The most important theories are the Yin-Yang, Five Elements and Bagua theories. Although there are not many people naming them this way now, it is still necessary to understand the rich and diverse naming methods of the ancients. The theory of Yin Yang and Five Elements came into being long before the Spring and Autumn Period. The theory of yin and yang contains the simple dialectic idea, which believes that everything has two opposite and contradictory aspects, which can be summarized as yin and yang. For example, the south of the mountain is yang, and the north of the mountain is yin; the north of the water is yang, and the south of the water is yin; the front of the leaf is yang, and the back is yin; the male is yang, the female is yin; the sun is yang, and the moon is also called taiyin... … Yin and Yang transform into each other and are endlessly regenerating. The image that expresses this law is the Tai Chi diagram. In the Tai Chi diagram, when the Yang is at its strongest, the Yin has quietly appeared; when the Yang is at its strongest, the Yang has quietly appeared. If it reaches its peak, it will decline, but if it fails, it will recover. This philosophy is still very profound. The Five Elements Theory was also summed up by the ancients from life practice. They believe that everything in the century is composed of five elements: gold, wood, water, fire and earth, and they have different manifestations in different things. For example, the five colors: green, red, yellow, white, and black; the five sounds: Jiao, Zheng, Gong, Shang, and Yu; the five flavors: sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty; the five internal organs: liver, heart, spleen, lung, and kidney. Five emotions: joy, joy, desire, anger, sadness, five constants: benevolence, propriety, trust, righteousness, wisdom, etc. The five contents of each thing respectively show the order of the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. . The five elements have the order of generation, mutual generation and mutual restraint. The order of generation is wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The order of mutual generation is wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, and water generates wood. The order of mutual restraint is: water overcomes fire, fire overcomes metal, metal overcomes wood, wood overcomes earth, and earth overcomes water. The combination of yin and yang and the five elements theory became a theory used by the ancients to explain various natural and life phenomena. Divination and horoscopes are the activities of predicting the future. In ancient times, when productivity was low, it was more difficult to grasp personal destiny, and people wanted to know it even more. Astrology uses the theory of yin and yang and the five elements to explain a person's destiny. One of the main methods is to use birth date and horoscope to predict destiny. The so-called birth date refers to the year, month, day and time of birth represented by the heavenly stems and earthly branches. In the pre-Qin period, people only used the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to record the date, but later, the year, month, day, and hour can be recorded using the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. There are ten heavenly branches: A, B, B, D, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui. There are twelve earthly branches: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai. The sequence of the two can produce sixty units, called sixty Jiazi. The year, month, day, and hour of the birth are represented by the combination of heavenly stems and earthly domination respectively. There are exactly eight characters, so they are called the birth date. The fortune teller also calls it the four pillars of human beings. There are also five elements in the birthday horoscope. Among the ten heavenly stems, A and B belong to wood, Bing and Ding belong to fire, Wu and Ji belong to earth, Geng and Xin belong to metal, and Ren and Gui belong to water. Among the twelve earthly branches, Yin and Mao belong to wood, Si and Wu belong to fire, Shen and You belong to metal, Hai and Zi belong to water, Chen, Shu, Chou and Wei belong to earth. In this way, based on your birth date and horoscope, you can figure out what is missing in your life. The ancients believed that only when all five elements are present can one's destiny be prosperous. It is no longer easy for modern people to determine their birth date, because most people remember their birthdays according to the solar calendar, which is the Gregorian calendar. So here I will introduce how to calculate