八字算命在算些什么？——中国人认识世界的一种复杂系统What Does Bazi Fortune-Telling Compute? A Chinese System for Knowing the World

In daily life we may have heard sayings like "incompatible birth charts", "an unlucky year" or "the red phoenix star is stirring". These mystical set phrases have become part of Chinese folk custom. And the saying "the poor consult fortune-tellers, the rich burn incense" captures the common mindset of people who turn to fortune-telling. So what exactly does bazi (Eight Characters) fortune-telling, which has influenced the Chinese for at least several hundred years, compute? Where did this extraordinarily complex and precise system come from? What values in everyday Chinese thinking does it reflect? Does it mean anything in modern society? Is it "psychological counselling better suited to the Chinese constitution"? Questions for discussion: The differences and connections between the Eight Trigrams system and the yin-yang and Five Phases system Agricultural society's close attention to environment and seasons What counts as a "good fate": everyday values Questions to spark interest: How many possible bazi are there? (MBTI has 16 types, the zodiac has 12 signs) Is it really accurate? Is big-data fortune-telling feasible?