On February 4th, we organized a lecture on Chinese cosmology for the first time and sought to understand how to grasp the quite complex Bazi system and the Five Elements for us Westerners.
The speaker of the lecture was Wei Jinzhao, a prolific writer, poet, and certified tea master. With many years of higher education teaching experience and a substantial publication portfolio, she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in creative writing in Macau. In addition to her academic and creative pursuits, she is a board member of the Macau Society for Healing Writing and a cultural ambassador at the University of Macau.
The main goal of the lecture was to try to comprehend how modern busy individuals can achieve harmony in everyday life through the natural rhythms of the world. In the first part of the lecture, the speaker introduced the essence of the Bazi system—the Four Pillars of Destiny—a traditional Chinese system based on a person's birth date and time, which reveals the personal energy blueprint, life patterns, and natural strengths.
Wei Jinzhao then briefly reviewed the historical context of this system, how Bazi was utilized by the Chinese in the past, and how popular this system is in today’s society. In the second practical part of the lecture, we offered participants the opportunity to try linking the Five Elements system to their birth date and time. The Five Elements, the core system of Chinese philosophy, explains how Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water shape a person's balance, health, and life cycles.
We hope that this lecture has provided you with wisdom and that you have at least partially touched upon one of the Taoist life methods, which can be effective for achieving daily well-being and balance.