# The Bazi Code: How Your Birth Chart, Your Face, and Your Home Shape Your Destiny

By FENGHUA WANG

A Third-Generation Master's Practical Guide to Chinese Destiny Analysis

Introduction: Three Keys, One Door

Twenty years ago, a woman walked into my office on Temple Street. She was forty-two, a banker, successful by every measure the world cares about. Her clothes were expensive. Her watch was Swiss. Her face was exhausted.

"I've been to five feng shui consultants," she said. "They all told me different things. One said move my bed. Another said paint my front door red. A third said I was born under bad stars and there was nothing I could do. Which one is right?"

"None of them," I said. "And all of them."

She stared at me. "That's not helpful."

"They were each looking at one piece of the puzzle. Feng shui looks at your environment. Bazi looks at your birth chart. Face reading looks at what's already written on you. They aren't three separate systems. They're three ways of reading the same thing: your destiny. If you only use one — you're reading with one eye closed."

I pulled out a sheet of red paper. Drew her bazi chart — the eight characters from her birth year, month, day, and hour. Her chart was heavy with Metal. Too much Metal. She worked in banking — Metal on Metal. Her apartment faced west — the direction of Metal. Her face had a sharp jaw and thin lips — Metal features. Every system was telling her the same thing, just in different languages.

"Your destiny isn't fixed," I said. "But it has a shape. Bazi tells you the shape. Face reading shows you how it's expressing right now. Feng shui shows you how your environment is pushing it in one direction or another. When you read all three together — you can actually do something about it."

She changed her apartment's facing direction. Switched from wealth management to client education — less Metal, more Wood. Within six months, her chronic migraines disappeared. Her career didn't suffer; it shifted. She started sleeping through the night for the first time in ten years.

She didn't need more information. She needed integration.

That's what this book gives you.

I'm Feng Hua Wang. Third-generation feng shui master. I learned to read bazi charts before I learned to read schoolbooks. My grandfather passed the techniques to my father. My father passed them to me. For twenty years, I've sat in an office above Temple Street in Hong Kong, reading destinies for everyone from street vendors to billionaires. I've seen charts that made me weep. I've seen faces that told stories their owners couldn't speak. I've walked into homes where the furniture arrangement was literally making the occupants sick.

This book contains everything I know about the three systems — and more importantly, how they work together. It's not theory. It's not academic. It's twenty years of sitting across a desk from real people with real problems, translating ancient wisdom into practical action.

Here's what you'll learn:

Part One: The Bazi Code. How to read your birth chart. Which of the five elements you have too much of, and which you're missing. What your ten-year luck cycle says about right now. Why two people born on the same day can have completely different fates.

Part Two: The Face Code. The twelve palaces of your face and what they reveal about your health, wealth, relationships, and career. How to spot a liar at a glance. Why your nose shape matters for your finances. How your complexion changes before a major life event — and what to do when you see it.

Part Three: The Home Code. How to read the energy of any room in five minutes. The annual flying stars and why 2026's wealth star is in the east — that changes every year, and if you don't know it, you're leaving money on the floor. How to cure the five most common feng shui mistakes.

Part Four: The Integration. How to use all three systems together. Real cases from my consulting room. A step-by-step process to read your own destiny — and change what needs changing.

This isn't a book about rearranging furniture. It's a book about reading the invisible patterns that shape your life — and learning how to work with them instead of against them.

My grandfather used to say: "Destiny is not a prison. It's a map. The map doesn't tell you where to go. It tells you where you are."

Let me show you how to read the map.

If this book helps you, please leave a review on Amazon. Every review helps another person find these techniques — and keeps a third-generation lineage alive in a world that needs ancient wisdom more than ever.

Visit me at masterfenghuawang.com for free monthly feng shui tips and your personal bazi chart calculator.

Part One: The Bazi Code

Chapter 1: What the Stars Actually Know

The first thing you need to understand about bazi is this: it's not a prediction. It's a probability.

When I read a chart, I'm not seeing your future. I'm seeing the elemental forces that shaped you at birth, the forces that are shaping you now, and the direction those forces are pushing. You're the one walking. I'm just reading the wind.

Bazi — literally "eight characters" — is a system that's been used in China for over a thousand years. It takes your birth year, month, day, and hour, and converts each into two characters: a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch. Four pillars, two characters each. Eight characters total. That's your chart. That's the raw material of your destiny.

Each character is associated with one of the five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water. Some are yang (active, outward, masculine). Some are yin (passive, inward, feminine). The combination of these eight characters creates a unique elemental profile — and that profile determines everything from your personality to your health tendencies to the decades when opportunity is most likely to knock.

Let me give you a real example. Not theory. A real person who sat in my office.

A man came to see me in 2018. Born March 12, 1975. His day stem was Geng Metal — the metal of a sword, of weapons, of precision. His chart had strong Fire and Metal but almost no Water. Geng Metal without Water is a sword that's never been cooled — brittle, sharp, prone to breaking under pressure.

"What do you do for work?" I asked.

"I'm a surgeon."

Of course he was. Geng Metal. Precision. Cutting. The operating room. He'd chosen exactly the right career for his elemental profile. But the lack of Water — the element of flow, of emotional release, of rest — meant he was burning out. His marriage was failing. He hadn't taken a vacation in six years. He was forty-three and looked sixty.

"The problem isn't your chart," I said. "The problem is you're only using half of it. You're living entirely in your Metal — the surgery, the precision, the control. You have no Water. No flow. No release. You need to add Water to your life. Not literally — you don't need to drink more. You need to do things that generate the Water element. Swimming. Spending time near the ocean. Letting yourself feel things without analyzing them."

He started swimming three times a week. Took his wife to a beach town for a weekend — the first weekend they'd spent together without his phone in six years. Six months later, he came back to my office. He looked ten years younger.

"I still don't understand how this works," he said. "But it works."

That's what I hear most often. "I don't understand how it works. But it works."

Your bazi chart is like a weather report for your life. It doesn't tell you exactly what will happen. It tells you which winds are blowing and which direction they're coming from. What you do with that information is up to you.

In the next chapters, I'll teach you how to read your own chart. We'll start with the basics — the ten Heavenly Stems, the twelve Earthly Branches, the five elements — and then we'll build up to reading full charts. By the end of Part One, you'll be able to calculate your own bazi and understand what it says about your strengths, your weaknesses, and the opportunities ahead.

But first — a warning.

Bazi is powerful. It's also dangerous in the wrong hands. I've seen people make terrible decisions because a fortune teller told them their chart said they'd be rich — so they quit their job and gambled away their savings waiting for wealth that never came. I've seen people refuse to marry someone they loved because a consultant said their charts weren't compatible.

The chart is not your fate. The chart is information. What you do with the information is your choice. That's the most important lesson I can teach you. Everything else is just technique.

Let's begin.

Chapter 2: The Ten Heavenly Stems

The building blocks of bazi are the ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches. Together they form the sexagenary cycle — sixty possible combinations that have been used to mark time in China for over three thousand years.

The ten Heavenly Stems are:

| Stem | Element | Yin/Yang | |------|---------|-----------| | Jia (甲) | Wood | Yang | | Yi (乙) | Wood | Yin | | Bing (丙) | Fire | Yang | | Ding (丁) | Fire | Yin | | Wu (戊) | Earth | Yang | | Ji (己) | Earth | Yin | | Geng (庚) | Metal | Yang | | Xin (辛) | Metal | Yin | | Ren (壬) | Water | Yang | | Gui (癸) | Water | Yin |

Each pair represents one of the five elements in its yang (active, expanding, outward) and yin (passive, contracting, inward) forms.

Think of it this way:

Jia Wood is a tall tree — visible, strong, reaching upward. Yi Wood is grass — flexible, adaptive, spreading horizontally.

Bing Fire is the sun — bright, impossible to ignore, warming everything. Ding Fire is a candle flame — focused, intimate, useful in the dark.

Wu Earth is a mountain — solid, immovable, protective. Ji Earth is soil — nurturing, receptive, growing things.

Geng Metal is a sword — sharp, decisive, cutting away what doesn't belong. Xin Metal is jewelry — refined, valuable, shaped by craft.

Ren Water is the ocean — vast, deep, powerful. Gui Water is rain — gentle, nourishing, seeping into everything.

When you know your day stem — the Heavenly Stem of your birth day — you know your core self. It's the most important character in your chart. Everything else in your bazi is understood relative to it.

The day stem tells you:

Your essential nature — are you a tree or a sword? The sun or the rain?

Which elements support you and which ones weaken you

Your natural strengths and blind spots

What kind of work will energize you versus drain you

Let me tell you about a client with Geng Metal as her day stem. She was a trial lawyer — sharp, precise, devastating in cross-examination. Her chart was accurate: she was born to argue. But her chart was also heavy with Fire — too much Fire for her Metal. Fire melts Metal. She was winning every case and losing her health. Insomnia. Anxiety. A racing heart that wouldn't slow down.

"Your Metal is being melted," I told her. "You need Earth to protect it. Earth shields Metal from Fire." Earth element activities: gardening, cooking, spending time in nature, building things with your hands. She started a vegetable garden on her balcony — something she'd wanted to do for years but never made time for. Her sleep improved within two weeks.

This is how bazi works. It's not mystical. It's elemental physics applied to human life. Too much Fire? Add Water to cool it. Too much Metal? Add Wood to give it purpose. The system is elegant and consistent — once you learn to read it.

In the next chapter, we'll add the twelve Earthly Branches and learn how the Stems and Branches combine to form the sixty pillars that make up your full chart.

Chapter 3: The Twelve Earthly Branches

If the Heavenly Stems are the visible architecture of your destiny, the Earthly Branches are the foundation underneath. They represent the animal zodiac signs, the seasons, the months, and the hours of the day. Each Branch carries its own elemental energy — sometimes hidden, sometimes dominant, always complex.

The twelve Branches:

| Branch | Animal | Element | Season | Month | |--------|--------|---------|--------|-------| | Zi (子) | Rat | Water | Deep winter | December | | Chou (丑) | Ox | Earth (hidden Water/Metal) | Winter turning | January | | Yin (寅) | Tiger | Wood (hidden Fire/Earth) | Spring begins | February | | Mao (卯) | Rabbit | Wood | Spring | March | | Chen (辰) | Dragon | Earth (hidden Wood/Water) | Spring turning | April | | Si (巳) | Snake | Fire (hidden Metal/Earth) | Summer begins | May | | Wu (午) | Horse | Fire | Summer | June | | Wei (未) | Goat | Earth (hidden Fire/Wood) | Summer turning | July | | Shen (申) | Monkey | Metal (hidden Water/Earth) | Autumn begins | August | | You (酉) | Rooster | Metal | Autumn | September | | Xu (戌) | Dog | Earth (hidden Fire/Metal) | Autumn turning | October | | Hai (亥) | Pig | Water (hidden Wood) | Winter begins | November |

Notice something important: several Branches contain hidden elements. Zi is pure Water, but Chou is Earth that conceals Water and Metal. Yin is Wood that conceals Fire and Earth. These hidden stems matter enormously in advanced chart reading — they're the reason two people born in the same month can have very different fates.

A client once asked me: "Why do I feel like two different people? At work I'm decisive, aggressive, a leader. At home I'm quiet, withdrawn, almost passive."

I looked at her chart. Her month branch was Yin — Tiger — which is Wood on the surface but contains hidden Fire, the element of aggression and leadership. Her hour branch was Hai — Pig — which is Water on the surface but contains hidden Wood, the element of growth and adaptation. She had two different elemental personalities showing up at different times, in different contexts.

"Your work self and home self aren't contradictions," I said. "They're different expressions of the same chart. The Tiger comes out when you need to lead. The Pig comes out when you need to rest. Both are real. Both are you."

Understanding the Branches is understanding timing. The month branch tells you the season you were born into — and the season determines which elements are strong and which are weak. Someone born in winter (Water season) will naturally have strong Water and weak Fire. Someone born in summer (Fire season) will have strong Fire and weak Water. This fundamental imbalance shapes everything else in the chart.

In practice, this means:

Born in spring (Wood season, months Yin/Mao/Chen)? You're naturally growth-oriented but may lack follow-through.

Born in summer (Fire season, Si/Wu/Wei)? You're passionate and visible but may burn out fast.

Born in autumn (Metal season, Shen/You/Xu)? You're precise and principled but may be too rigid.

Born in winter (Water season, Hai/Zi/Chou)? You're deep and intuitive but may struggle with action.

