What did birthday mean in ancient times?

The so-called "birthdates" is to transform a person's "date of birth" into a chart composed of "heavenly stems and earthly branches" according to a specific law, which is a chart that can analyze a person's future fortune. Because the "total number of branches" in this picture is just "eight", it is collectively called "eight characters" or commonly known as "birth". A person's horoscope contains four pillars, namely, annual trunk branch, monthly trunk branch, daily trunk branch and hourly trunk branch. Therefore, eight characters are also called "four pillars", and eight characters can also be called "four pillars". What is eight-character fortune telling? Usually I often talk about eight-character fortune telling and fortune telling. For example, the "eight-character marriage" before marriage should use the date of birth of both men and women, which is the most important basis for the combination of men and women in feudal times-life letter. In the past, it was difficult to get married if two people's birthdays were inconsistent in life letters, so two people may have separated before they met. Times are different, but the influence of eight characters on people is unchanged. If two people's personalities don't match, even if they can get married, there will be many problems. Some people divorce, while others have extramarital affairs. At this time, the injured party may feel that they are controlled by fate, and then go to Zhouyi experts for help. However, if you find a "fortuneteller" to make up the rest, you won't be able to solve the problem, and you won't believe in Zhouyi any more. So, what is eight-character fortune telling? To put it simply, the "eight characters" are also called four columns (annual column, moon column, sun column and hour column). Each column has two characters, with heavenly stems above and earthly branches below, which are exactly eight words, so it is called "eight characters". According to legend, during the period of the Yellow Emperor, China's calendar (now the lunar calendar) was made by the emperor's family and Fu. Since the era of the Yellow Emperor, there have been 78 flowers and 68 flowers. A 60-year-old flower is composed of heavenly stems and earthly branches arranged in turn and combined circularly. The so-called heavenly stems are ten words: nail, B, C, D, E, Ji, Ke, Xin, Ren and Gui, and the earthly branches are twelve words: Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai. The arrangement and combination of branches, the heavenly stems start from "A", take the first word "Zi" of the ground branches, take it in turn, cycle it, * * * to get 60 different combinations of branches, which are called "Jiazi" (60 years) and "Huahua". The lunar calendar is also called the lunar calendar, which can affect agricultural production. Some agricultural proverbs, such as "Xue Ruizhao has a good year" and "May 969, look up at the willows", have great accuracy. The lunar calendar takes the dry branch as the date of the year and month, and the dry branch is the core of the lunar calendar. For example, this year is when Shen Jianian, Jia Shumu, Shen Shujin, Jin Kemu and Jin Mu are at war and there is a disaster. Maybe we can contact this year. In other words, branches can affect agricultural production, agriculture belongs to plants, and people and plants belong to living things, so branches can also affect people's lives. Heavenly stems and earthly branches belongs to Jin Mu's five elements of fire, water and soil, and the five elements generate water, and aquatic wood, where wood makes fire, fire generates soil, and soil generates gold, which goes on and on. Jin Kemu, wood-born soil, soil-born water, aquatic fire, fire-born gold, and so on. In this way, according to the five elements of prosperity to which the birth belongs, prisoners are released, yin and yang are restrained, and the punishment is combined. When a person breathes the first breath of air after birth, his life is determined by the celestial movement at the time when the first breath of air is taken, that is, the Yin and Yang and the Five Elements to which he belongs. Every moment he spends is his "luck", and the combination of "fate" and "luck" is his life. A person who knows the eight-character prediction can infer his fate according to the transformation of the five elements at each time point. This is the "eight-character prediction".