the birth date from the solar calendar birthday. The celestial stems and earthly branches of the birth year represent the best ones to find. Its year is the lunar year, from the first day of the lunar month to the New Year's Eve. Just check the almanac. If there is no almanac for the current year, you can work backwards based on this year's almanac. After knowing this year's Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, you can refer to the Sixty Years Table in Section 2 of Chapter 2 of this book and work backwards. For example, from New Year's Eve in 1998 to New Year's Eve in 1999 is the year of Wuyin, then by inference we can see that 1997 is the year of Dingchou, 1996 is the year of Bingzi, 1995 is the year of Yihai, 1994 is the year of Jiashu, etc. It is not difficult to calculate the celestial stems and earthly branches of the birth month. In the lunar calendar, November is the Zi month, December is the Chou month, and January is the Yin month. The following are the Mao month of February, the Chen month of March, the Si month of April, the noon month of May, the Wei month of June, and the seventh month. Yueshen month, You month in August, Shu month in September, and Hai month in October. But what the fortune teller calls December is different, it is marked by the twenty-four solar terms. Every year, the day from the beginning of spring to the day of Jingsheng is January, that is, the Yin month, the day from Qingming to Qingming is the month of February, the month of March, the day from Qingming to the beginning of summer is the month of March, the day from the beginning of summer to the day of Mangzhong is the month of April, and the time from the day of Mangzhong to Xiaoshu is the month of May. In the midday month, the mild summer to the beginning of autumn is the last month of June, the beginning of autumn to the white dew is the shen month of July, the white dew to the cold dew is the unitary month of August, the cold dew to the beginning of winter is the ninth month, the beginning of winter solstice and the heavy snow are the tenth month, and the heavy snow solstice is the ninth month. Xiaohan is the twelfth lunar month, and Xiaohan to the beginning of spring is the twelfth lunar month. In this way, as long as you know the lunar month of your birthday, you will know the earthly branch of the birth month.
What to do with the Heavenly Stem of the birth month? There is a table here. The first row is the celestial stems of each year, and the vertical columns are the earthly branches of each month. The celestial stems of each month are listed in the table: Moon A Ji Yi Geng Bing Xin Ding Ren Wu Gui Year Yin Yi Bing Yin Wu Yin Geng Yin Ren Yin Jiayin Mao Er Ding Mao Ji Mao Ji Wei Shen Qi Ren Shen Jia Shen Bing Shen Wu Shen Geng Shen You eight Gui Youyi Yi You Ding You Ji You Xin You Shu Ji Ji You Bing Shu Wu Shu Geng Shu Ren Shu Hai Ten Yi Hai Ding Hai Ji Hai Xin Hai Gui Hai Zi Eleven Wu Zi Bing Zi Geng Zi Renzi Jiazi Chou Twelve Ding Chou Ji Chou Xin Chou Gui Chou Y Chou For example, in the Jiazi year, Jiayin year and other years with Jia as the celestial stem, the celestial stem of January is C, which is Bingyin month, and March is Dingmao month. , March is the month of Wuchen, and so on, and the heavenly stems of the years in which the heavenly stems are Jisi, such as Jisi, Jimao, etc. are also the same as those of the year of Jiatianxia. The calculation of birthdays is very complicated. It was determined by ancient fortune-tellers who determined the stems and branches of a certain day and then pushed them down one by one. To know the stems and branches of your birthday, you can only look up the perpetual calendar, and it is a perpetual calendar that compares the lunisolar calendar. If you don’t know the lunar calendar date of your birthday, you can check the perpetual calendar. The stems and branches at birth can be derived from the stems and branches at birthday. In ancient times, a day was divided into twelve hours, corresponding to the twelve earthly branches. It happens that two hours now are one hour. From 23:00 to 1:00 in the morning, it is Zi time, from 1 o'clock to 3 o'clock, it is Chou time, from 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock, it is Yin time, from 11 o'clock to 13 o'clock, it is noon time, from 13 o'clock to 15 o'clock, it is Wei time, and from 15 o'clock to 17 o'clock. In Shen Shi, 17:00 to 19:00 is Unity Time, 19:00 to 21:00 is Guard Time, and 21:00 to 23:00 is Hai Shi. These are the earthly branches during birth. The Heavenly Stem at birth is calculated from the Heavenly Stem at birth. There is a formula as follows: Jia