Applications of the Sexagenary Cycle: #3

Further to the last application of “Life Trigram” (命卦), there is a direct application in “Feng-shui” (風水).

“Feng” (風) literally means wind or airflow, so Feng is also related to Qi (氣). It is in fact the mountain range. “Shui” (水) literally means water or river. In simple term, Feng-shui is Geography, or more specific Anthropogeography (or Human Geography) because the focus of Feng-shui is not just about the landscape, but rather on how it interacts with people who live there, and hence the culture, the economy, the health, etc.

Since Earth is under the influences of the five planets, Chinese metaphysicists believe that the terrain in Earth is the direct result of the Qi’s and hence the Feng-shui theory. However, there are quite some different schools of thoughts in Feng-shui. Among which, there is the “8 Mansions Feng-shui” (八宅風水, or Ba-zhai Feng-shui).

The number 8 will easily lead us to Ba-gua as there are 8 trigrams in the Acquired Ba-gua. They are related to directions, or 8 different sittings of either the house for the livings or the grave for the deaths. For example, a “Kan” house, “Kan” is in the north, so the sitting of the house is north and thus the facing of the house is south.

Application #3: Finding the Best Directions

“8 Mansions” believes that it is best to take advantage of the Qi if the house direction matches with the Life Trigrams of the people who live there, or at least they have to be related. For “Kan” house with a “Kan” Life Trigram, it’s a match. What is “to be related”?

Before we answer the question, let’s go back to the drawing board and examine how Ba-gua is constructed.

If we use solid line to represent Yang (陽) and broken line to represent Yin (陰), then two solid lines would mean “Lao-yang” (老陽) and two broken lines “Lao-yin” (老陰). “Lao” (老) literally means old, so Lao also means reached the maximum, and thus able to change. If there is a broken line atop a solid line, then it is called “Shao-yin” (少陰) as the Yin starts to develop. “Shao” (少) literally means young, so Shao also mean growing or developing. Since it is developing, Shao-yin is not going to change. Similarly, we have Shao-yang (少陽), which is obviously not going to change either.

Other than Yin and Yang as the very basic, we have now “Si-xiang” (四象), the combination of Lao, Shao, Yin, and Yang. “Xiang” (象) literally means elephant, or the like, but Si-xiang could be the four quadrants or four symbols. I prefer to call it the “Four Stages”.

Based on these Four Stages, if we put different lines either solid or broken on top, then we have the 8 trigrams, namely, “Qian” (乾☰), “Dui” (兌☱), “Gen” (艮☶), “Kun” (坤☷), and “Xun” (巽☴), “Kan” (坎☵), “Li” (離☲), “Zhen” (震☳). Obviously, the first 4 trigrams are derived from the Lao’s, and the others from the Shao’s.

“8 Mansions” refers people with Life Trigrams which are derived from the Lao’s as “Xi-si-ming” (西四命), while from the Shao’s as “Dong-xi-ming” (東四命). Literally, “Si” means four, “Ming” means life, “Dong” means East and “Xi” means West. However, the Dong and Xi here are not for directions, they are only used to differentiate the Lao’s and Shao’s as most of the Lao’s are happened on the right-hand side of the Acquired Ba-gua, which generally refers as West. Similarly, we have “Dong-si-zhai” (東四宅) and “Xi-si-zhai” (西四宅). “Zhai” (宅) means house. It can also be extended as grave.

To answer the question, Xi-si-ming is best to stay in Xi-si-zhai while Dong-xi-zhai is good for Dong-xi-ming.

Do you know which facing is good for you now? However, this is not what the Great Grand Master Yang from the Tang Dynasty said.

Applications of the Sexagenary Cycle: #2

Flying Stars are mostly used to determine the “Qi” (氣). Qi literally means air or airflow in Chinese, but that’s not the true meaning of Qi. The true meaning of Qi is the influences that the five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) may have on earth. In scientific terms, it could be electromagnetic field, gravitational field, or other undiscovered matters. However, Qi and the Flying Stars are not equal. We will talk about it in due course.


