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An introduction to
Chinese Astrology
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1. — 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".
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'ętre 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 Ox
3rd unit : Binh-Dan or Fire Tiger
4th unit : Dinh-Mao or Fire Rabbit
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 Ox
15th unit: Mau-Dan or Earth Tiger
16th unit: Ky-Mao or Earth Rabbit
......... ....... or ...............
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.
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.
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