly standing: one of the high points of Republican-era destiny arts. Most people who read the three Qing classics today read them in Xu Lewu's annotated editions.

2.6.9Wei Qianli (1911–1988)

Personal name Cihang, courtesy name Qianli, a native of Jiaxing, Zhejiang, and a graduate of the Chinese department of Fudan University.

Principal works: Qianli Minggao (Draft Readings by Qianli, 1935), *Bazi Tiyao (Essentials of Bazi) and Liuren Zhanbu Jiangyi* (Lectures on Liu Ren Divination).

His central contributions:

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  Qianli Minggao is the most popular modern introduction to destiny arts. Its style is modern, its structure clear and its examples plentiful, each case set out in three parts: the chart, the analysis and the conclusion.

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  During the Xi'an Incident of 1936 he is said to have cast a chart for Chiang Kai-shek and concluded that “Generalissimo Chiang will certainly come out of this safely”; his reputation soared afterwards.

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  He practised in Shanghai and was one of the best-known professional readers of his day.

An assessment: he was the key figure in moving destiny arts from a scholar's pursuit to a popular genre. His books are still basic teaching texts in online destiny-arts courses.

2.6.10Lin Gengbai (1897–1941)

Born Xue Heng, courtesy name Junnan, a native of Minhou, Fujian; a well-known Republican-era poet, political activist and destiny-arts practitioner.

Principal work: Renjian: Mingli Cunyan (The Mirror of Men: Verified Destiny Readings).

Character and controversy: he was proud of his command of destiny arts, and when he cast his own chart he concluded that he “would certainly die by violence”. After the Pacific War broke out in 1941 he went to Hong Kong, and that December he was shot dead by Japanese troops, which seemed to bear out his own reading.

What the case is good for: it is cited again and again, yet it illustrates precisely the problem of hindsight in destiny-arts cases — once a person knows there is a “calamity” in the chart, their own choices may change the outcome (psychology calls this a self-fulfilling prophecy). It is one of the most important methodological cautions in the study of destiny arts.