Chinese astrology

Chinese astrology's historical background

Chinese astrology is undoubtedly the oldest coherent method of divination in the world — it came into existence some seventeen centuries before the Bible. It has influenced — and even regulated — the lives of countless generations in the Far East from time immemorial. Contrary to what one might think, the progress of modern science in all fields has not tarnished its image as an esteemed guide to human destiny and self-discovery. In fact, the East Asians are no longer the only persons to have recourse to Chinese astrology; more and more people in the industrialized, rationalistic Western world, and especially in the United States, are getting awakened to and interested in this system of fortune-telling which took root in one of the most prestigious known civilizations.
The foremost origins of Chinese astrology are shrouded in the haze of the ancient times. No one is able to tell exactly when and under what conditions this method of divination came into use. It is known however that Chinese astrology under one form or another had been widely practiced in the Orient since the 40th century BC and especially since the times of the Chinese Emperors Fu Hsi (2953-2838 BC) and Shen Nung (born in the 28th century BC).
This discipline was codified by Ta Nao, an able minister of Emperor Huang Ti (born c. 2704 BC), whose reign had begun in 2697 BC. It was officialized in 2637 BC. Its formal inauguration, among other historical events, was designed to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the popular Emperor's accession to the throne. And during the following forty-six centuries it was used as the canon of all state affairs in China.
The system has undergone many minor changes through the ages. The latest modification took place in the early tenth century AD, when the notorious astrologer Tran Doan fixed the number of stars used at 111.
Ever since it officially came into effect nearly 5,000 years ago, Chinese astrology has functioned smoothly, uninterruptedly, like a perfect clockwork, and provided countless generations with enlightenment and guidance.


The pillars of Chinese astrology

Chinese astrology, like almost all other Chinese disciplines, reposes on four main pillars, which call for some succinct comments. These pillars are: the concept of Yang and Yin, the notion of the Five Elements, the patterns of all cosmic transformations, and finally the Chinese calendar.

Yang and Yin
According to the ancient Chinese, the entire Universe, as it presents itself to our observation, owes its existence to the perennial and incessant interaction between two primal forces, or principles, called Yang and Yin. In other words, it is the interplay between Yang and Yin that makes up the ever-changing flow of natural processes. (The Yang-Yin concept can be traced back to Fu Hsi who is said to have discovered the famous Chinese trigrams used in Chinese divination. Yin is represented graphically by a broken line ––, and Yang by an unbroken line ─ .) As a consequence, any situation in the Universe — be it a rainy night or a sunny day, a rock or a living organism, a change or a transformation, peace or war, luck or misfortune, disease or well-being, and so on — is believed to be the ineluctable result of a specific relationship, or rather a specific balance of power, between Yang and Yin. Furthermore, Yin is associated with the negative (passive, female, docile, etc.) force, whereas Yang is a representation of the positive (active, male, aggressive, etc.) force. (Yang and Yin literally mean "sunny side" and "dark side" of a hill.) The following statement in the Hsi Tz'u sums up this theory fairly well: "The virile and the docile displace each other and produce the changes and transformations" (Sec. I, Ch. 2).
To have an idea of what Yang and Yin are, let's compare them to the positive and negative charges of modern science's atoms.
Since Yang and Yin are at the root of all aspects and phenomena of existence, everything is related to everything else, and in the last analysis man and the world of nature form a unified whole — respectively a microcosm within the macrocosm. Health, character, fortune and misfortune, and the success or failure of all public and private ventures are assumed to be determined by the preponderance, at the times and in the specific "proportions", of Yin over Yang or vice versa. To put it differently, there exists a close interdependence between the world of nature and the events of man. Here lies the most important postulate that acts as a justification for the raison d'être of Chinese astrology.

The Five Elements
Yang and Yin constitute the limits that embrace all things — male and female, light and dark, hot and cold, high and low, pair and impair, extension and compression, growth and decline, birth and death, and so forth. But since Yang and Yin perpetually react to each other, the cosmos is not static: change is its essence. And, it is believed, the material as well as immaterial worlds resulting from the myriad mutual interactions of Yang and Yin are reducible to five basic sorts of phenomena, or Elements, called Wu Hsing.
The Five Elements are: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. These are cosmic "agents," conceived as basic powers, or forces, operating in the world of change — by opposing, complementing, or succeeding one another. These forces, like the atoms that explain the Universe of modern science, produce all things and situations through their various interactions and permutations.
It must be made clear that the Five Elements are the basis of differentiation of things and situations, whereas Yang and Yin constitute their actuality. To put it figuratively, Yang and Yin may be likened to an entire egg — with its shell — while the Five Elements, thanks to their mutual reactions, cause the egg white and yolk to undergo a multitude of changes within the shell. As can be seen, the power of the Five Elements is secondary to that of the couple Yang-Yin.
It should be pointed out that Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water are only symbols used to represent the five basic cosmic forces.

