I picked up something rather unusual at a local donation center rummage sale. Here is a snippet of that item.
As I took it home and studied it more, the content of this manuscript piqued my interest. I can read the words ( most of it anyways ) but I don't necessarily understand all their meanings. I feel really inadequate, and perplexed.
It dawns on me that I am reading someone's life as told by an astrologer or fortune teller.
As I grew up in Hong Kong, fortune telling or seeking astrological advice was common practice. For those of us who went to school and received modern education we often snub that with disdain and consider that superstition. This is especially true for kids attending schools run by missionaries and dioceses because the indoctrination was that only ignorant pagans would seek such services.
What I am most ashamed of is that because astrology and fortune telling often utilize parameters or nomenclatures that have to do with the Chinese way of looking at the universe, time, seasons and the Chinese philosophy of balance and harmony, I associate such beliefs (thanks to the schools) with superstition and hogwash; the intent of the educators notwithstanding. I suppose this is one form of raping one's culture, especially when the target is young and impressionable. One might also say that I threw the baby out with the water.
I am determined to learn a little more about my own culture with a less biased mind now that I'm much older and hopefully wiser.
I know almost nothing about Chinese astrology or fortune telling. All I know is that a person's birth year, month, day, time are assigned a value or classification. This is called a person's Bazi (八字) and the person's life is further modulated by the person's Wuhang (五行) meaning the Five Elements. Bazi (八字), which literally means 8 words, is derived from Ganzhi (干支), a Chinese convention of counting year, month, day and time. The convention involves generating a pair of points based on the alignment of 10 Tiangan (天干) points against 12 Dizhi (地支) points. We generate a 2-word time stamp from each of the person's birth year, month, day and hour; hence 8 words and 4 time stamps. Each group of the 2-word time stamp is known as a Pillar and the Day Pillar represents the individual in question, and assumes prime importance. It is said that if the day of birth (the Day Pillar) is not known, there's no way to proceed with the astrological calculations. I shall explain how the 2-word time stamp is generated in the following paragraphs.
Ganzhi (干支) involves the combination of two cycles; one starts with 甲 (Jia) and the other cycle starts with 子 (Zi). The cycle that starts with 甲 is called Tiangan (天干), meaning Heavenly Stem and the cycle that starts with 子 is called Dizhi (地支), meaning Earthly Branch. A Jiazi (甲子) is a sixty year cycle. Confused? Me too! I shall explain terminologies more fully with the following:
The Tiangan cycle has 10 segments and the Dizhi cycle has 12. When these two cycles are run together, they match up every 60 years. Regrettably this was part of my education, which I wrote off as being not practical and useless and ancient. Thus to supplant my own prejudice regarding the ancient counting convention of Ganzhi (干支) I prepared something to teach myself.
I've created one strip representing the Tiangan cycle which starts with 甲 and I've also named the individua points (10 ) in alphabets for ease of identification. I'm embarrassed to say the Chinese words look foreign to me now. I've created another strip representing the Dizhi cycle which starts with 子 and I am assigning numerals to the individual points (12), again for ease of recognizing.
When these two cycles run together (placing one strip alongside the other), we see A is lined up with 1, and numbers 11 and 12 is not lined up with anything. The time stamp for the beginning segment is made up of (A) from the top strip and (1) from the bottom, thus A1, or 甲子, the next time stamp or segment shall be B2, or 乙丑, so on and so forth.
So it takes 6 cycles of Heavenly Stem Tiangan (天干) to match with 5 cycles of Earthly Branch Dizhi (地支)
Thus if each segment or time stamp represents one year, a complete cycle Jiazi (甲子) is 60 years (segments) and it starts with the (A甲)(1子) time stamp, hence the term 甲子. The term Jiazi (甲子) actually is not uncommon in Chinese vernacular; we often use that to describe a person or a time span of "in the sixties". Now perhaps I should try to understand why two weeks is called a fortnight. (answer: 14 nights)
During a conversation with my younger brother who is much smarter than I am, especially in the area of mathematics and Chinese studies, I was made aware that this is actually a simple example of finding the LCM ( lowest common multiples ) of 10 and 12.
Yes, but I am a visual person and my long arduous way of demonstrating how it works erects an indelible synapse in my feeble brain and makes more sense.
The Wuhang (五行), Five Elements is the Chinese way of describing checks and balances. It deals with the facilitating or hindering relationships of the five elements; namely Metal (金), Wood (木), Water(水), Fire(火) and Earth(土).
In the above graphic representation of the 5 elements, the black lines denote a positive effect and the red lines a negative or hindering association. The picture shows the compass position of the Elements; East is considered Wood, South is Fire, West is Metal, North is Water and Earth assumes the center position. Thus Water facilitates Wood (tree needs water to grow), Wood generates Fire, which in turn produces Earth (think of lava) and Earth produces Metal. On the flip side, we use Fire to forge Metal, Water to douse Fire and Earth to shore up Water (flooding). This relationship is not a unilateral one but a constant interplay with others. As Water hinders Fire, which creates Earth, which in turn fights Water. Harmony and smooth sailing is attained when the elements are balanced; when there is absence of inappropriate push or pull amongst them. When the Five Elements are tied in with a person's Bazi (八字), an algorithm of "for", "go" or "against", "no go" is created. Thus at different stages of a person's life, a different time stamp (due to progressing years) is associated with a certain element, hence initiating a "favorable" or alternatively "to shun" roadmap accordingly. We often hear of a person's Wuhang (五行) is lacking certain element(s), thus altering a person's path in life. A proverbial mocking of a poor person is that the individual is lacking Metal( gold in this case) in his Wuhang (五行).