I'll show you how to calculate your own Stems and Branches in Chapter 5. But first, let's talk about the engine that makes the whole system move: the five elements and how they interact.

Chapter 4: How the Five Elements Dance

The five elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water — are not things. They're processes. They're verbs, not nouns.

This is the single most common misunderstanding among Western students of Chinese metaphysics. They think "Wood" means trees. They think "Water" means the stuff in their glass. They're wrong. Wood is the energy of growth, expansion, upward movement. Fire is the energy of transformation, heat, visibility. Earth is the energy of stability, nurturing, containment. Metal is the energy of contraction, precision, cutting away. Water is the energy of flow, depth, storage.

These five processes interact in three fundamental cycles:

The Generating Cycle (Sheng): Wood burns to create Fire → Fire leaves ash, creating Earth → Earth compresses to form Metal → Metal condenses moisture, creating Water → Water nourishes Wood.

This is the nourishing cycle. It's how elements support each other. If you're weak in Wood, adding Water to your life — literally or elementally — will strengthen you.

The Controlling Cycle (Ke): Wood penetrates Earth → Earth absorbs Water → Water extinguishes Fire → Fire melts Metal → Metal cuts Wood.

This is the balancing cycle. It's not destructive — it's regulatory. Too much Wood? Add Metal to trim it. Too much Fire? Add Water to cool it. The controlling cycle keeps any one element from dominating.

The Weakening Cycle (reverse Sheng): Wood depletes Water → Water rusts Metal → Metal breaks Earth → Earth smothers Fire → Fire consumes Wood.

This is the draining cycle. It's what happens when one element feeds another too much. A person with strong Wood who spends all their time generating Fire (being visible, being active, being "on") will eventually deplete themselves. The Wood burns up and there's nothing left.

Let me show you how this works in real life with a case from my practice.

A client came to me in 2020. His chart: day stem Ding Fire, born in winter. Ding Fire in winter is a candle in a snowstorm. It needs Wood to keep burning — Wood fuels Fire. Without Wood, the flame goes out.

But his chart also showed strong Water — the controlling element for Fire. Water was everywhere in his life. He worked in maritime logistics — Water industry. He lived in a coastal city. He exercised by swimming. His apartment had a view of the harbor. He was drowning his own Fire without knowing it.

"I'm exhausted all the time," he said. "I can't focus. I can't motivate. I feel like I'm fading."

"You are fading," I said. "You're a Fire person living in a Water world. Every source of Water in your environment is putting out your flame. We need to add Wood to your life — something that will feed your Fire and protect it from the Water."

Wood activities: reading (knowledge is Wood — it grows), spending time in forests, taking up a creative hobby, working with plants. He moved to an apartment facing east — the direction of Wood and sunrise. He started reading every morning before checking his phone. Within three months, his energy returned.

This is the five elements in practice. Not philosophy. Applied elemental physics.

Here's a quick guide to what each element imbalance looks like in a person:

Too much Wood: Driven, ambitious, but pushy and prone to burnout. Fix: add Metal (structure, discipline, cutting unnecessary commitments).

Too much Fire: Passionate, charismatic, but anxious and scattered. Fix: add Water (rest, reflection, emotional depth).

Too much Earth: Stable, reliable, but stubborn and slow to change. Fix: add Wood (growth, new experiences, forward momentum).

Too much Metal: Precise, principled, but rigid and cold. Fix: add Fire (warmth, spontaneity, emotional expression).

Too much Water: Deep, wise, but withdrawn and indecisive. Fix: add Earth (structure, routine, practical action).

In the next chapter, you'll learn to calculate your own chart — and immediately know which elements are too strong and which need support.

Chapter 5: Drawing Your Own Bazi Chart

Let's build your chart. You'll need your birth year, month, day, and hour. If you don't know your birth hour, ask your mother. If she doesn't remember, use noon — it'll be close enough for most purposes, though the hour pillar affects your inner self and your relationship with children and subordinates.

There are free bazi calculators online — I have one at masterfenghuawang.com — but I want you to understand what the calculator is doing. Otherwise you're just pressing a button and trusting the machine. Understanding the mechanics gives you confidence in the result.

The process uses the traditional Chinese solar calendar and the sexagenary cycle. Rather than walk you through manual calculation — which requires reference tables and takes fifteen minutes — I'll teach you how to read the output. Because reading the chart is the skill that matters.

When you enter your birth details into a bazi calculator, you'll get four pillars that look something like this:

Year: Bing Chen (丙辰) — Fire Dragon Month: Gui Mao (癸卯) — Water Rabbit Day: Jia Zi (甲子) — Wood Rat Hour: Yi Si (乙巳) — Wood Snake

The top character in each pillar (Bing, Gui, Jia, Yi) is the Heavenly Stem. The bottom character (Chen, Mao, Zi, Si) is the Earthly Branch.

Here's what each pillar governs:

Year Pillar: Your ancestry, your childhood environment, your relationship with grandparents and the outer world. It's the broadest layer.

Month Pillar: Your parents, your career, your relationship with authority. It's the season you were born into — and season is power in bazi.

Day Pillar: You. The day stem is your core self. The day branch is your spouse/partner and your inner emotional world.

Hour Pillar: Your children, your creative output, your secret thoughts, your legacy. It's the deepest and most hidden layer.

The first thing to check when you get your chart: what's your day stem? That's who you are. Everything else in the chart is understood relative to that character.

If your day stem is Jia Wood, you're a tree. You need Earth (soil to root in), Water (nourishment), and just enough Metal (to prune you — too much Metal and you get cut down).

If your day stem is Bing Fire, you're the sun. You need Wood (fuel to keep burning) and just enough Water (to keep you from consuming everything).

If your day stem is Wu Earth, you're a mountain. You need Fire (to warm you — cold mountains are barren) and just enough Wood (vegetation covering you — too much Wood and the roots crack your stone).

The second thing to check: what season were you born in? Look at your month branch.

Born in Yin/Mao/Chen (Feb-Apr)? Spring. Wood is strongest. Fire is rising. Water is weakening.

Born in Si/Wu/Wei (May-Jul)? Summer. Fire is strongest. Earth is rising. Wood is weakening.

Born in Shen/You/Xu (Aug-Oct)? Autumn. Metal is strongest. Water is rising. Fire is weakening.

Born in Hai/Zi/Chou (Nov-Jan)? Winter. Water is strongest. Wood is rising. Metal is weakening.

Season determines elemental strength. The element of the season is automatically strong in your chart — regardless of how many times it appears. This is why counting stems alone doesn't work. You have to weigh them against the season.

This is enough to begin. In the next chapters, we'll look at the ten gods — the relationships between your day stem and every other character in the chart — and use them to read career, wealth, relationships, and health.

Chapter 6: The Ten Gods — Your Life Mapped

The ten gods are not deities. They're relationships. Each character in your bazi chart has a relationship to your day stem, and that relationship describes a domain of your life.

Here's how it works. Take your day stem's element. Compare it to every other character in your chart. The relationship between them falls into one of ten categories — and each category maps to a life domain.

For example, if your day stem is Jia (Yang Wood):

| Other Character | Relationship | Ten God | Life Domain | |----------------|-------------|---------|-------------| | Another Jia | Same as me | Friend / Parallel | Siblings, peers, competitors | | Yi (Yin Wood) | Same element, opposite polarity | Robber / Shoulder | Colleagues, rivals | | Bing (Yang Fire) | I produce (Wood→Fire) | Output / Talent | Creativity, children, expression | | Ding (Yin Fire) | I produce, opposite | Indirect Output | Hobbies, artistic talent | | Wu (Yang Earth) | I control (Wood→Earth) | Wealth / Property | Money, assets, wife (for men) | | Ji (Yin Earth) | I control, opposite | Indirect Wealth | Investments, speculation | | Geng (Yang Metal) | Controls me (Metal→Wood) | Officer / Authority | Career, boss, husband (for women) | | Xin (Yin Metal) | Controls me, opposite | Seven Killings | Pressure, danger, ambition | | Ren (Yang Water) | Produces me (Water→Wood) | Resource / Knowledge | Education, mother, support | | Gui (Yin Water) | Produces me, opposite | Indirect Resource | Intuition, unconventional learning |

Every character in your chart is one of these ten relationships to you. A chart heavy in Wealth gods suggests money comes easily — but you may be too materialistic. A chart heavy in Officer gods suggests career success — but you may be crushed by pressure. A chart without Resource suggests you lack support systems — you'll need to build them consciously.

Let me show you a real case.

A woman came to me in 2019. Her chart: day stem Xin Metal, with four Seven Killings gods (Ding Fire attacking Xin Metal). Seven Killings is pressure, danger, ambition. Four of them meant she'd been under attack her entire life — and she'd internalized the attacker. She was her own worst critic. She worked seventy-hour weeks. She hadn't slept well in fifteen years.

"Your chart says you're a warrior," I told her. "But it also says you don't know how to stop fighting. Every Seven Killing in your chart is a voice telling you you're not good enough. You've been listening to those voices so long you think they're yours."

"What do I do?"

"We add Resource. The Resource god for Xin Metal is Earth — Earth produces Metal. Resource is support, education, nurturing, rest. You need people who believe in you and activities that restore you. Not more achievement. More nourishment."

She started seeing a therapist — the first time she'd accepted help. She joined a pottery class — Earth element, shaping clay with her hands. She learned to say no to overtime. Within a year, she'd been promoted — not because she was working harder, but because she'd stopped burning herself out. Her boss noticed the change before she did.

"Your chart hasn't changed," I told her. "But you're working with it instead of against it. The Seven Killings are still there. You're just not letting them run the show."

That's the ten gods in practice. They're not predictions. They're map markers. They show you where the terrain is difficult and where it's easy. You still have to walk the road.

Chapter 7: The Luck Pillars — Timing Is Everything

A bazi chart is static. It's a snapshot of the elemental forces present at the moment of your birth. But those forces don't stay static. Every ten years, you enter a new luck pillar — a ten-year period governed by a specific Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch. These luck pillars overlay your natal chart, strengthening some elements, weakening others, and creating opportunities or challenges in specific life domains.

This is why two people with the same birth chart can have very different lives. One might enter a wealth-generating luck pillar at twenty-five and build a career. Another might enter the same pillar at sixty-five and make money in retirement. Same chart. Different timing.

Your luck pillars are calculated from your birth month. The direction — forward or backward — depends on your gender and your year stem's yin/yang polarity. The specific method is beyond the scope of this chapter, but any bazi calculator will generate your luck pillar table. What matters is learning to read it.

Each luck pillar interacts with your natal chart in three ways:

The Stem interacts with your day stem — strengthening or weakening you directly

The Branch interacts with your month branch — affecting your career and life direction

Combinations and clashes — the luck pillar can combine with natal chart characters to form new elements, or clash with them to create disruption

Let me give you an example that every business owner should understand.

A man came to see me in early 2020. His chart: strong Fire, weak Water. His luck pillar from 2015-2024 was Wu Shen — Yang Earth Monkey. Earth fuels Fire (his strong element) and drains Water (his weak element). His chart was already too hot. This luck pillar was adding fuel to the fire.

"You're about to enter a difficult year," I told him. "The Rat year — 2020, Geng Zi — brings Water. But your chart and your luck pillar are both so strong in Fire that the Water will create steam, not calm. Expect turbulence."

He was a restaurateur. Three months later, COVID shut down his industry. His business nearly collapsed. But because he'd been warned, he'd already started building savings and diversifying his revenue — online cooking classes, catering contracts, a product line of sauces. By the end of 2020, he was doing better than before the pandemic.

"The bazi didn't save my business," he told me later. "But it gave me six weeks' warning. That was enough."

Here's what to look for when you check your current luck pillar:

Which element dominates the pillar? If it's an element you already have too much of — prepare for excess. If it's an element you lack — prepare for opportunity.

Is the pillar in combination or clash with your chart? Combinations create new elements and can change your life direction. Clashes bring disruption — but disruption isn't always bad. Sometimes it clears the ground for something new.

What life domain does the pillar activate? If the pillar brings strong Wealth gods and you're in your thirties — build your career. If it brings strong Resource gods and you're in your twenties — invest in education.

In my own life: I entered a Resource-heavy luck pillar at thirty-two. Support, education, rest — exactly what I needed after twenty years of intense practice. I used those years to systematize my knowledge, train students, and write. The pillar didn't make me write — but it made writing feel natural, supported, right. I was working with the current instead of against it.