is added to Jia, Yi, Geng, and B are the first, Bing and Xin are from Wuzi, Ding and Ren are from Gengzi, Wugui is pushing Renzi, and the time and element are determined. This formula is used to calculate the heavenly stems when counting. That is to say, on any birthday, the heavenly stem is A or Ji, Zi hour is Jiazi hour, B and Geng are the days of the heavenly stem, Zi hour is the day of Bingzi, Bing and Xin are the days of the heavenly stem, Zi hour is the Wuzi hour, Ding and Ren are the days of the heavenly stem. The day of the Heavenly Stem is the time of Gengzi. The days of Wu and Gui are the days of the Heavenly Stem. The time of Zi is the hour of Renzi. After knowing the heavenly stems of Zi Shi, the other seasons can be deduced according to the Sixty Years Table and so on. For example, the Zi hour of this day is Gengzi, then Chou hour is Xin Chou hour, Yin hour is Ren Yin hour, and so on. Knowing the birth date and horoscope, you can infer the situation of the five elements. In the birth horoscope, the heavenly stem of the day represents oneself; it is called the sun master. The Earthly Branch of the day is the spouse or siblings. The heavenly stem of the moon represents the father, and the earthly branches represent the mother. The Heavenly Stem of Nian represents the grandfather, and the Earthly Branches represent the grandmother. The heavenly stem represents the father, and the earthly branches represent the woman. The condition of the five elements is to determine the relationship between the other seven heavenly stems and earthly branches and the sun-lord heavenly stem. There is the so-called theory of six gods, which is relatively complicated. Generally speaking, as long as the five elements in the horoscope are even, it is a good fortune. If the heavenly stem of the sun lord is too small or there are too many things that restrain it, it is not good. But if there are too many sun lords and there are many things that produce it, and it flourishes but then declines, it is not good either. So what kind of restraint is needed to determine what is missing or what is missing in the horoscope requires careful analysis. We will give you a simple method. You only need to check it based on the day owner and the season of the owner. 1. When the sun's celestial stem is wood (A, B): Born in spring: fire must be present, water is better, but avoid too much water and too much earth. Born in summer: must have water to help, avoid too much soil and too much wood. Born in Autumn: It must be supported by metal, but avoid too much metal. It must have earth and fire, but avoid too much water. Born in winter: must be supported by fire, preferably earth and water. 2. When the sun's celestial stem is fire (Bing, Ding): Born in spring: At this time, it must be Bing fire or Ding fire, which are mostly good, but avoid too much wood or soil. Born in summer: must have water to help, and most like to have gold. Born in autumn: Likes trees, avoids water and soil. Born in winter: must be supported by wood, avoid water and metal, prefer earth, water and wood. 3. When the sun's celestial stem is earth (Wu,) Wu: Born in spring: like fire and wood, like metal but less, avoid too much metal and too much wood. Born in summer: Like water and metal, avoid wood. Born in Autumn: like fire and wood, avoid metal and water. Born in winter: likes fire, more likes fire and metal, likes earth and wood. 4． When the Heavenly Stem of the Sun is Gold (Geng, Xin): Born in Spring: Like to have earth and fire, but most avoid not having earth and metal. Born in summer: must have water to help, avoid too much wood. Born in Autumn: Like wood and fire, avoid too much earth. Born in winter: there must be fire and earth to help, avoid no fire, earth has gold and water instead, avoid too much wood but no fire. 5． When the sun's celestial stem is water (Ren, Gui): Born in spring: Earth must help, if there is fire, metal, but avoid too much metal. Born in summer: must be supported by gold, avoid too much wood. Born in Autumn: Must be supported by metal, avoid too much earth, metal and water, prefer wood and fire. Born in winter: must be supported by fire, likes a lot of water, but avoids a lot of gold. For example, if someone is born in the year of Ding Chou, the month of Guichou, the day of Bingwu, and the time of Dingyou, then the person's birth date and horoscope are: Ding Chou, Guichou, Bingwu, and Dingyou.