Wuhang (五行) is also extremely important in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. Different organs are associated with different Elements. In a rather simplistic example, Kidney is Water, Liver is Wood and Heart is Fire. Thus if a person suffers from ailment of the liver(Wood), the practitioner needs to determine if the liver is in overdrive or in weak mode. If it's due to over active liver, the heart(Fire) meridian needs to be attenuated. If the liver is inadequate and weak then the kidney(Water) meridian needs stimulation because water irrigates wood. It's all about plus and minus. Balance, in a word. I am definitely not an expert in this, despite my background as a retired pharmacist. I've received no training in Chinese medicine but I find the concept intriguing and very different from western practice.
The reason I need to go through so much just so I might begin to understand what was written is similar to showing xx and xy to someone who did not study biology. Whilst the person recognizes the alphabets the fact that they are likely referring to the female and male sex chromosomes remains obscured to the uninitiated. I must learn the most basic things about Ganzhi (干支), Bazi (八字) and Wuhang (五行) just to begin to understand the meaning of some of the words on that manuscript.
The fact that I've barely scratched the surface and that I am not an astrologer or fortuneteller makes me rather trepidatious in what I am interpreting here. I definitely do not want to misrepresent anything.
It appears that the person for whom this life forecast was prepared for ( I shall refer to him as Mr. W) was born under the 甲木 (A-Wood) banner. A-Wood refers to pine and Chinese cypress, symbols of longevity and ability to weather snowy conditions. Mr. W's Wood was born in winter time according to his Bazi (八字) thus was required to withstand cold without withering ( euphemistically meaning standing up to adversity). Since his Wood was born in cold winter months, it would benefit from warmth to spur its growth; i.e. association with Fire elements. Mr. W was reminded that only good wood gets to be building material, like beams and posts. Bad wood ends up as kindling and fire logs.
Axe or chisel is needed to turn wood into lumber (beams and posts), thus Mr. W would benefit from an alliance with Metal. Mr. W was also warned about being too intimate with Water, or even associating with people with "water" in their names.
Water irrigates wood for sure, but too much water floats the wood away. I recall a visit to the bayou in New Orleans and seeing the cypress ( what's left) and how the man-made canals were dug to float the harvested cypress out in the old days, according to the tour guide. The bayou was both nurturing and depleting the cypress at the same time. Here the positive/negative influences of Wuhang (五行) is in full display. The entire manuscript basically breaks down Mr. W's life into periods and using the corresponding Ganzhi (干支) time stamp along with Wuhang (五行) to forecast his life journey.
I am not here to advocate, promote or mock or satirize Chinese astrology. The fact that this science ( I suppose I can call this a science) requires so much knowledge and understanding impressed me. What I really admire here and now however, is the beautiful brush calligraphy from this fortune teller.
First of all, hardly anybody uses ink and brush to write Chinese anymore, outside of artistic ventures. The practice fell victim to ballpoint pens. Even when I was a kid growing up in Hong Kong, the letter writers on the street corners were already using fountain pens and later, ballpoint pens. ( Ballpoint pens were just becoming popular when I was growing up and they ALWAYS leaked and soiled clothing). For someone, especially a lowly fortune teller to have used ink and brush to write out a lengthy utilitarian manuscript with such good penmanship showed resolve and pride. I surmise this person was a scholar and an old-schooler. Definitely not a hustler or a lowly fortune teller as I had previously characterized. Obviously I have no idea when this manuscript was produced, but it is not in the last half century for sure. This is a lost art.
A manuscript written in Chinese caught my eye, subject matters like Jiazi (甲子), Bazi (八字), Ganzhi (干支) and Wuhang (五行) stirred my curiosity, and the calligraphy earned my admiration. To honor the time and effort that this unknown astrology had invested in producing this lovely manuscript, I shall attempt to use it as a Tie 貼 (calligraphy model book) and hope to learn the nuances of his brushstrokes. I noticed that this manuscript was not written with punctuation marks. The fortune teller had to go back to make notations in red circles for such purpose. Definitely old-school ! This reminds me of having to study Ancient Chinese in my grade school syllabus. None of the writings in the textbook had punctuation marks and we somehow had to make sense of the text.
He thought this piece was written by someone who was a product of the meritocracy system in China. Government officials were recruited on the basis of merits and not popularity, or having the backings of billionaires. Thus the bare minimum for all applicants was to have decent calligraphy. Good calligraphy would be like eye-candy to the adjudicators and perhaps they would be more apt to grant some leniency to those with exemplary penmanship. By the same token, people who sought the service of a fortune teller, tend to use penmanship as a gauge of how learned the fortune teller was. A fortune teller's curriculum vitae was often obscure, thus good handwriting would be a calling card.
My friend also commented that while this particular calligraphy wasn't bad, it was not good. He thought it was rather plain. He supplied a couple of examples to support his argument.
The first one is an example of good but nonetheless contrived calligraphy as evidenced by the deliberately and drastically varied font sizes. Presenting a rather unnatural appearance and a feeling of uneasiness.
I agree wholehearted with my friend's analysis. I do differ with him in that the piece I was copying is what I would call a utility piece. It was never meant to be a piece of art that someone would frame or display. Thus it should not have been measured with the same yardstick. I just like it enough to treat it as a Tie and study it. The truth of the matter is I would be perfectly content if I could have his level of penmanship.
In the end, it is my sincere hope and wish that everybody finds peace and purpose in their lives. Let us all aspire to be valuable beams and posts and not kindling.
