"A Blind Country Man"

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An elder in China once asked me: "How can you prevent something if you don't know when it is going to happen?" I couldn't answer immediately. I was thinking, I am neither a psychic nor a fortune teller, how am I supposed to know what is going to happen? He continued, "Do you know how a blind country man feels when he first enters the city?" I answered, "He must be terrified because it is unknown, and he doesn't know where he is going." The elder smiled. "He will definitely be scared when he first enters the city, because he just lost his familiar pattern of the countryside. He has no idea what the pattern is like in a busy city." The elder's words are very philosophical; just like the blind man doesn't know where he is going because he doesn't know the patterns of the city, prevention cannot be optimally achieved without recognizing the patterns of nature.

For thousands of years, the ancient Chinese recognized that "the patterns of nature are always cyclical". They also believed that if we don't recognize the pattern of cycles, based on past observations and experiences, we will not know what events are likely to occur in the future. Many short cycles can simply be observed from second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, month to month or year to year. For example, the EKG of heartbeats, times of day, the phases of the moon, the seasons, the lifespan of a plant, menstrual periods, the position of stars and planets -- all move in cyclical patterns. In contrast, longer cycles may take many generations, even hundreds or thousands of years to complete a cycle. Just because one cannot see them during one's lifetime does not mean they don't exist.

One common phenomenon is the yearly cycle of plants and animals; they wake up in spring when it is warm and go dormant in winter when it is cold. This phenomenon repeats year after year without end. Although the weather changes from season to season, the seasons repeat every year. However, we have all noticed that the same season can vary quite a lot in different years. Winter was milder and warmer in 2001 in contrast to other winters. Spring was unusually cool in 2002 compared to other springs. Is there a pattern that can predict in which year summer will be unusually cool or winter will be unusually warm? The answer is yes!

One of the cycles that last longer than a year is called Jia Zi. A Jia Zi is is a combination of astronomical and atmospheric cycles and lasts sixty years. Interestingly, the ancient Chinese discovered that meteorological, climatic and terrestrial phenomena repeat every Jia Zi. For example, if we had a windy and hot year in 2002, then it is very likely that the weather in 2062 will also be windy and hot.

The ancient Chinese learned that the influence of weather cannot be underestimated. Weather affects agriculture, natural disasters, the economy, human health and more. About two thousand years ago, there was a written almanac included in the first Chinese medical text, detailing how weather influences agriculture, animal growth, natural disasters and human diseases for each of the sixty years of the cycle. This knowledge is the foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is a reflection of, or a method of coping with, the "unpredictablity of weather." Thus, by following weather patterns, healers can treat upcoming diseases long before their actual occurrence. According to Chinese historical records, in many dynasties, physicians had to pass an imperial examination on how the weather pattern of every year of the cycle affects health.

If we don't have knowledge of the sixty-year cycle, the idea of prevention is almost meaningless; it is just like the blind country man who has entered an unknown city. Understanding the patterns of nature can help us plan things ahead of time. If someone asks, "What comes after morning?", we all know the answer right away -- it will be noon, and after noon, evening will come. Understanding the sixty-year cycle is no different from understanding the daily cycle.