Structure quality: clear or turbid, pure or mixed

In Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi), structure quality describes how clearly a formed structure’s strengths come through. It turns on whether the elements cooperate and have the force to act, and on whether two pivots used together are pure or mixed. It describes how a chart works, never a ranking of people.

Among formed structures, some show their strengths clearly; in others, the elements hold one another back and the strengths do not show. The question is whether the elements of a structure complete one another or pull against one another.

Cooperating and forceful

The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century) sums up the principle:

然其理之大纲，亦在有情无情、有力无力之间而已。

Our translation: Yet the main outline of the principle lies only between cooperating and not cooperating, forceful and not forceful.

Cooperating means each element completes the others as the structure needs. A Yang Wood Day Master uses the Direct Officer in a Rooster month; Yin Fire is revealed as the Hurting Officer, and Yang Water is also revealed and combines with it. The Hurting Officer is combined away and the Officer kept safe: that is cooperating. Yin Water controlling the Yin Fire would also protect the Officer, but not as well as the Yang Water combination; the book calls this cooperating, but not fully.

Forceful means every element needed has enough force. A Yin Wood Day Master is born in a Rooster month, with Yin Metal revealed as Seven Killings, a forceful Yin Fire as the Food Star, and the Yin Wood, though born in autumn, strong through its roots in the branches and Peers on the stems: Seven Killings, Food Star and Day Master are all strong, and that is forceful. If Seven Killings is strong and the Yin Fire weak, or the Yin Fire strong and Seven Killings short, or the Day Master’s roots not deep enough, it is forceful, but not fully.

With both, the structure is at its best. When the elements are all present but cannot be used, the structure is not cooperating or not forceful. Resource using Seven Killings, with the Day Master already strong and Resource strong, yet Seven Killings revealed as well, is not cooperating; Seven Killings strong and the Food Star strong, but the Day Master without a root, is not forceful.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Structure Quality; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On Structure Quality

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠评注; ROC, 1936) adds that quality broadly follows formed, broken and remedied, and purity; the finer points also weigh whether stems and branches are hidden or revealed, the order of positions, and how far the favorable and unfavorable elements stand from the Day Master. The True Interpretation of Ziping also says that one element can carry great weight, and half an element can spoil the beauty of a whole chart.

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On Structure Quality; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Structure Quality

Pure and mixed

When the month reveals two stems that are used together, see whether they are pure or mixed.

Pure means the two work together: a Yin Metal Day Master born in a Tiger month with Yang Wood and Yang Fire both revealed, Wealth generating the Officer; a Yang Earth Day Master born in a Monkey month with Yang Metal and Yang Water both revealed, the Food Star generating Wealth; a Yin Water Day Master born in a Goat month with Yin Wood and Yin Earth both revealed, the Food Star checking Seven Killings, a control that fits.

Mixed means the two do not work together: a Yang Water Day Master born in a Goat month with Yin Wood and Yin Earth both revealed, the Hurting Officer attacking the Officer; a Yang Wood Day Master born in a Dragon month with Yang Earth and Yang Water both revealed, Wealth controlling Resource.

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping says a pure structure has one direction, so its force is easily applied; a mixed one is held back on both sides, so its force does not show. Mixed is not final either: if the two stand apart and keep out of each other’s way, or another stem checks or combines one of them, it can still be remedied.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Pure and Mixed; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Pure and Mixed

Clearing the turbid

A turbid structure is not settled for good. Dripping Heavenly Marrow says that when the turbid is settled and the clear sought until clearness is reached, even a cold valley returns to spring when its time comes. The original notes explain: when one element in the chart has force, or a decade phase reaches the right place, sweeping away the turbid energy and breaking up what is stuck, that is settling the turbid and seeking the clear. Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated, on turbid energy, also says a turbid chart that meets the right decade phase can sweep the turbidity away and still turn around. Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping quotes this verse under pure and mixed, saying it speaks of exactly that; its wording differs slightly, as the editions read differently. So whether it is called pure and mixed or clear and turbid, a mixed chart can be cleared by what it meets.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Clear Energy, original notes; Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Turbid Energy; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Pure and Mixed

Try it on your chart

1. See whether the pivot and the enabler complete each other: does anything combine away or check the element that hurts the structure? That is cooperation.
2. See whether the pivot, the enabler and the Day Master are roughly matched in force. That is force.
3. If the month reveals two stems, see whether they generate each other or control each other fittingly, or attack each other. That is pure or mixed.
4. Find the element holding the structure back, and see whether it is kept apart, or checked or bound by another.
5. Note which kind of element the chart still lacks to clear it, and keep it for the lesson on decade phases and your structure.

See also: How a structure forms, breaks and recovers

See also: Combined structures, overlay structures and “transforms into”

See also: The enabler: the structure’s supporting element