That's what understanding your luck pillars gives you: the ability to swim with the current instead of exhausting yourself fighting it.

Chapter 8: Putting Bazi Together — A Complete Reading

You now have all the pieces. Let's do a complete reading of a real chart — anonymized, but every detail is from a client who sat in my office.

Birth details: Female, born June 15, 1985, at 8:30 AM.

Her chart: Year: Yi Chou (乙丑) — Wood Ox Month: Ren Wu (壬午) — Water Horse Day: Yi Si (乙巳) — Wood Snake Hour: Geng Chen (庚辰) — Metal Dragon

Day stem: Yi Wood. She is grass — flexible, adaptive, resilient, spreading.

Step 1: Seasonal strength. Born in Wu month (June). Summer. Fire season. Wood is weakened in summer because Fire burns Wood. Her day stem is weak by season. She needs Water and Wood to survive — Water to nourish, Wood companions to support.

Step 2: What's in the chart?

Year pillar Yi Chou: Wood over Earth Ox. The Yi Wood here is her companion — another blade of grass. She has a sibling or close childhood friend who shares her nature.

Month pillar Ren Wu: Water over Fire Horse. Water in the month stem is excellent — Water nourishes Wood. But the Fire Horse branch is hot. This is a mix of support and challenge in her career and relationship with authority.

Day pillar Yi Si: Wood over Fire Snake. This is her own pillar. The Snake contains hidden Fire, Metal, and Earth. She's more complex than she appears — her surface is Wood (adaptable, gentle), but underneath is Fire (passionate), Metal (principled), and Earth (practical).

Hour pillar Geng Chen: Metal over Earth Dragon. Geng Metal in the hour is significant — Metal controls Wood. Her relationship with her children (or creative output) will involve challenge and growth.

Step 3: Ten gods.

Month stem Ren (Water): Resource — her mother or a maternal figure strongly supports her

Hour stem Geng (Metal): Officer — she needs structure and discipline in her work

Year branch Chou (Earth): Wealth — her family background has financial stability

Day branch Si (Fire): Output — she's creative, expressive, possibly artistic

Step 4: Elemental balance.

Wood: 2 (weak — needs support)

Fire: 2 (strong — it's summer)

Earth: 2 (balanced)

Metal: 1 (weak — but Geng Metal in the hour is meaningful)

Water: 1 (precious — this single Water is keeping her alive)

Step 5: The reading.

"You were born in summer. Your Wood element is weak. You've felt, your whole life, like you're burning out. Like you're giving more than you're receiving. You're resilient — grass bends, it doesn't break — but resilience has a cost. You're exhausted."

She started crying. "I've been told I'm strong my whole life. No one's ever said I look exhausted."

"You are strong. But strength without nourishment is just burning. Your chart has one precious Water — the Ren in your month pillar. That Water is your saving grace. It's your mother, or someone like a mother, who has always believed in you. Who has always been there."

"My grandmother. She raised me. She died two years ago."

"When she died, the Water left your chart. And the Fire — the exhaustion, the burnout — got worse. Didn't it."

"Yes. I thought I was just grieving."

"You were grieving. But you also lost your elemental support. Your grandmother was the Water that kept your Wood alive. Without her — you've been burning. We need to add Water back into your life. Not to replace her — that's not possible. But to nourish you the way she nourished you."

I gave her recommendations for adding Water element activities. Swimming. Meditation. Time near water. Friends who listen without trying to fix. And crucially — she was in a luck pillar that would shift in 2024, bringing more Water naturally. The timing was aligned.

"You're going to be okay," I told her. "Your chart doesn't end here. The luck pillar shifts in eighteen months. More Water is coming. In the meantime — drink deep. Rest. Let yourself be nourished."

This is a complete bazi reading. Notice: no predictions. No "you'll meet a tall dark stranger." Just elemental analysis — what's strong, what's weak, what's coming, and what to do about it. This is the bazi I practice. This is the bazi I teach.

Now we move to the second key: your face. Because your chart tells me the plan, but your face tells me what's actually happening right now.

Part Two: The Face Code

Chapter 9: Your Face Is a Map — The Twelve Palaces

Face reading — Chinese physiognomy, or Mian Xiang — is not about judging beauty. It's about reading information. Your face is a living update on your destiny. Your bazi chart is the blueprint. Your face is the construction report.

The face is divided into twelve palaces, each corresponding to a life domain and a specific age range. If you learn nothing else from Part Two, learn the twelve palaces. You can read anyone in five minutes once you know them.

Here are the palaces, running from the top of the face down:

1. The Palace of Fortune (forehead, ages 15-30): Your early life, your relationship with parents, your capacity for planning and foresight. A clear, luminous forehead without lines or blemishes indicates a smooth early life and good parental support. Lines appearing here in your thirties or forties suggest career stress.

2. The Palace of Parents (above the eyebrows, left and right temples): Your father (left temple) and mother (right temple). Sunken or dark temples indicate distance from that parent — emotionally, physically, or both.

3. The Palace of Siblings (eyebrows): Relationships with siblings and peers. Long, well-shaped eyebrows suggest strong peer relationships. Thin or patchy eyebrows can indicate solitude — not necessarily loneliness, but a life lived more independently.

4. The Palace of Spouse (the outer corners of the eyes, the "crow's feet" area): Marriage and long-term partnerships. Redness or darkness here indicates current relationship stress. Clear, unwrinkled skin — rare in anyone over thirty — suggests harmony. Before you panic about your crow's feet: the lines themselves are natural with age. It's the color that matters more than the lines.

5. The Palace of Children (under the eyes): Your relationship with children, creative output, and legacy. Full, slightly plump undereye areas are traditionally considered good for children. Dark circles that persist regardless of sleep suggest stress in this domain.

6. The Palace of Health (the bridge of the nose between the eyes): Your physical constitution. A clear, straight bridge suggests strong health. A break, dent, or persistent discoloration here is worth paying attention to — in my experience, it often corresponds with actual health issues.

7. The Palace of Wealth (the nose, especially the tip and wings): Your relationship with money. This is the most famous and most misunderstood palace. A strong, fleshy nose tip suggests an ability to accumulate — but only if the nostrils aren't flared and visible from the front (which suggests money flowing out as fast as it comes in). The bridge of the nose relates to career wealth; the tip relates to personal wealth and savings.

8. The Palace of Career (the area above the upper lip, the philtrum): Your career path and professional reputation. A clear, well-defined philtrum suggests a clear career direction. A shallow or unclear philtrum — this describes about half my clients — suggests career uncertainty but also adaptability. Neither is "better." They're different paths.

9. The Palace of Travel (the cheekbones): Your mobility, adaptability to change, and experience of other cultures. High, prominent cheekbones suggest someone who thrives on change and movement. Flatter cheeks suggest someone who blooms where planted.

10. The Palace of Assets (the lower cheeks and jaw area): Property, inheritance, and long-term security. Full cheeks in middle age are traditionally considered auspicious for property accumulation. The area should be firm but not tense.

11. The Palace of Fame (the center of the forehead, between the eyebrows): Public reputation and visibility. This area — the "third eye" space — is particularly important. Redness or breakout here often appears in my clients right before a public event or career milestone. The face knows what's coming before you do.

12. The Palace of Servants (the chin): Your relationship with subordinates, employees, and the general public. A strong, slightly forward chin suggests leadership ability. A receding chin suggests a preference for working behind the scenes.

Here's what to do: look in a mirror right now. Identify each palace on your own face. Notice which ones are clear and which are showing stress. Redness indicates active Fire — inflammation, anger, overwork. Darkness indicates stagnation — old stress, unresolved emotion, something blocked. Paleness or lack of color indicates deficiency — the element associated with that area is weak.

In the next chapter, we'll look at the five features in detail and learn what each shape reveals.

Chapter 10: The Five Features — Eyebrows, Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Ears

The twelve palaces tell you where to look. The five features tell you what you're looking at.

In Chinese face reading, each of the five major features corresponds to one of the five elements and reveals a specific aspect of your life and character. Here they are in order of importance.

The Eyes (Wood element): The eyes are the most important feature on the face. They reveal your spirit — your shen — which is the light behind your eyes, the aliveness that no amount of makeup can fake and no amount of exhaustion can permanently hide. When I'm reading a face, I look at the eyes first. Everything else is secondary.

The shape, size, and clarity of the eyes tell me about your intelligence, your emotional nature, and your spirit's condition. Large eyes suggest openness and emotional expressiveness. Small eyes suggest focus and privacy. Eyes that are bright and clear regardless of their shape suggest strong shen — strong life force, strong spirit. Eyes that are dull or cloudy — even in a young person — suggest depleted shen. This is often the first thing I notice in clients who are burning out. Their eyes go dim before anything else changes.

The whites of the eyes are important too. If the white is visible below the iris — what's sometimes called "sanpaku" — it can indicate physical or emotional instability. I don't make predictions from this alone, but I note it. Combined with other signs, it's meaningful.

The Eyebrows (Wood element): Eyebrows represent your relationship with siblings and peers, and also your temper. Thick, well-shaped eyebrows suggest strong relationships and a steady temper. Thin or patchy eyebrows suggest a more solitary nature — not worse, just different. Eyebrows that are close together suggest someone who worries. Eyebrows that are far apart suggest someone who's more relaxed, sometimes too relaxed.

The color and texture matter. Brows that are naturally dark and glossy (not from product) suggest strong Wood energy — vitality, growth, forward movement. Brows that are sparse or light suggest weaker Wood. If your chart says you need Wood and your brows are thin — you have confirmation that the element needs attention.

The Nose (Earth element): The nose is wealth, but it's also the center of the face — everything else is organized around it. A strong nose with a fleshy tip suggests financial stability and practicality. A thin, bony nose suggests a more intellectual relationship with money — you may understand wealth but struggle to accumulate it. A nose that's crooked or has a visible bump on the bridge suggests career disruption, often around the age associated with that part of the nose (the bridge corresponds to ages 41-50).

The nostrils tell me about your spending. If they're visible from the front, money flows out. If they're hidden, you hold onto resources. Neither is inherently good or bad — a person with hidden nostrils saves well but may be too tight. A person with visible nostrils spends freely but may be too loose. Balance is the goal.

The Mouth (Water element): The mouth reveals your emotional expressiveness, your sensuality, and your relationship with communication. Full lips suggest warmth and expressiveness. Thin lips suggest restraint and precision. A mouth that naturally turns up at the corners — even slightly — suggests an optimistic disposition. A mouth that turns down suggests a more critical or melancholic nature.

The color matters enormously. Red lips indicate strong Fire energy — passion, vitality. Pale lips indicate weaker Fire — lower energy, possible blood deficiency. In practice, I've found that lip color changes before other signs of depletion. If your lips are paler than usual for more than a few days — rest. Your body is telling you something.

The Ears (Water element): Ears represent your early life (ages 1-14) and your innate constitution. They're the only feature that doesn't change much with age, which is why they're used to assess your fundamental nature rather than your current condition. Well-shaped ears with substantial lobes suggest a stable early life and strong innate constitution. Ears that are thin or positioned very low on the head suggest early-life challenges or a more delicate constitution.

Here's a practical way to use this information: look at your five features and compare them to your bazi chart. If your chart says you need Water and your ears are well-shaped and your mouth is full — your Water is expressing well physically. If your chart says you need Wood and your eyes are dull and your brows are sparse — your Wood needs attention. The face confirms what the chart suggests.

Chapter 11: Colors, Moles, and Marks — What Your Face Is Saying Today

The shape of your features changes slowly — over years, over decades. But the color and markings on your face change daily. These are your real-time signals. This is where face reading becomes immediately useful.

Colors:

Redness is Fire. It means inflammation, anger, overwork, or passion — context tells you which. A red patch between the eyebrows (the Fame palace) the week before a big presentation? Your body is preparing. A persistent red nose tip? Your heart or circulation may need attention — the nose tip corresponds to the heart in Chinese medicine.

Darkness is stagnation. Old stress. Unresolved emotion. Blood that isn't moving well. Dark circles under the eyes that don't improve with sleep suggest chronic depletion — your Water element (which governs the kidneys and the under-eye area) needs support.

Yellowness is Earth — it can indicate digestive issues or, around the eyes, liver stress. A sallow complexion overall suggests Earth deficiency. The person isn't grounding. They're floating — mentally, emotionally, or both.

