Thursday, March 21, 2013

BaZi: 用神 Useful God, 气候 - Climate

BaZi: 用神 Useful God, 气候 - Climate


气候 QiHou - Climate in BaZi encompasses temperature and humidity. Master Xu LeWu proposed the use of 调候用神, that is the Climate adjustment Useful God under the topic of Useful God in his commentary on ZPZQ. His idea, imo is against the concept of Climate 气候 in ZPZQ, there's no such thing as 调候用神. What ZPZQ discusses is the influence of the Climate on the Useful God 用神配气候得失. Remember, Useful God is always derived from the month's branch, not taken anywhere else from the BaZi.

ZPZQ says:

论命惟以月令用神为主,然亦须配气候而互参之。譬如英雄豪杰,生得其时,自然事半功倍;遭时不顺,虽有奇才,成功不易。
To discuss Life, only the Month's Decree Useful God is regarded as the main (point), and then it has to be referred to the climate . Like heroes, bold people or talented people born at the right time, naturally his little efforts would result in a great return. If the timing is not right, even the person is extraordinarily talented, success is hard to come by.

This paragraph alone contradicts Master Xu LeWu's Climate adjustment Useful God concept. ZPZQ often emphasizes that Useful God has to come from the month's decree but Master Xu LeWu used to take the Useful God from everywhere. Anyway, let's forget about Master Xu LeWu and concentrate on ZPZQ.

是以印绶遇官,此谓官印双全,无人不贵。而冬木逢水,虽透官星,亦难必贵,盖金寒而水益冻,冻水不能生木,其理然也。
Is like Seal (Useful God) meeting Officer, it's called Seal and Officer both complete, not one with this chart that is not noble. But wood that is born in Winter, even with penetrating Officer star is difficult to be noble, that is because metal is chilly and water is easily frozen, frozen water cannot engender wood, that is the law of nature.


身印两旺,透食则贵,凡印格皆然。而用之冬木,尤为秀气,以冬木逢火,不惟可以泄身,而即可以调候也。
Self and Seal are both prosperous, protruding Food is noble, all Seal structures are like this. But if it is used on wood that is born in winter, it is exceptionally elegant, that is when winter wood meets fire, not only can it exhaust Self, it also can adjust the climate.

伤官见官,为祸百端,而金水见之,反为秀气。非官之不畏夫伤,而调候为急,权而用之也。
Hurting Officer meeting Officer will bring about hundreds of disasters, but if Metal (DM) Water (HO) sees (Officer), that becomes elegant. That is not because Officer is not afraid of being hurt, but adjusting the climate is urgent, that is rightly used.

伤官带煞,随时可用,而用之冬金,其秀百倍。
Hurting Officer carrying Devil, can be used anytime, but if it is used on Winter Metal, it's a hundred times more elegant.

伤官佩印,随时可用,而用之夏木,其秀百倍,火济水,水济火也。
Hurting Officer adorned with Seal, can be used anytime, but if it is used on Summer Wood, it's a hundred times more elegant, fire can be of help for water and vice versa.

伤官用财,本为贵格,而用之冬水,即使小富,亦多不贵,冻水不能生木也。
Huring Officer using Wealth, is basically a noble structure, but if it used for Winter water, it's only a small fortune, mostly not noble, as frozen water cannot engender wood.

伤官用财,即为秀气,而用之夏木,贵而不甚秀,燥土不甚灵秀也。
Hurting Officer using Wealth, is elegant, if used on Summer wood, it is noble but not elegant, parched earth is not efficacious nor handsome.

春木逢火,则为木火通明,而夏木不作此论;
Spring wood meeting fire, is termed as 木火通明 Wood and Fire brightly lit, but Summer Wood is not discussed as such;

秋金遇水,则为金水相涵,而冬金不作此论。
Autumn metal meeting water, is termed as 金水相涵 Metal and Water containing each other, but Winter metal is not discussed as such.

气有衰旺,取用不同也。
Qi can be weak or prosperous, to take the useful object would rely on the circumstance.

春木逢火,木火通明,不利见官;
Spring wood meeting fire, wood and fire brightly lit, it's not good to see Officer

而秋金遇水,金水相涵,见官无碍。
But Autumn metal meeting Water, Metal and Water containing each other, seeing Officer is okay.

假如庚生申月,而支中或子或辰,会成水局,天干透丁,以为官星,只要壬癸不透露干头,便为贵格,与食神伤官喜见官之说同论,亦调候之道也。
E.g Geng born in the month of Shen, and branches see Zi or Chen, meeting to form a water frame, Ding protrudes in HS, as Officer star, as long as Ren and Gui does not protrude, it is regarded as noble structure, that is how Food God and Hurting Officer likes seeing Officer (for Metal Water HO structure), that is also the Tao of climate adjustment.

食神虽逢正印,亦谓夺食,而夏木火盛,轻用之亦秀而贵,与木火伤官喜见水同论,亦调候之谓也。
Food God even when it meets Direct Resource, it is regarded as Taking away Food, but if wood is in Summer with prosperous fire, lightly use would be elegant and noble, that is the same logic as Metal Water Hurting Officer likes to meet officer, that is also the idea of climate adjustment.

Ciao 

6 comments:

  1. Hi trey,

    Starting to get this topic, as you help advise, I have felt it's pretty difficult since the first few paragraph. and it raises my first question, right away.

    Based on ZPZQ's rule that Useful God must be any Qi in month EB, if it is the case like strong Ren DM born in Zi or Strong Yi DM born in Mao, what could possibly their Useful God? Adding Water for the former or Wood to the latter is going to cause harm to the DM, isn't it?, while there is no any Qi of other elements in their month EB but their same element as DM.

    In both assumption cases, could they not have Useful God?

