YouTube video in Chinese on Tai Sui for 2023

南懷瑾首次承認！我當年也“犯太歲”，但我用這個方法化解了！2023年前一定要知道！

It is that time of the year when the talk of "Tai Sui" 太岁 heats up in traditional broadcast media and social media here in Singapore. As the year comes to an end and a new year comes in January, it is common for people to feel a sense of anticipation and anxiety over what is to come in the new year. 

The Chinese luni-solar calendar do not use numerals like in the international Gregorian calendar, but assign Tian Gan Di Zi 天干地支 to each year, resulting in a pair of "element" and "zodiac sign" for each year. For example 2022 is the year of the (Yang) Water Tiger and 2023 will be the year of the (Yin) Water Rabbit. This results in relationships between the signs, for example Tiger zodiac sign clashes with the Monkey sign while Rooster clashes with the Rabbit. In 2022, those born in the Monkey years are said to be in a clash with reigning sign of the Tiger in 2022. There are a few types of clashing relationships among the Di Zi / zodiac signs, and they are grouped together as “犯太岁", if the birth year's (本命年）zodiac sign is in a clashing relationship with the reigning year sign (太岁). 

This may seem a bit interesting to people who only use the western Gregorian international calendar as it seems strange to say 12 clash with 6, 1 clash with 7, 2 clash with 8, etc. As mentioned above, the Chinese luni-solar calendar uses a different type of representation for the calendar components; using the Five Elements of the Five Elements Theory. All five elements are in a produce and control relationship. A totally different system from the western Gregorian calendar that uses Indian-Arabic numbers system.

The title of the video is a bit of a "click-bait", but the actual content is good, and narrates about how the late great 南懷瑾 handles a year when he is said to be “犯太岁". The YouTube video above talks about the concept of time and space, and how the time component is equally important as the space component. 

Five Tigers - 5 Elements Tigers 壬寅，甲寅，丙寅，戊寅，庚寅

Five Tigers - 5 Elements Tigers 壬寅，甲寅，丙寅，戊寅，庚寅

The popularity of the annual Zodiac sign predictions reaches its height during the Chinese Lunar New Year period. They are simplified readings to cater to the masses as the whole population is grouped into twelve Zodiac signs; which means that hundreds of millions share the same reading per sign. Too general to be precise, and so it is infotainment. In modern days, the annual Zodiac sign readings serve a largely commercial purpose as many capitalist business entities use the predictions as marketing and promotional events for news and publicity. Temples and religious organisations use them as annual fund raisers. Historically these readings were done by scholars working at temple fairs as a side income while waiting to take the Imperial Examinations in the ancient cities of China. 

The annual Zodiac signs predictions are simplified to twelve, which is already quite lengthy to write and talk about. To bridge the gap to the actual 60 Jia Zi pairs of the sexagenary cycle, it is good to learn about the additional Five Elements. 

Simply put, take 12 (Zodiac signs) multiply by 5 (elements) and you get 60 pairs.

For example, the year of 2022 is not just the year of the Tiger, but the year of the Water Tiger. The next year of the Tiger in 2034 will be the year of the Wood Tiger, in 2046 will be the year of the Fire Tiger, in 2058 the year of the Earth Tiger and in 2070 the year of the Metal Tiger. It loops back to Water Tiger again in 2082, and so on and so forth. 

In the illustration above designed by myself,  I use shapes and colours to help you see the elements:

Water drop shape = Water element

Tall rectangle shape = Wood element

Triangle shape = Fire element

Square shape = Earth element

Circle shape = Metal element

For colours, yellow, green and red are easy to apply to design but Water's black and Metal's white are replaced with blue and grey so that they don't disappear into white and black screen backgrounds on the computer and mobile devices, and on paper.  

Also, the 地支 / Di Zi for Tiger is 寅, pronounced yín, second sound intonation and not the same as 阴 yīn, first sound, light or rising intonation.  

And so, baby steps, learn a little more than just your annual Zodiac sign. The actual Ba Zi birth chart readings are based on the Five Elements Theory, and personalised to the day and hour of birth. So before you start lamenting about how the past year was bad for you because you have self read an annual horoscope booklet based only on your annual sign, please get yourself a Ba Zi birth reading. Sometimes it is just your own mind making the classic "cognitive bias" used by marketers. (Google search "marketing bias" or "cognitive bias" to read up about it).

2022 - Year of Ren Yin Water Tiger 壬寅

(1) How many "New Year's Day" are there in a year? 

There are 3 "New Year's Days":

(i) 1st of January, 2022 (International Gregorian Calendar)

(ii) 1st of February, 2022 - Lunar New Year (based on the orbit of moon around earth), and 

(iii) 4th of February, 2022 - Li Chun day or Spring Begins solar term, beginning of the solar calendar of the Chinese luni-solar calendar (based on the orbit of earth around the sun).

(Note) Although I use the word "orbit", the ancient Chinese mapped the path of the moon in its waxing and waning phases across the night sky, and likewise used the Gnomon stick's sun shadow to track the path of the sun across the sky. 

