What is the origin of the four pillars of fortune telling?

Origin numerology originated from the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements. In ancient times, faced with many puzzles and uncertainties about the future, people naturally tried to find a way to grasp their own destiny, so there was a hotbed of numerology. Before the Han Dynasty, people only told fortune according to the five elements, which meant the year of life. For example, Jia Zi and Ye Chou gave birth to Jin Ming, while Bing Yin and Ding Mao gave birth to life fire. This is a thick-line fortune-telling method and the embryonic state of numerology.

It was not until the Han Dynasty that fortune-telling methods based on Yin-Yang, Five Elements and heavenly stems and earthly branches appeared, and there was no time at this time. This fortune-telling method existed in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was not established until the Tang Dynasty. Li, a native of Tang Dynasty, is an important figure in the history of numerology. He inherited the imperial history from the official to the temple and was proficient in the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements. His three-column six-character fortune-telling based on the date of a person's birth was very famous at that time. Later generations regarded Li as the originator of numerology.

At the end of the Five Dynasties and the beginning of the Song Dynasty, Mr. Wang further developed and perfected Li's numerology. He added an hour to the year, month and day, and changed it from three pillars and six characters to four pillars and eight characters, which made it more accurate to judge people's fate. This is a leap in the history of numerology. At this point, numerology has officially entered a relatively mature and complete stage. Xu's Yuan Hai Zi Ping is an important book on numerology.