Patterns of cosmic transformations
In what way do cosmic transformations occur? According to Chinese observation, they appear as having two definite characteristics. First, they are not blind, anarchic, but follow certain trends that permit us to classify them into a number of main categories; in other words, while the Universe is in a perpetual flux, this flux obeys definite laws, fall into regular, fixed and therefore predictable patterns. Should this situation be otherwise, Chinese astrology as we know it would not have existed since there would not have been any predictive basis to it. Second, cosmic transformations do not take place in a linear succession, in the manner of the "flowing stream" dear to Heraclitus Ephesus (530-470 BC), but in a distinctly cyclic fashion. Both Yin-Yang and the Five Elements lend substance to the characteristically Chinese belief in the cyclical theory of becoming and dissolution concerning seasons, history, fortune, misfortune, prosperity, decline, and so on. In sum, everything is believed to proceed in cycles.

Recording of cycles
According to Chinese thinking, there exist two main evolutionary cycles in the Universe — the duodecimal cycle with twelve units, and the decimal cycle with ten units.
To name such units, the Chinese use neither numeral nor ordinal terms — the equivalent of one, two, three, or of first, second, third, etc. — but resort to special words. The Vietnamese names of the duodecimal cycle's units are: Ti, Suu, Dan, Mao, Thin, Ty, Ngo, Mui, Than, Dau, Tuat, Hoi. And the Vietnamese names of the decimal cycle's units are: Giap, At, Binh, Dinh, Mau, Ky, Canh, Tan, Nham, Quy. (These Vietnamese names are exact transcriptions of the Chinese names, and I cite them because they have the advantage of being written in the Roman alphabet.)
At one time the ancient Chinese decided to place each of the duodecimal cycle's units under the symbol of a familiar animal as a mnemotechnical device. The twelve symbolic animals are the following, in due order: Rat, Buffalo, Tiger, Cat, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. (In some East Asian countries, the Buffalo is replaced by the Ox, the Cat by the Rabbit or Hare, the Goat by the Sheep or Ram, and the Pig by the Boar. The symbolism remains the same.)
What were the reasons for the choice of these specific animals? The ancient Chinese had recourse to these symbols to put into concrete form their findings about the results of the specific relationship between Yang and Yin each of the duodecimal cycle's units. In other words, each unit of the duodecimal cycle undergoes the influence of a definite balance of power between the two primal forces, and this balance of power is symbolized by an animal which seems the most fit to play the role. For instance, a slow-moving and docile animal like the Buffalo suggests a predominance of Yin over Yang in a specific proportion, while a vivacious, frisky animal like the Horse indicates a contrary situation.
On the other hand, every set of two consecutive units of the decimal cycle was placed under the jurisdiction of a cosmic element. Thus, Giap and At are governed by Wood, Binh and Dinh by Fire, Mau and Ky by Earth, Canh and Tan by Metal, Nham and Quy by Water.
There also exists a third main cycle, which is a combination of the two preceding cycles, and has sixty units (12 x 5 = 60). It's called the sexagenary cycle. This cycle evolves as follows:
1st unit: Giap-Ti or Wood Rat
2nd unit: At-Suu or Wood Buffalo
3rd unit: Binh-Dan or Fire Tiger
4th unit: Dinh-Mao or Fire Cat
5th unit: Mau-Thin or Earth Dragon
6th unit: Ky-Ty or Earth Snake
7th unit: Canh-Ngo or Metal Horse
8th unit: Tan-Mui or Metal Goat
9th unit: Nham-Than or Water Monkey
10th unit: Quy-Dau or Water Rooster
11th unit: Giap-Tuat or Wood Dog
12th unit: At-Hoi or Wood Pig
13th unit: Binh-Ti or Fire Rat
14th unit: Dinh-Suu or Fire Buffalo
15th unit: Mau-Dan or Earth Tiger
16th unit: Ky-Mao or Earth Cat
......... ......... ...............
58th unit: Tan-Dau or Metal Rooster
59th unit: Nham-Tuat or Water Dog
60th unit: Quy-Hoi or Water Pig
As can be seen, the sexagenary cycle's first unit is always Wood Rat, the second unit Wood Buffalo, the tenth unit Water Rooster, and the sixtieth and last unit Water Pig.

