The Chinese calendar, commonly known as the Farmers calendar, or the Hsia calendar, is a fascinating system, which not only records the passage of time, but is also a tool for fortune-telling. The famous traditional fortune-telling system - the Four Pillars of Destiny - is exactly referring to reading a person’s destiny from his birth data as presented in the Hsia calendar format. The unique feature of such calendar is that all information about time – year, month, day and hour are presented in terms of the five basic elements – metal, water, wood, fire, and earth, which are believed to be the basic components of everything in the Universe.

The Year of the Monkey, 2004, in the Hsia calendar, is symbolized by two elements - with wood sitting on top of metal. According to the cycle of birth and destruction, which governs the inter-relationship between elements, metal will destroy wood. Therefore, wood sitting on its destroyer - metal, is a symbol of disharmony and this may lead to international conflicts. The yang wood is always compared to a tall tree, with the characteristic of being proud, tough, stubborn and sticking to principles, inflexible and uncompromising. The metal sitting under the Yang wood is like a dagger cutting into the roots of the tree and kills it from underneath. As such, the quality of yang wood monkey could bring serious political struggles which will bring unrest, revolution, and over thrown of Government. It is a year more difficult to compromise and not easy to make peaceful settlements without using forces. And this may bring conflicts and regional wars. Middle east could be trouble spot again. In accordance with feng shui flying stars, the bad star 5 Yellow will be present in the centre in 2004. Therefore, areas with its name related to “Central” or “Middle” will be more easy to encounter conflict or natural disasters. Such areas include Middle East, Central America, China, Central Africa…etc.

The Chinese calendar year goes on 60-year cycle. This means that we had experienced the same year of yang wood on metal Monkey in 1944 when the world is deep at war and the allies are winning with the invasion at Normandy on 6th June. 2004, sixty years after, the same pair of elements wood on metal may bring such fierce fighting again, and we should see it as a year of decisive battle against international terrorism. Like the D-day, it will be a deciding year for long term world peace, but such peace can only come after a final struggle. And conflicts and skirmishes here and there will be inevitable.

The Yang wood - in the system of Four Pillars of Destiny, is a symbol of spring with prospect of growth. It is the first Heavenly Stem of the 10 year cycle so it is signal of a new beginning, like plants starting to germinate and grow. As such, the yang wood year will bring rebirth and recovery and new hope. 2004 is also the beginning of a new 20 year cycle in Feng shui called “Age of 8” when there is big shift of energy and we are entering a new 20 years of new influences under the trigram “Kan” which is the symbol of young son. Therefore, it will be a year full of new opportunities and revolutionary changes. The “Age of 8” represents young son and we will see young people come up in power and achieve success at younger age. Younger world leaders will be more in control. Also the Trigram Kan represents the hand, which may bring us into another revolution of new technology - it is anticipated that Artificial Intelligence and Robots will be the focus of this high-tech industry in the coming 20 years . “Age of 8”, representing youthhood, may bring prosperity to health industry with revolutionary discovery in the field of anti- aging. However, the Trigram Kan will also bring negative influence on young people and tragedy involving young people as well as social problems amongst the youngsters may also arise.

As the year of yang wood Monkey is wood being destroyed by hidden metal, it also symbolises hidden danger and so we may see increase terrorist activities, secret plots and political assassinations which may bring regional unrest and conflicts.

In the Four Pillars of Destiny system, the Monkey is one of the 3 animals forming a big configuration called “Three Penalty”. This includes the Monkey, the Tiger, and the Snake and together they will generate strong fire elements. As such, it is expected there will be more fire accidents and explosions happening this year.

The elements appearing in each year in the Chinese calendar is a signal revealing areas that we should pay attention during the year. With the appearance of wood being destroyed by metal in 2004, it is a warning that there could be problem in wood area and this is associated with trees and the environment. There could be natural disasters leading to serious damage of forest and the environment. We can project that troubles may also emerge in area of agriculture, forestry area.

The Monkey is a “Traveling Horse” in the system of Four Pillars of Destiny. So a Monkey year will bring more travelling which is good for tourism. However, it is also a symbol of traffic accidents. And we may see serious traffic accidents occur this year especially in the months of February and August.

The five basic elements also represent different parts of our body, wood is the liver, and metal is the breathing organ, teeth, and skin. As wood is very weak this year, it means it will easily trigger diseases related to the liver. Also wood represents principle and inflexibility in adjusting to pressure. As such, people born in days of yang wood are more easy to collapse and suffer nervous breakdown. It will not be surprising that more celebrities or famous people suffer from nervous breakdown in the year of the Monkey. This may even lead to tragedy such as committing suicide. The metal attacking wood is also a cause of motion sickness – such as Alzheimers and Parkinson sickness which may be more serious this year. . Also the metal is very strong this year, it could symbolize sickness related to breathing organ as well. As wood is source of the fire element, when it is weak, the other area to be careful will be sicknesses related to fire, which is heart, blood circulation and nerve system.

