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Chapter 73 of 86
Yuan Hai Zi Ping — The Deep Sea of Zi Ping
The greatest wealth lies in a pure and unblemished fate, while the deepest poverty stems from the clash of the Five Elements 🌪️. Nobility is found in the fullness of refined energy, and baseness in the suffering of penalties and wounds. Those with outstanding literary talent gather noblemen and swift horses at the Hall of Learning 🌠. Those who craft splendid writings reveal their nature through the harmony of Fire 🔥 and Wood 🌲. The deeply strategic conceal virtue in the palace of stillness, while masters of subtle arts guard the Hall of Literary Excellence with the Emperor’s Seat. Good fortune requires vitality, prosperity, and the support of the Lu (Prosperity) and Ma (Horse), all relying on abundant spirit. The Kui Gang (Noble Star) carries the potential for divine transformation, while the separation of Fire 🔥 and Water 🌊 forms the gateway to wisdom. When noblemen, Lu, and Ma meet calamities, blades, or emptiness, they paradoxically reveal extraordinary depth. The growth phase attracts the favor of noblemen 🌱, while decline invites the disdain of petty people. A disordered Four Pillars (Year, Month, Day, Hour) breeds ruthlessness, while the mutual growth of the Five Elements fosters loyalty and filial piety. The Seal of Authority encountering penalties and clashes leads to mental chaos and physical neglect. When the Day and Hour reside in the Tomb or Storage, sorrow outweighs joy. A strong Day Stem means fewer disasters, while a weak Fate and Wealth bring endless worries. Toil for food and clothing arises from prosperity meeting penalties; the rise and fall of fame and fortune stem from noble lands encountering wounds. A lifetime’s blessings and misfortunes hinge on the momentary flow of Qi 🌊. Fortune with vitality brings adaptability and promotion, while years of conflict and ominous luck scatter people. Great misfortunes spawn countless disasters, while auspicious years dispel a thousand calamities. Wealth and life teeter on the brink when meeting absolute endings, while success in fame and fortune comes when the original self is nourished. Triple and double harmonies bring heavier blessings and lighter woes, while the Seven Killings and Four Evils deepen misfortune and shallow fortune. Promotions and advancements come in years of Lu’s convergence, while the foundation of wealth is built in lands of financial harmony. The Year Lord’s clashes foretell disasters, and injuries to the Great Cycle bring little auspice. Years should nurture the cycle, and the cycle should nurture the self. When the three positions mutually nourish, the year is satisfying 🌱. Those with both Wealth and Officials flourishing rise in rank; those entangled with Wealth and Food struggle in humble dwellings. Lu entering the gathering of life reveals wealth and nobility, while the Horse galloping to prosperous Lu foretells glory. Profit requires the support of double harmonies; Wealth and Officials with Lu ensure peace and fortune. A weak month and strong hour bring early abundance, while heavy Wood 🌲 and light Earth ⛰ lead to lifelong wandering. Market gains come from wealth meeting prosperity; achieving prominence and establishing a family arise from penalties and clashes revealing nobility. When the Main and Original are timely, they rely on female support; when noble Lu shows affection, males rise auspiciously. Merchants thrive on the path of the Horse, and trade profits rely on the movement of carts. A weak and trapped Day Stem is like Bo Niu’s lament to heaven; declining Lu and Ma resemble Yan Hui’s short life. Nothing is more ominous than calamities and blades ⚔️; nothing more auspicious than strength and resilience. Weak Officials and inferior Horses scatter men and women; the Celestial and Earthly Nets invite sudden disasters. Meeting calamities at a dead end leads to self-harm; encountering wealth at an absolute end means a wife may not grow old. Great and Minor Losses ruin families through gambling; the Seal of Authority and Death Token bring frequent lawsuits. The Four Pillars meeting absolute endings and the Three Fates suffering penalties inevitably lead to the bitterness of imprisonment. If the Five Ghosts and a host of evils appear, sudden death and calamity are certain. Promiscuous women and arrogant men abound. Wisdom and folly in temperament first depend on nobility and decline: the lofty suffer under Kui Gang’s harm, while the gentle prosper under double harmonies. The leisurely and carefree meet Hua Gai (Canopy) and solitary emptiness; the bullying and oppressive offend Partial Officials and calamity blades ⚔️. Calamity blades breed meanness