Paleness is deficiency. Not enough of whatever element is associated with that area. Pale lips: weak Fire. Pale forehead: weak Metal. Pale cheeks: weak Earth.

Greenish or bluish tints are Wood — they can indicate stagnation of the liver energy. Look at the temples. If they're visibly greenish or veiny, the person is holding anger or frustration they're not expressing.

Moles:

Moles are not random. They appear at specific ages and in specific palaces for a reason. A mole on the Wealth palace (the nose) that appears in your thirties — something is happening with your money. A mole on the Spouse palace (the outer eye corners) — your relationship is going through something. Most moles are benign. Some indicate blockage. The key is not to panic when you see one, but to ask: what's happening in the life domain associated with this palace?

I had a client who developed a mole on her left eyebrow — the Sibling palace — during a bitter dispute with her sister. The mole faded as the relationship healed. This happens more often than you'd think. The face is a live feed. It shows what's happening in real time.

Lines:

Lines tell stories on the face. The lines around your eyes — laugh lines, crow's feet — are generally positive. They indicate a life with joy and expression. Worry lines between the eyebrows — the vertical ones — indicate excessive thinking. A single deep vertical line here is sometimes called the "suspension of judgment" line, and I see it often in judges, editors, and people who make hard decisions.

Horizontal forehead lines that appear in your twenties or thirties rather than your forties or fifties suggest you're carrying more than you should be. The forehead is the Palace of Fortune and early life — premature lines there mean you grew up fast.

Here's a practical exercise: tomorrow morning, before you wash your face, look in the mirror. Note any redness, darkness, new moles, new lines. Check them against the palace map from Chapter 9. Ask yourself: what's happening in that life domain? The face will tell you before your conscious mind catches up. I've seen it thousands of times.

Chapter 12: Reading the Face and the Chart Together

This chapter is the bridge. The face and the bazi chart are two views of the same system. When they agree — you have confirmation. When they disagree — you have a puzzle to solve.

Let me walk you through a combined reading.

A thirty-five-year-old man came to see me in 2021. His chart: day stem Geng Metal, born in autumn. Strong Metal. The chart showed weak Wood — creative expression, growth, flexibility. His luck pillar for 2020-2029 brought Fire — the element that controls Metal. Metal under Fire attack: a sword being melted.

His face showed the same story in different language. His eyes were dull — the Wood element in his face was depleted, matching the weak Wood in his chart. His nose bridge had a slight redness — the Wealth palace was under Fire attack, matching the Fire luck pillar. And between his eyebrows — the Fame palace — two vertical lines had appeared in the past year. He was carrying stress he hadn't acknowledged.

"Your chart says you're in a Fire luck pillar. Fire attacks your Metal. And your face confirms it — your nose is red, your eyes are tired, your worry lines are new. What happened in the past year?"

"I started a company," he said. "It's going well. But I haven't slept more than four hours a night in eight months."

"Your chart is strong Metal. You can handle pressure. But even a sword needs to rest between battles. The Fire isn't going to stop — the luck pillar runs until 2029. You need to add Earth to your life. Earth protects Metal from Fire. What's your Earth?"

He thought about it. "Routine. I used to have one. I stopped having one when the company took off."

"Rebuild it. Not more work. More structure. Same bedtime every night. Same morning. One meal a day that you cook yourself. Earth is stability. Earth is repetition. Earth is the thing that holds you when everything else is spinning."

Six months later, he was still in the Fire luck pillar. Still running a startup. Still under pressure. But the nose redness had faded and the worry lines had softened. He'd added Earth to his life — not by doing more, but by doing the same things reliably. The Fire was still burning. The Earth was protecting him from it.

This is the power of reading face and chart together. The chart tells you what's coming. The face tells you whether you're handling it well. And the remedies — the elemental adjustments — are the same across both systems. Add the element you're missing. Control the element that's too strong. Support the element that's being attacked.

In the next chapter, we'll move to the third key: your home.

Part Three: The Home Code

Chapter 13: Feng Shui Is Not Decorating

The most common email I receive: "I bought a feng shui book and rearranged my furniture and nothing happened."

My answer is always the same: "Feng shui is not about where you put your couch. It's about where the energy is flowing — and whether it's flowing in the right direction for you."

Classical feng shui — the tradition I was trained in, the tradition my grandfather and his grandfather practiced — is an environmental science. It works with form (the shape of your building, the land around it, the road outside), direction (compass orientations that determine which energies enter which rooms), and time (annual and monthly energy shifts that change which areas are auspicious and which are dangerous).

The problem with most English-language feng shui books is that they reduce a complex, integrated system to a list of decorating tips. "Put a mirror here." "Hang a crystal there." "Never sleep with your feet facing the door." These are fragments. They're sometimes correct fragments, but without understanding the system behind them — without understanding the time dimension and the personal dimension — they're nearly useless.

Here's an example of why the time dimension matters.

In 2026, the annual 5 Yellow star flies to the South. This is the most dangerous annual energy — it brings accidents, illness, financial loss. If you live in a house facing south and you don't know about the 5 Yellow, you might renovate your south-facing living room in 2026 — hammering, drilling, disturbing the earth of that sector. I've seen people do this. Within weeks: car accidents, sudden illness, job loss. Not because the south is inherently bad. Because they disturbed the 5 Yellow at exactly the wrong time.

The fix for 5 Yellow is simple: place metal objects in the south sector. Metal drains Earth — and the 5 Yellow is an Earth energy. A metal wind chime, a set of metal coins, anything made of iron or brass. Do this before the lunar new year, and the danger is neutralized. Do it after you've already started renovating — the danger has already been activated, and the fix is harder.

This is feng shui. It's precise. It's time-sensitive. And it works — if you understand the system behind it.

Now here's why your personal element matters. In Chapter 4, I explained the five element interactions. Your bazi chart shows your personal elemental balance. Feng shui recommendations that work for one person can harm another. A person with too much Fire should not add more Fire to their home — no red paint, no candles in the south, no triangular shapes. But a person with weak Fire needs exactly those things. Same house. Same layout. Different residents. Different recommendations.

That's why generic feng shui advice fails. It doesn't know who you are. In the next chapters, I'll show you how to assess your home's energy based on direction, form, and your personal chart — and how to make changes that actually work.

Chapter 14: The Eight Trigrams and Your Home

Every home can be divided into eight sectors plus the center. Each sector corresponds to a trigram, an element, a direction, and a life domain. This is the Bagua — the eight trigrams — and it's the fundamental map of feng shui.

Here's the Bagua, using the door-facing direction as the reference. Face your front door from inside the house. The direction you're facing is the facing direction. The opposite direction is your sitting direction.

| Sector | Direction | Trigram | Element | Life Domain | |--------|-----------|---------|---------|-------------| | North | Back-left | Kan (坎) | Water | Career, life path | | South | Front-center | Li (离) | Fire | Fame, reputation | | East | Left-center | Zhen (震) | Wood | Family, health, growth | | West | Right-center | Dui (兑) | Metal | Children, creativity | | Northwest | Back-right | Qian (乾) | Metal | Helpful people, mentors | | Northeast | Back-center | Gen (艮) | Earth | Knowledge, self-cultivation | | Southeast | Front-right | Xun (巽) | Wood | Wealth, abundance | | Southwest | Front-left | Kun (坤) | Earth | Relationships, marriage |

Each sector is an energy field. If a sector is missing — say your house is L-shaped and the southwest corner doesn't exist — that life domain will be challenging. Missing southwest: harder to find or maintain relationships. Missing southeast: harder to accumulate money. The energy literally isn't there to support that area of life.

If a sector is present but problematic — the bathroom is in the wealth corner, the kitchen is in the relationship corner, the garage is in the career corner — the energy of that sector is being suppressed or corrupted. A toilet in the wealth corner literally flushes money energy away. I'm not being metaphorical. I've confirmed this pattern hundreds of times.

Here's a case that illustrates how precisely this works:

In 2019, a couple came to see me. Their business was failing. They'd been successful for twelve years and then, in the past eighteen months, everything had dried up. They'd tried everything — new marketing, new products, cost cutting. Nothing helped.

"Show me your home floor plan," I said.

Their front door faced southeast — the wealth direction. Good. But directly inside the front door, visible from the street, was their bathroom. The toilet faced the door. Every time someone walked into that house, the first thing they saw was the bathroom. And every time the toilet flushed, the wealth energy of the southeast sector was being drained away.

"Did anything change about your house eighteen months ago?" I asked.

The wife's face changed. "We renovated. We wanted a more open floor plan. We took down the wall that separated the bathroom from the entryway."

"You removed the protection. The bathroom's drainage was always a problem for the wealth sector — but the wall contained it. When you took down the wall, the drainage energy activated. Your money's been flushing away ever since."

The fix: a solid screen between the entry and the bathroom, a mirror on the bathroom door facing outward (mirrors push energy back), and a metal wind chime in the bathroom to drain the Earth energy that was feeding the problem. Within four months, their business had recovered.

The point of this case is not "don't put a bathroom near your front door." The point is: feng shui is a system of cause and effect. The causes are subtle — directions, elements, time cycles. The effects are not.

In the next chapter, we'll look at the annual flying stars and learn how the energy of your home changes every year.

Chapter 15: The Annual Flying Stars — Your Home's Yearly Forecast

Every Chinese New Year, the nine stars shift position. The star that was in the north last year moves to a different sector. Each star has a character — some are auspicious, bringing wealth or romance or academic success. Others are inauspicious, bringing illness, conflict, or financial loss.

Understanding the flying stars is the difference between a feng shui that works and feng shui that's stuck in the past. The Bagua is the foundation — it doesn't change. But the flying stars are the weather. You can have a perfect house by Bagua standards and still get hit by a bad star year if you don't know what's coming.

Let me show you the 2026 flying star chart, which is the most immediately relevant to you right now.

2026 (Bing Wu, Fire Horse Year):

| Sector | Star | Nature | What to Do | |--------|------|--------|------------| | Center | 1 White | Mixed | Keep clean, well-lit, active. Avoid dirt, clutter, storage. | | North | 6 White | Good (wealth) | Activate with Water — a fountain, a fish tank, a painting of water. Do not renovate the north in 2026. | | South | 5 Yellow | Very bad | Place Metal here — wind chimes, coins, anything iron. Absolutely no renovation, no red, no fire elements here in 2026. | | East | 8 White | Good (wealth) | Place growing plants — Wood feeds the Earth of the 8 star. Avoid Metal objects here in 2026. | | West | 3 Green | Bad (conflict) | Place Fire here — red objects, candles, lamps — to burn up the conflict energy. | | North | 6 White | Good | Water objects to activate the wealth energy. | | Southeast | 9 Purple | Good (romance, celebration) | Enhance with plants or fresh flowers. This is a joyful energy — celebrate it. | | Southwest | 7 Red | Bad (robbery, injury) | Keep this area calm and clean. Place a glass of water to absorb the negative. Avoid displaying valuables here. | | Northwest | 2 Black | Bad (illness) | Place Metal here — the same treatment as the 5 Yellow but less urgent. Six metal coins or a brass object. | | Northeast | 4 Green | Neutral (study, romance) | Good for a study or home office. Place books, a desk, fresh flowers. |

Here's the most important thing in this chart: in 2026, the South has the 5 Yellow and the Southeast has the 9 Purple. These are adjacent sectors. The year's worst energy sits right next to its best energy. If your house faces south — which is the most common favorable orientation in the Northern Hemisphere — you're directly facing the 5 Yellow.

Does this mean your house is doomed? No. It means you need to place Metal in the south sector before Chinese New Year and leave it there all year. It means you check the south sector monthly for signs of disturbance — broken objects, unusual noises, pets acting strange. It means if the south sector of your house is a bedroom, you consider sleeping elsewhere for the year.

Let me tell you what happens when people ignore the 5 Yellow. A client in 2024 — the year the 5 Yellow flew to the West — decided to renovate her west-facing master bathroom in February. I had told her to wait. She didn't wait. Three weeks into the renovation, her husband was diagnosed with cancer. He recovered — but the connection between the 5 Yellow disturbance and the sudden illness is not something I consider coincidental. I've seen this pattern too many times.

The flying stars don't guarantee outcomes. They create conditions. When you disturb a negative star's sector, you create conditions for problems. When you activate a positive star's sector, you create conditions for opportunity. The rest is up to you.

For the most current year's flying star chart — it changes every Chinese New Year — visit masterfenghuawang.com, where I post the annual update for free.