Regarding the economy, the year of the Monkey shows wood on the Heavenly stems and this wood will bring strong fire element, which is the driving force behind the old economy. This is particularly important for Asia, as the economic powers in South East Asia are close to the equator – in an area of fire element. The 1997 Asian currency crisis was actually brought to Asia by the demise of fire element. In 2004, the wood will bring strong fire and earth in the spring and summer months between February and June. It is expected such fire and earth will be helpful to support the economy with stronger performance in the stock market.

With respect to the hi-tech economy, as represented by the NASDAQ. I have postulated that this industry is mainly represented by metal element. In 2004, the wood element symbolises money to the metal industry. This is positive. But the strong metal underneath will bring more competitors into the industry to erode the money profit. However, the optimistic view is that the later months in the year of the Monkey contains strong water which is the productivity and creativity of metal industry. Therefore I can expect there could be a mini boom in this sector in the last quarter of 2004.
.
Property industry is classified as Earth element, as earth produces metal, the strong presence of metal this year will bring strong activities in the property market. This will be more obvious in autumn and winter. The other industries represented by Earth elements are insurance, mining, chemical, computer software …etc. These industries will be active and productive in 2004. Another industry more favourable in 2004 will be business related to fire element which are energy, electricity, entertainment, restaurant, and electronic goods…. It seems there will be more activities in fire industries as fire conquers metal, so a strong metal year means money profit for the fire industries. This favours oil prices.

The most unfavourable industry will be business related to wood element. This is industries including textile, fashion, clothing, paper, magazines, furniture, plants, flowers and other consumer products related to wood.

In summary, the industries that will perform well in the year of the Monkey will be industry related to earth and fire elements – Earth industries including property, insurance, mining, and chemicals. Fire industries are energy, electricity and entertainment. On the other hand, industries related to wood element – such as textile, fashion, magazines, books, plants, etc. are into an unfavourable year. The remaining two elements, water - transport, travel, shipping, communication, bars, drinks, spa….. may see improvement this year as wood is productivity of water. And metal industry, such as heavy industry, engineering, high- tech, cars, will be neutral to weak as their money element wood shows up, but being conquered by overwhelming metal underneath the wood.

In general, the yang wood Monkey is symbol of revolution, movement and changes. The metal cutting the root of the tree represents hidden danger and disturbance to the foundation. So it will be a year of more conflict and disharmony in international relationship but there are good chances of seeing new light and brighter future after struggles. The animal sign, which are not so favorable, is the Tiger, which is into a year of clash against the Monkey. Such clash usually bring about movements. So people born in the year of the Tiger will anticipate more changes and moves this year, such as travelling, moving house, changing job…etc. It is necessary to carry a pendant of Snake as protection to attract the Monkey away. For the Tiger people, it is also recommended to avoid driving cars too fast as the Monkey Tiger clash may bring traffic accident. Also it is not good to travel so much directly to the Southwest especially in the month of August and February, as southwest is the position of the Grand Duke of the Monkey year.

The other animal sign under negative influences is the Monkey, which is offending the year. Also the Snake is having a penalty relationship with the year. Penalty is related to hidden danger, hidden sickness. So people born in year of Tiger, Snake, or Monkey should also be careful of their health this year, as this three penalty is of fire nature and they may bring sickness related to blood and heart.

The better animals signs in the year of the Monkey are the Rat and the Dragon, as they are in combine relationship with the Monkey, so will be into a more harmonious year. There is some good news for people born in the year of the Rooster, they will be into a year favorable for romance. However, such animal astrology is not totally reliable as the system is not recognized as formal kind of fortune-telling. It requires more information than just the birth year to determine a person’ s luck.

Feng Shui energies also changes from year to year. Therefore, it is necessary to watch out for the reallocation of good and bad energies at the beginning of each year, so that we can take necessary precautions if some bad energy happens to arrive at important locations of our residence or office. In the year of the Monkey, the bad energy called “Five Yellow” – symbolizing obstacles and misfortune, arrives at the centre. If your centre of the house is very active area such as passage ways, it is recommended to hang a metal windchime there to dissolve this bad energy. The worst months will be in February, August and November. Another bad star number 2, symbolizing sickness, will arrive at the Southwest in 2003. The traditional method to dissolve is to hang a string of 6 metal coins in the affected area in the Southwest of the house. The Grand Duke this year is also in the Southwest, hence it is not favorable to “Move earth” or making substantial construction work in the direction. It is also not suitable to sit with back against exact South as you will be sitting against the unfavorable energy called "Three shars” or “Three Killings”. The bad star 3 is a star of conflict and robbery. This is present in the East. It is also good to put a piece of red paper in the east of the house to minimise its bad influences.

As from 4th February, 2004, we enter a new 20 year feng shui cycle called “Age of 8”. This cycle favours regions with mountain in the Northeast and facing water in the Southwest. As such, we will see prosperous developments in the Southwest region of a country or a city. In Hong Kong, we already have our International airport in the Southwest and the Disney World is being built in the southwest as well. In the coming 20 years, mountain in the Northeast represents human harmony and water in southeast represents money prosperity in the next 20 years. As such, we can anticipate Hong Kong will overcome the difficult time of the past and enter a new prosperous era in the next 20 years.