For all of the three first-days of the year, you can construct a Ba Zi chart for the beginning hour of the day and analyse them for the 5 elements interaction. It means that there will be 3 different Ba Zi charts with different meanings and interpretations according to different masters. Confusing isn't it? Some masters prefer to just use the sexagenary pair of Tian Gan and Di Zi for the year to get a general "feel" of the elements for the year. 

*add-edit (Dong Zhi/Winter Solstice on December 21st, 2021 was the start of Yang (Qi) and is also considered a new year of sorts by some)

(2) What are the elements of the Water (Black) Tiger year?

Using the 60 Jia Zi sexagenary pairs, the year of 2022 is rotated to the 39th pair of the 60 pairs cycle. (note the 60 pairs cycle are used on a rotation basis for the year, month, day and si-chen/2 hour pillars)   

壬

ren (yang water)

寅

yin (Tiger)

甲

jia (yang wood)

丙

bing (yang fire)

戊

wu (yang earth)

The 4 elements present in the year are

Water

Wood

Fire, and

Earth

(3) Why is it a Black Tiger? 

Each of the 5 elements are assigned an "official" colour, in ancient times, based on the availability of these colours in nature. 

Water - Black

Wood - Green

Fire - Red

Earth - Yellow

Metal - White (or Gold) 

As black is not considered an auspicious colour in Chinese customs, you will hardly hear any mention of  2022 as the year of the Black Tiger. Also, as gold is associated with money and wealth, every year's Zodiac is described auspiciously as "gold zodiac sign" year in Chinese, but that "gold" is more of a Chinese auspicious meaning word than referring to the actual element of the year.  

If you are asking about what auspicious colours are for the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities, you are better off following these Chinese traditions and customs:

(i) It is called the Spring Festival - so your dress up theme is flowers and nature. Bright flowery prints and embroidery to symbolise Spring, new beginnings, rejuvenation and growth.

(ii) The Chinese colour of celebration and happiness is red. That is why you see so much red being used in the Chinese design and decorations.

(iii) Gold represents money and wealth, and so a prosperous colour is considered auspicious.

(iv) Auspicious words - we like to wish everyone a good start for the year, so the Chinese word 福 is always used. "Fu" is one of those Chinese words that gets lost in translation in English to mean good fortune, lucky, auspicious, etc. Like the word "Qi", it encompasses a whole concept. 

(4) What is the year like for 2022?

The elements of the year are in harmony, in a productive cycle flow of water to wood to fire to earth, and (implied) earth to metal. On the surface the signs look good, and that is a welcome news for the current world situation. However (there is a however), the Tiger sign has its secret liaisons, friends and allies besides the usual harmonious connection to Horse, Dog and Pig zodiac signs. 

Beware of the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" of 2022. There is still an element of surprise.

Each year's sexagenary pair will meets its direct clash by count of six months in a year, and 2022's Ren Yin has direct element clashes when the autumn months come from 7th of August onwards. In Ba Zi birth chart analysis, clashes and combines can be double edged swords, but when just analysing for the year in general, clashes are taken to mean "not good". Care and caution advised especially for the Autumn months starting from August 7th (Solar term Autumn Begins is on this day) onwards.

(5) How is my zodiac sign going to do in 2022?

This is always a very popular topic during Chinese Lunar New Year time, you can see people stopping to read 12 zodiac predictions printed on the Lunar New Year decorations at shopping malls. 

The thing is, what is given free is just very general advice based on data gathered from the Chinese Farmer's Almanac and ancient texts/formula. 

The best way to get accurate information, personalised to you is get a Ba Zi birth chart reading based on your date of birth and time. You can get to know the 10 year and annual triggers that are influencing you and your decision making. 

In the absence of a one-to-one consultation, when reading zodiac predictions for the year, just take them as light infotainment. They are written to be too general to be accurate, and are also too general to be wrong.

That being said, I do write such infotainment articles and this year, you can read it in print on the ANA inflight magazines if you read Japanese. Or, you can catch my tv interview on CNBC Asia. 

In general:

Smooth ride in a turbulent water year for the following 5 zodiac signs

Pig 

Ox 

Tiger 

Rabbit 

Goat:

7 Zodiac signs with a bumpy ride

Monkey (direct clash with the Tiger)

Rat 

Dragon 

Snake 

Rooster 

Horse 

Dog

Talking Lunar New Year 2022 on CNBC Asia - Year of Ren Yin Yang Water Tiger

Annual Chinese Horoscope for the 12 Zodiac Signs 2021 - Year of the Metal Ox

 

I was commissioned again to co-write a magazine article for The Inflight Magazine of ANA Group for the second time. It is published in the Japanese language in the January 2021 No. 619 issue that is available on ANA flights. 

In Japan, New Year is celebrated on the first day of January. 

This is a general version based on 12 zodiac signs for everyone. As always, for a more detailed reading of one's luck for the year, you should get your Ba Zi birth chart done to get a personalised interpretation and analysis.  

Chinese Lunar New Year falls on 12 February 2021.