Chapter 16: Form School — The Outside Matters First

Before you arrange a single thing inside your home, look outside. Form School feng shui — the oldest branch of the tradition — says that the land around you matters more than the building itself. It's a principle I've seen proven hundreds of times: you can have perfect interior feng shui and still suffer if your external environment is hostile.

Here are the five most common external form problems and how to fix them:

1. The Poison Arrow (Sha Qi): A straight road, a sharp building corner, or a tree trunk pointing directly at your front door or main window. This channels aggressive, focused energy — Sha Qi, "killing breath" — into your home. It's like being stabbed by invisible needles.

Fix: Place a Bagua mirror above the door facing outward. Plant a barrier — a row of bushes, a fence, a large potted plant — between the source and your door. The goal is to deflect or dissolve the straight-line energy before it enters.

2. The Empty Space Behind: Your house needs support at its back — a hill, a taller building, solid earth. This is the Black Tortoise position, the most important of the Four Celestial Animals in feng shui. A house with empty space behind it — a cliff, a drop-off, a parking lot — is unsupported. The occupants will struggle to accumulate, to feel secure, to rest deeply.

Fix: Plant a row of evergreen trees behind the house. Build a solid fence. If you're in an apartment, place a painting of a mountain on the wall opposite your front door.

3. The Missing Corner: Every sector of the Bagua should be present. A house with a missing southwest corner will challenge relationships. A house missing southeast will challenge finances. The energy literally isn't there.

Fix: If the missing corner is outside — add a structure, a tree, a large rock, a light that stays on at night. If it's inside, place a mirror on the wall where the corner should be. Mirrors create virtual space. It's not as good as actual space, but it helps.

4. The Overhead Beam: A beam running across your ceiling — especially over your bed, your desk, or your dining table — creates oppressive, downward-pressing energy. I've seen chronic headaches, insomnia, and digestive problems trace directly to sleeping under a beam.

Fix: Move the bed. If you can't move it, install a false ceiling or drape fabric across the beam to visually soften it. Hang a flute or wind chime from the beam to disperse the trapped energy.

5. The Front Door Facing the Back Door: When the front door and back door are in a straight line, energy rushes through the house without circulating. Money comes in and goes right out. Opportunities present themselves and disappear before you can grasp them.

Fix: Place a screen, a piece of furniture, or a large plant between the two doors. Slow the energy down. Make it turn corners before it can exit.

Walk around your home. Look at the approach to your front door. Look at what's behind your house. Look at the shapes around you — are they supporting or attacking? External form is the foundation. Get it right, and everything inside becomes easier. Get it wrong, and you're fighting the environment before you've even started.

Chapter 17: Your Personal Directions — East Group vs West Group

Not every good direction is good for you.

This is the piece of feng shui that most books skip. They'll tell you "face your desk toward the door" or "sleep with your head pointing north." But these are generic recommendations. They work for some people and work against others. Your personal best directions depend on your birth year and gender — specifically, your Ming Gua, or Life Trigram number.

The calculation is simple. For a man: add the digits of your birth year until you get a single digit, subtract from 11. For a woman: add the digits, add 4. If you get 5, men convert to 2 (Kun) and women to 8 (Gen). Any online Ming Gua calculator will do this for you.

Your Ming Gua is a number from 1 to 9, and each number corresponds to a trigram. Numbers 1, 3, 4, and 9 are East Group. Numbers 2, 6, 7, and 8 are West Group. (5 converts as above.)

East Group people thrive facing North, South, East, or Southeast. Their four best directions are the same four that make up the East Group. West Group directions — West, Northwest, Southwest, Northeast — will drain them.

West Group people thrive facing West, Northwest, Southwest, or Northeast. East Group directions will create resistance and exhaustion.

Here's what this means practically:

Your bed should face one of your four best directions. "Facing" means the direction your head points while sleeping.

Your desk at work should face one of your best directions — or at minimum, you should be able to see the door from your seat.

Your front door should, ideally, face one of your best directions. You can't always control this, but when you're house-hunting, check the Ming Gua before you sign.

I learned this lesson hard. I'm an East Group person. In my twenties, I spent three years in an apartment that faced west — a West Group direction. I was tired all the time. My practice was slow. I couldn't figure out why. My teacher visited once, stood in my doorway, and said: "The door direction is wrong for you. Move." I moved to an east-facing apartment. Within two months, my energy returned and my client list doubled. Same me. Same skills. Different direction.

This is not superstition. It's orientation. When you face a direction that matches your elemental nature, everything flows more easily. When you face a direction that opposes it, everything is friction.

Calculate your Ming Gua. Write down your four best directions. Then walk through your home and check: do you sleep facing a good direction? Do you work facing one? If not — rotate your bed. Move your desk. This is the simplest feng shui adjustment you can make, and in my experience, one of the most powerful.

Chapter 18: The Kitchen, The Bedroom, The Bathroom

Three rooms determine about eighty percent of your home's feng shui. Get these right and the rest forgives a lot of sins.

The Kitchen:

The kitchen is the health and wealth center of the home. It's where fire (the stove) meets water (the sink). Fire and Water are enemies in the five element cycle — Water controls Fire. When your stove and sink are directly adjacent, the Water energy suppresses the Fire, and the household's prosperity gets metaphorically extinguished.

At minimum: put at least eighteen inches of counter space between your stove and sink. This creates an elemental buffer — Earth separates Fire and Water.

The stove should not face the door directly. The person cooking should be able to see the door, but the stove flames themselves shouldn't be the first thing visible from the entry. And never — never — put a mirror behind the stove. Mirrors reflect and multiply energy. A mirror behind a stove multiplies the fire. I've seen kitchens catch fire — literally — within weeks of a mirror being installed behind the stove.

The Bedroom:

The bedroom is for two things: sleep and intimacy. Every element in the room should support those functions. Remove the exercise equipment. Remove the desk. Remove the television if you can. The bedroom is a yin space — quiet, dark, restful. Yang energy — activity, stimulation, work — disrupts sleep and intimacy.

The bed should be against a solid wall, with a clear view of the door. Not directly in line with the door — that's the "coffin position" and it's draining. But positioned so you can see anyone entering without turning your head.

No mirrors facing the bed. Mirrors in the bedroom are the most common feng shui mistake I see, and the one with the most consistent negative effects. A mirror facing the bed bounces energy around the room all night. Your body can't fully rest. I've had dozens of clients whose insomnia resolved within a week of removing or covering the bedroom mirror.

Under-bed storage should be minimal and only contain soft items — linens, blankets. Never store anything sharp, electronic, or emotionally significant under your bed. You spend eight hours absorbing whatever energy is underneath you.

The Bathroom:

The bathroom is inherently problematic in feng shui because it's where water — representing wealth and opportunity — drains away. Every bathroom in the house is a point of energy loss. The key is containment.

Always keep the toilet lid closed when not in use. Always keep the bathroom door closed. The bathroom should never be the first thing visible from the front door.

If your bathroom is in a wealth sector — the southeast — place a full-length mirror on the outside of the bathroom door. This symbolically makes the bathroom "disappear." Place five smooth stones or a bowl of natural pebbles in the bathroom to anchor the energy and slow the drain.

These three rooms are the foundation. Fix them before you worry about anything else. I've seen people agonize over the perfect feng shui cure for their career corner while sleeping under a beam and cooking on a stove facing the sink. The basics matter more than the refinements.

Part Four: The Integration

Chapter 19: Reading Your Own Destiny — A Step-by-Step Process

You now have all three systems. Here's how to use them together on yourself. Follow this process once a year — ideally around your birthday or Chinese New Year.

Step 1: Get your bazi chart. Use the calculator at masterfenghuawang.com or any bazi calculator. Note your day stem, your month branch (season of birth), and the elemental balance across all four pillars. Which element dominates? Which is missing? Which is attacking your day stem?

Step 2: Check your luck pillar. What ten-year period are you in right now? What element does this luck pillar bring? Is it supporting you or challenging you? How many years remain in this pillar?

Step 3: Read your face. Look in the mirror. Twelve palaces. Which show redness, darkness, or new markings? Check the five features — eyes bright or dull? Lips red or pale? Any new moles?

Step 4: Walk your home. Stand at your front door facing out. What direction is it? Is it a good direction for your Ming Gua? Walk each sector. North, South, East, West, and the four corners. Check the annual flying stars against each sector. Which sectors are hosting bad stars this year? Have you placed the appropriate cures?

Step 5: Cross-reference. Compare what your chart says with what your face shows with what your home reveals. If all three agree — you have a clear picture and a clear course of action. Add the missing elements. Control the excessive ones. Place the annual cures. Adjust your directions. If they disagree — that's information too. It means something is being expressed in one system but not another. Dig deeper.

Let me show you how this works with my own annual check. Every Chinese New Year, I do this process for myself.

My chart: day stem Bing Fire, born in winter. Winter Fire is a candle in the snow — it struggles. My chart has strong Water (the winter season) and compensating Wood (feeding the Fire). My luck pillar for 2018-2027 brings Earth — which is neutral for me, neither particularly supporting nor attacking.

My face: I check the Fame palace between my eyebrows, the Career palace above my lip, and the Wealth palace on my nose. Right now, the Career palace shows slight redness — too much Fire in that domain, meaning I'm overworking. The Fame palace is clear — good. The Wealth palace is stable.

My home: I face east (good for my East Group Ming Gua). The annual stars are placed in each sector. The 5 Yellow and 2 Black sectors have Metal cures. The 8 White wealth sector has a healthy plant.

The integration: my chart says my career is in a stable Earth luck pillar — no major upheavals, but no major boosts either. My face confirms I'm working too hard in that stable period — the redness says I'm adding unnecessary Fire. My home is aligned. The conclusion: I need to settle into the Earth energy. Work steadily. Don't push. Don't force. Let the stable period be stable.

This is what reading your own destiny looks like. Not fortune-telling. Pattern recognition. Elemental analysis. Practical adjustment.

Chapter 20: The Five Most Common Destiny Problems — And How to Fix Them

In twenty years of practice, certain patterns repeat. Here are the five most common problems I see, and the integrated solutions — using bazi, face reading, and feng shui together.

Problem 1: "I'm doing everything right but nothing is working."

Almost always a timing issue. The person is in a luck pillar that doesn't support their goals. They're trying to plant in winter.

Bazi: Check the luck pillar. What element does it bring? If it's an element that attacks your day stem, this is not your season for aggressive action. Shift to preparation. Build skills. Strengthen relationships. Save money. Wait for the next pillar.

Face: The Career palace (philtrum) should show clarity — a well-defined line. If it's shallow or unclear, the career path itself may need redefinition.

Feng Shui: Check your front door facing direction versus your Ming Gua. Check the career sector (North) for clutter, darkness, or the bathroom placement.

Problem 2: "I can't save money no matter how much I earn."

Two most common causes: a visible nostril opening (face) means money flows out naturally. Or the wealth sector (Southeast) has a problem — a bathroom, a missing corner, a drain.

Bazi: A chart with strong output stars but weak wealth stars means you're good at creating value but bad at capturing it. The fix: partner with someone who has strong wealth stars. Let them handle the money.

Face: The nose tip (personal wealth) should be fleshy. A thin, bony nose tip suggests a more intellectual relationship with money. Visible nostrils mean money flows. The fix isn't cosmetic — it's behavioral. Automate savings. Make money harder to spend.

Feng Shui: The Southeast sector should be active but protected. No drains, no bathrooms, no direct line from the front door to the back door through this sector. A healthy plant here, a water feature (small fountain), and the sector should be well-lit.

Problem 3: "I'm exhausted all the time and doctors can't find anything wrong."

Elemental depletion. The person is living in a way that constantly drains their day stem element.

Bazi: Which element is your day stem? Are you living in an environment or career that attacks it? A Water person working in a Fire industry (marketing, entertainment) will be perpetually drained.

Face: Check the eyes — are they dull? Check under the eyes (Children palace, also relates to kidney energy in Chinese medicine) — are they dark? These are Water depletion signs. Check the lips — are they pale? Fire depletion.

Feng Shui: The bedroom should be the most yin room in the house. Dark. Quiet. Cool. No electronics. No mirrors. No exercise equipment. If you're not resting properly at night, no amount of daytime adjustment will fix the exhaustion.

Problem 4: "My relationships keep failing in the same way."

The Spouse palace in the face and the Day Branch in the bazi both point to the pattern.

