六壬

Believe it or not, the bedtime reading that I just finished was Encyclopedia of Liu Ren (六壬大全), extracted from the Imperial Collection of Four (四庫全書).

Yes, I also bought it when I was in Chengdu a few months ago.

For those who are not accustomed with the field, Liu Ren (六壬) is a form of Chinese calendrical astrology. Unlike Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗数) or the Four Pillars (子平術), which are man-oriented (in other words, they are used for the prediction of someone's fate), Liu Ren is an event-oriented system, used for estimating the outcome of something. In the traditional Chinese classification of the Five Methods (五術), Liu Ren belongs to "卜", while the others are "命".

"So, now, can you predict what's going to happen ?" You may ask.

Well, a layman may have much medical knowledge but could never become a physician by simply reading medical textbooks. Similarly, I don't think I could practice this branch of Chinese astrology at this moment - and neither do I intend to do so in the future.

And, for god's sake, if you know what would happen in the future, please don't tell me.

PS. The Five Methods are 山、醫、卜、命、相. Yes, in ancient China, doctors were no better than fortune-tellers.