Bazi Day Master | Wood
“HE WHO KNOWS OTHERS IS LEARNED; HE WHO KNOWS HIMSELF IS WISE.” LAO-TZU
“My chart looks bad, right?” a new client lamented in despair the moment we shook hands and made short introductions. “For this session to work for you, it is critical that you do not let your emotions or pessimism dominate your thinking,” I replied. “Remember, whatever the mind constantly thinks about will affect our perceptions, choices, decisions and consequently our actions.”
This was part of a conversation I had during a recent consultation. The client has a stronger Water Bazi Day Master element (positive: intuitiveness, flexibility and wisdom; negative: pessimism, suspicion and nervousness) in his chart affecting his outlook in life. We are all born with a certain set of characteristics, some more positive, some more negative, some more sociable, and others who are not so.
From the popularity of the concept and practice of Mindfulness to the age-old wisdom given above, there is no short of advise that it is important to be self-aware to succeed especially in this 21st century knowledge economy. Through self-awareness, you are better able to manage your thoughts and consequently your decisions, actions and communication style with others. However, this is not easy as:
SELF AWARENESS NEEDS HONESTY AND COURAGE!
As promised in my previous articles, this week we will begin to explore the characteristics and motivations for each of us influenced by the different elements in our charts, especially the element of the day that we were born on or traditionally, we call it – “Bazi Day Master”.
The different element of the day that we were born on (in other words – our Bazi Day Master), whether it is Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and their Yin and Yang nature, influences our perception of the world; how we are motivated; how we interact with others, and is thus a crucial component affecting how we make choices and take actions.
How are the elements of dates recorded in Chinese history connected to personality assessment?
Through the years, when the ancient Chinese recorded dates, besides utilizing the elements of the dates to differentiate one date from another, they observed that they could utilize these dates to interpret how a year would be economically for the state – fruitful crop harvests or natural disasters for the year.
In addition, they observed that they could utilize the dates that individuals were born on to understand their characteristics and life experience. Thus, in selecting a life partner, it was very common for the birth date of the couple involved to be checked especially for the female party as she must meet certain criteria, for instance: submissive, diplomatic, ability to have children, etc.
As the Chinese saying goes: 女怕嫁错郎, 男怕入错行. In English, it means women in traditional China are afraid of marrying the wrong man while men are afraid of embarking on the wrong career. In those days, as there was no way to know the character of a potential wife or daughter-in-law beforehand (especially when women with proper upbringing are not supposed to go out-doors and socialize) the ancient Chinese could only rely on a recorded system in their culture to determine partner suitability and compatibility.
Thus, the characteristics of to-be wives or husbands are checked thoroughly particularly for those who were from wealthy families to ensure the “perfect” match or what the parents deemed appropriate in terms of behaviour of the incoming family member.
Modern Applications in Personality Assessment
After more than 2000 years, this same system is still being utilized today but its applications have been modernized to look more at understanding one’s characteristics and inborn talent that can be developed further to maximize our potential. In the case of my client mentioned above, this exercise will help him to understand himself and his characteristics better such that he is able to utilize the positive traits of his character and manage the negative aspect to advance his career and achieve success and happiness in life.
Let us now look at how the individual dates translate into the different elements. For e.g. based on the 10,000 year calendar, this is how the “8 Characters” or Bazi chart of a person born on 27 Jun, 1973 at 1.30pm, looks like:
Figure 1 – 4 Pillars or 8 Characters Chart. (Bazi – Chinese translation for 8 Characters Chart)
In ancient Chinese tradition, as not all are literate, pictures or the Chinese characters are often utilized to depict the various elements that constitute a day. Noticed under the Year column, it has Yin Water Ox; the Month column – Yang Earth Horse; the Day column – Yang Wood Horse and the Hour column – Yin Metal Goat, making up the 4 pillars or since there are 8 Chinese characters, this chart is also referred to the “Eight Characters” or “Four Pillars” chart. The 12 animals or commonly known as horoscopes are utilized to group the different elements together for easy reference. From the figure above, you can see that for the animal or horoscope Ox, there are Earth, Metal and Water elements within.
In the above example, the person is born on the day of the Yang Wood element. Pictorially, the Yang Wood element is represented by a “tree” – as depicted in the Figure 1.
Bazi Day Master/ Element : Yang Wood (Jia)
Key Characteristics : Straight Forward, Determined and Kind.
How did we derive the characteristics of Yang Wood (Bazi Day Master)? If you observe any tree, it usually grows upright and steadily towards the sun, thus a person born on the day of Yang Wood will naturally have a personality that is straightforward, reliable and supportive.
As the Wood element also represents growth, Yang Wood people are naturally productive as thinkers and advisors. Their progress, however, is not that noticeable to others, just like the tree.
However, being straight and set in their ways (you wouldn’t see a tree bending in its growth to avoid colliding onto the roof), they can be inflexible and conservative in their approach towards life at times. As such, it can be quite difficult to persuade or change them, and this may then stifle their progress.
Bazi Day Master/ Element : Yin Wood (Yi)
Key Characteristics : Tactful, Mild and Adaptable
Similarly, like pretty flowers, Yin Wood individuals are gentle and elegant. Mostly attractive in appearance, they are appreciative of the finer things in life. Another pictorial representation of Yin Wood is grass or the creeper plant such as a money plant. Thus a person born on the day of Yin Wood is flexible and adaptive to different environments. They know how to survive in much the same way as the bamboo bends with the wind without breaking.
Corresponding to the nature of vines climbing with the help of support, the Yin Wood personality type can become overly dependent on others and with other’s perception that they tend to leverage on other people to get ahead in their lives, they can also be perceived as scheming and manipulative.
Watch this 3-min video where I share more on the characteristics of the Yang and Yin Wood personalities.
Next week’s article will be on the Fire personalities. In the meantime, click on this link : http://bazicalculator.janetyung.com/ to find out your day element. For more information and details about the 2000-year-old Bazi metaphysical study, you can click on this: http://happyandsuccess.com/about-bazi.
The above article is written with reference to the time-tested Bazi – Asian personality profiling system. You can get the following personalized reports online:
- Your Career Profiling Report – https://happyandsuccess.com/product/career-suitability-report
- Your Personalized Good Directions for Success – http://bazicalculator.janetyung.com/
