Chapter 15: The Profound Mystery of the Four Pillars of Bazi

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Chapter 15: The Profound Mystery of the Four Pillars of Bazi

After hearing Chen Yuan’s explanation, Huo Shu understood a little more, but she immediately raised another question. “But if it’s calculated based on time, wouldn’t that mean a lot of people would have the same fate?”

Chen Yuan raised his eyebrows, understanding immediately. In fact, when it came to metaphysics, most people simply dismissed it as something mysterious rather than taking the time to think about how it actually worked. Huo Shu’s question was one he rarely heard, but it also clearly showed what she was concerned about.

“Compared with using time to determine someone’s fate through Bazi, which do you think is more likely to have the problem you’re describing: fortune-telling based on zodiac signs or blood type?” Chen Yuan replied.

Just as he said, there were many different methods of fortune-telling in this world. The one most comparable to Bazi fortune-telling was the use of zodiac signs to determine someone’s fate. But there were only twelve zodiac signs, whereas Bazi had far more combinations.

Huo Shu froze for a moment. “Zodiac signs?” She had never thought of zodiac signs as a form of fortune-telling. But when she thought about it carefully, she realized it really was. Weren’t zodiac signs essentially a way of categorizing people based on divisions of their birth dates? It just didn’t feel as mysterious as Bazi fortune-telling. Instead, it was more like entertainment, and whether it was accurate or not was usually just something people laughed off.

Seeing from Huo Shu’s expression that she understood, Chen Yuan continued, “Besides, although Bazi fortune-telling is based on a person’s birth time, it isn’t determined entirely by the time they were born. Otherwise, as you said, there would be people with exactly the same fate.”

“Bazi refers to representing a person’s birth time—the year, month, day, and hour—using the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. Each of the four is represented by two characters, making eight characters in total, which is why it’s called Bazi. At the same time, because those eight characters are divided into four groups according to the year, month, day, and hour they represent, they’re also called the Four Pillars. In other words, this year, 2233, is represented by the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches as the Renchen Year. So the two characters of the Year Pillar are Renchen. The Month Pillar, Day Pillar, and Hour Pillar are represented in the same way.”

“The method I use for fortune-telling is this Four Pillars of Bazi method.”

Seeing that the other three were listening intently, Chen Yuan smiled and suddenly changed tack. “Back to the point. When were you born, Huo Shu?”

Huo Shu froze. “Huh? I remember the date, but I don’t remember the exact time.” Only then did she realize that although they were supposed to be telling her fortune, she hadn’t prepared anything at all. Should she call her mother and ask?

“Year 2213, X month, X day, a little after X p.m. Don’t forget, I was there when you two were born,” Yu Shenliu suddenly interjected.

“Uncle, you’re only a few years older than us. Stop showing off,” Huo Jian muttered, seemingly unhappy about being treated like a child.

“It wasn’t a C-section?” Chen Yuan asked.

Yu Shenliu shook his head. “They were both born naturally. My sister thought C-sections were bad for the baby.”

“That’s good. After all, a C-section can affect a baby’s normal time of birth, so determining the time they would have been born naturally can be quite troublesome.” Chen Yuan nodded. He didn’t ask Huo Shu anything else and instead turned directly to Yu Shenliu. “What about her birthplace?”

“Kuotai City, Xianbei Province,” Yu Shenliu answered first, then couldn’t help asking, “Aren’t you supposed to calculate it based on the time? Why do you need to know the place of birth too?”

“In ancient times, people calculated time based on the sun, so no matter what, the time they recorded was the local time of the place where they were. They also directly used the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to keep track of it. But nowadays, a country generally uses a unified time zone, right?” Chen Yuan explained. “Sometimes, even a difference of just a few seconds can result in a different fate. So when telling someone’s fortune, it’s best to convert the known time to the local time at their place of birth. This is what’s known as ‘true solar time.’”

Huo Jian was dumbfounded. He couldn’t help muttering, “Master, isn’t what you’re talking about geography?” Calculating the time difference between different longitudes was a matter of geography, wasn’t it? Who would have thought that fortune-telling required calculations like this too?

“Otherwise, why do you think so many ancient masters of metaphysics were said to be ‘well versed in astronomy and geography’? Metaphysics itself has very close ties to these fields. Don’t think that using the stars to determine a person’s fate is something only the West does. In Chinese culture, matching people with the stars in the heavens and using that to determine their fate is also a method. The Imperial Astronomical Bureau was also a very important institution in ancient times. Though I don’t know much about this particular method of fortune-telling.”

