Taoist triva and memorabilia

[Taomeow]

2020, beginning on January 25th according to the Xia calendar, will be the year of the Yang Metal (White) Rat.

 

Metal produces Water, and Rat is a Water sign.  So the relationship between the Heavenly Stem (Metal) and Earthly Branch (Water) will be harmonious enough...  with many caveats.  The main problem is of course Yang Metal.  A fierce warrior energy -- strong, arrogant, aggressive, it can manifest as a Terminator...  Arnold was born on a Yang Metal day, by the way, and the list of famous Yang Metal dudes is positively scary -- Alexander the Great, Mohammed Ali, characters like that.  Even Emilia Clarke whose protagonist led huge armies and didn't hesitate to sic her dragons on King's Landing essentially portrayed her real-life Chinese horoscope taken to the movie extreme.  And, just like the Terminator, she is a mixed bag -- she starts out good and ends up bad, while the Terminator starts out as a bad robot and terminates as a good robot.  Such is the Yang Metal warrior -- whether the cause that drives them is noble or ignoble, fierce determination is injected into both.  

 

Another caveat is that Yang Metal in the Heavenly Stem sits on top of Water in the Earthly Branch.  Yang Metal is not some aluminum foil or manicure scissors or fine gold earrings or a diamond ring -- essentially it's a huge chunk of metal.  A ship.  A battleship.  And the position in 2020 will be rather precarious for it, because Metal lacks the support of its Mother phase, Earth.  So it will be arrogant enough but not at its peak strength -- there will be a lot of bark that won't necessarily result in bite.  The most dangerous time for the bite comes in autumn, Metal's proprietary season when it's at its strongest and can back up any amount of bark with a very sharp and painful bite of its metal teeth.  Let's hope not.              

 

In the Xia calendar, the Rat is the first of the 12 animals. The Hour of the Rat is also the first and begins a new day (23:00 to 01:00).   24 hours in a day and 12 animals -- so every animal rules 2 hours of every day.  The Rat is unique though in that it is comprised of the “Late Rat” and “Early Rat.” Late Rat rules 23:00 to 0000. As the day changes at 0001, Early Rat begins and lasts until 0100.  So the Rat sign covers two different days—half on a Yang day and half on a Yin day.

 

The sequence of the animals is interesting in that the order in which they are lined up is based on the number of the animal’s toes (or fingers).  An odd number of toes is Yang and an even number is Yin. While all other animals' front and back legs or paws have the same kind of digits of the same number, the Rat’s front legs have four fingers (Yin) and hind legs have five toes (Yang). This exactly matches the idea that the Rat represents both Yin and Yang.  

Edited November 16, 2019 by Taomeow

[Rara]

Are we expecting some ferocious behaviour from both nature and world leaders, do you think?

[Taomeow]

8 hours ago, Rara said:

Are we expecting some ferocious behaviour from both nature and world leaders, do you think?

 

That's very likely.  If we look at the sexagenary cycle of the Xia calendar for parallels -- the last time Yang Metal Rat year took place 60 years ago, and 120 years ago, and 180 years ago and so on -- we can discern the "type" of the year to expect.  There were some major earthquakes in 1960 -- the one in Chile was 9.5 magnitude and triggered a tsunami, killing 1,600 and leaving 2 million homeless.  And another one in Morocco, which was only 5.7 -- seemingly nothing, I lived through a couple of those with no ill effects last year here in CA -- but the one in Morocco struck in a way that killed 15,000 and was the worst in the country's history.  There were also many airline accidents -- that's because Rat (a Water sign) is in a clash with Horse (a Fire sign).  (Airline travel is of the Fire phase.)  This is a personal conflict of the year as well, so anyone who has a Horse anywhere in the Four Pillars will eventually get recommendations in this thread for some measures to take so as to avoid the worst of the clash.

