Traditional Divination6 min read
Chinese Name Studies: Strokes, Five Phases, and Sound
Names are symbols and sound—balance the chart, don’t worship stroke counts
Qing Kangxi stroke counts and folk numerology books built the five-grid method, often paired with Ba Zi. Names are seen as mild postnatal adjustment—weaker than the birth chart but repeated daily in speech and identity.
- Read Ba Zi: if fire helps, choose fire meaning or radicals—not one magic digit.
- Check grids: human and earth grids should support, not severely clash.
- Read aloud in Mandarin and local dialect; avoid awkward homophones.
Key takeaways
- Five grids map stroke counts to elements; Human grid (surname end + first given character) is key mid-life luck.
- Support Ba Zi useful gods first, then tune strokes—avoid rare characters just to hit a “lucky number.”
- Tone, rhyme, and bad homophones often matter more than one grid score.
Sources & references
Key points are summarized from the works and public references below, reflecting mainstream feng shui, fate-chart, and divination teachings for beginners—not personal invention. Apply ideas with judgment.
- ReferenceChinese name studies (Wikipedia)
Naming tradition
- ClassicKangxi Dictionary
Stroke counts for naming numerology
- ReferenceBa Zi (Wikipedia)
Four Pillars overview