Analysis of Geng-Zi year 2020 （庚子年）

Analysis of Geng-Zi  year 2020 （庚子年）

While I was showering, my mind started spinning and thinking a lot of things. Things are not going well in this world and to people around me, what would happen next year? How does Geng-Zi (庚子) going to affect us?

As I thought about it, my mind went deeper and linking all the theories that I’ve learnt.

For a start, we can look at Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of Gengzi (庚子) and try to understand what this two words means.

Geng (庚) – Yang Metal

It symbolizes big heavy metallic objects such as aircrafts, ships, cars, big swords

It also symbolizes North West, Qian hexagram (乾卦), Father, Leaders, First.

In our body, it symbolizes intestines. As it is also Metal, it is also related to lungs, skin, nose, respiration system, bones, teeth, etc.

乾 – also represents Money. Metal relates to Financial sector, electrical & engineering, building and maintenance, aesthetic and beauty products/services.  

庚 – is like a sword, it is cold and sharp. It is also associated with blades, needles, hence surgery.

Zi (子) – Yang Water Rat

It symbolises big water – sea, ocean

It also symbolises North, Kan hexagram (坎卦),  Middle Son/Middle-age adult.

In our body, it symbolizes kidney, reproduction system, woman’s period, lower part of the body, fluid, circulation system, bladder, etc.

坎 – also represents obstacles, difficulties, problems, etc.

子 also represents Winter Water (Jan) when it is very cold.

Water relates to high turnover industries such as hotels, F&B, theme parks, shipping, etc.

So when you put庚 on top of子, it is like a big (metallic) object above the water. Except there is nothing to support it, hence the big object will fall into the water and the water will create big ripples of water.

In this illustration, we can visualise problems relating to Tsunami, airplane crashes, ships sinking.

And these two are cold Yin elements, and the base is fluid, hence they represents unstable/unsettling, dark cold thoughts and emotions. Like depression, suicidal, schizophrenic, jealously. etc. At the same time, because the emotions are unstable, they are reactive as well. They will think of hurting others, revenge, unscrupulous plotting.

If we look at the hexagram (I-Ching), 乾坎 – 天水讼

讼 itself is legal suit, 口舌quarrels, disagreement, legal complications.

天 – sky at the top

水 – water at the bottom

They are not connecting, distance to each other. You do your things, I do mine. So people at the top and people working at the bottom are not in agreement. They have different thoughts of working.

In QiMen, 庚 is a White Tiger star 白虎. It symbolizes danger, injury, misfortune, accidents. And because it attacks Jia 甲, hence甲 has to hide 遁.

甲 – represents leader, Number 1, general.

Hence, we’ll see a lot of problems to the Leaders of the world, leaders of the corporations, leaders quarreling with each other. Especially those who are outshining and outspoken because they do not hide遁, they get attack by unseen forces and visible enemies.

庚 also represents “lump” in health. So it could be a cyst, tumours, blockage. Hence it is also related to cancer, stroke, heart attack, respiration/skin problems, kidney stones, etc.

In flying stars,

5 Yellow Star is at East (misfortune, accidents, sickness, anything that is bad)

2 Black Star is at South (sickness)

Tai Sui （太岁）at North

Three Killings (三煞) at South (mishap, unrest, obstacles).

So we might expect more problems with China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan.

Well is it all that bad, maybe and maybe not. And everyone’s bazi is different, some are running good luck, some are able to tide through. So not everyone will experience the same thing. But I’m saying this only for us to take note of it so we can control our emotions and behavior. Take note of changes that might affect us.

There’s a Chinese saying 先知先觉, when you know about it you can be aware of it. And sometimes may prevent things from getting worse.

I shall stop here. Will write more along the way when I get my inspirations.

General Outlook for 2018

By this time of the year, you would have read many zodiac predictions and general forecasts of 2018 dog year. Well, here’s my version.

This year is a Yang Earth 戊 at the top heavenly stem and Yang Earth Dog (戌) at the bottom earthly branch. Both are Yang Earth and so it forms a Mountain Hexagram or what we call Gua 卦. This is a  Gen Gua艮卦.

艮卦 represents young man,  children, north east, mountain, tomb, obstacle, stubbornness, solid structure, storage, quietness. It also represents numbers, 5, 7, 10.

