(EN) Mang Pai Bazi : PDF

[Le Professeur]

The “Mang Pai” collection brings together, in clear and consistent language, the teachings of a distinctive BaZi tradition: Mang Pai (盲派), the school of the blind masters. It comprises three complementary works that may be read together or separately: a comprehensive manual setting out the doctrine, a practical manual showing how it is applied, and a book of chants preserving the most mnemonic part of the transmission.

It answers four straightforward questions. What tradition are we discussing, and how does it differ from other ways of reading a BaZi chart? What does each of the three books contain? What rules of terminology and presentation were used in preparing them? And how can they be used, alone or in a group, to gain real value from one’s studies?

Most BaZi manuals available in French or English teach a method based on balancing the Five Elements within the chart: one assesses the strength of the Day Master, looks for the Useful God, identifies favourable and unfavourable elements, and then interprets the Luck periods in light of this general orientation.

Mang Pai does not reject these concepts, but places the emphasis elsewhere. Its readings favour the image (Xiang 象): every position in the chart, every God, and every encounter between two characters points to a concrete, identifiable reality that can be sought in the person’s life. The question is not merely whether a chart is strong or weak, but what can be recognised within it: a father, a wife, a home, a journey, a failure, a birth, or a separation.

This approach explains the character of the texts in the collection. They contain many precise situations, concise formulas, and correspondences between a palace and a part of the body or an area of life. There is less abstraction and a greater emphasis on cases.

The collection is not one more commentary on a familiar classic. It is a work of reconstruction: it gathers a scattered body of teachings, often expressed elliptically and sometimes translated approximately, and makes it readable without betraying its structure.

BaZi practitioners will find a complete doctrine, reference sheets that can be used directly in study consultations, and a collection of chants for memorising the characteristics of each God according to its position in the chart. The same vocabulary is used throughout, so that what is learned in one book can be recognised immediately in the other two.

The name Mang Pai, literally “the school of the blind,” refers to a group of BaZi reading methods associated with blind practitioners. The tradition surrounding it emphasises one point: because these practitioners could not rely on writing, they had to depend on memory. They therefore developed teachings made up of short, rhythmic formulas that were easy to remember and recite.

Accounts of the school’s exact origins, lineages, and locations vary between sources and historical periods. The collection does not attempt to settle these historical questions. It concentrates on what readers can study and verify for themselves: the content of the teaching, its internal logic, and its way of dividing and interpreting a chart.

A tradition transmitted orally has direct consequences for the form of the texts that preserve it.

The formulas are brief and condensed: they say a great deal in very few words and assume that the student already knows the general framework. They are based on lists—the Ten Gods, the Twelve Branches, the Four Pillars, and the Five Elements—because students memorise these series before learning how their combinations work. They give priority to concrete consequences rather than theoretical explanations: one remembers that a particular God in a particular position indicates a certain event, rather than memorising a general theory about the strength of the elements.

Finally, the formulas recur from one text to another in slightly different forms, which is natural in a teaching passed by word of mouth.

Modern readers, accustomed to explanatory manuals, may initially find these texts dry or abrupt. The work of the collection is to unfold them: to restore complete sentences, explain what was implicit, and organise what was scattered, without changing the meaning.

Mang Pai is distinguished by the importance it gives to reading life events. The fundamental question is not “Does this person have a strong or weak chart?” but “What has happened, what is happening, and what will happen?”

To answer this, the tradition uses a set of reference points that recur throughout the collection.

The Four Pillars represent four areas of life and four stages of life. The Six Relations (Liu Qin) associate each God with a type of relative or relationship according to the sex of the Day Master. Encounters between Stems and between Branches—whether combinations, clashes, breaks, or punishments—indicate movement and change. Auxiliary stars and energy phases, such as the Goat Blade, Lu, Peach Blossom, Long Life, Tomb, and Storage, add nuance to the reading. Finally, the Luck Pillars and Annual Pillars activate or reveal what the natal chart contains.

These are the reference points presented by the three books, each in its own way.

Reading through images is powerful, but it also carries risks. A single formula applied mechanically can lead to hasty conclusions. The collection therefore repeatedly stresses the hierarchy of indicators: first examine the palaces, then the Gods within them and their condition, and only afterwards the stars and secondary interactions. A formula is never a verdict; it is a reading hypothesis that must be tested against the rest of the chart.

The first step in learning Mang Pai is to regard each pillar as a palace—that is, as a place containing information about a specific aspect of life. The Day Stem represents the person. Each of the other positions represents a distinct family of realities.

A second distinction runs throughout the tradition. The Stems represent what can be seen: appearance, attitude, and traits readily perceived by others. The Branches represent what lies within: feelings, private life, family relationships, and thoughts that the person tends to conceal.

The same God therefore does not have the same significance when it appears in a Stem and when it appears in a Branch. In a Stem, it describes a visible way of being and acting. In a Branch, it describes a deeper, more enduring reality that is harder to change.