and treacherous schemes; Ren and Gui govern deep strategy, while Bing and Ding display fierceness 🔥. Solitary confinement lacks spirit; ruin and decay bring laxity. Smooth Jia and Yi 🌲 signify kindness, while deficient Geng and Xin ⚔️ denote stern judgment. Excessive Fire 🔥 brings suspicion and ruin; abundant Metal ⚔️ means endurance and finality. Those in penal battles are stubborn fools; the tranquil are wise and outstanding. When Wood 🌲 and Metal ⚔️ command and mutually nourish, and Fire 🔥 and Earth ⛰ meet timely assistance, food and clothing are assured, and households prosper. With divine support, authority and respect thrive in the village. Lu and nobility converging in position bring fame in high offices. The worry is that fortune does not become fortune (auspiciousness meeting calamity); the concern is that affairs do not succeed (patterns broken). Damage to the pattern brings injury; breaking the pattern brings disaster—like seedlings facing autumn drought, winter granaries empty, flowers frosted in spring, summer fruit unformed. Even with the ingenuity to reverse heaven’s will, establishing merit is hard—like Li Sheng, Fan Sheng, Yuanming, Zimei, Meng Ke, Feng Yan, Maichen, Jiang Ge, and other sages, who sprouted but did not bloom or bloomed but bore no fruit. Excessive damage and defeat bring fortune as thin as straw; even with many skills, hunger, cold, and suffering are inescapable—such is fate’s decree. To seek wealth and nobility, rely wholly on Wealth and Officials. Those who attain sagehood have existed since ancient times; those who reach wealth and nobility possess extraordinary foundations. Birth months determine literary and martial distinction; the Crown and Belt signify grand careers and strange wealth. The mystery lies in divination: first examine the Hall of Learning, the Three Wonders, and Four Fortunes; next observe the pattern’s auspiciousness and suitability. Ji Wei meeting Jia Wu is auspicious; Ren Shen meeting Ding Si is propitious. Ren Zi and Bing Wu govern scholarly elegance; Xin You and Bing Shen promise lasting glory. The pure beauty of Yin and Yang delights in mutual growth 🌱. The hardest to discern are the essence of the sun and moon; the most unfathomable are the golden halls and jade chambers—those who attain them meet honor and nobility. The manifest and hidden, wise and foolish, are all shaped by fate’s wheel. Things flourish and wither; how can humans escape success and failure? A phoenix birthing a pheasant, a snake transforming into a dragon, orchids mingled with weeds, trees growing wild—all are ordained by fate’s number. Youthful nobility and aged baseness stem from the cycle’s decline and rise; the purity and chaos of patterns determine the melancholy of late spring. A timely cycle brings ease in twilight years. Guard against the cycle’s hardships—as seasons have spring and autumn, the moon waxes and wanes. The privileged collapse when kin are lost; the rustic rise when cycles align. Years of rank and salary may end in a day; when fortune arrives, it comes in moments. Prosperity need not be ominous; the connected thrive, the stagnant suffer. Harmony brings auspice; clashes bring calamity. Officials and Seals arriving in the cycle advance careers; encountering Wealth and Food fortunes brings glory to commoners. The young rely on ancestors’ glory; the old borrow from descendants’ nobility. Childhood hardship and aged loneliness stem from the Four Pillars’ strength and the Great Cycle’s fortune. Withered wood does not flourish in spring; lush branches withstand frost unbroken. Weak days and months foretell no future; strong birth hours promise late blessings. Ancient jade, polished, becomes priceless; the upright naturally build households—like refining the indestructible, unyielding to winter’s cold. The secret lies in adaptability; observe decline and prosperity to discern fortune and calamity—let the noble take heed!
This text centers on the dialectical relationship of fate’s fortunes and misfortunes: wealth, poverty, success, and failure are all determined by the interplay of the Five Elements (Fire 🔥, Water 🌊, Wood 🌲, Earth ⛰, Metal ⚔️) and the rise and fall of Qi. It emphasizes that the purity or damage of the "pattern" (fate’s structure) is key. Good fortune requires vitality, prosperity, and the support of Lu and Ma, while misfortune arises from penalties, clashes, calamities, and blades. It also highlights the impermanence of cyclical fortune (e.g., the influence of the Great Cycle and annual luck), advocating alignment with natural laws over forceful striving.
In contemporary society, this text can be interpreted as a systemic view of life’s fluctuations:
This text embodies dialectical philosophy: