About Treybazi

I'm a farmer, not a master, and if you call me master Trey, I will hit you with my spade, well, just kidding.

I started this blog with the intention of sharing classical BaZi knowledge to non Chinese literate enthusiasts. Translating classical Chinese to English is quite challenging to me as I did not study Chinese (mandarin) in my schooling days. I learn the language from reading comic books and singing karaoke and I managed to pick it up with the help of my friends, family and dictionaries. Classical Chinese is a very difficult language and combined with the cryptic texts of the old books, interpretation becomes very difficult. So please forgive me if you find the translations erroneous or the interpretation incorrect.

Classical BaZi differs from Modern BaZi in many ways. The most significant difference is Classical BaZi does not begin analysis with the 'Strength of DayMaster', rather, it begins analysis with identifying the Useful God 用神. This brings to the question - How do we know what is the Useful God if we do not know the strength of the DayMaster? The answer is related to the second difference between Classical and Modern BaZi, which is the definition of Useful God. Useful God 用神, from the classical perspective is the God in charge, the entity that takes command. 用神 is an abbreviation of the phrase 用事之神 (The god that takes charge). This is not like Modern BaZi where the Useful God is often associated with the God that is most favorable to the chart.

Back to the first difference. Identifying the correct Useful God is quite a difficult task, there are several methods and concepts that needs to be applied.

1.  Useful God must come from the Month Decree (YueLing 月令), usually the God that takes command is derived from the concept of Dominant Hidden Heavenly Stem - to know which is the God that takes charge on that particular day in the Solar Term.

2. The Useful God that is derived from point #1 can change and transform, the changes and transformations depend on 2 main factors - Combination that involves the Month Decree and Protrusion of the Gods in the Heavenly Stems.

Having known these 2 concepts, the correct Useful God can be determined. In many cases, there can be more than one entity that take the command, and thus resulting more than one Useful God. This often leads to confusion and hesitation, not knowing which entity should be analyzed first.

Secondly, Classical BaZi adheres strictly to the concepts of  ‘有情‘ - Having Affection, and '有力‘ - Having Strength. Affection means the Useful God is used in the correct way while strength means the Useful Gods and its supporters (including DM) are strongly rooted in the EB.

Generally, the 10 gods are categorized into 2 groups. The first group is the benevolent Gods - Wealth, Officer, Seal and Food. The second group is made of malevolent Gods - Hurting Officer, Devil, Owl  and Blade. Having Affection or the Useful God being used in the correct way means the benevolent Gods are supported and protected while the malevolent Gods are restrained or transformed. Should the benevolent Gods be countered or the malevolent Gods  supported, we analyze this as not affectionate - inauspicious.

情 Affection also cover another aspect of the dynamics of the Gods, for example, a strong DM being engendered by Seal is not affectionate, while a weak DM being engendered by Seal is considered affectionate. If Wealth takes command of the chart, strong Wealth being engendered by Food is also analyzed as not affectionate while prosperous Wealth engendering Officer is considered affectionate. There is a popular notion that Classical BaZi only analyzes from the perspective of strong DayMaster, weak DayMaster automatically means inauspicious, this is not true. Classical Bazi analyze firstly from the perspective of 情 - Affection.

Having said the above, another significant difference between Classical and Modern is the fulcrum of the analysis. Modern BaZi places its central point on the strength of DayMaster, with the over-generalized notions of a 'Strong DayMaster favors Outputs, Wealths and Authorities' and a 'Weak DayMaster favors Seals and Parallels'. Classical BaZi do not follow these notions. The key factor of analysis is rightly the DayMaster but not its strength. It is the Useful God of the month decree that correspond to the DM is used as the starting point - the chart structure, whether it is a structure that made of benevolent Gods or malevolent Gods and how they are used. Instead of saying 'Strong DayMaster favors Wealth and Officer' or 'Weak DM favors Seal', we say 'Officer structure that uses Wealth favors strong DM' or 'Seal structure favors Weak DM'.

With these few fundamental differences, it is safe to say that Modern Bazi and Classical Bazi are two distinguished methods. Readers who visit this blog are often perplexed by the contents of this blog that seemingly contradict what they learn from their books and teachers. I could never judge which method is more accurate because I only practice the latter. And I do not agree with people who judge the classical books irrelevantly as they seem not to understand the essence.

 With warmest regards, I hope readers enjoy the blog and please do not shy away from starting discussions, this blog serves as a medium for my learning as much as it would like to be yours.

Trey.