艮卦 has one yang hexagram line at the top and two yin hexagram lines below. It is strong on the outside but hollow within. It is like a door blocking you from moving. You have to slow down to enter the tunnel at slow speed and with caution. Or it also means you have to find ways to move around the obstacle.

In other words, 2018 is a year of stoppage, new beginning, slowing down to think about what you want to do, how to do it and proceed with caution.

You can read up more about 艮卦 online.

Last year, I used the Chinese character 辛 to represent 2017. This year I would choose to use the character 耕. It means Plow when farming. One has to use tools to loosen the soil in order to plant the seeds. Eventually there will be harvest and you can see result. If you don’t put in effort to “plow” whatever you want to do, how do you expect to see positive changes?

In 2018, industries relating to the Earth element will be doing well. Industries such as construction, property/land development and sales, renovation, horticulture, Feng Shui, banks, etc.

In terms of health, there might be more illnesses relating to headache, migraine, joint pain, stomach/intestinal issues, poor blood circulation or worse stroke. (stoppage of blood).  So for those people whose Bazi have unfavourable element of Earth, please take note of your health.

In 2018, Grand Duke is at North West, Three Killing and 5 Yellow at North, 2 Black (illness star) at West and current period prosperous start at South East.

I think you can read this up easily online. Every year, I have friends who would get paranoid and asked me where to put items to counter the negative qi.

Personally, I think there’s no need to get paranoid every year. Generally, it is more applicable if there are major renovation works happening in your house. Say for example, knowing that there is 5 Yellow and 3 Killing in North this year, then try not to do any renovation, hacking works in this sector. If you have to, choose an auspicious date and time to start the work.

To tap on the auspicious Qi 8, it would be more applicable if you have your house facing or door in the South East. If you don’t have such structures, then we’ll have to use other Fengshui methods. I’m not a believer of blindly just place a water feature at South East sector. Water is a two bladed catalyst. It can work for you or against you. So it’s better to get a geomancer to look at your house’s structure before deciding what works for you.

Even though the auspicious Qi 8 is in South East, which will probably means good news for South East countries' economy including Singapore, there is a high chance there will be changes of leadership. 

Based on the Qi Men chart for Li Chun (Start of Spring), we can see that 值符 (leader star) 杜门(blockage star) 天芮 (problem star) 马星 (horse star - denotes moving) are in South East sector. So likely we might see changes in leadership of countries and corporations. Of which we are already hearing Malaysia's election, Singapore's reshuffling of ministers. 

To round it up, I think 2018 is a better year than 2017. One has to be trustworthy, honest, prudent, stay humble and think through before speaking or acting. You will get your rewards after putting in efforts in whatever you do.

Vincent, Do You Remember What You Said To Me?

"Vincent, do you remember what you said to me?" I am quite scare of hearing such a sentence when it comes from people whom I have analysed their Bazi before. I have a few cases when people suddenly ask me this because I have said something to them in the past.

I recalled an incident of a Taiwanese lady. She was one of my Taiwanese friend's friends who were invited over to his house when I was visiting on a holiday. They heard that I could do fortune telling and so wanted me to do some readings for them.

Since they were my Taiwanese friends, I didn't refuse and did the analysis on the spot. For such impromptus cases, I usually just said it out briefly without keeping a record of what I said. I thought it was just for fun.

Until, two years later she messaged me on the Facebook suddenly. As if she was one of those who wished to test on my memory, she asked me if I remembered what I said to her during the bazi reading session 2 years ago. I said no. I don't usually remember exactly what I said after I said it, and I don't make an effort to remember a person's bazi unless it is stored in my apps.

In any case, she went on to refresh my memory that I told her to pay more attention to her marriage as her marriage might have problem. Back then, she was happily married with a child. She wouldn't have thought otherwise but surprisingly she remembered my words.

And so, she was devestated when she found her husband having an affair and her husband wanted a divorce. Besides her heartache on her husband infidelity, she was more concerned about her child's well being. She asked me for advice.

Apparently, a divorce in Taiwan is really a clean divorce. Unlike in Singapore, couples have a 3 years separation period. I think it is good for the couples to cool down and seriously think about their marriage or to plan for their life after divorce. And I think they do not have a Woman's Charter to protect female spouse and children financially in such cases of failed marriage.

