How to calculate the five elements?

Section 1 Let’s talk about the sky first

The method of fortune telling using birth dates and horoscopes is also called astrology. That's because the sky has five planets: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and humans also have the attributes of the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Our ancient sages believed that heaven, earth, and people (the so-called three realms) are in touch with each other. Everyone has his own star, or one that represents himself. At the moment of birth, he is affected and cared for by the five planets in the sky, which determines the person's life destiny. When we say "birthday", we refer to the date of birth, and when we say "birthday", it includes the year, month, day, and time. Why are there differences between birthdays and birthdays? Birthdays are days to remember every year’s celebrations and remembrances, while birthdays refer to the year, month, day and moment when a person was born, and which “stars” influenced and cared for him. Using the year, month, day, hour, and time of birth to calculate a person's destiny is actually to determine which stars influence and take care of his or her destiny. The determination is also called "divination," so fortune-telling is also called "astrology."

The heaven is composed of the sun, moon and stars, and each has its own division of labor and grade, the so-called twelve houses and twenty-eight constellations. The sun that emits heat and rises in the morning and sets in the evening is generally called the sun. The moon that only shines but does not generate heat, changes from round to waning, and then from waxing to waning, is the moon, also known as Taiyin. Scattered bit by bit in the night sky, shining brightly are the stars in the sky. There are many large spaces with blurred light between the stars, which are "chens", which are called "nebulae" and "black holes" in modern astronomy.

Nowadays, due to the serious pollution caused by industrial smoke and urban lights, viewing the bright starry sky on a clear night has become an extremely luxurious thing. You can only see it if you spend a lot of money to travel, climb Mount Huangshan and Mount Tai, go to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and stay away from areas where fireworks are bustling. When I was a child, I set up a small bench and sat in the courtyard, looking up at the black sky. Under the starry sky, I listened to my grandma talk about why the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were separated on both sides of the Milky Way, and pointed to the Lotus constellation in the south and said, "Treasure." "The duck wears the lotus" story, in retrospect, it was really a beautiful thing. Now when it comes to stars, young people may not quite understand - where do so many stars come from? You know, in the past, especially in ancient times, the sky on a clear night was really dotted with stars, and the sky was full of brilliance, especially the Milky Way, which was a dense band of stars.

The ancients believed that the nine states of China corresponded to the distribution of the same stars, which was called "dividing fields". The "Preface to Prince Teng's Pavilion" written by Wang Bo of the Tang Dynasty begins with the sentence: "The old county of Yuzhang is the new mansion of Hongdu; the stars are divided into wings and the ground is connected to Henglu." This "star divides Yi and Zhen" means that Yuzhang belongs to the ancient Chu land and is divided into the boundaries of the two big stars "Yi and Zhen". The so-called "division" refers to the correspondence of which stars or star groups the place falls into. The ancients also believed that if the star or star group in the sky changes, the corresponding place will also change accordingly. For example, if the star becomes eclipsed, it indicates that there will be trouble in the area; if the star is covered by clouds and fog for a long time, it may mean that there will be floods in the area. This experience of the ancients does have "scientific" truth. If you want to keep it covered with clouds and fog for a long time, can it not rain more?

All living beings also correspond to the stars. Each star represents a person on the earth. The strong star shines brightly, while the weak star shines dimly. Even if the star falls, it means that the person is "sick" or is about to die, or is already dead. Therefore, it is described in "Three Kingdoms" that Zhuge and Sima always observe the sky at night. In addition to observing the night sky and calculating the future weather (for example, before the Battle of Chibi, Zhuge Liang calculated that there will be an east wind in a few days), they also secretly look for the stars that represent their opponents. Star, observe its changes, so as to attack the weak, avoid the strong, and win the battle.

The sun, moon and stars make up the big sky. The ancients believed that the sky is divided into "nine layers", so there is an idiom that "there is heaven outside the sky, and there are people outside the human being". Each layer of the sky is composed of stars and revolves around the earth from east to west. Note that this statement is also quite "reasonable". At that time, the ancients only knew that "the sky is round and the earth is square". They did not know that the earth was under their feet, let alone that the earth would rotate. Instead, they only saw the sky rotating.

The first level is called "Zong Dong", where there are only air currents but no stars, circling the earth once a day. Black winds often blow in this sky, traveling thousands of miles in an instant, and wind, rain, thunder and lightning occur in the sky. This sky may be what modern people call the "atmosphere", in which various aircraft are supported by the air and sail.

The second level is called "Meridian Stars". There are twenty-eight stars in the sky, which rotate once every seven thousand years. This heavy sky is like the "low-Earth orbit" layer in modern astronomy. Rockets are launched at the first cosmic speed, carrying satellites and spacecrafts out of the atmosphere and ionosphere, and flying around the earth in this layer, just like us Like the Shenzhou spacecraft.

The third level is called "Star Filling", also known as the Saturn Sky, which rotates once in twenty-eight years. From this level, it starts to move away from the earth, and it can be considered as the level of the solar system in modern astronomy theory. To reach this level, you have to launch a rocket at the second cosmic speed, just like the foreign Mars probe Spirit, which breaks out of the earth's gravity range, stops being a satellite of the earth, and enters the ranks of the planets in the solar system.

The fourth level is called the "year star", also known as the Jupiter sky, which rotates once every twelve years.

The fifth level is called the "Yingxing", also known as the Mars sky, which rotates once every two years.

The sixth level is called the "Sun Wheel", which rotates once a year.

The seventh level is called "Taibai", also known as the Venus Sky, which also rotates once a year.

The eighth level is called "Chen Xing", also known as Mercury Sky, which also rotates once a year.

The ninth level is called the "moon wheel", which means one month turns around.