China metaphysics describes properties of things on Earth in five major categories as it is believed that they are the direct influences of the different Qi’s mentioned above. They are, in English terms, Water (水), Fire (火), Wood (木), Metal (金), Earth (土), but are referred as Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Earth respectively. In general, they are called “Wu-xing” (五行).


It occurs to me that most people translate the word “Wu-xing” as Five Elements in English. It is perhaps due to the fact that there are similar terms in Western metaphysics, like Water, Fire, Air and Earth, which are knows as Four Elements. However, those are the things which every creatures in the Earth depends upon, things that you can feel, and things that are tangible. As such, I disagree to use Five Elements to represent “Wu-xing”. I’d rather just called them “Wu-xing”.


Application #2: Finding Life Trigram of the Birth Year


Other than the adoption of Sexagenary Cycle into “Luo-shu”, the integration of Acquired Ba-gua (as differs from the Congenital Ba-gua) and “Luo-shu” is equally fascinating. According to the description in “Shuo-gua” of “Zhou-yi” (《周易．說卦》) , we can derive the following chart and consider “Kan” (坎☵) in grid #1 as North and Winter, then we will have “Zhen” (震☳) in grid #3 as East and Spring, “Li” (離☲) in grid #9 as South and Summer, and “Dui” (兌☱) in grid #7 as West and Autumn.


Now that we have both charts, we can easily find out where the year is and hence which trigram it belongs to. We will be using the year of 2008 as an example to demonstrate.


Since 2637BCE is the first year of launching the recording system, then it must be the first year of Jia-zi. For every 180 years (Least Common Multiplication of both 9 and 60), the Jia-zi will be returning to the original grid, which is grid #1 for “Kan”, and be starting all over again. Among this 180 years, the Sexagenary Cycle will repeat 3 times. We defined as First Cycle (上元), Second Cycle (中元), and the Third Cycle (下元), or people generally refer as “San-yuan” (三元, or The Great Cycle).


To find out which Cycle the year 2008 belongs to, we need to first find out the number of years (both year inclusive) since the first Jia-zi.


NY = Y – N0 where Y is the current year and N0 = -2637
N2008 = 2008 – (-2637) = 4645


Then divided N2008 by 180, take the next integer, resulting as 26, which mean the year 2008 is in the 26th Great Cycle, or 145 years after the 25th Great Cycle, or 25 years after the first two Cycles in the 26th Great Cycle. Since the Third Cycle must be started with Jia-zi in “Dui” of grid #7, then the 25th year must be Wu-zi (戊子) in “Kan” of grid #1. Thus, the dominating Flying Star for the year 2008 is also 1. For male born in the year 2008, their Life Trigram is referred as “Kan”.


You may say, “Wow, that’s fascinating, but is there any easier way to find out the Life Trigram?” Oh yes, I almost forgot, always the easy way. Tend not to think, aren’t you?


In fact, there is. People use to add all the digits in a number till it gives out only single digit, then subtracted from 11 and further divided by 9, take the remainder. The result of which will then give you the grid number and hence the Life Trigram. For male born in 2008 as an example, the remainder is 1, and therefore the Life Trigram is “Kan”.


2 + 0 + 0 + 8 = 10
1 + 0 =1
11 – 1 = 10
10 ≡ 1 (mod 9)


Most of the people know how it works, but do not know why it works. Only the mathematician will know why, because it is based upon Chinese Remainder Theorem.


1000x + 100y + 10z + w ≡ x + y + z + w (mod9)


Or, we can modify the above equation with the consideration of both (1) 4CE is also Jia-zi and (2) to satisfy each of the Cycle in the Great Cycle as follow:


X + y + z + w – 4 ≡ 7 – p (mod9)


Hence, 11 – (x + y + z + w) ≡ p (mod9)


Question: how about for female?