An ABC of Chinese Divination

Telling fortunes by matching a person's time of birth with the Five Elements and the four seasons was an ancient practice in China. But it wasn't until the Five Dynasties and early Sung period that a system of divination based on the Eight Cyclical Characters was properly codified by the great astrologer Hsu Tzu-p'ing in his "four columns divination method." According to this technique, the year, month, day and hour of a person's birth were set out in four columns, each expressed as a two-character permutation of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, thus giving eight characters. This type of divination is often called the "Tzu-p'ing method" in honor of Hsu Tzu-p'ing.

Let us now briefly examine the theoretical basis to divination by the Eight Cyclical Characters.

The Chinese have always regarded man as a microcosm of the universe, holding that "the human body is a miniature cosmos" and that "man shares the progression of the four seasons." Observing all things in nature--insects, fish, birds, animals, flora, rocks, winds and tides--flourish and decay, rise and fall in accordance with the flux of the seasons and the cycle of Yin & Yang and the Five Elements, the ancient Chinese believed that if they could identify what influence such factors had on human beings, they could predict the course of a person's life with all its accidents of success and failure.

Yet with the alternating seasons man is also constantly growing; the difficult thing is to pin down any fixed point in time by which to measure a person's whole life. The Han dynasty savant Wang Ch'ung, author of Lun-heng, proposed that a person's life was determined by the moment when the mother's ovum was fertilized by the father's sperm. Thus the state of the cosmic cycle at the very moment of conception provided a basis for predicting a person's future life. Unfortunately this method was dogged by technical difficulties, so the next best thing was to take the moment of birth, the moment when the infant emerges from its mother's body, as the fixed reference point. From this evolved the "eight-character birth sign'' which is still used today and which is recorded by means of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.

Originally used for recording dates, these are also replete with symbolism. The prime meaning of the word kan or "stem" is a strong and powerful tree trunk, representing the Yang or male principle; the word chih or "branch" originally meant a weak and tender twig, thus representing the Yin or female principle.

The 10 Heavenly Stems (chia, i, ping, ting, wu, chi, keng, hsin, jen, kuei) were originally day dates; the 12 Earthly Branches (tzu, ch'ou, yin, mao, ch'en, ssu, wu, wei, shen, yu, hsu, hai) each stood for a two-hour period of the day, as well as a particular month of the year. In the calendar established by Emperor Wu-ti of the Han dynasty, the year began with the month yin.

Being based on the idea of plant growth, each of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches represents a certain stage of growth. For example, the first of the Heavenly Stems, chia, symbolizes a plant's first shoot breaking through the soil; the Yang principle is contained within, yet is overlain by the Yin principle. Similarly the first of the Earthly Branches, tzu, means germination, and the last, hai, indicates the death-like stillness of winter hibernation.

In Eight Cyclical Character divination, the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches are paired in various permutations to record the year, month, day and hour of a person's birth. The most important pair is that which defines the day of birth; of the four columns, this is the fundamental one while the other three are for additional reference.

It should be noted that the month of birth is not given strictly according to the lunar calendar, but according to twelve "segment-markers" of the year. For instance, someone born in the first lunar month of a year, the yin month, but whose date of birth falls before the segment-marker "Spring Begins", will count as being born in the last month of the previous year. Only people born between the segment-marker "Spring Begins" and the following segment-marker "Excited Insects" (normally around the middle of the second lunar month) count as being born in the yin month for divination purposes.

Working out a person's Eight Cyclical Characters is quite complicated, necessitating recourse to a hefty almanac and a variety of traditional formulae. This is the first hurdle to be crossed by those learning the diviner's art.

The theory of Yin & Yang and the Five Elements is an ancient philosophical concept which is widely used to symbolize phenomena both in the natural world and in human society.