 

So, world leaders will  be quite themselves only worse this time around -- but protests will also be widespread, and possibly lead to changes -- though I'm not of the opinion that changes "for the better" are to be counted on, more like changes in the name of better and then, down the road, frustration over things not getting better at all, or getting a bit better in some respects at first and a lot worse in most respects later.  In 1960, 17 African countries all declared independence.  We can evaluate the results today...  wounds as deep as what colonial rule leaves behind tend to fester for decades even when it seemingly goes away (key word "seemingly"), and expecting them to heal is probably more than one can count on in another 60.  Cyprus also gained independence from Britain that same year -- only to experience a coup, a Turkish invasion, loss of 40% of the territory, and a declaration of independence by that part which is recognized by only one country in the world to this day -- Turkey.  Don't know if it's a good outcome or a bad one for all involved, but definitely not what the original independence from Britain was trying to accomplish.  So, I expect protests, and possibly some Pyrrhic victories.  But then, what do I know.  I'm just a fortune-telling cat.    

 

 

[doc benway]

13 hours ago, Taomeow said:

I'm just a fortune-telling cat.    

 

And I’m a yang metal rat!

🐭

Thanks for the horoscope.

[liminal_luke]

Steve the Terminator has a nice ring to it.  Terminator of injustice, I reckon.  (Or perhaps Terminator of Ignorance, wrathful deity style?)

Edited November 17, 2019 by liminal_luke

[Earl Grey]

On 11/14/2019 at 11:51 AM, Taomeow said:

2020, beginning on January 25th according to the Xia calendar, will be the year of the Yang Metal (White) Rat.

 

Metal produces Water, and Rat is a Water sign.  So the relationship between the Heavenly Stem (Metal) and Earthly Branch (Water) will be harmonious enough...  with many caveats.  The main problem is of course Yang Metal.  A fierce warrior energy -- strong, arrogant, aggressive, it can manifest as a Terminator...  Arnold was born on a Yang Metal day, by the way, and the list of famous Yang Metal dudes is positively scary -- Alexander the Great, Mohammed Ali, characters like that.  Even Emilia Clarke whose protagonist led huge armies and didn't hesitate to sic her dragons on King's Landing essentially portrayed her real-life Chinese horoscope taken to the movie extreme.  And, just like the Terminator, she is a mixed bag -- she starts out good and ends up bad, while the Terminator starts out as a bad robot and terminates as a good robot.  Such is the Yang Metal warrior -- whether the cause that drives them is noble or ignoble, fierce determination is injected into both.  

 

Another caveat is that Yang Metal in the Heavenly Stem sits on top of Water in the Earthly Branch.  Yang Metal is not some aluminum foil or manicure scissors or fine gold earrings or a diamond ring -- essentially it's a huge chunk of metal.  A ship.  A battleship.  And the position in 2020 will be rather precarious for it, because Metal lacks the support of its Mother phase, Earth.  So it will be arrogant enough but not at its peak strength -- there will be a lot of bark that won't necessarily result in bite.  The most dangerous time for the bite comes in autumn, Metal's proprietary season when it's at its strongest and can back up any amount of bark with a very sharp and painful bite of its metal teeth.  Let's hope not.              

 

In the Xia calendar, the Rat is the first of the 12 animals. The Hour of the Rat is also the first and begins a new day (23:00 to 01:00).   24 hours in a day and 12 animals -- so every animal rules 2 hours of every day.  The Rat is unique though in that it is comprised of the “Late Rat” and “Early Rat.” Late Rat rules 23:00 to 0000. As the day changes at 0001, Early Rat begins and lasts until 0100.  So the Rat sign covers two different days—half on a Yang day and half on a Yin day.

 

The sequence of the animals is interesting in that the order in which they are lined up is based on the number of the animal’s toes (or fingers).  An odd number of toes is Yang and an even number is Yin. While all other animals' front and back legs or paws have the same kind of digits of the same number, the Rat’s front legs have four fingers (Yin) and hind legs have five toes (Yang). This exactly matches the idea that the Rat represents both Yin and Yang.  