Knowing what a palace represents is not enough; one must also determine whether it is favourable or unfavourable. The tradition uses the concept of a favourable God being in command. When a favourable God occupies a palace and is firmly established there, the matter represented by that palace is of good quality. When the palace is clashed, controlled, broken, or drawn into an unfavourable combination, what it represents is fragile or lost.

For practical purposes, the books propose a simple procedure.

Begin by identifying the relationship or matter relevant to the consultation: a parent, spouse, child, journey, home, or health. Next locate the corresponding palace, then examine the Gods found there and their condition: are they in command, controlled, clashed, or broken? Remember that the Stem expresses the exterior and the Branch the interior. Only at the end should you examine the stars and secondary relationships, because the palaces come first.

This method is deliberately modest. It avoids the beginner’s most common trap: accumulating contradictory indicators without establishing a hierarchy.

The central vocabulary of Mang Pai is that of the Ten Gods. Each describes the relationship between a Stem and the Day Master, according to whether the element is the same, produces, is produced by, controls, or is controlled by the Day Master, and whether its polarity is identical or opposite.

These ten figures are grouped into five families, which also represent the five major domains of life.

The five families form a cycle of production and control. The Companions produce Output; Output produces Wealth; Wealth produces Power; Power produces Resource; and Resource produces the Companions. At the same time, the Companions control Wealth; Wealth controls Resource; Resource controls Output; Output controls Power; and Power controls the Companions.

This cycle is the grammar underlying every interaction. When two Gods meet in a chart, the question is which one produces, which one controls, and which one is weakened or strengthened. The books in the collection derive hundreds of concrete situations from these relationships.

Part Ten of the practical manual is devoted to interactions between the Gods: one God appears, another encounters it, and the reading changes. Power meeting Resource does not mean the same thing as Power meeting Output. Wealth meeting Rob Wealth indicates losses; Wealth supported by Output indicates deserved gain.

The practical manual presents these situations as numbered reference sheets, with a matrix that allows readers to locate the desired entry at a glance and diagrams that make the productive and controlling relationships visible. The aim is to move from a linguistic reading, in which one reads a formula, to a structural reading, in which one sees why the formula says what it says.

The third book in the collection presents the chants of the Ten Gods. Each chant contains a sequence of formulas devoted to one God, first describing its general characteristics and then explaining its meaning in the Year, Month, Day, and Hour Pillars.

Readers learn, for example, what Direct Wealth means in each palace, how the Day Master’s character is coloured by the Resource accompanying it, and what danger threatens Rob Wealth when it sits on a particular Branch. Each chant opens with a diagram recalling the God’s name, family, relationship to the Day Master, and the meaning of the Four Pillars.

The comprehensive manual presents the complete doctrine without omission. It is intended for readers who want to understand the whole system and have a reference work, and is available as both an editable document and a PDF. The practical manual organises the doctrine into reference sheets and diagrams for direct use. It is intended for readers who want to practise on charts and apply the method, and takes the form of an illustrated PDF of approximately one hundred pages.

The book of chants renders the chants of the Ten Gods in clear sentences. It is intended for readers who want to memorise the material and consult it by God and by palace, and takes the form of an illustrated PDF of around forty pages.

All three books share the same terminology, the same order of presentation for the pillars, and the same concern for readability. They can be read in sequence or approached through whichever volume best meets the reader’s needs.

The main text is the reference work. It presents all the teachings without abridgement or selection, using explanatory language. Each concept is introduced, defined, illustrated, and then related to the others. Its contents are outlined below.

It discusses the spirit of Mang Pai and the basic concepts of chart reading, followed by a complete chart analysed step by step. It develops the images of the palaces of the Four Pillars and their applications through eight broad families of images: kinship, stages of life, distance and places, people, parts of the body, objects, will and emotional intelligence, and exterior and interior.

It then covers correspondences (Fu Yin), chaos or reversal (Fan Yin) and harmful influences, clashes between Branches, the Ten Enlightened Days, paranormal phenomena in the chart, and Fei Shen, the Flying Deity. It concludes with the secret teachings of the Ten Gods and their strategic interactions, followed by a general glossary.

It is designed so that a conscientious reader can find an answer to any doctrinal question raised by either of the other books.

The practical manual presents the same material in a more operational format. Each part begins with the essentials, proceeds through a series of reference sheets, and offers examples of interpretation. The manual is extensively illustrated with diagrams of the palaces, production and control cycles, an interaction matrix, and summary tables.

Special care has been given to Part Ten, which covers strategic interactions between the Gods. The reference sheets are numbered and classified by dominant God, and are accompanied by an orientation matrix and small diagrams. The purpose is to let readers open the book during a consultation, find the configuration visible in the chart before them, and read its meaning without having to reconstruct the entire theory.