Firstly, the Yin & Yang principles described in the I-ching (Classic of Changes) can indicate many polarities such as the sun & moon, day & night, light & dark, motion & rest, internal & external, cold & heat, hard & soft, and male & female. Superficially they appear to represent conflicting opposites and the dynamic of one overcoming the other; but in fact the two are complementary. Without Yin, Yang cannot exist either.

The Five Elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth were thought by the ancient Chinese to constitute the cosmos, in much the same way as Buddhism's Four Elements (or mahabhata) of earth, water, fire and wind. A theory of sequences governing the generation and domination of these Five Elements took shape as long ago as the Warring States period.

The generation sequence, whereby one element gives birth to and promotes another, runs as follows: wood generates fire; fire, earth; earth, metal; metal, water; and water, wood. According to the domination sequence, in which one element subdues and overcomes another, wood overcomes earth; earth, water; water, fire; fire, metal; and metal, wood.

This mutual generation and domination of the Five Elements is of prime importance in divination by the Eight Cyclical Characters, but what is it based on? Modern science has discovered over a thousand elements in the universe, so why only speak of five?

Such doubts are legion. After all, why should earth "generate metal," rather than, say, wood? One ancient explanation is that "metal resides in rock and mountains, it is secreted out where earth collects into mountains; since the earth produces rock, earth generates metal." Such words ring only partially true, especially bearing in mind how often the ancients went astray in their observation of nature, as seen in their quaint notion that consuming cinnabar refined from metal and stone could make you live as eternally as those. Resting on the basis of Five Elements theories, no wonder the Eight Cyclical Characters divination method offers skeptics a field day.

The 10 Heavenly Stems & 12 Earthly Branches are apportioned between the Yin & Yang principles by equating each odd number with Yang and each even number with Yin. Thus of the Heavenly Stems, chia, ping, wu, keng & jen belong to "Yang," while i, ting, chi, hsin & kuei belong to "Yin." Their attribution to particular elements introduces further complexities. For example, among the Heavenly Stems chia & i belong to wood, and ping & ting to fire; among the Earthly Branches, ying, mao & ch'en belong to wood, and ssu, wu & wei to fire. But differences emerge within each element depending on whether the particular Heavenly Stem belongs to Yin or Yang, or which month is represented by the Earthly Branch. In the case of the two Heavenly Stems attributed to the element wood, for instance, chia (a "Yang" character) indicates "forest trees," while i (a "Yin" character) indicates "flowers & grasses." By the same reasoning, the Earthly Branch yin indicates a "newly burgeoning sapling", mao is a "flourishing tree" and ch'en is a "dying tree."

The Five Elements are a central concept in Chinese divination; but they cannot exist in isolation, they must be combined with seasons and directions.

These combinations seem to accord with common sense, for instance wood "rules" the direction East because growing trees like the sunlight and the sun rises in the east. Metal similarly "rules" the West since metal is by nature cold and dead, and the west is the direction of the setting sun and the lack of light which spells etiolation for plant life. Conversely, the further removed an element is from its season or direction the weaker its influence.

But is strength necessarily desirable, and weakness undesirable? Don't rush to draw any conclusion.

The Chinese "Doctrine of the Mean" was developed in response to the idea that "when things reach an extreme, they retreat." Fundamentally, "summer fire" is a symbol of power at its height, but without "water's limitation" this fiery heat will consume its possessor and threaten danger.

Extrapolating from the concept of a season being at "full height," a scale of balance within the Five Elements and four seasons was devised. This scale ranges from wang "full height" to hsiang "favorable", hsiu "at rest", ch'iu "confined", and ssu "moribund".

The ancients defined this code based on the earlier theory of the Five Elements sequence of generation & domination. In other words, from the natural starting point of a season "at full height" the next state is "favorable," which is "ego-generated" (for example, wood generates fire, so fire is wood's "ego-generated" element). The next state, "at rest," is described as "generating ego;" the next state, "confined," is "dominating ego" and the last state, "moribund," is "ego-dominated."

How can theories so full of symbolism be applied to predicting the course of a person's life?

