Knowing Destiny, Making Destiny
AI translated from the original Chinese.
Since I began taking consultations, I'm often asked whether fortune telling is my profession. Of course not. Zi Wei Dou Shu is just my hobby. If I really made fortune telling my living, I'd probably have to live on air.
Cram-school teaching is my profession. I started as a private tutor and have taught elementary school composition, junior high Chinese, high school and vocational school Chinese, and now mainly teach the Chinese subjects for national civil service exams, including Chinese, composition and official documents. I've been in the national exam field for ten years. Through long observation, I've noticed that in the Chinese papers of the elementary-level exam, the fifth-grade local special exam and the junior-grade railway special exam, "official document format and terminology" gets less attention. Even the exam prep books on the market mostly fill this section with practice questions, without systematic analysis or teaching. After noticing this, I wanted to write a book on "official document format and terminology," which might open up a new market. But after asking around, no publisher was interested, so in 2019 I decided to self-publish 1,000 copies, titled 《國考公文選擇看這本》 (Official Document Multiple Choice for the National Exams: Read This One). Though it lacks the backing of a big publisher, I'm confident this book is the best on "official document format and terminology" on the market, worth having in every candidate's hands.
So did I ever draw a chart to predict how this book would sell? Of course. At the time I estimated sales would be a slow, steady trickle that kept improving, so I gathered my courage to self-publish and signed a two-year contract with a distributor.
In all of 2019, about 250 copies sold.
From January to August 2020, about 300 copies sold.
In September 2020, 100 copies sold; in October, 100; in November, 100. I thought that would be it, but in December the distributor ordered 200 copies, and I had only 150 left. And so the books were all shipped out before the end of 2020.
How can a chart show that a book will sell out in a slow, steady trickle? Today let's look at my own career chart for 2019:
Which stars relate to publishing a book? 文昌 (Wen Chang) and 文曲 (Wen Qu).
- 化祿 concentrated, so there will be profit
- 化科 concentrated, so the name will spread
From this chart we can see the 寅 Palace is the key.
The 寅 Palace (with its three sides and four directions: 戌, 午, 申)
- 天機 (Tian Ji) and 太陰 (Tai Yin) seeing 右弼 (You Bi) and 天鉞 (Tian Yue): Southern Dipper stars; the books sell slowly, a steady trickle.
- The 寅 Palace gathers 3 化科 (△ marks 化科) from the 午 and 申 palaces: the name can gradually spread widely.
- The 化科 from 午 carries 文昌 and the 化科 from 申 carries 文曲: the publication can earn a modest reputation.
- The 寅 Palace sees only 2 化祿 (● marks 化祿): no big fortune, only small profit.
- No malefic stars at all in the three sides and four directions of 寅: the book wasn't actively advertised.
Overall judgment: the publication isn't actively promoted, but still yields a modest profit, and its reputation spreads more widely over time.
For some famous bestselling authors, publishing books may make a fortune; for me, publishing exam prep books probably only makes a modest profit. Actually, my main aim in publishing this exam book was to organize "official document format and terminology" systematically. For candidates, it helps them master the question types and score high; for me, it was a test I set myself. Now that the book sold out in 2020, in 2021 it's time to revise it and publish a new edition.
All told, the benefit of studying Zi Wei Dou Shu is probably being able to "know destiny" a little, and then "make destiny" by going with the tide.