Parents (Fu Mu)

Read the year and month

For parents the text points to the year and month pillars — the two positions that stand before the self — and to whether what they supply is a support or a substitute: a resource that truly feeds the day master, or one that merely occupies the place. The chapter insists the connection is not a small matter, because the resource line governs both what a person is given early and how well they can receive help later.