Bazi: The Day Branch — the earthly branch of your birth day — represents your spouse or partner. If this branch is in clash with your year or month, relationship instability is built into your chart. You'll need to consciously choose partners whose charts complement yours.

Face: The Spouse palace (outer eye corners) tells you the current state. Redness: active conflict. Darkness: resentment or old wounds. Crow's feet that deepen suddenly: relationship stress.

Feng Shui: The Southwest sector = relationships. Check for clutter, broken objects, or missing corners. If your bedroom is in the Southwest, double-check the bed placement.

Problem 5: "I don't know what I should be doing with my life."

This is almost always a Resource deficiency in the bazi. Resource represents education, guidance, mentorship, and the sense of being supported. Without adequate Resource, a person drifts.

Bazi: Check for the Resource god (the element that produces your day stem). If it's absent or very weak in your chart, you need to actively seek mentorship and education. Don't wait for a teacher to appear. Go find one.

Face: The Palace of Fortune (forehead) should be clear and luminous. Lines appearing across the forehead in your twenties or thirties suggest confusion about direction. A forehead that's dull or discolored suggests the same.

Feng Shui: The Northeast sector governs knowledge and self-cultivation. This should be the most peaceful, organized, and well-lit area of your home. If it's a garage, a laundry room, or a cluttered storage space — clear it out. Make it a reading nook, a study, a place for quiet thought.

Every one of these problems has a solution. The solution is never "try harder." It's usually "work with your elements instead of against them."

Chapter 21: Compatibility — Reading Two Charts Together

"Are we compatible?" This is the question I'm asked most often — by couples considering marriage, by business partners forming a company, by parents wondering about their children. The answer is never a simple yes or no. Compatibility is complex, dynamic, and depends on what you're trying to do together.

Here's a real case. A couple came to see me in 2018 before their wedding. Their charts: she was Bing Fire, he was Gui Water. Water extinguishes Fire. On paper — a disaster. Every classical text says Fire and Water destroy each other.

But I didn't tell them to break up. I looked deeper.

Her chart: Bing Fire day stem, born in spring. Spring Fire is the rising sun — strong but not overwhelming. She had Wood in her chart feeding the Fire, and Earth to ground it. Her chart was balanced.

His chart: Gui Water day stem, born in autumn. Autumn Water is deep and cold. His chart had strong Metal producing even more Water, and almost no Fire to warm it. He was cold — emotionally distant, slow to warm up, difficult to read.

"The problem isn't that your elements clash," I told them. "The problem is that he's too cold and she's naturally warm. He needs her Fire — literally. Without her warmth, he'd freeze over. She needs his Water — without his depth, she'd burn out. Your charts are complementary, not destructive. But you have to understand the dynamic. When he seems distant, he's not rejecting you. He's being Water. When she seems intense, she's not attacking you. She's being Fire."

They got married. They're still married. They understand the elemental dynamic of their relationship and work with it instead of fighting it.

Compatibility is not about matching. It's about understanding the interaction.

Here's how to think about it:

What does each person's day stem need? If both need the same element and there's not enough of it, you'll compete for the same resource. If one needs what the other has in abundance, you'll complement each other.

What's the relationship between the day stems? Water person + Wood person = nourishing. Wood person + Fire person = harmonious. Fire person + Earth person = stable. These combinations support each other. Water + Fire = challenging but can work. Metal + Wood = cutting — one dominates the other.

What does the luck pillar timing say? Two people can be elementally compatible but in clashing luck pillars that pull them in different directions at the same time. This is common in couples who divorce after twenty years — they were never incompatible. Their timing diverged.

A final note that's worth saying directly: no chart combination is doomed. No chart combination is guaranteed. Charts show tendencies. People make choices. I've seen "perfectly compatible" couples destroy each other. I've seen "completely incompatible" couples build beautiful lives together. The chart is information. The choices are yours.

Chapter 22: Health and the Five Elements

The line between Chinese metaphysics and Chinese medicine is thin. In practice, they're the same system applied to different domains. Your bazi chart doesn't just predict your personality and career tendencies — it predicts your health tendencies too. The same elemental imbalances that shape your character also shape your body.

Here's the correspondence:

Wood governs the liver and gallbladder. Wood imbalance → tendency toward headaches (especially migraines), eye strain, tendon issues, anger that's either explosive or suppressed.

Fire governs the heart and small intestine. Fire imbalance → tendency toward anxiety, insomnia, heart palpitations, circulatory issues, excessive sweating.

Earth governs the spleen and stomach. Earth imbalance → tendency toward digestive problems, weight issues (gain or loss), muscle fatigue, overthinking, worry.

Metal governs the lungs and large intestine. Metal imbalance → tendency toward respiratory issues, skin problems, constipation, grief that won't process.

Water governs the kidneys and bladder. Water imbalance → tendency toward urinary issues, lower back pain, hearing problems, fear or phobias.

Here's the critical insight: your weakest element is your health vulnerability. Your strongest element is what you'll over-rely on until it breaks.

A client came to me with chronic digestive problems. Her chart: strong Metal, weak Earth. Metal controls Wood, but Metal is also produced by Earth — too much Metal drains the Earth that produces it. In her body, the excessive Metal energy (precision, control, perfectionism) was literally consuming her Earth (digestion, nourishment, grounding).

"Your stomach isn't the problem," I said. "Your perfectionism is. You're so Metal that you're consuming your own Earth. You need to stop trying to control everything and let yourself be — messy. Imperfect. Human."

She started therapy for her perfectionism. Her digestive symptoms improved within three months.

The face confirms the chart. Earth depletion shows as a sallow complexion, a weak chin, thin lips. Fire excess shows as a red nose tip, facial flushing, rapid speech. Water deficiency shows as dark under-eye circles, premature greying, a lined forehead.

The home affects the body too. The health implications of each sector:

East (Wood, liver): If this sector is suppressed, liver issues are more likely.

South (Fire, heart): If the 5 Yellow or 2 Black fly here, heart issues become more probable.

Center (Earth, digestion): A cluttered, dark center of the home correlates with digestive problems more often than I can attribute to chance.

West (Metal, lungs): A suppressed West sector correlates with respiratory issues.

North (Water, kidneys): A bathroom in the North — Water on Water — can over-strengthen the Water element, leading to kidney stress.

This is where all three systems converge. Your chart predisposes. Your face reveals the current state. Your home either supports your weak elements or further attacks them. Health is the integration of all three.

Chapter 23: Career, Wealth, and the Five Elements

Every career has an elemental nature. Every person has an elemental profile. When they match — the work flows. When they mismatch — the work grinds.

Here's a quick career-element guide:

Wood careers: Education, publishing, writing, forestry, gardening, environmental work, childcare. Anything that involves growth, teaching, or nurturing development.

Fire careers: Entertainment, marketing, sales, public speaking, cooking, beauty, fashion, law, politics. Anything that involves visibility, heat, or transformation.

Earth careers: Real estate, construction, agriculture, accounting, administration, healthcare (nursing), hospitality. Anything that involves stability, service, or managing resources.

Metal careers: Finance, engineering, law enforcement, surgery, technology, jewelry, precision manufacturing. Anything that involves cutting, precision, or enforcement of rules.

Water careers: Transportation, shipping, travel, therapy, philosophy, writing (contemplative), research. Anything that involves depth, flow, or movement.

Now cross-reference with your strongest element. A Water person in a Fire career is swimming upstream. They'll be effective — Water people can do anything — but they'll be exhausted. A Fire person in a Metal career will feel hemmed in, constrained, unable to express.

But here's the nuance: your career doesn't have to match your day stem. It has to match the elemental phase you're in. A person with weak Fire who enters a Wood luck pillar (Wood fuels Fire) can suddenly thrive in a Fire career because the timing supports it. The same person in a Water luck pillar (Water controls Fire) should shift to a less Fire-intensive role.

Wealth follows the same logic. Your bazi chart shows your wealth capacity — not a dollar amount, but a pattern. Strong wealth stars + solid Earth element (which grounds wealth) = ability to accumulate. Weak wealth stars + strong output stars = ability to earn but difficulty keeping. Strong wealth stars + weak day stem = money controls you, not the reverse.

Your face confirms: a fleshy, well-proportioned nose with hidden nostrils suggests accumulation ability. Your home confirms: the Southeast wealth sector should be active, protected, and aligned with your Ming Gua. If all three systems say your wealth energy is challenged — don't despair. It means you need to be more deliberate about money management. Automate savings. Work with a financial advisor. Don't rely on intuition alone.

Wealth, like everything else in this system, is not a destiny. It's a current. You can swim with it, against it, or build a boat.

Chapter 24: Real Cases — Eighteen Consultations

Theory is useful. Cases are where you learn to apply it. Here are condensed records from my consulting practice. Names changed, details preserved.

Case 1: The Exhausted Executive

Female, 44. Day stem Yi Wood, born in autumn (Metal season). Her chart: Metal dominated, attacking her Wood day stem. Face: eyes dull, between-eyebrows deeply lined, lip color pale. Home: slept in the West sector (Metal direction), worked from a desk facing West (Metal again). Her life was a Metal assault on her Wood.

Recommendations: Move bed to face East (Wood direction). Add plants to her office. Reduce Metal-colored clothing (white, grey) and increase green. Take up gardening. Within six months: eyes brighter, sleep improved, lines between brows softened.

Case 2: The Money Leak

Male, 38. Day stem Geng Metal, strong chart. Complained of earning well but never having savings. Face: nose tip thin, nostrils visible from front — classic "money flows" face. Home: Southeast wealth sector was his laundry room. Water and drainage in the wealth corner, plus a toilet that faced the dryer.

Recommendations: Keep laundry room door closed at all times. Place a mirror on the outside of that door. Automate a twenty-percent savings deduction from every paycheck. Within a year: first savings account he'd ever maintained above four figures.

Case 3: The Infertility Question

Female, 35. Trying to conceive for three years. Day stem Xin Metal, born in winter. Chart: weak Fire (Fire controls Metal but also warms it). Face: Children palace (under eyes) was dark and sunken. Home: West sector (children/creativity) was a storage room, packed with old boxes, dusty, never used.

Recommendations: Clear the West room. Paint it white (Metal color, her day stem element). Place a healthy plant there (Wood to nourish her, and Wood represents growth). Address the Fire deficiency through diet — warming foods, cooked vegetables, reduced raw/cold foods. Sixteen months later: pregnant. The connection is not causal in a Western medical sense. But in an elemental sense, she had systematically blocked the energy of the domain she was trying to activate.

Case 4: The Business Partnership

Two men, 42 and 40, considering a joint venture. Charts: one Bing Fire, one Wu Earth. Fire produces Earth — the older partner's Fire would nourish the younger partner's Earth. Good. But the younger partner's luck pillar for the next ten years brought Water, which controls Fire. If they partnered, the younger partner's luck pillar would attack the older partner.

Recommendation: Wait eighteen months. The luck pillar's most intense Water period would pass. Then partner. They waited. They're now in year four of a successful business.

Additional Cases — Quick Patterns

Male, 52, chronic back pain: North sector of home (Water/kidneys/lower back) was a cold, damp garage. Moved his car out, installed a heater and dehumidifier. Pain reduced within weeks.

Female, 29, couldn't find a partner despite dating extensively: Southwest relationship sector of apartment was missing entirely (L-shaped unit). Moved to a rectangular apartment. Met someone within eight months.

Male, 61, sudden career crisis: Luck pillar shift from Wood (supporting his Fire day stem) to Metal (attacking it). He'd entered the new pillar without knowing. Once aware, he shifted from aggressive career building to consolidation and mentoring — working with the Metal energy instead of fighting it.

Eighteen cases, same pattern every time: the chart reveals the tendency, the face shows the current state, the home is either supporting or attacking. Fix the elements. The life follows.

Chapter 25: Decision-Making With Bazi — Marriage, Career, and Moving

Every major life decision has an elemental dimension. Should I take this job? Should I marry this person? Should I move to this city? Your bazi chart can't make the decision for you, but it can tell you what you're walking into.

Marriage: Beyond the compatibility factors in Chapter 21, there's a timing question. Marriages entered during a luck pillar that supports your day stem have an easier foundation. Marriages entered during a luck pillar that attacks your day stem require more work. This doesn't mean "don't marry during a bad pillar." It means "be aware that the timing will add stress, and plan accordingly."

