The Five Arts of Chinese Metaphysics

Classical Chinese metaphysics is not a loose collection of practices - it is a structured body called the Five Arts (五术). Every legitimate practice in the tradition belongs to one of the five. Knowing the framework lets you see how the parts fit together and where any specific practice sits in the larger picture.

The art of internal cultivation: meditation, qi cultivation, internal alchemy (Nei Dan), martial discipline. Practices that work on the practitioner's own body and mind. Daoist and Buddhist meditation traditions sit here. Modern yoga, breathwork, and somatic practices share the same family.

Traditional Chinese Medicine: acupuncture, herbal medicine, moxibustion, Tui Na massage, and the diagnostic systems (pulse reading, tongue diagnosis, the Five Element framework applied to physiology). Yi works on the body to restore the same qi that Shan cultivates deliberately.

Reading the pattern of a life from the time of birth. The two great systems are BaZi (八字, Four Pillars) and Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗数, Purple Star Astrology). Both take year, month, day, and hour of birth as input. BaZi reads through the Five Elements; Zi Wei reads through stars in 12 palaces. A complete Ming reading often uses both.

→ What is BaZi? · What is Zi Wei Dou Shu?

Asking questions and reading answers. The three great divination systems are Yi Jing (易经, Book of Changes - reflective and poetic), Qi Men Dun Jia (奇门遁甲 - tactical and directional), and Da Liu Ren (大六壬 - precise and forensic). Each suits different questions; together they cover every kind of decision.

→ What is Yi Jing? · What is Qi Men Dun Jia?

Reading patterns from form. Feng Shui (风水) reads the form of land and buildings. Mian Xiang (面相) reads faces. Shou Xiang (手相) reads palms. Body reading and architectural reading also sit here. Anything you can look at and read, in the Chinese tradition, is Xiang.

→ What is Feng Shui?

A serious master in the classical tradition practises across multiple arts. A BaZi reader who never studies Yi Jing has no answer for timing questions outside the chart. A Feng Shui consultant who does not understand BaZi cannot tailor a home to its inhabitants. The arts are designed to interlock - each compensates for the limits of the others.

Master Ming De delivers readings across all five arts on MyBaZi. The starting point for most is Ming - your BaZi or Zi Wei chart. Everything else builds on knowing yourself.