I look at her husband's chart, and it seemed if she could try to hold the marriage for one more year there could be improvement. Even if none, at least she could prepare herself during this one year emotionally and financially. As after her divorce, she would have to start working to feed herself and her child. Her daughter would be in her custody. Her life would change while she has to cope with working and looking after her young child.

Her husband was very insistent on the divorce. She was concerned that if she did not sign on the divorce paper, her husband would not want to visit their daugther anymore. I told her the one year period would be a trial period to see whether her husband would still care for her daughter or just an excuse to get them out of the house.

As much as I was advising her to hold on to the marriage, she told me in our next online session that she had signed on the paper. Her husband verbally agreed to visit the daugther on weekends if she signed on the paper to divorce. And so she feared if she did not sign on it, her daughter would not see her father anymore.

There was nothing much I could do since she already took her action and I wished her well.

The next time she messaged me, she was telling me how difficult she had to cope in waking up early to send her child to school, then she went on her work. After work, she had to fetch her and cook for her at home. While she was feeling drained physically, what anger her most was her husband back out of his words and did not visit her daughter as he promised. Infact, he was uncontactable after signing the paper.

I could only lend a listening ear as there wasn't much I could do for her. She made a decision in her life and she had to live with it.

We lost contact thereafter and I didn't follow up with her on her life anymore.

I just wondered what if she had hung on to her marriage, would her life be different or less miserable? Maybe it's really something she had to go through in her life, though there was someone who gave her advices.

Many times, I came across people who come to me for advices but actually that was not their real intention. They just want to talk to someone about their problems and they knew what decisions they would make.

One cannot expect that the geomancer is great and powerful to solve everything in your life. We are not Gods. We have our own problems to deal with too. I think sometimes people have to recognise that there are things in life that we can't change. If a person is ill, he/she has to go see a doctor. If your marriage fails, you have to look at what are the issues and improve on the relationship. When a person is dying, geomancer would not be able to revive him/her simply by placing some tailsman and chanting. If you have to let go, you have to let go.

There are cases when seeing a counsellor, a doctor, a lawyer may be more appropriate than seeing a fortune teller. If I can guarantee to change your life, I'll charge you by the hour and you save on the litigation hassle. But no fengshui Masters can guarantee that. So help yourself by finding the right help.

The Art of Strategies

The basic concept of dealing with aggression/ attack/ sha transcends between different Chinese arts.

In martial arts, there are general (3+1) categories of techniques:

Attack – punch, kick, thrust, push, throws, etc.

Defence – block, dodge, etc

Neutralise – acupressure points grip, immobilizing, joint locks, etc

Protect - And to wear protective armour, carry shields, to protect one-self. 

Similarly in Feng Shui, there are generally 4 categories of techniques to deal with Sha:

Attack: Cannon structure, triangle structure (fire) against round structure (metal), etc

Defence – use of walls, bi-folded screens, etc

Exhaust/ Neutalise – To use water fountain/wavy structure (Water) against round structure (metal).

Protect – Use of talisman, Qi Ling or Pi Xiu, etc. 

So when someone was to attack you, there are many ways to handle the situation instead of attacking the person.

In Taiji, there is a concept of ” 四量博千斤”- meaning to use minimal energy to convert your enemy’s energy and use it to your advantage.  For example, if a big guy is moving forward to attack you, you do not charge towards him or block him as you cannot handle his strength. Instead, you dodge, grab and push him in the direction he is moving, at the same time kick his leg (which is the Yin or the weak point). This will make him fall and his own body or energy will hurt himself. 

In Fengshui, there are similar concepts also. We often heard the words "冲起乐宫无价宝”- To clash into an auspicious palace is priceless. For example, facing a direct T-junction is often considered as no good. But if you know how to convert the negative sha to your advantage, you will find that there are actually businesses who are at T-junctions that are doing very well.

Similarly, in interpersonal relationship when someone provoke you. You don’t have to attack or confront the person. Instead you could draw the person closer to you to expose his weakness, or gather more information. Then you could convert him into your ally or turn the situation against him.

Theoretically, these all sound fantastic but one must stay calm, analyze the situation and apply the techniques to get your results. If all things fail, well the last of 36 strategies states "走为上策“  - RUN!

Go Against The Gravity

Took a taxi back home just now with my colleagues. While on the road, the topic of a recent case of a passenger who couldn’t get on bus #190 until after thirteen buses was brought up.

