Wealth is the physical possessions of valuable financial assets which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. The modern concept of wealth for individual encompasses all aspects of life. It can be paying off bills and debts or saving for a down payment for a home.
Wealth also provides security such as having an emergency fund to help protect us should we lose our job, or having enough funds to ensure that your children have access to both good education and housing.
As the topic of wealth is almost all encompassing in one’s life, it is the commonly asked question during Bazi consultation e.g., what is my wealth potential?
In Bazi, there are 2 type of wealth stars – Main Wealth Star 正财星 and Alternative Wealth Star 偏财星. Wealth in Bazi is derived by the element which the chart holder’s element countered. For example, the chart holder is Jia 甲 wood, the wealth star will be earth element, as wood counter earth. You can visualise it as trees growing deeply into the earth preventing soil erosion.
The table below listed the both the Main Wealth Star and the Alternative Wealth Star of the 10 different types of chart holder which are represented by the Ten Heavenly Stems.
Main Wealth Star have the opposite polarity of the chart holder e.g., if the chart holder is Yang 甲 Jia Wood, then the Main Wealth Star will be Yin 己 Ji Earth. Main Wealth Stars as the name suggests refers to your main income stream or income of a consistent nature. It can be represented by a person’s salary earned through work. Businesses with minimal fluctuating income are also under the purview of Main Wealth Star e.g., grocers, carwash and supermarket etc.
As for Alternative Wealth Star, it has the same polarity as the chart holder. Using Yang 甲Jia wood as the example again, the alternative wealth star would be Yang 戊Wu Earth. Alternative Wealth Star has more entrepreneurial nature in it. It refers to generating wealth through opportunistic means and risks taking. It can be represented by your investments in stocks, real estates and crypto-currencies etc. It generally has larger volume and movement as compared to those classified under Main Wealth Star.
Does having more wealth stars mean you will be richer?
The answer will depend on the context of the Bazi Chart, as having substantial amount of wealth stars do represents the potential to get either rich or poor. What do I mean by that? Wealth Stars are akin to a heavy sabre. If your body has the build and strength coupled with the technicalities of maneuvering it, you would be able to use the heavy sabre effectively. If not, most likely you will get injured using it.
Using the heavy sabre analogy, there are conditions to get rich with the wealth stars. One important factor will be the chart holder must have adequate support from either the resource 印 or companion 比劫 stars to control the wealth i.e., a relatively strong chart. If not, the opposite will be true also where the wealth 财 stars will cause the chart holder to be in constant financial constraint.
Let look at the 2 examples (1) below to illustrate the points above.
This Bazi chart belonged to Du Yue Sheng 杜月笙 (22 August 1888 – 16 August 1951). He was a Chinese Mafia who was fighting against the Communists in the 1920s, and the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the Chinese Civil War, Du went into exile in Hong Kong and remained there until his death in 1951.
Source: Wikipedia
From the Bazi natal chart, Du was considered to be a weak strength chart as it has higher number of output食伤/ wealth财 and officer 官杀 stars (which deplete Yi 乙 wood energy) as compared to resource 印 stars which provide additional support. His natal chart does not have any companion 比劫 stars.
From a wealth perspective, his wealth stars in the chart were quite substantial. Thus, for a weak strength chart, it needed additional supports from either resource 印 or companion 比劫 stars in the Ten-Year Luck Pillars for it to utilise the wealth财 stars. For his chart, his unfavourable elements would be both metal (output) and earth (wealth). If his Ten-year luck pillar is either of metal or earth elements, it will provide undesirable circumstances for him.
This was reflected in his life experience. His first luck pillar consisted a full metal pillar, 辛 Xin酉 You. Du was born in Gaoqiao, a small-town east of Shanghai. His family moved to Shanghai in 1889, a year after his birth. By the time he reached nine years old, Du had lost his immediate family. He returned to Shanghai in 1902 and worked at a fruit stall in the French Concession but was later fired for theft.
He wandered around for some time before becoming a bodyguard in a brothel, where he became acquainted with the Green Gang. He joined the gang at the age of 16. This is also the age where he moved into a new luck pillar at 壬 Ren which is his favourable resource 印element. This constituted a change in his life where he met with his mentor and benefactor Huang Jin Rong 黄金荣, the highest-ranked Chinese detective in the French Concession Police (FCP) and leader of the Green Gang.
From age 26 onwards, Du started to move into both Water (Resource) and Wood (Companion) element Luck Pillars. These were his favourable elements and his status propelled with both wealth and power. He was rumored to control all of Shanghai’s opium business and had 30 million silver coins at his peak.
Du was a classic example of weak strength chart with strong wealth stars. Thus, he required support from his Resource 印 and Companion 比劫 Elements in order to utilise the wealth. If he was met with Output食伤 and Wealth财 elements in his subsequent Ten-Year luck pillars, we doubt he would be named the “Number One Mafia ever seen in Three Hundred Years” 三百年帮会第一人.
Let's look at the second example
This Bazi belongs to Silas Aaron Hardoon (1851–1931). He was a wealthy businessman and well-known public figure in the city of Shanghai in the early 20th century.
Source: Wikipedia
From a Bazi perspective, Silas belonged to a relatively strong strength chart. Reference to the chart above, you can see that he had a relatively good number of resource印 and companion比劫 stars to support him as 庚Geng metal. With enough strength, the chart holder would like to have both output食伤 and wealth财 stars in his natal chart or at least inside Ten-Year Luck Pillars. Things may not turn out as well if his Ten-Year Luck Pillar were of resource印 and companion比劫 stars. This was reflected inside his life journey.
If you look at the first two Ten Year Luck Pillar, it comprised mainly resource印 stars which was unfavourable for his chart, thus he did not have a comfortable life at the start. Silas was born into a poor Jewish family in Baghdad. His family left Baghdad for Mumbai, India where he was educated at a charitable school funded by David Sassoon. In 1868, Silas travelled to the city of Shanghai (China) at age 17, where he was employed by David Sassoon & Company as a rent collector and watchman.
However, Silas was lucky. Although, he did not have any wealth财 stars inside his chart, his subsequent Ten-year luck pillars from 30 years onward were both wealth财 elements and output食伤 element. These were favourable for him and it allowed him to accumulate great wealth. Shrewd investments, particularly in properties on Shanghai's "Fifth Avenue," Nanking Road, eventually made him one of that city's wealthiest inhabitants. In fact, Silas was the man who funded the building and construction of the original Nanking Road. When he died in 1931, his personal fortune was estimated at $650 million, equivalent to around $15 billion in current dollars.
From Silas example, we can also highlight that if you do not have wealth财 stars inside your natal chart, you would still be able to accumulate substantial wealth if you encountered Ten-year luck pillars with wealth element. If not, there is actually nothing to be concern about. It does not mean you would not have the ability to accumulate wealth. It meant that your wealth accumulation method would most likely not be business or investment linked related.
The above 2 examples are simple illustration of one’s wealth potential based on the favourable/unfavourable elements in his Natal chart and Ten-Year luck pillars.
If you like to know more about your own wealth potential, you can clink on this link to explore further.
(1) Case Studies taken from 千理命稿