The vast majority of people consult fortunetellers on the subjects of career and financial prospects, family affairs, marriage, birth, old age, sickness and death. So these topics are central to the art of divination. According to the Five Elements sequence of generation & domination, the central focus is "ego" (in other words the Heavenly Stem defining the day of birth, in the four columns which make up the a person's Eight Cyclical Characters). From this starting point a personal schema can be laid out; it's an extremely complex business, but a general summary is set out below.

(1) A "generating ego" sequence (such as wu/earth generating hsin/metal) bears parental or protective connotations (as in the phrase "those who gave life to me were my father and mother").

(2) An "ego-generated" sequence may be of two kinds, i.e. shang-kuan, in which a Yang ego generates a Yin offspring or a Yin ego generates a Yang offspring (such as chia/wood generating ting/fire), or conversely shih-shen, in which a Yang ego generates a Yang offspring or a Yin ego generates a Yin offspring.

A shang-kuan reading is generally held to be inauspicious because it prevents a person advancing in his career; if a woman has such a reading it means she will overshadow her husband. Of course these ideas only represent the male-centered values of a feudal society; if a contemporary woman has a shang-kuan horoscope she will often prove not only capable but even a "super-woman"!

A shih-shen reading foretells the birth of children; in feudal times sons and daughters were regarded as their parents' providers in old age.

(3) A "dominating ego" sequence is known as kuan-sha (where jen/water dominates ting/fire, then jen/water is ting/fire's kuan-sha). This name (kuan meaning "imperial official") derives from the perceived draw-backs of high office; if you entered court as a high official you would be condemned to a lifetime of bowing and scraping. Succeeding in one's career has its benefits, but it can also take it out on you.

(4) An "ego-dominated" sequence is known as ch'i-ts'ai, meaning "wife & wealth" (where keng-hsin dominates i/wood, then i/wood is keng-hsin's "wife & wealth"). Here it may be seen that the ancients regarded a wife as equivalent to wealth, and that both were something equally to be enjoyed by a man. Diviners also speak of "spendthrift's affection," drawing a parallel between spending money and squandering affection, since people who spend money like water usually also bestow their affection too easily on others.

(5) Sequences in which the two egos are equal are known as pi-chien ("shoulder to shoulder") or chieh-ts'ai ("rob wealth"). Two completely identical readings (such as a keng/metalego meeting with another keng/metal ego) are "shoulder to shoulder." If the readings differ in their Yin & Yang affiliation (such as chia/wood and i/wood), this is an inauspicious portent foretelling such unwelcome possibilities as a domineering wife, wicked sons or excessive expense.

All these predictions are based on the characters in the "day" column which determine the basic fortune of ego. Readings in the year, month and hour columns are compared in order to identify whether they generate, dominate or are equal with ego. Predictions are then based on these and other theoretical categories codified in divination texts.

For all its complexity, divination by means of the Eight Cyclical Characters is based on the principle that a person's Five Elements readings should be just right, not tending towards extremes. If any element is too strong or too weak it will be difficult for that person to enjoy good fortune and long life. This echoes that insistence on harmony and equilibrium which informs the age-old Chinese concept of man's divinely-appointed fate.

[Picture Caption]

Yin-Yang & the Five Elements, together with the cosmic cycle, may determine the growth and decay of plants, but with modern progress can nature still have such influence over man today? Perhaps astrologers are themselves deluded over this! (photo by Arthur Cheng)

Yin-Yang & the Five Elements, together with the cosmic cycle, may determine the growth and decay of plants, but with modern progress can nature still have such influence over man today? Perhaps astrologers are themselves deluded over this! （photo by Arthur Cheng）

Yin-Yang & the Five Elements, together with the cosmic cycle, may determine the growth and decay of plants, but with modern progress can nature still have such influence over man today? Perhaps astrologers are themselves deluded over this! （photo by Arthur Cheng）