This is a continuation of my previous article on the differences between Bazi and Zi Wei Dou Shu (ZWDS).
Naturally, it is more difficult to do a Bazi reading at the level of intricate detail that a ZWDS reading can offer because Bazi collapses many aspects of human relationships, for example, spouse and wealth into one element. If we can conceptualize the difference between a folding bike and a non-folding bike, we will understand that Bazi works best for a convenient and quick reading, while ZWDS makes the cut for a cumbersome but powerful reading.
Another difference between the 2 is that Bazi can give us a reasonably accurate measure (around 70% accurate) of a person’s character and luck if we have the date of birth without the time of birth. For ZWDS, it will not be possible to get a good idea of the character and luck of a person without information about the day and time of birth.
Due to the above differences, we can also conclude that Bazi is more appropriate for a general review of a person’s luck because it is easier and faster to read a Bazi chart. ZWDS is best suited for reading intricate details, including sexual attitudes, how one behaves at home, in the workplace, during leisure activities, etc. and informative even to the point of identifying one’s profession as a prostitute. This is such an intricate level of detail that Bazi practitioners have trouble reading. The reason that ZWDS can read intricate details of one’s life is because it requires many layers and perspectives of analysis and, as a result, takes much more time. As such, Bazi is more useful for spotting a trend, while ZWDS is more appropriate for analyzing the individual events that make up the trend. We can use the analogy that Bazi is like radar, better suited to detect presence, while ZWDS is like X-rays, which is more useful for analyzing the content of a present object.
Throughout my practice with both tools, I noticed that Bazi has a much higher chance of encountering a blind spot when analyzing the fate of average Joes. Many Bazi teachers and authors use Bazi charts of celebrities like Donald Trump as examples to illustrate the accuracy of their reading of Bazi. Well, high-profile people like Donald Trump will naturally lead a life of extremes and because Bazi is good at general overhaul, you will naturally be able to identify such extremes in luck. But using an overview tool that looks at the lives of average young people (who don’t go through such extremes) is bound to run into patches of ambiguity.
Bazi shares many of the same fundamentals (Yin and Yang theory, 5 element theory, trigram images, etc.) as other Chinese metaphysics subjects such as Fengshui, Chinese date selection. ZWDS, on the other hand, only uses these fundamentals sporadically, but more of its unique fundamentals. As a result, knowledge of Bazi is critical as a stepping stone towards mastering other subjects of Chinese metaphysics, while knowledge of ZWDS is not as critical. With the same reasoning, Bazi can be used for other aspects, including predicting events or fortune-telling, while ZWDS is strictly a personal destiny reading tool.
The million dollar question one might ask would be “Is Bazi or ZWDS a better Chinese astrology tool?” I won’t say that one is better than the other, but why limit your reading range when we can have both? Any self-respecting practitioner of Chinese astrology or fengshui should use both methods instead of one. Fate analysis becomes very clear if we trade between a big picture analysis with a multi-level microanalysis.