We are already at the end of Pig but I’d love to know where you got this because I am a Water Pig and a little insight from retrospect would be helpfully for a less than stellar year for me.

[liminal_luke]

Your question, Earl Grey, is addressed to Taomeow but in the fortune-telling spirit of this thread I hope you´ll indulge me while I put my own psychic powers to the test.  Hmmm...where did Taomeow get the above insights into the year of the Yang Metal Rat?  

 

(Luke gets out crystal ball.  Wraps himself in purple shawl embroidered with glowing planets and stars.)

 

Did Taomeow get her information off the web?  This is weird -- nothing is coming up.  Did it come from a book?  I´m not seeing anything.  A real stumper this one.

[Earl Grey]

14 minutes ago, liminal_luke said:

Your question, Earl Grey, is addressed to Taomeow but in the fortune-telling spirit of this thread I hope you´ll indulge me while I put my own psychic powers to the test.  Hmmm...where did Taomeow get the above insights into the year of the Yang Metal Rat?  

 

(Luke gets out crystal ball.  Wraps himself in purple shawl embroidered with glowing planets and stars.)

 

Did Taomeow get her information off the web?  This is weird -- nothing is coming up.  Did it come from a book?  I´m not seeing anything.  A real stumper this one.

Speaking of divination, I’ll share a pic when my Internet is more stable that will make you smile if you enjoy all creatures furry and small, in this case, my old hamster dressed in a shawl like a fortune teller.

[Taomeow]

5 hours ago, Earl Grey said:

We are already at the end of Pig but I’d love to know where you got this because I am a Water Pig and a little insight from retrospect would be helpfully for a less than stellar year for me.

 

Water Pig...   Nice animal, and though that's only 1/8th of the information I would need to see for a comprehensive picture, it still contains 1/8th of your answer.   

 

"Animals" form relationships that are friendly, neutral, or hostile.  The 12 are divided into 4 groups of "three harmonies" -- groups of three animals that cooperate with each other.  We don't just have one "year animal" in our makeup, we have four -- i.e. types of earthly qi present in the year, month, day, hour of our birth.  So, each one of the person's four proprietary animals interacts with the other three (as ally or foe) and with the animal of the year (also of the month, day, hour for a more precise take on each particular moment in spacetime -- but the four proprietary ones are at it constantly.)  And the animal of the given year coinciding with one's animal of the year of birth is not a friend and not an ally.  They are in conflict.  (Which makes sense if one realizes that for all people, their first year of life is the most precarious -- if a baby survived its birth and infancy, statistical chances of death or serious life-damaging developmental adversity go sharply down.  The first year of life, when your tiny "birth animal" meets its huge "earth animal" counterpart of that species, is unsafe.)   Picture rams meeting on a narrow mountain path and butting horns for right-of-way.  Picture two tigers, very territorial animals, encountering each other in a disputed hunting ground.  Picture two boars ("pig" is originally a wild boar, you know, a formidable creature) meeting during a mating season, both focused on the same goal...  you get the picture. 

 

How badly they clash is determined by a bunch of other factors -- other types of qi: whether they are both male or both female or one male and one female (yin and yang years), and whether their wuxing phases are in a productive, controlling or destructive relationship with the wuxing phase of the year animal.  These and other factors can exacerbate or mitigate the conflict.  In your case, in 2019 it was exacerbated by the wuxing conflict -- your Water Pig meets Earth Pig, and Earth blocks Water in wuxing.  So that's why.  ( Without looking at all other possible peculiarities of the moment, which of course could add all manner of details -- what exactly can go wrong and how one might try to prevent it going wrong, to the extent possible.  Some years are possible to ride out smoothly even if they're full of built-in adversities, but not all years and not for all people.)         