Use of the main cycles
The three main cycles discussed above are applied to many categories of things, and especially to all Chinese time units — epoch, century, year, month, day, hour.
Chinese astrology, for its part, makes use of the duodecimal and sexagenary cycles as applied to Chinese years, months, days and hours.
Since the count began in the year 2637 BC (see preceding section), that year was a Rat year (duodecimal cycle) and also a Wood Rat year (sexagenary cycle), the following year (2636 BC) was a Buffalo year and also a Wood Buffalo year, and so on. Proceeding this way we can know that the year 1997 AD was a Fire Buffalo year and that all people born in that year are known to Chinese astrologers as Fire Buffaloes.
The Chinese twelve-year cycle is of paramount importance and is also called the Chinese zodiac. The word "zodiac" (literally, "circle of animals") is fully justified here, while it is not in Western astrology as Gemini, Virgo, Libra and Aquarius are not represented by animals.
Let it be known that the first month of any Chinese year is always a Tiger month.




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The Chinese calendar
The Chinese calendar is the last of the four main pillars of Chinese astrology. It is unquestionably the most perfect in the world since it takes into account both the sun's and the moon's revolutions — the Gregorian calendar is only patterned on the sun to the exclusion of the moon, while the Jewish and Muslim calendars are only patterned on the moon to the exclusion of the sun.
The Chinese calendar officially came into existence at the same time as Chinese astrology — under the reign of Emperor Huang Ti, in the year 2637 BC.
Chinese months are replicas of the moon's revolutions, or lunations. They invariably begin with a new-moon day. Consequently, Chinese months are lunar.
Chinese years are replicas of the sun's revolutions, or tropical years. They invariably begin with the second new-moon day after the winter solstice. Consequently, Chinese years are solar, contrary to common belief. The Chinese New Year's day is movable — just as Easter Day, which is also tributary of the moon — and takes place somewhere between January 21st and February 20th according to astronomic circumstances.


How Chinese astrology works

In the last analysis, Chinese astrology is nothing else than an enormous catalog of the innumerable circumstances which result from the intricate interplay between Yang and Yin as well as between the Five Elements, and are translated into the human sphere. Each moment of a person's life is believed to correspond to a definite state of this interplay.
To pinpoint definite states of the cosmic interplay in people's lives, Chinese astrology makes use of two principal tools — the Chinese twelve-year zodiac (or cycle), and the Chinese stars.

The Chinese twelve-year zodiac
As has been said, the duodecimal zodiac is composed of twelve Chinese years. Each of these years is placed under the jurisdiction of a symbolic animal.
All people of the same sex born under the same animal symbol — in the same Chinese year — are believed to undergo the influence of the same set of Yang-Yin interactions and, consequently, to have the same destiny capital; this means they are assumed to be endowed with about the same character traits, the same assets and liabilities, the same potentialities and limitations, the same strengths and weaknesses, the same opportunities and problems, the same preferences and aversions, the same health privileges and pathological predispositions, the same reaction patterns and emotional makeup, and so on. To put it differently, they are assumed to fit in with the same general mold. To know the Chinese birth year of a person, therefore, means to have access to knowing the main features of his (or her) personality and destiny.
On the other hand, each Chinese year in the duodecimal cycle is supposed to bring about a definite course of events in the world's affairs, and also to exercise a different influence on people born under different animal symbols.
The influence of the Elements, although important, is secondary to that of the Yang-Yin interplay. It brings some precision to the character portraits symbolized by the animals. The role of the Elements in Chinese astrology is somewhat similar to that of the Ascendants in Western astrology. Thus, while all Horses possess the same set of primary destiny features, a Fire Horse differs slightly from his brother Metal Horse, and the latter's traits are not quite similar to those of a Water Horse, and so on.