According to the corresponding relationship between the heavenly stems and earthly branches and the five elements mentioned earlier, Ding belongs to fire, Chou belongs to earth, Gui belongs to water, Chou belongs to earth, Bing belongs to fire, Wu belongs to fire, Ding belongs to fire, and You belongs to metal. The eight characters are four fire and two Earth, water, and metal, the sun dominates the sky stem and is Bing fire. If you were born in Chou month, which is December in winter, then according to the above table, the most lacking thing is wood, but this horoscope is four fires, the sun dominates the sky stem is very strong, and the lack of wood will not help. many. Like the year, month, and day, if you were born in Wuzi, the eight characters are three fire, three earth, and two water, lacking wood and lacking metal. So the birth date cannot be changed. Is there any way to make up for its shortcomings? The ancients believed that a name could do just that. That is, whatever is missing in the eight characters and five elements, the name will make up for it. For example, if wood is missing above, the name can be called wood, or the radical character for wood, such as Tongbai, Rupine, etc. It can also be called wooden things, such as Liangdong. kind. If there is a lack of it, there will be more wood in the name, such as a forest, or even a forest. It is an ancient custom to name characters after the five elements in their horoscopes. Lu Xun has this description in his novel "Hometown": I have heard the name Runtu for a long time, and I know that he and I are about the same age, born in a leap month, and the five elements lack earth, so his father called him Runtu. This is a typical example. In fact, in ancient times, when a child was born, it was very common for parents to go to a fortune teller to calculate the child's birth date and five elements. When going on a blind date in the future, the birth date and horoscope must not conflict with your spouse's. So there are many people named after it. What kind of name to choose depends on the degree of missing five elements in the eight characters. For example, a person named Liu Song may lack wood in the five elements, but not much. If he is named Liu Songlin, he may lack more wood. If he is named Liu Senlin, he may lack too much. In ancient times, it was common to see people whose names were Sen, Yan, Xin, Miao, and Yao. Generally, one of the five elements was missing in their destiny. If two are lacking, they must be supplemented. For example, those lacking gold and wood can be called Jingui, those lacking water and earth can be called Yutian, those lacking gold and fire can be called Jinyan, etc. Because there are eight characters in the birth date, it is very rare for three of the five elements to be missing. The above is a method of naming using the Five Elements Theory. Another method that is also very common is to use the principle of the five elements to name the family lineage. In fact, among the birth horoscopes, no matter whether they are missing or not, there is always one line that is important, and this line controls destiny. Like the example given above of a person born on December 13, 1937, he was born with fire. Then there is water life, earth life, metal life, and wood life. According to the fortune teller, this is the person's virtue and the basis for his survival. This statement can be said to originate from the ancients' analysis of dynasty changes. During the Warring States Period, Zou Yan, a native of Qi State, founded the theory of the Five Virtues and the Beginning. He believed that every dynasty had virtues that matched the Five Elements, which were the foundation of a country. Later, it was passed down from generation to generation and became a stereotyped theory. For example, the Shang Dynasty was a water virtue, the Han Dynasty was a fire virtue, and the Song Dynasty was a fire virtue, so there are the theories of Yan Liu and Yan Song. Regarding the law of dynasty change, some people hold the theory of mutual generation. For example, the grandfather is born with water, and water is born with wood. The father is born with wood, and wood is born with fire. The son is born with fire. To get a guarantee, you must match it. Take the radicals of the five elements, father and son, to form the order of the five elements. For example, Zhu Xi, a Neo-Confucian scholar of the Song Dynasty, had four dots under the character, which represented fire. His father's name is Zhu Song, and his son's name is Zhu Shu. Wood makes fire, and fire makes earth, without any chaos. This method of naming the five elements can not only express the paternal blood relationship, but also identify the seniority. Therefore, it is somewhat similar to the Xingsei school of genealogy. It has great ethical significance and was used by many ancients.