"Personal Grand Duke" Versus "Annual Grand Duke"

In China, when we pay our annual homage to the Annual Grand Duke (值年太歲) in a temple, we also pray to our "Personal Grand Duke" (本命元神) for blessing and safety.

Annual Grand Duke is the ruler of the year and changes every year.  It is similar to the "annual luck" of everyone's 4-Pillars chart.

"Personal Grand Duke" is the Grand Duke on duty when a person was born.  For example,  people who were born in 1954 or 2014 (Jia-wu year) have the same Personal Grand Duke Zhang Ci. Zhang Ci is the "Personal Grand Duke" of these people for the rest of their life.

Why do we need to keep our "Personal Grand Duke" happy?Because he is in charge of our physical well-being and life expectancy.  Personal Grand Duke is similar to the western notion of personal guardian angel.

There are elaborate rituals for worshiping  Personal Grand Duke  to enhance personal safety, health, wealth luck, neutralize disasters. Here I give you an ultra simple way to solicit help from your own Personal Grand Duke -- simply recite the name of your Personal Grand Duke when you are in trouble, fear, difficult situation or danger.  The names of 60 Grand Dukes are posted below (click to enlarge).  Find the name of your Personal Grand Duke and remember it by heart or tattoo it onto your palm.

HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOUR GRAND DUKE TALISMAN?
To keep things simple, I only list which animal sign clashes or violates Annual Grand Duke in previous blog message.  In reality, it is more complicated than that.  For example, if your 4P chart has zi (mouse) branch in pillar other than the year pillar, you are also clashing Grand Duke!  If month pillar clashes Grand Duke, your parents may be in danger.  If day pillar clashes Grand Duke, you or your spouse may have problem (divorce, sickness, injury or even death).  So some people play it safe and get Grand Duke talismans  for their whole family every year (please read previous blog on how to get your Grand Duke talismans). For example,  Joyce of Philippines, who has also requested talismans in 2013 and write again:

"We kindly request for this year's talisman for our growing  family I believe we had a good 2013 and look forward to a wonderful 2014

1 - House
2  - Joyce 
3 - Dominga  - mother
4 - Jonathan - brother
5 - Jonine  - sister
6 - Jonas - future brother in law..."

Here is an interesting response from a QMDJ student who has purchased one in 2013:

"Well, the end of the year is coming.  My wife Mary surprised me when she asked about the talisman I purchased last year.  She noticed that 2013 was a good year for us despite many 2013 predictions. And many friends and relatives have not had such a good year.  I found your article from a while ago, and went to Heifer International to donate two starter hives of bees.  It is a small thing.  My father, my uncles and my grandfather were bee keepers.  Some of my earliest memories are when daddy would take me and my brother to the bee yard in the spring as he woke up the bees.  So we played with the bees and learned to understand the songs of the bees.  And as in Qi-Men-Dun-Jia, we learnt from the bees about their paths. It is a wondrous thing for a small boy to stand in the flight path of hundreds of bees on a sunny spring day as they go out to the flowers and then return.  

So I ask if you could find two talismans for us.  I work in the Government Center, a most back stabbing place and not a place for a farm boy but that is my karma in this life.  My wife and I dream of moving to the farm and starting a vineyard and maybe a winery but it takes money to do that."  

Interesting analogy between bee dances and QMDJ formation!  Maybe one day you will build a farm with QMDJ principles.


Ken Lai

"Destiny/Luck Mgmt. w/ Bazi- Basic/ Advanced w/18 hr. HD video each
"Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui w/ 23 hr. HD video
"Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth & Career" w/ 7 hr. HD video
"Period 7/8 Feng Shui Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques" w/ 6 hr. HD video
"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
"Professional Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia 4G" w/ 21 hr. video
"EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/Feng Shui"w/ 3 hr. HD
"EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui" with 4 hr. HD video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing" w/ 24 hr video
 "Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
 "4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

 http://www.kenlaifengshui.com
 http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com 

4P/ Bazi Terminology Conventions

The following is taken from the "4P Bootcamp" manual.  This is an update of an earlier version published a few years ago.

I wrote this because a software developer wants me to recommend his 4P software to my students.  The software is above average but the English translations of 4P terms are horrible and confusing, like translating day-master as "self" and bi-jian also as "self".  So you will find more than one "self" in a chart.