The Chinese stars
One hundred and eleven stars (or planets) are used in Chinese astrology. Only ten of these stars are known to Western astrology — Jupiter, Mars, Moon, Mercury, Neptune, Pluto, Saturn, Sun, Uranus, and Venus. The other hundred and one stars are celestial bodies or constellations whose nature had been studied by the Chinese for thousands of years.
Unlike what happens in Western astrology, the Chinese stars are not believed to exercise direct influence on people and the world, but are used only as symbols of various sets of cosmic interactions — just as the twelve animals represent other sets.
The combination of the twelve-year zodiac and the 111 stars gives us a total of 512,640 personality charts. This means that, out of more than a million persons, only two individuals would fit in with about the same description! These two individuals may, furthermore, be somewhat different from each other due to their respective social and geographical environment as well as to other factors.
On the other hand, the combination of the twelve-year zodiac and the 111 stars allows the astrologer to know probable past and future events in his consultant's life, and also to advise him on how to favorably modify the course of his destiny.


The scope of Chinese astrology

Is Chinese astrology a valid system of fortune-telling and a reliable method of destiny analysis, or is it simply a carefully studied hoax? Can it really teach us something useful? Can it still have its raison d'être at the threshold of the twenty-first century?
The mere fact that Chinese astrology is thriving not only in the Orient but also in the Western world does not necessarily imply its validity, for "in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible" (Bertrand Russell). We should therefore appraise its value by basing ourselves on other criteria.

Chinese astrology as a science
Many practitioners of Chinese astrology claim that this is a science in the ordinary sense of the word. They base their contention on the fact that this discipline, philosophical though it may sound, reposes on the foundations that are getting more and more scientific confirmation. They point out that Chinese acupuncture and macrobiotic cookery, both issued from the concepts of Yin-Yang and from notion of the Five Elements, just like Chinese astrology, have worked irrefutable wonders and are winning over an ever-increasing number of followers throughout the world.
Rationalistic-minded people may feel skeptical about the true, objective value of Chinese astrology since its findings are not open to scientific demonstration and verification. To allay such suspicion, supporters generally answer that Chinese astrology, in all fairness, must be viewed not as an exact science but as a science dealing with human beings, who are endowed with free will and subject to the influence of their multifaceted environment; it is concededly unable to predict all the details of any person's character and destiny but can assess many aspects of human life in a general way. While it is only fair to allow this science a reasonable margin of uncertainty concerning specific individuals — so the argument goes — its teachings have revealed themselves through the ages quite relevant and sometimes even startling as far as "average" persons are concerned.
My opinion is that Chinese astrology still has to prove its worth conclusively. But it does deserve a fair trial, even though you do not believe in its merits, since in practicing it we run no risk of losing anything and may hit upon the truth. If you subscribe to the idea that only results count, then Chinese astrology is very worthwhile since it has worked indisputable wonders. In any case, Chinese astrology as an earnest study of human character can help acquire a sharp flair for human psychology and behavior. Of course, Chinese astrology, like any other esoteric discipline, cannot expect to be immune against more or less blatant quackery.

Chinese astrology as an art
It would not be excessive to view true Chinese astrology as an art. Unlike other astrologies or methods of divination in the world, it never concerns itself with death, reincarnation or the great Beyond; on the contrary, it deals with the individual as a subject who actually lives in this world and who is free to follow the course of action and reaction of his own choice. It never sets up hard-and-fast rules that would give way to a mechanical interpretation.
Chinese astrologers of the purest tradition never lose sight of all the imponderables that surround the life of the individual. They are artists rather than scientists — they make more use of their intuition, insight and open-mindedness than of their erudition; in other words, they practice their craft in accordance with the rules of the art.

My interpretation of Chinese astrology
As is the case with the I Ching — the bible of the Chinese — the fundamental data of Chinese astrology were given in a very succinct, almost enigmatic form. They need to be explained, paraphrased and formulated explicitly if they are intended for present-day popular use.
On the other hand, since life is an ever-changing process, the inventors of Chinese astrology could not obviously foresee in detail what might happen centuries afterwards; it was impossible for them, for instance, to tackle such items as space travels, the atomic bomb, the telephone, the television, the Women's Liberation Movement, computers, or Internet. But they did give enough basic hints about the eternal components of human nature which could and should be adequately interpreted in the light of given circumstances.
My own interpretation of Chinese astrology has always been to translate the basic teachings of this discipline into terms relevant to the Western world and late-twentieth-century life. And I have tried to do it as faithfully as possible.





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