 

The twelve animals are metaphors that stand for particular types of qi of course, specifically qi of the Earthly Branch.  The qi of the year, i.e. the year animal, will be one stream of one type of qi originating from the earth itself under the conditions of this particular moment in spacetime -- it will be flowing throughout the year, interacting with all other streams -- of the Heavenly Stem, yin-yang, wuxing, bagua, the nine flying stars, etc., in a rather complex manner that matches the complexity of the manifest world.  In the case of an individual, it will interact with all of these energies that formed a particular pattern at the time of birth and keep flowing throughout one's life.  Which is the premise of Chinese astrology -- the complete picture of all kinds of qi present at one's birth is the blueprint for one's developmental history -- and the qi of the birth of the universe, the blueprint for the universe's developmental history.  You can figure out how they resonate when they interact with each other at any moment using taoist sciences. 

 

So the crystal ball is inside the taoist fortune teller's mind, it grows there from a tiny seed and is cultivated from every angle till it learns how to find its answers.  Which is why an experienced and educated fortune teller in Chinese astrology is a stochastic scientist (an inquirer into probabilities of events), not a recipient of whispers from the spirits and visions in a crystal ball but someone who grills those spirits for answers ("what is the most likely outcome of this and that being such and such?"), in a controlled (by reality itself) study peer-reviewed for thousands of years, in a lab spanning the whole of "above" and "below" and equipped with everything in it, from the motion of the stars above to the temper tantrums of the "world leaders" below.  

 

   

[Rocky Lionmouth]

Yum yums, thanks Meows! 

[Taomeow]

She-he is coming.  A month from today.  

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by Taomeow

[Nintendao]

Let's Rock!

 

[Taomeow]

The Early Rat's whiskers are already here.  This is typical -- the foreshadowings of the new kind of qi starts streaming in ahead of the arrival of the main body. 

 

The Water of my life bows to the Fire that forged you, Steel Rat.  

[Zork]

3 hours ago, Taomeow said:

The Early Rat's whiskers are already here.  This is typical -- the foreshadowings of the new kind of qi starts streaming in ahead of the arrival of the main body. 

 

The Water of my life bows to the Fire that forged you, Steel Rat.  

If this is the foreshadowing of the new qi, i would rather pass but there is no choice.

[Taomeow]

The traditional way to celebrate the Chinese New Year is with family and extended family, and then friends and acquaintances.  The whole clan gathered under the ancestral roof for the main feast and then everybody proceeded paying multiple happy visits during the following days and weeks.  It was easy enough to pull off when family members and friends lived in the same village or in the neighboring one, but times have changed -- people moved to live in far-away cities, foreign countries, across the oceans, yet the custom persisted, and many parents and grandparents in Asia still expect everybody to come celebrate the proper way, as a family.  Whether the offspring are obedient and filial, don't want to lose face, are genuinely homesick (many are, from what I gathered talking to quite a few Chinese Americans) and prepared to go to any lengths toward the yearly reunion with family and friends, many, very many are going to keep it up.  And among those with no family to visit, many will still take a traveling vacation. 

 

The travel season, known as Chunyun, begins about 15 days before Lunar New Year's Day and lasts for around 40 days.  The number of trips taken during this period is staggering.  In 2019 it was 2.9 billion.  In 2020 it is expected to be higher -- over 3 billion.  It has been called the largest annual human migration in the world.  I believe "human" is redundant in this context -- unless I missed something, no animal, bird, or insect migration I tried to look up even comes close.  May well be the largest migration of multicellular eukaryotes in the world.    

 

It was a time to rejoice for thousands of years, and still is -- with another modern caveat.  Any new contagious disease that has a 7 day incubation period (i.e. can't be detected till a week after it's been contracted, because the person who's contracted it will remain asymptomatic and unaware of carrying it) will go global within 24 hours.   

 

Wash your hands often, eat your healthy foods, take your supplements and herbs, keep warm, well-ventilated, moderately active and use the rest of those common sense precautions.  And if you plan to travel by plane during Chunyun period, consider wearing a mask.            

