A lesson on Name Change and Fengshui

[Ken]

Last night as I was reading the Xin Min Daily （新民日报）Chinese newspapers in Singapore, it reported that May Phua 潘竖卿 had decided to revert back to her previous Chinese name, citing reason as fearing for her life.  This is because she was one of the many Singapore Media Corps artist who had her Chinese name advised to be changed by 1 particular Fengshui Master in Singapore.  Unfortunately while their acting career seems to have all been resurrected somewhat by their name changed to the one advised by this master, 2 of them had suffer other mishaps after the name change.

The first one, Christopher Lee (李铭顺）, got involved was charged with drink driving and leaving the scene of accident.  The result was that he went to jail for that.  He reverted back to his original name after being released from jail.  In fact, there were 2 other Fengshui masters that appeared on Chinese newspapers thereafter, criticising the name change.  To me, I see this 2 Fengshui masters as hitting below the belt.  It is a fact that Christopher's popularity improved after his name change by this master.  But to blame drunken driving on a name change is too lame and too irresponsible.  An individual need to be accountable for his own action no matter what effects of Fengshui name change he was under influence of.  

The second one, Jimmy Nah (蓝顉嘻), better known as MC King, mysteriously died of heart failure in his sleep.  After his demise, I checked on his birth date and realised he had a special Bazi chart.  I analysed his Chinese name thereafter and found that the configuration is indeed unorthodox.  Without the information on the hour pillar I dare not conclude that the Fengshui Master caused Jimmy Nah his life.  But I will still advocate any name change and Fengshui done to be implemented after only fully considering the Birth Chart of the client.  That is the reason why I do not agree with Fengshui Masters who do Fengshui audits without analysing the birth charts.

Fengshui customers that baulk at the cost of audit, should re-think again.  Efforts like reading the birth chart is transparent to the customer but yet can make a difference of Life and Death.  So you should not begrudge Fengshui masters who take the effort to read your birth charts because they are responsible and see the link between destiny and Fengshui.  But do ask your Fengshui Master if they read your birth chart and plan their Fengshui to sync in with your birth chart so that you will get your money's worth.

Since the demise of MC King, most of the rest of the artistes (including May and Edmund Chen 陈之财) who had their name change done by this Fengshui Master reverted back to their original name.  Now while I am not defending this Fengshui master, I would say there is no need for them to blindly revert back to their original Chinese names especially most of them have seen in improvement in their popularity as artistes after the name change.  One of them, Zheng Ge Ping (鄭各平) , in fact, enjoyed huge successes after his name change.  This is because each person's destiny as espoused by their birth chart is different.  Hence any name change will still have differing effects on each individual.

The morale behind the story is that find a responsible master and do not begrudge what is due to him.  Fengshui can do a lot, but do not use it as an excuse for atrocities or misdeeds that individuals commit.

[flexon]

what is the moral of the stories? Tapping onto chinese metaphysics is key to success only if you understand what you are doing. The sad thing is most masters in Singapore do not explain in details to their client the logic behind every aspects of their prescription.

[Halloween]

yalor, people tend to overreact but am still sad for MC King

[pentan3008]

I have a question on chinese names:

Is it true that the total number of strokes is not as important if 3 of the 5 combination is good? For example if the tian ger, ren ger and di ger are good even though zhong ger is not good, the name is still usable?

[Ken]

Hi pentan,

There is a simple analogy to your question.  Your question boils down to combination/assembly vs individual components.  Is a branded Prada bag or BMW convertible of high quality because of the individual components or how they are assembled together as 1 final product?  The answer to your question is both are important although combination and assembly will be slightly more important.  For example, a lesser brand like Toyota still makes very decent cars despite the individual parts of its car being significantly less costly than the individual parts of the BMW convertible.

Another consideration about the number of strokes is that when the Chinese name is merely pronounced and not written, does the number of strokes still matter?

