Two kinds of handling: nurture and restrain

In Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi), a structural pivot is handled in one of two ways. Wealth, the Direct Officer, Resource and the Food Star take nurturing use: they are generated and protected. Seven Killings, the Hurting Officer, Rob Wealth and the Yang Blade take restraining use: they are checked or channeled, and handled well they form good structures too.

The last two lessons took the pivot and found the enabler. Which relationship the pivot is decides what the enabler must do: some pivots are to be generated and protected, others checked or channeled. The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century) calls the first nurturing use and the second restraining use.

Nurture or restrain

财官印食，此用神之善而顺用之者也；煞伤劫刃，用神之不善而逆用之者也。

Our translation: Wealth, Officer, Resource and the Food Star are useful elements that are good, and take nurturing use; Killings, the Hurting Officer, Rob Wealth and the Blade are useful elements that are not good, and take restraining use.

A pivot of Wealth, the Direct Officer, Resource or the Food Star is used by going with it: generate it and protect it. A pivot of Seven Killings, the Hurting Officer, Rob Wealth or the Yang Blade is used by going against it: check it or channel it. Rob Wealth here means the month branch of a Month Prosperity structure. The book goes on: nurture what should be nurtured and restrain what should be restrained, and when the pairing fits, either can make a good structure. Nurturing and restraining describe how a pivot is handled, not how good the structure is.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element

Nurturing use: generate and protect

Restraining use: check and channel

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

Indirect Resource is taken as Resource

Resource is not divided into indirect and direct. A month branch that gives Indirect Resource supports the Day Master just as Direct Resource does, is taken as a Resource structure, and is to be generated and protected. It is not one of the four that take restraining use.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Resource; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element

A name does not decide formed or broken

The four benefic elements, the four that take nurturing use, can break a structure when used badly. The book’s examples: a Food Star with Seven Killings, plus revealed Wealth, has Wealth generating Seven Killings, and the structure breaks; Seven Killings checked by the Food Star, plus revealed Resource, has Resource controlling the Food Star, and the structure breaks as well.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On How the Four Benefic Elements Can Break a Structure; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On How the Four Benefic Elements Can Break a Structure

The four malefic elements, the four that take restraining use, can form a structure when handled well. The book gives this a chapter of its own, saying that when they are applied fittingly they too can form a structure. Its examples: when Resource has a light root, revealed Seven Killings generates Resource and completes the structure; when Peers come to take Wealth, a Hurting Officer that turns the Peers’ energy toward generating Wealth completes it; when Wealth meets Seven Killings, a Blade that shares out the Wealth and stands up to Seven Killings completes it. In these cases the malefic element is the enabler. That is why Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠评注; ROC, 1936) says favorable and unfavorable depend on what the chart needs, not on the name.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On How the Four Malefic Elements Can Form a Structure; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On How the Four Malefic Elements Can Form a Structure

Try it on your chart

1. Write down the pivot.
2. If the pivot is Wealth, the Direct Officer, Resource (Indirect Resource included) or the Food Star, mark it nurturing use, and look for what generates it and what protects it.
3. If it is Seven Killings, the Hurting Officer, the Yang Blade or a Month Rob Wealth, mark it restraining use, and look for what checks or channels it.
4. Compare with the two tables above: whatever of these your chart holds is the enabler.
5. Then see whether anything feeds a pivot that should be checked, or hurts a pivot that should be protected; weigh that in the lesson on how a structure forms, breaks and recovers.

See also: Chart structure starts from the month

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

See also: The ten relationships to the Day Master

See also: The Yang Blade structure

See also: The Month Prosperity structure

See also: How a structure forms, breaks and recovers