Edited January 22, 2020 by Taomeow

[thelerner]

I'm hoping that-

Edited January 22, 2020 by thelerner

[Taomeow]

4 hours ago, thelerner said:

I'm hoping that-

 

Me too.  

 

The rat of the Chinese calendar is forever associated in my mind with the beginning of the first dialog I ever learned in Chinese, from a study CD.  It went exactly like this:

 

-- Hello, rat.

-- I am not a rat.  I am a teacher.

-- I'm sorry.  Hello, teacher.

 

My imagination ran wild of course...  The idea must have been to make the student aware of the difference of pronunciation between "laoshi" and "laoshu."   

[thelerner]

8 hours ago, thelerner said:

 

There's a story behind this book.  

In the waay back, when the world was young, my mom took me to a college intro weekend.  I learned about Bradly U, my mom wined and dined with other parents and the faculty.  A professor sees my mom has book in her purse and asks what she's reading.  Now my mom has 2 books in there- The Brethren- a book about the Supreme Court and The Stainless Rat Saves the World.  My mom proudly pulls out The Stainless Steel Rat

 

There was a woman equally at home watching ballet or the latest Bruce Lee flick.  Opera or the Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

i miss her.

[Rocky Lionmouth]

I’m getting the feeling a lot of people are responding to this new year and cycle in way that seems agitated or hyper. From where i am it looks like time is speeding up and i’m still slow as usual.

 

Gotta get my casting thing working, stuff to learn.

[Taomeow]

Here's the layout of the yearly Nine Flying Stars for 2020, with very brief explanations:

 

 

 

The Stars bring particular types of heavenly qi to dominate the areas of their influence during every time period.  Here is a brief explanation of what the 9 stars mean in flying stars feng shui for the Period 8 we're currently in.

 

White Stars -- 1, 6, 8 are benevolent and beneficial toward many endeavors.

Green Star 3 is conductive to all kinds of conflict.

Green Star 4 is fine.  

Red Star 7 can be neutral or adverse (the latter when in contact with 3 or 4).  

Purple Star 9 is fine, but in combination with 2, 5 or 8 can amplify either extreme (see below about 2 and 5).

Black Star 2 is the second most adverse. 

Yellow Star 5 is the most adverse of the nine. 

 

The combination of 2 and 5 is the worst.  This year, we see them hover over South (2) and East (5), making South and especially East the worst directions/locations -- in the house, in the city, in the country, on planet Earth.  Unfortunately, Asia is starting the year in full compliance with the stars. 

 

North is another problematic direction this time around -- the combo of the unlucky star 3 and the position of Grand Duke Jupiter in the North make it a direction to avoid facing when sitting, avoid making any noise in, renovations, hammering etc., and it's also  not great for some people to travel toward.      

 

Finally, the Center is a problem area this year, because 7 is in an unfavorable position.

 

If you own a compass, find out what you have in your house in the South, East, North and Center parts, and if those are the areas where most or many activities take place, consider a rearrangement if possible at all so that you spend less time in those areas or move the activities elsewhere for the time being.  If possible, try to arrange for anyone sick, weak, or little to avoid those "squares" as well.  I will also post specific FS remedies you could use this time around for those areas in a couple of days.        

Edited January 30, 2020 by Taomeow

[Rocky Lionmouth]

I never saw this ordering before

 

This is what it looked like when the new year began?

 

I gotta study this very carefully, thanks Meow! ❤️

[Taomeow]

7 hours ago, Rocky Lionmouth said:

I never saw this ordering before

 

This is what it looked like when the new year began?

 

I gotta study this very carefully, thanks Meow! ❤️

 

  Do you know how to "fly" the Nine Stars?  The new cycle doesn't begin from the starting position of the "beginning of the world" -- all stars shift to the next position from the one they took in the Dance of Yu in the previous year.  The gears of smaller and larger cycles than the yearly ones also shift -- the smaller ones faster, i.e. the monthly and daily and hourly ones, and the larger ones slower -- the nine 20-year periods and up from there.  When I said "we're in period 8," I meant "of the 20-year cycle," where star 8, tolerant of all our antics, dominates and oversees the shifts of the smaller yearly gears and might let us go on our merry (or not so merry) ways till 2024.  After that, all bets are off, because period 9 which will come to take its place for the next 20 years, is when we will be forced to recite all the lessons we'd learned in the previous 160 so as to complete the 180-year cycle with either a "lesson learned" or "repeat lesson" situation.  

