Girls Are Made of Water
AI translated from the original Chinese.
Generated by Gemini
Only at a certain age did I come to believe what people say: "Reading Dream of the Red Chamber at different stages of life, you see different things." At 16, I saw pure splendor and utmost sorrow. I lingered in the illusory world of the Grand View Garden, yet only half understood its content, especially love. At 40, rereading it, I saw a love that twists the heart nine times over, and youth that fades and scatters all too easily. Beneath every great feast lies the sorrow of the song ending and the guests dispersing; without the brilliance of flowers in full bloom, how could one understand the gloom of desolation? I think of what 賈寶玉 (Jia Baoyu) says in the novel, "girls are flesh and bone made of water," like the tears of 林黛玉 (Lin Daiyu), which could flow "from autumn into winter, from spring into summer," until at last her tears ran dry and she died.
I am writing about destiny, yet I think of "girls are made of water," because I am reminded of a case I met before: she is water, flesh and bone made of water. For a long time I didn't know how to tell the story of this case "made of water."
The chart is as follows:
What is special about this chart is the arrangement of its earthly branches. Reportedly, by the 八字 (Ba Zi) method, all four of her branches are 子. By the Dou Shu method, they are 子丑子子. Let's reshape the chart and see what she looks like.
The subject's zodiac sign is 子 (Rat), so we focus on the 子 Palace.
- The 子 Palace: element Water
- Major stars in 子: 天同 (Tian Tong), 太陰 (Tai Yin), Water
- Lesser star in 子: 天姚 (Tian Yao), Water
- The stem of 子 is 丙: Water Two Bureau
- 子's stem 丙: 天同 becomes 化祿; the Water stars grow stronger
- 丑's stem 丁: 太陰 becomes 化祿; the Water stars grow stronger
Jia Baoyu's "girls are flesh and bone made of water" is no exaggeration for this subject.
Among the Five Elements, Water expresses itself psychologically as feeling.
The subject is "made of water." In feeling, besides romantic love, she has deep affection for friendship, family, and indeed all things in the world. Reading her chart, I felt deeply for her.
As we talked, I learned that she had once given herself to love without regret, yet there was no beautiful ending. What she said that struck me most: "At my current age and in my current state, I feel that for other people's good, I shouldn't accept any more love."
A Buddhist verse says: "The deepest feeling is no feeling." Because she truly loves everyone, she wants to give up the chance to be loved; because she feels she isn't worth loving, afraid of disappointing or hurting others, she would rather bear the hurt herself and choose to feel nothing. I could only think: why must she, even in accepting love, be so careful to think of others?
Daiyu wept until her tears ran dry, burned her poems, and severed her infatuation. Did she truly grasp the nature of feeling? "Girls are made of water": having understood the nature of feeling, having understood that "the deepest feeling is no feeling," should one not pour this water of feeling back into the heart? "The deepest feeling is no feeling" is only a stage. I think that the feeling one comes to know again after "no feeling" may be closer to true feeling.
After our consultation ended, she asked me: "Someone once said that a chart made of 'water' like mine is lustful and promiscuous. Is that true?"
The 子 Palace and its three sides and four directions (申, 辰, 午)
- 子 Palace: 天同 + 太陰 + 天姚
- 辰 Palace: 天機 (Tian Ji) + 天梁 (Tian Liang) + 文曲 (Wen Qu)
The 子 Palace gathers 2 化祿, 2 化權, 2 化科 and 1 化忌, and there are no malefic stars at all in 子 and its three sides and four directions.
A chart like this, with many Water stars, can fairly be called "affectionate," but there is no "clash of Ji and malefics," so calling it "lustful and promiscuous" goes much too far.
I can only sigh: the methods of the divinatory arts are endlessly variable, and clinging rigidly to old methods, judging "much Water" outright as "lustful and promiscuous," is very wrong. A reading is never an infallible pronouncement, nor should anyone carelessly put labels on people. In consultations, every word must be weighed with care; rash judgments are a grave fault. Though I wander in Dou Shu without any great accomplishment, I must still stress: "A person's destiny is built from countless choices; nothing is absolute, and there are no infallible pronouncements." I say this as a warning to myself, and hope that unscrupulous readers will take it to heart too.