A Few Thoughts on Bazi

Before I fell ill, I didn’t believe in fate or fortune-telling. I thought the Four Pillars of Destiny were superstition.

After I became ill, I began immersing myself in them, hoping to find answers about life. The more I studied, the more I felt that the Four Pillars were a philosophy distilled from everyday life.

Destiny comes from life, and life is full of philosophy.

Life, destiny, and philosophy: it turns out they are all one and the same.

By then, I wanted to pick up a pen and write a book about life, destiny, and philosophy. But my abilities were limited, and no matter how long I tried, I couldn’t get it written.

To write such a book, you need at least to understand the Four Pillars, have a wealth of life experience, and know a little philosophy.

Putting pen to paper felt like hard work.

I was also astonished that this ancient system of the Four Pillars had so much in common with modern materialist dialectics.

This only made me more certain that it is a precious legacy of ancient China.

We should protect it and carry it forward.

We mustn’t let someone dismiss it as “superstition” and destroy it with a single stroke.

The purpose of this book is to set the record straight about the Four Pillars.

I’ve been ill for more than a decade, and I don’t know when the illness will flare up again. If I don’t write this now, I’m afraid I may never get another chance.

At first, I wanted to call this book Idle Chatter on Ziping. In the end, I settled on Ramblings on the Four Pillars.

Written as a collection of short essays, it explores life, as well as destiny and philosophy as they relate to everyday experience.

Since it’s called Ramblings, it should of course be informal and wide-ranging, written in plain language and meant to be accessible and entertaining.

In the end, I hope everyone can understand this book and take something away from it.