 

As for the position of the stars in 2020, you will see the pattern of qi if you start "flying" them from star 3.   

[Taomeow]

Here's recommendations for this year's FS "medicines" from a FS master from Hong Kong Maureen Chu:

 

Born in Rat Year meet incoming Yang Metal Rat year is OFFENDING the Tai Shui Rat.
Need to wear Ox Pendant to attract away the incoming Rat year.
出生子鼠年見子鼠流年是犯太歲。需要帶丑牛吊飾去合走子鼠流年。
Born in Horse Year meet incoming Yang Metal Rat year is CLASH. Need to wear Ox Pendant to attract away the incoming Rat year.
出生午馬年見子鼠流年是冲太歳。
需要帶丑牛吊飾去合走子鼠流年。
Born in Rabbit Year meet incoming Yang Metal Rat year is 2 Penalty. Need to wear Ox Pendant to attract away the incoming Rat year.
出生卯兔年見子鼠流年是二刑。需要帶丑牛吊飾去合走子鼠流年。
****
Special attention:
Not only the Rat, Rabbit and Horse Year need to wear Ox pendant.
Rabbit and Horse Month, Day and Hour also need to wear Ox pendant.

*****
特別注意：
不單是子，卯，午年需要帶丑牛吊飾。
卯和午月，日，時也需要配帶丑牛吊飾。
*****
****Note for Yang Earth Tiger Month****
If you have Monkey in your Four Pillars, Tiger will Clash with Monkey.
Wear Pig pendant to attract away the Tiger.

***** 戊寅月特別留意*****
如果八字有申𤠣會冲寅虎月，要帶亥豬吊飾合走寅虎流月。

The flying star chart for Metal Rat Year 
1 in NE
2 sickness star in S hang 6 metallic coins
5 misfortune star in E hang metallic wind chime
3 robbery conflict star in N place red carpet/ red Lai see 
7 scandal star in Center place 3 bamboo shoots in glass vase with water

庚子流年飛星分佈圖
1 在東北
2 黑病位在南掛6個銅錢
5 黃凶位在東掛銅風鈴
3 盜劫是非位在北放紅地毯/紅利是封
7 醜聞位在正中放3枝水養富貴竹在玻璃瓶

The flying star chart for Yang Earth Tiger month
1 in W
2 sickness star in NE hang 6 metallic coins
5 misfortune star in SW hang metallic wind chime
3 robbery conflict star in S place red carpet/red Lai see packet
7 scandal star in SE place 3 bamboo shoots in glass vase with water

戊寅月飛星分佈圖
1 在西
2 黑病位在東北掛6個銅錢
5 黃凶位在西南掛金屬風鈴
3 盗劫是非位在南放紅地毯/紅利是封
7 醜聞位在東南放3枝水養富貴竹在玻璃瓶

 

 

 

[Rocky Lionmouth]

Thanks @Taomeow, i know the flight itinerary well enough so i see the pattern.

 

I’m familiar with shifting the first palace by about 90 degrees for every repetition, i’ve hitherto assumed that this is to account for the trimestral manouverings of the Seven Kings and their occult attendants, is this advisable for this pattern also? Seeing the cardinal directions shifted without shifting the pattern to harmonize with Heaven turning?

 

PS

Unless everything goes pearshaped i will send you photographic proof of the future Lionmouths to come

Edited February 11, 2020 by Rocky Lionmouth
I feel like i’m in a spy movie.