I was saying that someone in the Land & Transport Authority (LTA) should be analysing the situation and coming up solutions to resolve this, the taxi driver thought otherwise. He defended strongly saying, “The problem has been there for so many years, nobody can do anything about it. What can they do? They have no solution that’s why they are asking the public to give them a solution instead. It’s like this. No choice, we have to live with it”. 

I’m not a believer of “no choice”; even taking a little step to improve the situation is a choice. However, the taxi driver hung on strongly to his “no choice, cannot be done, its part of living” beliefs.

Relating to Bazi or destiny analysis, I do come across different people going through different stages of life of 生老病死苦 – living, aging, illness, death and misery. People who suffered from illnesses like cancer, incurable diseases, dying, bankruptcy,  jail, marriage problem with spouse having an affair and cheated the person of his/her life savings, etc. 

 

We are all human, and the price of living is to go through these stages. Some people labeled their sufferings as Karma. You can say all of your sufferings are from your previous life’s karma, or the current one. I call it “Homework”.

These are just Life’s homework given to you. They are given to you probably because you didn’t finish it in your previous life. You chose the easy way out that is to end it. It is like rebooting the system but with the same challenge in the game at different level. Or you didn’t finish it because you didn’t know how to get out of the maze. You know going into certain route will bring you misery, but you still go into it and can’t get out. 

  

That is why sometimes Life is so interesting. It will just keep testing you with different challengers, sometimes the same problems repeatedly to test whether you have understood the game.

Relating back to the taxi driver, if you are like him keep circulating in the same path and saying that nothing can be done, you can’t do anything, accepting it as life, then you are also not helping yourself to get out of the maze.

Recently, I deliberately went to see the show “Gravity” alone and I was glad I watched it. In fact, I urge everyone to watch it. The moral of the story is not new, but it is just putting across with in a different scenario and actors. Sandra Bullock was caught in a situation that she thought she couldn’t handle anymore and decided to end her life. Just right before she ran out of oxygen, she realized actually she had not ran out of options. She knew she was going to die anyway, it was a matter of now or fight to prolong it. And then she went on fighting her way out of whatever obstacles threw to her and she made it alive.

You might say, there’s only a movie. Well, like I said you can always choose to take the easy way out and reboot your system early. But if you just hang on and persevere, you might cross over to the next level. And this level of the “game” is not tough for you anymore because you went through it; you know how to deal with it.

In Bazi or destiny telling, it is always about knowing yourself and your situations (Awareness) and what you can do to change yourself positively (Mental/Attitude) follow by actions (behavioural change). Sometimes you can’t change what’s happening around you, but you can choose to change within yourself.

So stop circulating at the maze, start to get out.

Till Death Do Us Apart.

Very often we hear people says that 'your fate is in your own hand', 'you control your own destiny'.

If so, then we wouldn't have to study Chinese Metaphysics relating to Destiny analysis, for example Ba Zi, Zi Wei Dou Shu. For the past 10 years of studying CM and analysing charts, I realise there are some things in life that are beyond one's control.

Some of these things are illnesses, accidents and death. I have 'fortunately or unfortunately' obtain a few friends' birth data who had passed away. For one of them, we (a group of practioners) saw the death signal but we couldn't do anything about it. We could only hope for the best, yet Death God took him anyway.

I know for what I said here, I probably have many CM Masters disputing it and said there are ways to counter the effect or avoid the mishap. Seriously, I have yet to see one that is immortal.





As I study on CM, I find that the tools like Ba Zi, Zi Wei Dou Shu and Qi Men Dun Jia are such mysterious tools. they have their own strength and weakness. They have their way of telling the stories. And the best part is, one is able to tell such people will meet such calamity even without knowing the person. The chart says all.

Above is a chart of a man who died in 2012 in a traffic accident. Those who are versed in ZWDS would have no problem seeing why.

And here is a young man who died falling off a building in 2010. It was suspected he could have commited suicide but the family couldn't think why. Nonetheless, when you look at the chart you could only hope you could have warned the family earlier. 

As much as we hope we can avoid the unhappiness and misfortune. I guess sometimes we have to accept that things happen for a reason. Maybe, if we could have detected it earlier we could have warned, advised, help, etc. Maybe if we didn't, because fate doesn't want him to be helped. It's Karma?

