Support or restrain: which elements your chart welcomes

In Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi), the elements a chart welcomes follow from the Day Master’s strength. A strong Day Master welcomes the elements that drain or control it; a weak Day Master welcomes the elements that generate or help it. Which of the two forms of support, or of restraint, fits better depends on the rest of the chart.

Drain the strong, help the weak

The original notes to Dripping Heavenly Marrow (滴天髓) put the principle in one line:

旺则宜泄宜伤，衰则喜帮喜助，子平之理也。

Our translation: When it is strong, drain it and control it; when it is weak, it welcomes help and support. This is the principle of Ziping.

Draining comes from Output, the element the Day Master generates: the Food Star and the Hurting Officer. Controlling comes from Authority, the element that controls the Day Master: the Direct Officer and the Seven Killings. Help comes from Peers, the Friend and Rob Wealth, and support from Resource. A strong Day Master has strength to spare and needs an outlet; a weak one is short of strength and needs support.

A strong Day Master can also carry Wealth. The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century) says that a Day Master rooted in the branches can bear Wealth, the Direct Officer and the Food Star, and can take on the Hurting Officer and the Seven Killings. On substance and function, the original notes to Dripping Heavenly Marrow add that when the Day Master is strong, the Food Star, Wealth and the Direct Officer in the month branch can all serve it.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Strong and Weak, original notes; Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Form and Image; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Stems in Season Yet Not Strong, Out of Season Yet Not Weak; Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Substance and Function, original notes

Take a Yang Wood Day Master. Its Resource is Water, its Peer is Wood, its Output is Fire, its Wealth is Earth and its Authority is Metal. A strong Yang Wood welcomes Fire, Earth and Metal; a weak one welcomes Water and Wood.

Two forms of support, two forms of restraint

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠评注; ROC, 1936) divides each into two. Support comes from Resource, which generates the Day Master, and from Peers, which help it. Restraint comes from Authority, which controls it, and from Output, which drains it.

The two forms are not always equally fitting. On form and image, Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated (滴天髓阐微; Qing dynasty, 19th century) sets out four cases:

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element; Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Form and Image

Weakness within strength, strength within weakness

The original notes to Dripping Heavenly Marrow go on: there is weakness within strength, so a strong Day Master should not simply be reduced; there is strength within weakness, so a weak one should not simply be topped up. What is strong to the extreme cannot be reduced, and what is weak to the extreme cannot be topped up; forcing either often backfires. The two ends are taken as in the lesson on Day Master strength: a very strong or very weak chart is often understood by going with the strongest current in the whole chart, which is taken up in the lesson on following structures. A balanced Day Master is handled by the same principle, according to which way it leans.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Strong and Weak, original notes; Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Strong and Weak

On substance and function, Dripping Heavenly Marrow also says that support and restraint must be applied fittingly, not decided from one side alone. Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping gives an example: when the month branch is a Peer or Resource and the Day Master is strong, look for the elements that control or drain it; but if the four pillars hold many controlling and draining elements, the Day Master turns weak, and the Peer or Resource in the month is welcome again. What the chart welcomes follows the weighing.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Substance and Function; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element

See also: Following structures

A name does not make an element good or bad

Whether a chart welcomes one of the ten relationships depends on whether the chart needs it, not on its name. Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping says that when the chart welcomes them, the Indirect Resource, the Hurting Officer and the Seven Killings are all good; when it does not, the Direct Officer, Wealth and Resource can become a burden too.

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element

The term “useful element”

When you read the classics, you will often meet the term useful element (用神). In The True Interpretation of Ziping, the useful element is the element taken from the month branch: set the Day Master against the month branch, and the structure follows from it, as the lesson on taking the structure from the month explains. In that sense, the support and restraint in this lesson describe what the chart welcomes and what it does not, not the useful element itself.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element

Beyond support and restraint

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping also notes that choosing what a chart needs goes beyond support and restraint: the climate must be weighed too. For a chart born in deep winter or high summer, balancing cold and warm, dry and damp is often as important as support or restraint. Two later lessons cover this: cold, warm, dry and damp, and climate balance.

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

Try it on your chart

1. Write down the grade you gave your Day Master in the previous lesson; if it is balanced, note which way it leans.
2. From the Day Master’s element, write down which element is its Resource, Peer, Output, Wealth and Authority.
3. If the Day Master is strong, circle Output, Wealth and Authority; if it is weak, circle Resource and Peer. These are the elements your chart welcomes.
4. Using the four cases above, weigh the Wealth, Authority and Peers in your chart, and decide which form of support or restraint fits better.
5. If the Day Master is very strong or very weak, read the lesson on following structures before deciding.
6. Note the structure taken from the month for the lesson on taking the structure from the month; if you were born in deep winter or high summer, note the climate.

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

See also: Chart structure starts from the month

See also: Roles in the chart: useful element, enabler, ailment and remedy element (and bridging element)

See also: Cold, warm, dry and damp

See also: Climate balance: the climate element