[Taomeow]

From Scholars of Chinese Medicine

 

COVID-19 and the Yellow Emperor : Is it possible an ancient Chinese system of climate analysis predicted a pandemic (Part 2)

 

 

As previously stated, it is not the purpose of this article to outline the workings of this system in its entirety. However, a basic overview will be given of the Five Movements and the Six Qi.

The Five Movements 五運

The character 運, here translated as “Movements,” contains within it concepts difficult to communicate in a single word. The primary character component depicts a covered chariot accompanied by the walking radical (1).

In this specific context, it refers to how the constellations move around the Pole Star over the course of a year, or one of the five seasons. There are five different houses which periodically emerge as the ruling aspect of each year or individual season. Much like the Ten Heavenly Stems 天干, the conceptual basis of the Five Movements 五運 are the Five Elements 五行 - Wood 木, Fire 火, Earth 土, Metal 金 and Water 水 (2).

The Five Movements correspond to the five sectors of the sky influenced by the Five Elements, namely the Cinnabar Heaven 丹天, the Yellow Heaven 黅天, the Blue Heaven 蒼天, the Clear Heaven 清天 and the Dark Heaven 玄天 (3).

Each year is divided into five separate steps designated as being host and guest periods. The language of musical notes is used to express this (4).

The Host Movements 主運 of time correspond five periods of seventy-three days to the same seasonal Elements every year, only differing in whether they are minor or major tones that year. The Elements relating to the Visitor Movements客運 change every year, beginning with whichever element is the Central movement 中運 for the year. From this we can start to determine which of the various elements are excessive and deficient during the course of the year.

The language used to describe these celestial motions employs many political words, phrases and metaphors. Implicit in this choice of vocabulary is the notion that these cosmic movements resonate to the earth and influence the climate and humanity in a way similar to imperial decrees.

From the first lines of Su Wen 69, it is quite clear one of the most important aspect of Five Movements and Six Qi system is which of the Five Elements governs the Central movement for the year and if it is marked by excess 太過 or inadequacy 不及. We are told in Su Wen 66 “the government of each of the Five Elements may be marked by either great excess or inadequacy. Thus when (a cycle) commences and (a specific element) moves in the direction of surplus, it will be followed by a depletion; when it moves in the direction of depletion, it will be followed by a surplus. If one has knowledge of these comings and goings, the Qi can be predicted”. “為五行之治，各有太過不及也。故其始也，有餘而往，不足隧之，不足而往，有餘從之，知迎知隧，氣可與期.”

Similar sentiments arise in Su Wen 70 which states. “The Five Movements recur and diminish, differing in their rise and fall. Harm and benefit follow one another.” “ 五運迴薄，盛衰不同，損益相從."

Yin Yang philosophy is also an integral basis to this system. We are explicitly told in Su Wen 66: “The Yin and Yang of the Five Movements, these are the Dao of Heaven and Earth. They are the guiding principles of the ten thousand things and the parents of all change. They are the basis and origin of life and killing, and the seat of divinity.” “五運陰陽者，天地之道也，萬物之綱紀，變化之父母，生殺之本始，神明之府也.”

Thus as the swing of the elements from excess to insufficiency and back again adheres to the principles of Yin and Yang, we can begin to see the fundamental basis of this system is Yin Yang and Five Element theory。 Although these theories may see simplistic upon first glance, their interactions on several different physical and temporal planes allow the development of a theory that can begin to account for climatic complexity.

(1): The character for “cloud” 雲 is probably related etymologically.

(2): The cycle of correspondence between the Five Elements and the Ten Heavenly Stems begins with the Wood Element (Wood 木, Fire 火, Earth 土, Metal 金 and Water 水), whereas the cycle of correspondence between the Five Element and the Five Movements begins with the Earth element (Earth 土, Metal 金, Water 水, Wood 木, Fire 火).

(3): The location of these five sections of sky are determined based on the Twenty Eight Lunar Mansions 二十八宿.

(4): Jue Zhi Gong Shang Yu 角徵宮商羽, respectively representing the Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water Elements.