The three books use a shared vocabulary aligned with that of the most widely used BaZi manuals: Day Master, Resource, Power, Wealth, Output, and Companions. They follow the same column order—Year, Month, Day, Hour—and the same spacious presentation, with tables never split across two pages. No external sources are cited in the body of the text: readers work directly with the content itself.

One of the most common obstacles to studying Mang Pai is inconsistent terminology. The original texts and their successive translations use expressions that do not correspond to the established terminology of standard BaZi manuals: Gods named through images, relationships described through metaphors, and terms translated differently from one translator to another.

The collection makes a clear choice: everything is brought back to standard terminology so that readers can move from any book in the collection to another BaZi manual without having to learn a second language. The following lines provide the main points of reference.

The person is the Day Master, and the two families of signs are the Stems and Branches. A ten-year period is a Luck Pillar, and the current year is an Annual Pillar. The families of Gods are Resource—Direct or Indirect—for protection and knowledge; Power—with Direct Officer and Seven Killings—for authority; Wealth—Direct or Indirect—for money; Output—with Eating God and Hurting Officer—for talent and speech; and the Companions—with Friend and Rob Wealth—for peers.

For stars and energy phases, the terms used are Goat Blade, Lu, Peach Blossom, and Long Life, together with Tomb and Storage for places where energy is deposited. Finally, favourable and unfavourable Gods are called the Useful God and the Harmful God.

Pinyin and Chinese characters are retained alongside the English terms when readers may need to identify the original expression, but English remains the language of the text.

The reconstruction of the short formulas follows a consistent protocol.

First, the formula is read in the language in which it was transmitted, together with everything it assumes the reader already knows. Each term is then identified and brought into line with the standard vocabulary. The complete sentence is reconstructed, specifying who, where, when, and with what consequence. Its consistency is checked against neighbouring formulas and general principles. When uncertainty remains, it is stated explicitly.

This final point is essential. Some of the consulted texts were themselves approximate and sometimes ambiguous translations. Rather than smoothing over such passages artificially, the collection identifies them with notes indicating uncertain readings. Readers therefore know where a formula is reliable and where it needs to be tested.

The books were designed according to a few simple principles.

The pages are spacious, with wide margins and comfortable line spacing. Distinct boxes identify notes, examples, advice, and formulas. Tables are never divided by a page break. Diagrams illustrate relationships such as the cycle of the Gods, the pillar palaces, and the families of Gods. A clickable table of contents with page numbers and an internal PDF outline make navigation easier. Finally, the text contains no icons, emojis, or decorative symbols: the text and diagrams are sufficient.

The collection is not a substitute for a teacher. A living tradition must be judged by what it produces in those who practise it, not by the quality of its books. Nor does the collection resolve disagreements between schools: when the same concept is taught differently, it presents the version it encountered, with its own internal consistency, without claiming that other versions are wrong.

Maintaining regular contact with a teacher or an experienced student is very important while reading.

Finally, the collection cannot guarantee any ability to predict. Like any system of symbolic interpretation, Mang Pai must be used with caution, humility, and a sense of responsibility, especially in matters involving health, family relationships, or serious personal decisions.

A collection of texts remains alive only if it is read, discussed, and corrected. These three books are a foundation for further work, not an endpoint. The forum is the natural place for the collection to evolve.

Three forms of contribution are especially useful.

Reader feedback comes first: identifying an obscure formula, a terminological error, an inconsistency between two passages, or a misplaced table. The more precise the feedback, the easier the correction.

Case studies are equally valuable: contributors may present an anonymised chart, with the consent of the person concerned, and discuss how a particular formula is confirmed—or disproved—by the case. The uncertain formulas in the chants would benefit especially from being tested against real cases.

Comparisons can also place the readings proposed by the collection alongside those of other BaZi methods, clearly indicating where they agree and where they differ.

To begin the discussion, the collection invites readers to explore several questions.

To what extent can an image-based reading be reconciled with an assessment of the Day Master’s strength? Which palaces prove most reliable in familiar charts: kinship, stages of life, places, or the body? Do distinctions between Gods belonging to the same family—such as Direct Wealth and Indirect Wealth—appear clearly in observed lives?

Among the chants, which formulas have withstood comparison with reality, and which have not? What is the best order for learning interactions between the Gods: by dominant God, by palace, or by type of event? Finally, can oral transmission truly be replaced by written texts, and what is lost or gained when it is fixed in writing?

Mang Pai offers a way of reading BaZi that deserves to be better known: concrete, centred on events, nourished by a long oral practice and by the art of concise formulas. This collection seeks to make it accessible to French-speaking readers, using familiar vocabulary and pages that can be read without fatigue.

It claims neither to exhaust the tradition nor to authenticate it. It offers organised material, consultation tools, and an invitation to collective study. The forum is its natural extension: every question asked, case discussed, and correction made improves the whole for everyone.

This collection is available for €800 after years of work.