[pentan3008]

Hi pentan,

There is a simple analogy to your question.  Your question boils down to combination/assembly vs individual components.  Is a branded Prada bag or BMW convertible of high quality because of the individual components or how they are assembled together as 1 final product?  The answer to your question is both are important although combination and assembly will be slightly more important.  For example, a lesser brand like Toyota still makes very decent cars despite the individual parts of its car being significantly less costly than the individual parts of the BMW convertible.

Another consideration about the number of strokes is that when the Chinese name is merely pronounced and not written, does the number of strokes still matter?

WOW! Then it is never easy to find a name which sound good, with good number of strokes and with the missing elements from my ba zi! Haiz!

[Ken]

Hi pentan,

Don't worry.  Name is like the icing on the cake.  If your luck is ok, why worry about name? 

[pentan3008]

Hi pentan,

Don't worry.  Name is like the icing on the cake.  If your luck is ok, why worry about name? 

Better to be safe than sorry! 

[scwoon]

I didn't know that name change has such impact !
I had asked the question in class and was told it does
not have impact .

[Ken]

Hi scwoon,

Perhaps I may not have made myself clear enough.  Generally names should not alter one's luck very significantly for most case.  I will put it at rough estimate of 10% of luck improvement.  However, this 10% will be very important for borderline cases.  eg if you are a borderline student that typically scores around 50 marks +- you could fail on a particular day.  If you have another additional 10 marks, it could mean the difference between failing and passing.

Hence, for names, if you generally have very good or very bad destiny changing name may not see that great a difference for you.  But if your luck is struggling between say life and death or teetering on the border of bankruptcy, this 10% difference could make a huge difference to you.

[renxu]

Dear Ken,

I think changing name give psychological & mental effect only, good esp for weak minded or unfocus person. It is mentioned in those books that I had read are that name are effective if only being called (maybe is due to the underlying tone/sound, each tone/sound denote a different elements/qi) follow by written. However in this modern society, most people use English name like David and so on. Furthermore, we write in English mostly. In this case, the impact may not be materialize at all.
For movie stars or singers, their names are frequently shouted by fans. Maybe, the final impact could be due to their job nature.

For English name like David or Henry, is there an element?
I seen some website that try to link ABC to element:
1) 81 I-Ching
2) Numerology (A = 1, .... J = 9, K = 1...and reduced to single digit. Then find the element according to Early Heaven Hexagram.

Of the above two method, which do you think is better?

Example....
As Fire = 3, then getting a name meaning to 3 denote favourable.
Then, fire-needed people will be wearing MU red jersey with #3 for all their life.

What do you think?

Thks,

[Ken]

Hi renxu,

I remember I had replied something to the same effect to Pentan before.  But I will just reiterate my point.  It is most useful for people who constantly had their Chinese name put into use be it in writing or addressing them.  Even in writing, there's a limit to how much you can get people to write your name.  I chuckled when I heard one well-known Feng Shui Master tells his client to write their improved Chinese name 100 times or 1000 times to improve their luck.

Hence, the effect of Chinese name change is minimal for most adults in contemporary Singapore and I suspect Malaysia too.  For people in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, I believe it is still quite useful.  The only people in Singapore that are likely to meaningfully benefit from such name change are schooling kids, celebrities or artistes and politicians.

In addition, even for these people, name change is the icing on the cake rather than as the main tool to improve luck.  In my estimate, a person's luck is about 45% determined by birth chart, 20% by Feng Shui, 25% by making the right decisions and 10% on smaller contributors like name other methods.

For the English methods you have mentioned, I do not have sufficient research into those methods so I dare not comment much.  Their pronunciation will have an elemental association and that is how I would use English name to complement.

[renxu]

Dear Ken,

Yes, I do agree on this.
Name changing impact varies on different person/places/....
Overall, the impact is not significant to the average people.

However, I am interested to know more about the Pentan.
I seen that forum here.

Thks,

[Ken]

Hi renxu,

Pentan means pentan3008.  I am referring to one of our members here.  I ever replied to her comment about the importance of name change.

[renxu]

Dear Ken,

Yes, I realize it. 

Actually, I was taking an interest to the other method - life path, ..... mentioned in Felicia Chin.

Thks,