A client once asked me whether to marry her fiance in 2017 or wait until 2019. Her luck pillar shifted in 2018 from a neutral Earth pillar to a supportive Wood pillar (she was a Fire day stem — Wood fuels Fire). I told her to wait for 2019 if she could. They waited. Their marriage is eight years strong. The Wood pillar supported her, and by extension, the relationship.

Career changes: When considering a new job or career shift, check two things. First: the elemental nature of the new role versus your day stem. Second: your current luck pillar. A career change during a supportive luck pillar is more likely to succeed. A career change during a challenging pillar — it can still work, but you'll need to work harder at it.

A client in 2021 was offered a promotion to a role that would be highly visible — Fire element. She was a Water day stem. Her current luck pillar was Earth — neutral for her. "The role will exhaust you," I said. "Every day will be a fight between your natural Water and the job's demand for Fire. But the compensation is significant. If you're willing to be tired for a few years in exchange for building your career, take it. If you'd rather have energy than advancement, stay where you are." She took the job. Five years later, she'd saved enough to start her own company — a Water business, maritime logistics — and was thriving.

Moving: Every city has an elemental character. Hong Kong is Water and Metal — a harbor city, financial center, surrounded by sea. Los Angeles is Fire — entertainment, visibility, heat. London is Earth and Metal — old money, stability, tradition. New York is a mix of all five, which is why it works for almost everyone but drains almost everyone too — nothing is fully supported, nothing is entirely suppressed.

Before you move, check the elemental character of the destination against your chart. If your chart is weak in Water and you move to a Water city, you'll be supported. If your chart is strong in Fire and you move to a Fire city, you'll burn. The city won't change. You'll need to build elemental counterbalances into your daily life.

One more thing about moving: the direction of the move matters. Moving east (Wood direction) supports Wood and Fire day stems. Moving west (Metal direction) supports Metal and Water. Moving north (Water) supports Water and Wood. Moving south (Fire) supports Fire and Earth. This is subtle but real. I've had clients whose chronic health problems improved within months of moving in the direction their chart supported.

The principle is the same across all major decisions: the chart doesn't command. It informs. You still decide. But deciding with information is better than deciding blind.

Chapter 26: Office Feng Shui — Your Desk, Your Career

Most people spend more waking hours at their desk than in any other single location. The feng shui of your workspace matters — sometimes more than your home.

Here are the rules that actually move the needle:

Desk position: You must be able to see the door from your seat. Not directly in line with it — that's too much energy — but positioned so you can see who's entering without turning your head. If you can't position your desk this way, place a small mirror that shows the door's reflection.

Your back should be against a solid wall. This is the Black Tortoise support — the same principle as the house. A window behind you means no support. If you must have a window behind you, keep the blinds closed or at least drawn. The energy behind you should be solid, not transparent.

The commanding position: The desk should face one of your four good directions (from your Ming Gua, Chapter 17). If the room layout makes this impossible, at minimum don't face one of your four bad directions.

Clutter: Every piece of clutter on your desk is a miniature energy block. Sticky notes from six months ago. Cables you don't use. A broken stapler. Each one is saying "stuck, stuck, stuck." Clear your desk at the end of every day. Not just tidy — clear. Empty surface except for what you need tomorrow.

Plants: A healthy plant on the left side of your desk (the Wood sector of your personal space) encourages growth and new opportunities. A dead or dying plant does the opposite. If you can't keep a plant alive, don't put one there. A fake plant is better than a dead one — the fake doesn't carry death energy, but it also doesn't carry life energy. Better than nothing, worse than alive.

Electronics: Computers and phones generate Fire energy. This is usually fine — most offices need some Fire. But if your chart is already too hot, and your face shows redness, and you're anxious — move electronics away from your immediate body. A laptop stand that creates distance. Phone facedown when you're not using it. The Fire is necessary but should be contained.

The Southeast corner of your office: This is the wealth direction regardless of your Ming Gua. Make sure it's active — a small water feature, a healthy plant, a light that stays on during work hours. Make sure it's not where you store old files, broken equipment, or trash. I can't count how many offices I've visited where the wealth corner was the supply closet. Clean it out. Make it intentional.

The North wall: This is the career sector. Your certificates, your diplomas, your awards — they belong here. Not hidden in a drawer. Displayed. The North wall is where your career achievements should be visible. When I visit an office and the North wall is blank, I tell the client to put something there that represents their professional aspirations. The energy needs a focus point.

Chapter 27: Reading Children's Charts — A Parent's Guide

Children's bazi charts are different from adults'. The patterns are simpler, more immediate. A child's chart is mostly potential. The luck pillars haven't started yet (the first luck pillar typically begins around age 5-8, depending on the chart). What you're reading is raw material — the soul they arrived with, the challenges they'll face, the gifts they carry.

I read my first child's chart at nineteen. A friend's son, age four, was having what doctors called "behavioral problems." His chart: day stem Jia Wood, born in spring, with enormous Wood energy — two Jia, one Yi. Double Wood. The child wasn't misbehaving. He was a tree that had been planted in a pot. He needed space to grow — physically, mentally, creatively. His parents put him in outdoor programs, gave him art supplies, let him climb things. The "behavioral problems" disappeared.

Children's charts tell you:

Their learning style. A Wood-dominant child learns through experience — doing, touching, building. A Metal-dominant child learns through structure — rules, systems, clear expectations. Trying to teach a Wood child with Metal methods (sit still, follow the worksheet) is setting them up to fail.

Their emotional needs. A Fire-dominant child needs warmth, praise, visibility. A Water-dominant child needs quiet, depth, time alone to process. Neither is wrong. They need different things.

Their health tendencies. The same organ-element correspondences apply to children. A child with weak Earth in the chart may have digestive sensitivities. A child with excess Fire may run hot — fevers, rashes, trouble sleeping.

The most useful thing you can do with a child's chart: identify which element they need more of, and which they have too much of. Then adjust their environment. More Water activities for a Fire-excess child (swimming, quiet reading, time near water). More Wood activities for an Earth-heavy child (climbing, running, creative projects). The chart tells you what the child can't articulate yet.

And here's something I wish every parent understood: your child's chart is not your chart. Their imbalances are not your imbalances. The remedy that works for you may make them worse. A Fire-heavy parent imposing Fire-heavy activities on a Water-weak child is elemental warfare. Read their chart separately. Treat it separately. Respect who they are, not who you want them to be.

Chapter 28: The Spiritual Dimension — Beyond the Elements

I've spent this book talking about elements, directions, charts, and cures. These are the mechanics of Chinese metaphysics — the "how." But there's also a "why."

My grandfather told me something when I was twelve that I didn't understand until twenty years later. He said: "The elements are real. The stars are real. But none of it matters without virtue. A good chart used badly still ends badly. A bad chart used well still ends well. The technique is the boat. You are the one rowing."

The spiritual dimension of this work — and yes, it is spiritual, even if I use scientific language to describe it — is about alignment. Not just aligning your furniture with your directions. Aligning your choices with your nature. Aligning your daily life with the deeper currents that move beneath the surface of things.

When you read your bazi chart and see that you need more Water — more depth, more rest, more flow — that's not just an elemental adjustment. That's an invitation to live differently. To value stillness. To stop equating busyness with worth.

When you look in the mirror and see redness between your eyebrows, that's not just a complexion issue. That's your face telling you that something in your life is inflamed, overheated, needs calming. Are you listening?

When you walk through your home and realize the Southeast wealth corner is where you pile the things you intend to deal with someday — that's a mirror. Your home is showing you what your mind is doing.

The system works on multiple levels. The surface level is about arranging objects. Below that, it's about understanding patterns. Below that, it's about waking up to the truth of your life — the elements that are missing, the forces that are out of balance, the choices you've been avoiding.

I don't talk about this dimension much in consultations because most people come to me for practical help, not philosophy. But since you've read this far, I'll tell you what I actually believe:

Destiny is real but not fixed. The chart is a probability field, not a script. Your face is a real-time report on how you're living. Your home is a three-dimensional prayer for the life you want. Every object you place, every direction you face, every room you clear — it's an act of intention. You're telling the universe: "This is what I'm choosing. This is who I'm becoming."

The technique works because it's true — the elements are real, the directions are real, the cycles are real. But it also works because it gives you something to do. Action beats despair. Adjustment beats resignation. When you move your bed to face a better direction, you're not just improving the qi of your bedroom. You're telling yourself: "I am worth sleeping well for. I am capable of making changes. I am not a victim of circumstance."

That's the spiritual dimension. Not gods or ghosts or supernatural forces. Just the quiet, steady work of aligning the outer world with the inner one. Of making your life match your map.

My grandfather's final words to me, the day before he died: "Remember. The chart is not the person. The face is not the soul. The house is not the home. Everything we do — every reading, every cure, every adjustment — is in service of one thing: helping people live the lives they were born to live. If you forget that, you're just an interior decorator with a compass."

I haven't forgotten.

Chapter 29: DIY Your Destiny Map — A Workbook

This chapter is a workbook. Get a notebook and a pen. Answer every question honestly. There are no wrong answers — just information.

Section 1: Your Bazi

What is your day stem? ______

What element is it? (Wood/Fire/Earth/Metal/Water) ______

What season were you born in? (Look at your month branch) ______

Based on the season, is your day stem strong or weak? ______

Which element is most abundant in your chart? ______

Which element is missing or very weak? ______

Which ten-year luck pillar are you currently in? (Start year: _ End year: _)

What element does this luck pillar bring? ______

Is this element supporting your day stem or attacking it? ______

Section 2: Your Face

Look at the twelve palaces on your face (Chapter 9). Which three show the most stress? (redness, darkness, lines) ___ ___ ______

Are your eyes bright or dull? ______

Are your lips red or pale? ______

Look at your nose. Is the tip fleshy or bony? Are your nostrils visible from the front? ______

Any moles that appeared in the past two years? Where? ______

What's the color of the skin between your eyebrows (Fame palace)? ______

Section 3: Your Home

What direction does your front door face? (Stand in the doorway looking out, use a compass app) ______

What is your Ming Gua number? (Calculate at masterfenghuawang.com) ______

Are you East Group (1,3,4,9) or West Group (2,6,7,8)? ______

Does your front door facing direction match one of your four best directions? ______

What direction does your bed face? (Direction your head points) ___ Is this a good direction for you? ___

Which sector of your home is the bathroom in? ___ Is this a wealth, health, or relationship sector? ___

Is there a mirror facing your bed? ______

Is there clutter in your Southeast (wealth) sector? ______

What's in the South sector of your home? ___ Did you place Metal there for the 2026 5 Yellow? ___

Section 4: Integration

Name your weakest element (from question 6): ______

Name three activities that generate that element: ___ ___ ______

Name your strongest element (from question 5): ______

Name three ways you might be over-expressing that element: ___ ___ ______

What is the single most obvious adjustment you can make to your home this week? ______

What is the single most important elemental change you can make to your daily life? ______

Take your time with this. The answers are not urgent. They're permanent. Come back to this workbook in six months and do it again. Compare. The changes will surprise you.

Chapter 30: Common Mistakes and Misconceptions

Twenty years of correcting mistakes. Here are the ones I see most often.

Mistake 1: Obsessing over one system and ignoring the others.

I had a client who'd read ten books on feng shui and none on bazi. Every room in her house was perfect by generic feng shui standards. But she was a West Group person living in an East Group-oriented home. Every day, she was fighting her own directions. Her feng shui was correct for a stranger and wrong for her.

Don't do this. All three systems matter. The bazi is the foundation. The face is the update. The home is the adjustment.

Mistake 2: Chasing wealth cures while ignoring basics.

The most dramatic wealth cure in the world won't help if your front door faces your back door and the energy rushes through without stopping. Fix the structural problems before you add enhancements.

Mistake 3: Blaming the chart for everything.

"You can see I'm unlucky in love — my chart has no Spouse star." I hear this constantly. The chart shows tendency. It doesn't dictate outcome. A person with no Spouse star can absolutely find love — they just need to be more deliberate about it. The chart tells you where you need to work harder, not where you should give up.

Mistake 4: Getting a reading and doing nothing.

A bazi reading is not a movie. It's a map. Maps are useless unless you walk. Every year, I have clients who pay for a detailed reading, nod thoughtfully, and change nothing. They're back the next year with the same problems.

Mistake 5: Using feng shui as a substitute for action.

Placing a wealth cure in the Southeast does not mean you can quit your job and wait for money to appear. The cure creates better conditions. You still have to work. Feng shui improves the odds. It doesn't replace effort.