What Chen Yuan said completely overturned the understanding of everyone present. They had never imagined that things they thought had nothing to do with metaphysics would actually be taken into consideration in metaphysics. It was simply incredible.

Yu Shenliu listened for a while before raising a question. “But even so, a person’s exact time of birth isn’t actually certain, is it? Especially when someone gives birth in a hospital, you often only know the approximate time. If even a difference of a few seconds can make such a difference, wouldn’t that cause major problems?”

“‘Approximation.’” Chen Yuan offered the single word. “It’s like how mathematics sometimes uses approximation. For fortune-tellers, there are also many things in fortune-telling that are handled through approximation. The recorded Bazi time may have some error, not all factors that affect someone’s fate can be taken into account, and there may be several different ways to interpret the results. These kinds of problems are all handled this way. In fact, this very approximation is the most mysterious part of Four Pillars of Bazi fortune-telling.”

“Put it this way. If the exact time is uncertain, the fortune-teller will usually rely on intuition to arbitrarily choose a point in time to use for the calculation. There are also many ways to interpret the results, and the fortune-teller relies on intuition to determine which interpretation to use. In fact, whether metaphysics is accurate basically comes down to this. People who are naturally attuned to metaphysics tend to have particularly strong intuition and can easily arrive at the answer closest to the truth. If someone isn’t naturally attuned to metaphysics, the result they calculate may just happen to be completely off the mark.”

“Intuition?” Huo Shu couldn’t help shaking her head. It actually relied on intuition too? Fortune-telling was truly too mysterious! What did it even mean to be naturally attuned to metaphysics? The more she listened, the more confused she became.

“Hand me your phone for a moment.” After saying this, Chen Yuan spoke to Huo Jian. He took Huo Jian’s phone, went online, and looked up the longitude of Kuotai City, Xianbei Province, which Yu Shenliu had mentioned earlier, so he could first determine Huo Shu’s exact time of birth.

While Chen Yuan paused, Yu Shenliu got up and quietly stepped away to go to the kitchen and make some tea. Although he had hired help to take care of the house, Yu Shenliu didn’t like having other people living in his home, and at this hour, he could only do it himself. What, was he supposed to send his nephew, niece, or Chen Yuan to do it? As if. Chen Yuan had been talking for so long. He should at least get him some tea to soothe his throat.

There was something rather subtle about going from being a deputy mayor to serving tea.

Chen Yuan merely glanced at Yu Shenliu before turning his attention back to the phone screen.

Xianbei Province? So this was Siberia. This world really had ambition, bringing even this vast region under Huaxia’s control. Given Kuotai City’s longitude, Huo Shu’s exact time of birth should be around this time… Got it.

Returning the phone to Huo Jian, Chen Yuan held out his hand. Relying on the conversions he had familiarized himself with over the past few days, he made a quick calculation with his fingers and determined Huo Shu’s Bazi.

Just as he had expected, the Bazi of these two siblings was quite similar. He could already glimpse as much just from their appearances. This fate was truly enviable.

Chen Yuan considered how best to explain it, while Huo Shu stared wide-eyed at the little calculation he had just performed with his fingers. Her reaction was exactly the same as Huo Jian’s had been back then: it was incredible. Was this the legendary art of finger divination?

At that moment, Yu Shenliu returned from the kitchen and set the tea on the table. Seeing Chen Yuan deep in thought, he handed him a cup.

Chen Yuan took it, blew on it, and found that he was indeed a little thirsty, so he took a small sip and swallowed.

Huo Shu and Huo Jian also picked up their own cups and drank, taking a brief rest. But both kept their eyes fixed on Chen Yuan, eagerly waiting for him to explain Huo Shu’s fate.

After setting down his cup, Chen Yuan took a deep breath and exhaled. Seeing how impatient everyone was, he straightened up and first added a word of caution. “By the way, there’s one taboo I should explain first. Don’t keep pressing me for answers or dig too deeply. Knowing too much about some things isn’t good. Not for me, and not for you either. Whatever I tell you, use your own intuition to understand it. Understood?”

What Chen Yuan was referring to had originally been a professional rule established to prevent the “leaking of Heaven’s secrets,” which meant that one shouldn’t say too much. Later, however, wandering fortune-tellers took this rule and developed it into an art form, making a thriving business out of deceiving people with wordplay such as “the mother is alive, the father is gone first,” a statement vague enough to sound like a prediction while leaving plenty of room to twist its meaning afterward.

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