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Four Pillars of Destiny

Ancient Chinese devised a method of reading the life of a person from his birth Year, Month, Day, and Hour. This information is displayed in the form of four columns each consisting of two characters. Each column is called a Pillar. The four pillars together will contain eight characters. This method of Life Reading is called "The Four Pillars of Destiny" or simply "The Eight Characters".

Ancient Chinese used the combinations of two sets of words to denote time. A year is represented by two words. So is a month, a day or an hour.

The first set of words is the set of the "Ten Heavenly Stems". They are the yin and yang components of the Five Elements: Yang Wood, Yin Wood; Yang Fire, Yin Fire ; Yang Earth, Yin Earth; Yang Metal, Yin Metal; Yang Water, Yin Water.

The second set of words is the set of the "Twelve Earthly Branches". They are more popularly represented by the twelve animals of the Zodiac: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

In the beginning, the Year Branch was used to represent the person. This is the animal sign of the person. Even today, when people talk about Chinese Astrology, they talk about your animal sign and describe your character according to the behavior of the animal. This is the primitive level of Chinese Astrology.

In the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), Xu Zi Ping made a revolutionary improvement on this method of reading lives. He used the Day Stem to represent the person. His work was collected by Xu Xing in the book [Yuan Hai Zi Ping].

Solar Calendar

To plot the four pillars, most people correctly use the Solar Calendar. Some incorrectly use the Lunar Calendar. To support what I am saying, refer to the work of Xu Xing. The following is from a page of his book [Yuan Hai Zi Ping].

On top of the page, there is an annotation. It says, "If one is born on the first day of the first month at noon, and if the "Beginning of Spring" is in the Rabbit Hour, then he is born in the first month of the year. If he is born in the Tiger Hour, then it is before the "Beginning of Spring", and he is considered born in the previous year.

It is obvious that the year is supposed to begin on the "Beginning of Spring" at the precise moment. A Lunar Year does not begin on the "Beginning of Spring". Only the Solar Year begins on the "Beginning of Spring". It is solid proof that the Solar Calendar is referred to. If you are not using the Solar Calendar, then it is not Zi Ping Four Pillars of Destiny.

The Rat Hour

The Rat Hour is from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. It seems that the day begins at 11:00 p.m. However, please refer to the page from [Yuan Hai Zi Ping]. The annotation on top of the page says, "If one is born on the first day of the first month of a year during the upper four quarters of the Rat Hour, then he is considered born on the previous day (the last day of the previous year). If he is born in the lower four quarters of the Rat Hour, then he is considered born on the first day of the year. This shows that Xu Zi Ping was actually considering the day to begin at Twelve Midnight.

It is also obvious that Xu Zi Ping considered "Beginning of Spring" as the beginning of a year. Some astrologers advocate that Winter Solstice is to be considered the beginning of a year. I explain why this is not true in my Four Pillars Correspondence Course. It is too complicated to elaborate here.

Adustment to Beijing Time?

Some astrologers convert the birth time of a person born in the West to Beijing Time before plotting the four pillars. The reason is that the Four Pillars of Destiny was invented in China and is true only with reference to Beijing Time. Some others say that in those days, Beijing was not the Capital of China and they teach people to convert to Loyang Time. All this is unfounded.

In the old days, the time was recorded locally by the length of the Sun's shadow. At night the water level in a graduated cylinder with water dripping into it at a regular rate was observed and the hour was read. This means that in the old days, local time was used in life reading. Various places in China have very different longitudes. There was no such thing as converting to Loyang Time or Beijing Time in the old days. Why must there be conversion now?

Instruments used in Chinese Astrology in the old days. (From [Yuan Hai Zi Ping])

In short, in Zi Ping Four Pillars, we have to observe the following rules:

[1] The Year Pillar changes at precisely the moment of the "Beginning of Spring" which is usually on the 4th February. The precise moment must be noted.

[2] The Month Pillar changes at precisely the moment of the respective "Jie" of the month.

[3] The Day Pillar changes at midnight.

[4] Local standard time is to be used.

The Four Pillars of Destiny is a very powerful and accurate method to read one's life. It has a positive aspect. It does not say that your destiny cannot be changed. In fact, it deals with how to live your life to attain the best of life. To know how to keep your life under control, learn this art. You can also help others when they are at crossroads.

To learn the authentic Four Pillars of Destiny, take Four Pillars Correspondence Course. The course lasts 6 months. Register now to reserve a place.

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