Cold, warm, dry and damp

In Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi), a chart has a climate: it can lean cold or warm, and dry or damp. A chart born in deep winter leans cold and one born in high summer leans warm; heavy Water makes it damp and heavy Fire makes it dry. The books treat cold and warm, and dry and damp, as two separate questions, and ask of each whether the chart can balance itself.

The earlier lessons weighed Day Master strength and took the structure. Dripping Heavenly Marrow (滴天髓) adds the climate in two verses, one on cold and warm, one on dry and damp.

Cold and warm

天道有寒暖，发育万物，人道行之，不可过也。

Our translation: The way of heaven has cold and warm, and by them all things grow. Human affairs follow it, and must not go too far.

Cold and warm are heaven’s seasons, and all things grow by them; in a chart, neither may lean too far. The original notes to Dripping Heavenly Marrow say that Metal and Water are cold, and Wood and Fire warm; the northwest is cold and the southeast warm. A cold chart needs warmth to grow, and a warm chart needs cold to come to fruition.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Cold and Warm, original notes

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated (滴天髓阐微; Qing dynasty, 19th century) adds that cold and warm cannot be set by direction and element alone; what matters is whether yin and yang pair. However heavy the cold, the warmth must have energy; however strong the warmth, the cold must have a root. With that, the chart balances itself.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Cold and Warm

To judge cold and warm, look first at the month branch. A chart born in a winter month, the Pig, Rat or Ox, leans cold; one born in a summer month, the Snake, Horse or Goat, leans warm. Spring and autumn lean less; there, compare the Metal and Water in the four pillars with the Wood and Fire.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Cold and Warm, original notes; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Weighing the Useful Element Against the Climate

Dry and damp

The verse on dry and damp says that the way of earth has dry and damp, by which all kinds of things are formed, and that in human affairs neither may lean to one side. The original notes say that too much damp stagnates, and little is achieved; too much dry is fierce. Water generated by Metal that also meets cold Earth grows damper; Fire generated by Wood that also meets warm Earth grows drier. Both are one-sided.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Dry and Damp; Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Dry and Damp, original notes

Earth is the key to dry and damp. Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated calls the Ox and the Dragon damp Earth, and the Goat and the Dog dry Earth:

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Dry and Damp

Dry and damp must complete each other. Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated says damp is yin and is completed by meeting dry; dry is yang and comes alive by meeting damp. It gives two examples. Summer Wood looks ample outside but is weak within: it needs Yang and Yin Water to generate it and the damp Earth of the Ox or Dragon to nurture it, so that the Fire is not fierce and the Wood does not wither. Winter Metal can stand the forging of Fire, and can use Yang and Yin Fire. The original notes give their example in the Hurting Officer structure: a Wood Day Master with a Fire Hurting Officer needs damp, and a Metal Day Master with a Water Hurting Officer needs dry.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Dry and Damp; Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Dry and Damp, original notes

Two questions, kept apart

Cold and warm, and dry and damp, are two questions; look at them separately. For cold and warm, ask whether a cold chart’s warmth has energy and a root, and whether a warm chart’s cold has a root. For dry and damp, ask whether dry and damp complete each other. A chart can be both cold and dry, or both warm and damp.

A root is read as in the lesson on roots: Fire revealed on the stems, with Fire also hidden in the branches, gives the warmth energy and a root; Fire on the stems with none in the branches gives only weak warmth. Read Water the same way for the cold side.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Cold and Warm; Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Dry and Damp

The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century) has a chapter on matching the useful element with the climate: the structure is taken from the month, and the climate is weighed alongside it. How to choose the balancing element by Day Master and month comes in the next lesson.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Weighing the Useful Element Against the Climate

Try it on your chart

1. Look at the month branch. Born in a Pig, Rat or Ox month, note cold; in a Snake, Horse or Goat month, note warm. In any other month, compare the Metal and Water in the four pillars with the Wood and Fire.
2. If the chart is cold, see whether Fire is revealed on the stems and rooted in the branches; if it is warm, look at Water the same way. If so, the chart can balance cold and warm by itself; if not, note that it lacks warmth, or lacks cold.
3. Find any Ox, Dragon, Goat or Dog in the four pillars, weigh the Water against the Fire, and decide whether the chart leans damp or dry.
4. See whether the other side is there to complete it: dry energy for a damp chart, damp energy for a dry one.
5. Note the two results, cold and warm, and dry and damp, separately, and keep them for the lesson on climate balance.

See also: Hidden stems: what each branch holds

See also: Roots: heavy and light

See also: Day Master strength: five grades from very strong to very weak

See also: The Hurting Officer structure

See also: Climate balance: the climate element