Jia

1. “Autumn exhausts earth.” For Jia DM born in autumn, earth is weakest as metal drains earth & wood
controls earth. Spleen & stomach symbolise earth so Jia DM with weak earth may have chronic
indigestion.

2. Jia wood complements well with Tiger & Dragon, given specific conditions.

Yi

1. Yi DM complements well with Ji earth as IW. When fire is present as output, metal is well-suited to
give Yi DM power & influence.

2. Yi wood generally prefers hot conditions to cold conditions. Exception is if DM is born during
summer time. Then water is needed.

3. Yi favours Jia, not necessarily vice versa.

Bing

1. Bing fire is the strongest Yang, and should generally avoid Yin Wu Xu fire structure as well as Jia,
unless it is a ‘follow’ structure.

2. Bing DM can only be defeated by Xin (DW) but can conquer Geng (IW).

3. Earth & especially Ren water are generally favourable elements for Bing.

Ding

1. Ding fire complements Yi wood very well as IR.

2. It also favours transformation with Ren water into wood.

3. Ding fire can be very strong with Jia wood as DR.

Wu

1. Wu earth is in essence dry & combines with Gui water to form fire, so it generally prefers cold / wet
environments to hot / dry ones.

2. Wu earth generally does not like to move & clash. When it rides on Tiger & Monkey which are
Travelling Horses by themselves, the effect is worse.

Ji

1. Ji earth is in essence damp & generally prefers hot / dry environments to cold / wet ones, but cold /
wet ones would not cause too much harm either.

2. Ji can convert Jia wood to earth so Jia wood as DO cannot control it well. Ji seems only to succumb
to Yi wood, which is the 7K star.

3. I personally think Ji HS is the hardest to understand among all the 10 HS. All other HS seem to have
their distinct likes & dislikes. HS Ji seems almost compatible with all other HS. It behaves like one of
those mild-mannered distant cousins you have who doesn’t provide much negative influence but
neither does it exert any positive influence. But 10 years ago in 2009, Ji Chou year was a terrible year
for me. As this year is Ji Hai, I will keep my fingers crossed.

Geng

1. Geng prefers wet earth to dry earth. Dry earth makes Geng brittle. So Ji earth is generally preferred
over Wu earth. EB Chen has Wu earth but also has HHS Gui so it’s considered wet. EB Wei has Ji earth
but also has HHS Ding so it is considered more on the dry side.

2. If Geng is your favourable element, it should avoid Yi wood at all costs. Although the resulting
element formed is still metal, it loses its pictorial representation. This is based on personal experience,
not a rule of thumb. Master Ren Tie Qiao says that Yi - Geng combo does not necessarily make metal
weak, and I definitely respect his opinion. But I am sorry to say that this is not the case for my chart.

Xin

1. Xin generally does not like earth as resource, unless the weather is too hot. Then Ji earth is used.

2. Generally it prefers cold & wet weather, but Ding should be ideally be used instead of Bing.

Ren

1. Ren favours Gui by its side as RW star, not necessarily vice versa.

2. With Shen Zi Chen water structure, wood & Ding fire is needed and favoured over Bing fire, which
is the jealous lover.

Gui

1. Something new I learnt: surprisingly, ‘Tian Jin’ in the text does not refer to the literal Chinese city
but a Chinese asterism of 9 stars located within the Western constellation Cygnus. It belongs to the ‘Nu’
region of the 28 Lunar Mansions. Tian Jin is symbolic of the Heavenly Harbour of the Heavenly River
– the Milky Way.

2. There are 8 verses for Gui Daymaster. The 7th verse is slightly different from my source taken from
‘Quan Xue’ website. It reads, “Combined with HS Wu earth and upon meeting EB Wu fire ….
Transformation will then be real.”

The added condition is that EB Wu fire must be present for transformation to be real. ‘Quan Xue’
website does not state this as a condition for transformation. Based on Master Chen Su An’s
understanding, as long as the Dragon is present, transformation almost always occurs.

3. Gui DM likes wood and is not afraid of fire & earth. It does not need metal much. Water is not
mentioned in the text, so we might infer that it’s the least important followed by metal. But I have not
done enough research on all Gui DM to prove that this is the case yet. Gui DM seems to favour Wu
earth as its DO best, especially Wu earth in Chen dragon.

These are the 10 main conditions for strong DM:

Very strong wood, like metal, likes fire to forge;

Overly strong wood, like fire, likes water to curb;
Very strong fire, like water, likes earth to stop;
Overly strong fire, like earth, likes wood to curb;
Very strong earth, like wood, likes metal to curb;
Overly strong earth, like water (metal?), likes fire to forge;
Very strong metal, like fire, likes water to quench;
Overly strong metal, like water, likes earth to stop;
Very strong water, like earth, likes wood to fix;
Overly strong water, like wood, likes metal to curb.

There are also 10 main conditions for weak DM:

Very weak wood, like water, needs metal to grow;

Overly weak wood, like earth, needs fire to grow;
Very weak fire, like wood, needs water to grow;
Overly weak fire, like metal, needs earth to grow;
Very weak earth, like fire, needs wood to grow;
Overly weak earth, like water, needs metal to grow;
Very weak metal, like earth, needs fire to grow;
Overly weak metal, like wood, needs water to grow;
Very weak water, like metal, needs earth to grow;
Overly weak water, like fire, needs wood to grow.

This seems too difficult for most of us.

I checked the Chinese commentary of DTS
& this is the simplified version:

Overly weak elements should be drained.

Very weak elements should be curbed to remove / control them.
Weak elements should be helped / supported.

Strong elements should be curbed.

Very strong elements should be drained.
Overly strong elements should be supported. (DR / IR)

Not sure how accurate the Chinese commentary is,

but it does seem to explain the logic of the worked examples.
Either way, do take it with a pinch of salt.