    Sorry for bothering you this early.... so confused,..... really... :(

    decha_woo

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    Replies
    1. Hi DW,

      Firstly, let's forget about the strength of DM. It really does not apply in that way in the classical principles. Strength of the DM has its uses, but not in determining the Useful God.

      Secondly, forget the notion 'strong DM favors Outputs, Wealths and Officers' and 'weak DM favors resources and parallels'. These notions don't apply to the classical theories.

      Thirdly, the definition of Useful God is not the 'most important element in the chart' according to the classics. Useful God is something that is 'used' by the DM. Something usable, not necessarily favorable.

      I'm practically telling you to forget everything you learned from modern books.. haha

      For example, Ren DM born in Zi, is what we call YangRen (blade of Yang) structure. The Useful God is YangRen, it is a malevolent deity. So it cannot be used by the DM without assistance from another deity. YangRen has a tendency to Rob Wealth, so there should be another deity that would help DM to suppress YangRen.

      Most favorable would be 7K, if 7K is present in the chart, it is extremely auspicious, we call this structure 阳刃用杀. YangRen uses 7K. A person of this structure is extremely powerful - head of governments, ministers, CEO of large corporations, head of mafia etc.

      So we say: 'DM uses YangRen' (The UG for the DM is YangRen), YangRen uses 7K, sort of like the UG for the YangRen is 7K, but we call 7K in this case, the Minister God 相神. To quote BengKung, YangRen is the Emperor of the chart, 7K is the Prime Minister. YangRen rules but 7K does all the works.

      Ren DM born in Zi with a 7K present in the chart, a structure is established.

      Then what is favorable and not favorable to the chart? In general, a YangRen uses 7K structure favors Wealth and Seal.

      But then we have to put into consideration the strength of the deities. Is DM strong or weak? is 7K strong or weak?. A stronger 7K and weaker DM would favor Seal. A weaker 7K and stronger DM would favor Wealth. So we say the structure 'uses' Wealth, or 'uses' Seal.

      What is the unfavorable deity? The outputs particularly Food God because once it counters away 7K, the chart collapses, YangRen is free to rob Wealth.

      If 7K is not present, we look for DO, the Wealths, the Outputs, each of the deities has their own ways to be 'Used' by YangRen. That would be left for a future post, again.. Sorry! :D

      This is not all to YangRen uses 7K structure, there are more things to consider!... :D

      The same applies to Yi born in Mao, we call that 月劫格, Month Rob Structure, which is basically a Rob Wealth structure. Yes the Useful God for the DM is Rob Wealth and Rob Wealth (which is a malevolent deity) needs its own Prime Minister, preferably Direct Officer.

      If a structure cannot be established from the month EB, we would consider the special structures, e.g GuiKang, DayNoble, DayVirtue etc.

      Hope this does not create more confusion.

      Regarding special structures and ShenShas, we will leave them until the translations get there. It will take some time, but we will get there. I promise.

      Regards!

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    2. Hi trey,

      That's very kind of you!

      Well, re your "practical suggestion", yes, I kinda think of forgetting the modern Bazi method right after finishing your third suggestion, :) , as all 3 suggestions seems to go against what I have read for years... However, it sounds reasonable to me, really... after reading more ... partly thanks to Mangpai way from a senior (whom you would know) in the forum which have convinced me with chart reading through idea of not focusing on dividing DM into strong or weak, but weigh it with factors at the time of analysis.

      I have once read Borneo219's blog and got confused. But at that time, I thought such a division of those roles (Emperor, Prime Minister, etc.) was just a different way of saying only. : /

      Like the Ren born in Zi month, previously I simply thought Useful God would be elements other than Water or Metal. If his explanation of this classic idea is so meaningful, I think I should get back to to try to understand more.

      For Yang Ren preferring 7K, no doubt about it. But, just the way to classify Yang Ren for Earth DM (Wu and Ji) which annoys me. :) Other elements becomes Yang Ren if month EB is same element though being different in Yin-Yang, but both Earth DM use Fire! That's Resource to me. Why not uses Earth EB like Xu or Chou or Wei or Chen... Especially, for Wu-Earth born in Xu, which I was told 7k (Jia-Wood) is needed the most based on the same reason of other Yang Ren, e.g. to prevent Yang Ren from rob DM's wealth, it seems so Yang-Ren to me... :D

      Just me nagging out loud for it causing my recitation even more difficult... hahaha :D

      Thank you soooooo much again for your kindness. I didn't think that my point of confusion would cause your reply of such a lot of effort... Next time I will try to make it more specific...

      decha_woo

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    3. Hi DW,

      YangRen only happens to the Yang DM, so only Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng and Ren has YangRen.

      There's no such thing as YingRen, so DM Yi, Ding, Ji, Xin and Gui has no YingRen.

      One should not confuse between YangRen 阳刃 (blade of Yang) and YangRen 羊刃 (blade of Goat). They sound the same but they are different entities.

      YangRen (blade of Yang) happens to Yang DM according to the 12 Qi stages. It only happens at DiWang stage, which is when the same element is at its prosperity peak.

      It is the time when the Rob Wealth Star is at its most powerful. 刃, 劫之至也. Blade, is the extreme of Rob Wealth

      Jia DiWang in Mao (Yi)
      Bing DiWang in Wu (Ding)
      Wu DiWang in Wu (Ji)
      Geng DiWang in You (Xin)
      Ren DiWang in Zi (Gui)

      So that's the reason why Wu Earth has YangRen in Wu EB. This also indicates that Earth is possibly strongest in Wu EB, and not the earthly months.

      You are welcome again :-)

      regards

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    4. Hi trey,

      Thank you so much for your informative advice!

      decha_woo

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    5. typo: YinRen 阴刃 not YingRen

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