Its depressing sometimes to 'detect' such signals, especially if they are the people closed to you. I saw my grandma's chart and I knew she had only 1-2 years with us. I told my relatives and my parents to cherish the time we have with her. To accompany her and get the things she wanted to eat. 

I am not a good analyst in Bazi and so I couldn't predict which day she would be gone. But I visited her before I went for a long flight to San Francisco. On the route back when I had a stay over in Hong Kong, my uncle called me and said that she couldn't make it, and if I could arrange to fly back on the next flight.

I did all I could and boarded the next available flight back to Singapore. Yet something tells me I couldn't make it. I saw some lights floating on the clouds moving in opposite direction of the plane. As a flight crew for more than 7 years, I knew those were not lights from the ground. I felt that was her way of telling me she had gone.

And indeed as I discovered later that her death time was around the time my plane took off in Hong Kong.

To round off, I guess what I wanted to say is that Life and Nature has its own rules. As much as we may learnt alot of skills from CM, perhaps it doesn't mean we can change how the game is played. It is perhaps for us to 'see' and prepare the people or ourselves to accept Life as it is. 

Are you prepared?

Do you know your Heavenly Stems Combination?

For those who studied Bazi before you probably know the 5 Heavenly Stems (HS) combination. They are Jia 甲 + Ji 己 = Earth 土, Yi 乙+ Geng 庚 = Metal 金, Bing 丙+ Xin 辛= Water 水, Ding 丁+ Ren 壬 = Wood 木, Wu 戊 + Gui 癸 = Fire 火.

But do you know that these HS combination existed long before the invention of Bazi? Infact, it's appearance was mentioned from the 皇帝内经 (one of the oldest Chinese medical book), in Chapter 五运行大论篇。

During one of the questions and answers sessions, a medical doctor said 鬼臾区曰：土主甲己，金主乙庚，水主丙辛，木主丁壬，火主戊癸。And Qi Bo 岐伯 further explain how this combination came about "臣览太始天元册文，丹天之气，经于牛女戊分；黅天之气，经于心尾己分；苍天之气，经于危室柳鬼；素天之气，经于亢氐昂毕；玄天之气，经于张翼娄胃；所谓戊己分者，奎璧角轸，则天地之门户也。娄胃；所谓戊己分者，奎璧角轸，则天地之门户也。"

Translated meaning based on the text of 太始天元册 (an astronomy text), The Qi of  丹天 passed through 牛女 (28 constellations) <at the direction of 癸 in the 24 mountains ring and 戊分, the Qi of  黅天 passed through 心尾 <at the direction of 甲> and 己分, the Qi of 苍天 passed through 危室 <at direction of 壬> and 柳鬼 <at direction of 丁>, the Qi of 素天 passed through 亢氐 <at direction of乙> and 昂毕 <at direction of 庚>, the Qi of  玄天 passed through 张翼 <the direction of 丙> and 娄胃<the direction of 辛>. And the meaning of 戊己分 (intersection of 戊己 ), is actually at the 奎璧角轸 (28 constellations) where it is also known as the Heaven and Earth Door.

丹天 refers to reddish light, 黅天 refers to yellowish light, 苍天 refers to greenish light, 素天 refers to whitish light, 玄天 refers to blackish light.

皇帝内经 was commonly thought to be written in the Spring-Autumn Warring Period 春秋战国时代。Which means that the astronomy book 太始天元册 was much earlier. It was suggested that 太始天元册 was probably written around the West Zhou (B.C 1046 - 771) 西周。

The creation of Bazi by Founder Li Xu Zhong 李虚中 was in 隋唐 (Around B.C 581 - 907) and Xu Zi Ping 徐子平 was in Song Dynasty (around the year of 960 - 1127).

And so the Heavenly Stems combination was created much earlier and was used in the application of Ba Zi. Infact, the reason why HS combination was mentioned was due to its application to 五运六气。五运 is related to the Heavenly Stems and 六气 is related to the Earthly Branches.

I will not go further into 五运六气 as it is another big topic in 皇帝内经. Nonetheless one interesting finding was often we hear the Chinese says 运气 (luck) actually refers to the influences of HS and EB on a person. Where 皇帝内经 refers to external environmental influences on the health of a person.