What is Bing?

Bing (Illness) is the seventh of the Twelve Life Stages (Chang Sheng). Plenty of people open their chart, see "Bing" written in a palace, and are afraid to read on. Here the word is a stage name. It says that palace's energy is a little short of strength, so slow the pace and don't carry too much at once. It describes pace, not your body, and has nothing to do with health. To see which palace your Bing is in, draw your chart.

How Bing is placed

First find Chang Sheng from the Five Elements Bureau, then count six palaces on, by yin or yang and gender, and that is Bing:

Bing is seventh counting from Chang Sheng, six palaces apart, so whether you count forward or backward, Bing always lands in the palace opposite Chang Sheng, and only ever in Yin, Shen, Si or Hai. Volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu) only gives the placement method, worded "count forward for men, backward for women," and doesn't explain Bing on its own.

What Bing means: ease off a little

The lesson groups Shuai, Bing and Si as the "harvest" phase. Shuai (Decline) turns from sprinting to holding steady, and Bing draws back one step further: that palace's affairs take more effort, and you often feel the will is there but the strength isn't. It doesn't mean you can't do it. It's a nudge to do it another way: in stages, with help, and with standards set at a reasonable level.

Chang Sheng and Bing face each other across opposite palaces, one end new life, the other a slower pace. That also shows they are two ends of the same cycle, and neither end is better.

In a few key palaces

• Life Palace: you need more time to warm up to things, and often think a lot and move slowly. One thing at a time, at your own pace, works best.
• Wealth Palace: earning takes more effort, or money often feels short. Sorting out your fixed expenses helps more than straining to earn more.
• Career Palace: work can leave you tired and hard to get going. Loosen your workload a little, and learn to hand things off.
• Spouse Palace: in relationships you tend to keep worries to yourself and work through them alone. When you're tired, say so directly, so your partner can catch it.
• Health Palace: this is the combination people worry about most, but it describes energy and pace, not your physical condition. Put rest time into your schedule first and don't carry too much at once; that is the most useful way to read it.

Bing and Bing Fu are not the same

The chart also has two spirits called Bing Fu: one in the Twelve Erudite Gods (Bo Shi) and one in the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian). The Bo Shi Bing Fu is about tiring easily and finding it hard to get going; the Sui Qian Bing Fu belongs to the annual set and is about energy running thin that year. Bing in the Twelve Life Stages is only a stage name, placed by the Five Elements Bureau. The three are placed differently, so read them separately.

Natal only, unchanged in each year

The Twelve Life Stages are a single natal set that never moves; when you switch to an Annual Luck, it is the Jiang Qian and Sui Qian sets that change. For the full placement method and a comparison of the four sets, see the Twelve Life Stages overview.