Mistake 6: Panicking over the 5 Yellow or 2 Black.

These are negative stars. They're worth respecting. But placing the Metal cure and avoiding renovation in the affected sector handles ninety percent of the danger. I see people who are so terrified of the annual stars that they can't sleep. That terror is itself a form of Sha Qi — you're creating negative energy through fear. Place the cures. Then let it go.

Mistake 7: Thinking any of this is magic.

It's not magic. It's a system.

Chapter 31: Feng Shui for Renters — Working With What You Can't Change

Not everyone owns their home. Most of my clients rent. They can't knock down walls, change the front door color, or renovate the bathroom. They can't install permanent fixtures or dig up the garden. Does feng shui still work for them?

Yes. But you have to be smarter about it.

The front door: You may not be able to change the door itself, but you can change what's around it. A new doormat. A plant on either side (balance). A light that stays on. Clean the door and the area around it weekly — rented doors are often neglected and carry the accumulated energy of previous tenants.

The facing direction: Your apartment door faces a hallway, not the street. The energy that reaches you has already been filtered through the building. What matters more than the apartment door is the main window — where the light enters, where you can see the outside world. Face your bed and desk toward your good directions relative to the main window, not the apartment door.

Missing sectors: Apartments are almost never perfectly rectangular. Something is always missing — a corner that belongs to the neighbor, a wall that was angled to fit the floor plan. If you can't physically add the missing sector, place a mirror on the wall where it should be. Mirrors create virtual space. It's a bandage, not a cure, but it helps.

The bathroom problem: Your bathroom is probably in a terrible location — the wealth corner, the relationship corner, the career corner. Apartments pack bathrooms wherever they fit. Keep the door closed. Keep the toilet lid down. Place a mirror on the outside of the bathroom door. Place five smooth stones inside to anchor the energy. These are all renter-friendly.

Above and below: In an apartment, you have neighbors above and below. Their energy affects yours. If the apartment above you is noisy and chaotic, that chaos energy presses down on you. A solid ceiling — even just painting it a darker color — helps psychologically and elementally. If the apartment below you is empty or feels abandoned, that void pulls energy downward. Place a thick rug with a solid pad underneath to create energetic separation.

The stove: You probably can't move it. But you can place a small wooden board between the stove and the sink to create the elemental buffer. You can make sure the stove is clean after every use — old food, grease, and neglect on the stove translates to stale energy in your prosperity.

Cures for renters: Everything must be removable. No permanent installations. Use furniture, plants, mirrors, rugs, crystals, and intention. A heavy piece of furniture can anchor a sector as effectively as a wall. A mirror can extend a missing corner. A plant can activate a sector. None of these require landlord permission.

I once helped a client who lived in a studio apartment with the bathroom directly facing the bed — one of the worst configurations possible. She couldn't move anything. We hung a curtain between the bed and the bathroom, placed a mirror on the bathroom door facing outward, and put a large plant beside the bed. Her sleep improved within three nights. Total cost: about forty dollars. No renovation required.

You don't need to own your home to practice feng shui. You need to be creative, observant, and willing to work with what you have.

Chapter 32: The Five Elements and Your Body — Food, Exercise, Lifestyle

Every action you take has an elemental signature. The food you eat. The exercise you do. The way you spend your evenings. Understanding this lets you use your daily choices as ongoing elemental adjustments — a form of feng shui that travels with you wherever you go.

Food:

Wood foods: Green vegetables, sprouts, wheat, sour foods (lemon, vinegar). Wood foods support the liver and encourage growth and flexibility.

Fire foods: Red foods (tomatoes, peppers, strawberries), spicy foods, bitter foods (coffee, dark chocolate). Fire foods warm the body and stimulate circulation — but too much creates inflammation.

Earth foods: Root vegetables, grains, sweet foods (in moderation — excessive sugar damages Earth), yellow and orange foods (squash, sweet potato). Earth foods ground and stabilize.

Metal foods: White foods (rice, cauliflower, onions), pungent foods (garlic, ginger), foods with mineral content. Metal foods support the lungs and help with letting go — both physically and emotionally.

Water foods: Black and dark foods (black beans, seaweed, dark leafy greens), salty foods (in moderation), foods with high water content (cucumber, melon). Water foods support the kidneys and encourage depth and rest.

Based on your chart: if you need more Fire, eat warming, spicy foods. If you have too much Fire, eat cooling, watery foods. If your Earth is weak, root vegetables and grains should be the base of your diet. This is not a fad diet. It's applied elemental theory, and it works with remarkable consistency.

Exercise:

Wood exercise: Running, hiking, climbing, team sports — anything that involves forward movement and growth.

Fire exercise: High-intensity interval training, competitive sports, dance — anything that gets your heart rate up and makes you sweat.

Earth exercise: Weight training, yoga (grounding styles), walking — anything slow, steady, and strength-building.

Metal exercise: Precision sports (golf, archery), martial arts, structured workout programs — anything that requires technique and discipline.

Water exercise: Swimming, diving, long-distance running (meditative), tai chi — anything rhythmic, flowing, and meditative.

Match your exercise to your elemental needs. A Fire-excess person should not do high-intensity interval training every day — they'll burn out. A Water-deficient person should swim or spend time near water. The exercise that's "best" is not universal. It's personal.

Lifestyle:

Wood lifestyle: Learning, growing, trying new things, being outside.

Fire lifestyle: Socializing, creating, being visible, celebrating.

Earth lifestyle: Routine, stability, home care, nurturing others.

Metal lifestyle: Order, refinement, quality over quantity, letting go.

Water lifestyle: Rest, depth, solitude, contemplation.

The lifestyle you lead is either feeding your deficient elements or further depleting them. A person with weak Fire who spends all their free time alone, reading in the dark — they're making their Fire weaker. A person with too much Wood who's always starting new projects and never finishing — they need Metal to prune them back. The chart tells you what you need. Your daily choices are either medicine or poison for your elements.

Chapter 33: The History — Where This All Comes From

Chinese metaphysics didn't start with a single founder. It emerged over thousands of years from observation, pattern recognition, and the accumulated wisdom of people who paid attention to how the world actually works.

The earliest roots are in the I Ching — the Book of Changes — which dates back at least three thousand years. The I Ching introduced the eight trigrams, the concept of yin and yang, and the fundamental idea that everything is in flux — that change is the only constant.

The five elements system developed alongside Chinese medicine during the Warring States period (475-221 BCE). Physicians observed that certain herbs affected certain organs, that certain seasons brought certain illnesses, that certain emotional states preceded certain physical conditions. The five element correspondences — Wood/Liver/Anger, Fire/Heart/Joy, Earth/Spleen/Worry, Metal/Lungs/Grief, Water/Kidneys/Fear — were documented during this period and have remained essentially unchanged for two millennia.

Bazi — the Four Pillars of Destiny — was systematized during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) by the scholar Li Xuzhong, though it's believed to have existed in simpler forms much earlier. Xu Ziping refined the system during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), adding the day stem as the central reference point and developing the ten gods. Xu's version is essentially the bazi we use today.

Feng shui evolved separately — and in multiple schools. The Form School, which focuses on the shapes of land and water, is the oldest, dating back to at least the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). The Compass School, which uses the luopan to measure directional energy, developed later, during the Song Dynasty. The Flying Star system — the annual star movements — was refined during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Face reading — Mian Xiang — has roots in both Chinese medicine (observing complexion and feature changes for diagnostic purposes) and practical philosophy (Guiguzi's writings on reading people, circa 4th century BCE). The twelve palaces system was codified during the Tang Dynasty.

What unites all these systems is the same principle: the visible world is shaped by invisible patterns. Your birth date encodes an elemental signature. Your face displays the current state of that signature. Your environment either supports or attacks it. This isn't superstition. It's a consistent, testable framework that has survived — not because people are gullible, but because it works.

I'm not a historian. I'm a practitioner. But I honor the lineage because without it, I'd have nothing to practice. Every time I sit down with a client, I'm drawing on three thousand years of observation. Every time I write a chart, I'm using techniques that were refined by scholars in the Tang Dynasty. Every time I walk through a house reading its energy, I'm standing on the shoulders of masters who spent their entire lives mapping the invisible world.

That's not ego. That's gratitude. And it's why I take this work seriously. I'm not inventing anything. I'm transmitting something. What you do with it — that's up to you. The elements are real — they exist in nature, in your body, in the materials around you. The directions are real — the sun rises in the east, and your body responds to light and dark, heat and cold, magnetic north. The stars are real — they're formulas for time cycles that have been tracked for thousands of years. This system works because it's built on observation, not belief. You don't have to believe in feng shui for your south-facing renovation to activate the 5 Yellow. It'll activate anyway. Respect the system. It doesn't require your faith.

Chapter 34: Where to Go From Here

This book has given you the foundation. You can now read your own bazi chart, interpret the basic signals on your face, assess the energy of your home, and — most importantly — integrate all three into a coherent picture of your current situation and your next steps.

But what I've given you is the first five years of a twenty-year education. My grandfather started teaching me when I was seven. I'm still learning. The system is deep — deep enough for a lifetime.

Here's what to do next:

If you want to go deeper into bazi: Study the ten gods in detail. Learn to read the hidden stems in the earthly branches. Understand the combinations and clashes that make some charts dramatically different from others with the same surface appearance. The book I recommend for strong intermediate students is Joey Yap's "Bazi: The Destiny Code" — it's the clearest English-language introduction to advanced bazi reading.

If you want to go deeper into face reading: Practice. Read every face you see. Not judgmentally — observationally. Notice the twelve palaces. Notice colors. Notice changes over time in people you see regularly. The face is a live textbook. Read it constantly.

If you want to go deeper into feng shui: Study Form School. The shapes of the land, the flow of water, the placement of roads — these are the foundation that everything else depends on. Then study Flying Star and Eight Mansions systems in detail. The book I recommend: Eva Wong's "A Master Course in Feng-Shui" — it's the most comprehensive English-language guide to classical feng shui.

If you want ongoing guidance: I publish a free monthly feng shui update at masterfenghuawang.com, with the current year's flying star positions, seasonal adjustments, and answers to reader questions. The annual updates — especially around Chinese New Year — are the most important ones to follow.

If you want a personal reading: Sometimes a book isn't enough. Sometimes you need someone to look at your chart, your face, your specific situation and tell you what the patterns mean. I do a limited number of personal consultations each month. Details at masterfenghuawang.com.

If this book helped you: Tell someone. Leave a review on Amazon. Forward the link to a friend who's struggling. The lineage I carry — three generations of feng shui masters, a thousand years of accumulated wisdom — survives because people share it. Every review, every recommendation, every person who learns to read their own chart is keeping this tradition alive. That matters to me. It should matter to you too.

My grandfather used to end his consultations the same way, every time. He'd close the red book, put away the brush, and look the client in the eye. Then he'd say:

"You came here because you wanted to know your fate. Now you know it. But knowing is not enough. Fate is not a prison. It's a map. And you —" He'd point at them. "You are the one who decides where to walk."

Where will you walk?

Afterword

I wrote this book in my office above Temple Street, the same office where I've sat for twenty years reading destinies for everyone from street vendors to billionaires. The lock is still broken — I've never fixed it. The compass still points northwest, toward my wife, the way it always does. The red book my teacher left me is open on my desk. The tea is terrible. The work continues.

If you've read this far, you're not just a reader. You're a student. You're someone who wants to understand the patterns that shape your life — not to surrender to them, but to work with them. That's the right instinct. That's the only instinct that leads anywhere worth going.

The techniques in this book are real. They've been tested across generations, across cultures, across tens of thousands of individual consultations. They work — if you work them. Read your chart. Read your face. Read your home. Make the adjustments. Watch what happens.

And when something changes — when the sleep improves, when the money starts sticking, when the relationship that's been stuck for years suddenly shifts — don't thank me. Thank the lineage. Thank the masters who preserved this knowledge through wars and revolutions and centuries of people who said it wasn't real. Thank yourself for being willing to try something that the modern world doesn't fully understand.

The modern world is wrong about a lot of things. This isn't one of them.

If this book has helped you see your destiny more clearly, please take thirty seconds to leave a review on Amazon. Your review is how new readers find these techniques. It's how a third-generation lineage stays alive in a world that desperately needs ancient wisdom. Thank you.

For your free annual feng shui update, your personal bazi chart calculator, and information about consultations, visit:

masterfenghuawang.com

Feng Hua Wang Temple Street, Hong Kong June 2026