Let's begin:

There are no commonly agreed translations of 4P terms.  Different schools or teachers translate 4P terms according to his/her personal preferences.  There are three major rules used in translations:

1. Literal translations: This simply gives a faithful and very often, horrible (in terms of culture shock) translations of the terms. For examples, “shi-shen” is translated as “eating god”, “qi-sha” becomes “7-killings”, “shang-guan” becomes “hurting officials or officers” and the likes. Problem with literal translations is that it may bias student perceptions towards certain term as “bad” or negative because it sounds horrible. In reality, every one of the “10 gods” or "transformation stars” (my terminology) can be positive or negative depending on the composition of the 4P chart. Another common misconception is the ubiquitous uses of the term "god" in 4P, like "useful god" (yong shen), "enmity god" (chou shen) and the like, making 4P sound "religious" when it is actually more statistical and logical in nature.

2. Pin-yin translations: This gives a transliteration of the 4P terms like “shi-shen”, “zheng-guan” and etc. It takes some time to get used to these foreign terms. But it is great when you go back to the original Chinese texts or switching teachers/school.

3. Translation based on interpreted meanings: This translates the 4P terms based on the understanding of the translator. For example, shi-shen and shang-guan are translated as “output” stars. But different people have different understanding of the terms, so the translations can sometimes be confusing and shocking as well. Good translations under this should be “value-free” or NOT “value-laden”. It should also give meanings that are faithful or close to the original meanings of the terms. The translated terms should not influence the perception of the readers and students.

4. Mixing of all of the above

My personal bias is trying to make the translated terms as neutral as possible, so as not influence the reader's perception.  Each of these 10 "stars" or "gods" can be positive or negative depending on the combination of the natal chart and luck periods.  Ancient Chinese writers used the term “god” pretty loosely to draw attention.  In fact, the meaning has nothing to do with religion or gods or spirits.

In this course, we use both pin-yin and interpreted meanings approach.  The following table shows some major terms as translated by different schools:

Note:  top row is the convention used in 4P Bootcamp

4P TERMS: Stem/ Branch interactions

Five Stem Combinations (天干五合) -- combinations

Stem Clashes (天干相剋 )“ke” -- clashes and countering

Six Branch Combinations (地支六合) ”he” -- combinations

Six Branch Clashes (地支六冲) “chong” -- clashes

Branch 3-Meetings   (地支三会) “san hui” -- frame, directional combinations, regional combinations

Branch 3-Unities (地支三合)  “san he” -- 3-harmony, triangular branch combinations, 60-degrees combinations

Half 3-Unities (半地支三合) “san he” -- semi/half 3-harmony

Branch Six Harms (地支六害) “hai” -- harms

Earthly Branch Six Damages (地支六破) “po” -- destruction

Branch 3-Penalties (地支三刑) “san xing” -- punishment

Branch Self-penalties  (自刑) “zi xing” -- self-punishment

4P TERMS: Miscellaneous

Favorable element (“Yong Shen”) 用神 -- “useful god”: the element that a chart needs most

Unfavorable element (“Ji Shen” ) 忌神 -- “annoying god”:  the element that hurts a chart most

Supporting element (“Xi Shen” ) 喜神 -- “happy god”:  the element that nurtures the favorable element

Vengeful  element (“Chou Shen” ) 仇神 -- “vengeance god”:  the element that nurtures the unfavorable element

Trivial  element (“Xian Shen” ) 閑神 -- “trivial god”:  the element that does not affect Day-master much

Transformation platform (“Fa Shen”) 化神 -- “transformation god”:  the element needed for combination and transformation to take place

Profiles/ Chart type

Extreme strong专旺格 w/ Extreme wood 曲直格, Extreme fire 炎上格, Extreme earth 稼墙格, Extreme metal 從革格, Extreme water 潤下格 -- ultra-strong

Extreme weak 從弱格 w/ Follow wealth 從财格, Follow sha (power) 從杀格, Follow offspring 從兒格, Follow the powerful 從势格 -- ultra-weak

Follow the strong 從强格 -- follow strength

Qi-transformation 化氣格 JIA-JI EARTH transformation 甲己化土格 YI-GENG METAL transformation 乙庚化金格 BING-SHEN WATER transformation 丙辛化水格 DING-REN WOOD transformation 丁壬化木格 WU-GUI FIRE transformation 戊癸化火格 -- qi-transformation

 Happy Chinese New Year!

Ken Lai

"Destiny/Luck Mgmt. w/ Bazi- Basic/ Advanced w/18 hr. HD video each
"Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui w/ 23 hr. HD video
"Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth & Career" w/ 7 hr. HD video
"Period 7/8 Feng Shui Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques" w/ 6 hr. HD video
"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
"Professional Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia 4G" w/ 21 hr. video
"EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/Feng Shui"w/ 3 hr. HD
"EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui" with 4 hr. HD video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing" w/ 24 hr video
 "Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
 "4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

 http://www.kenlaifengshui.com
 http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com