I recently went through some feng shui documents related to zodiac years, especially the changes in fate during the Year of the Horse. In fact, there is quite a lot of information online about “fan tai sui” in the past two years, but the way it’s calculated is very mixed up. So I sat down to study it carefully and summarized it in an easy-to-understand way.

There are two main types of effects that everyone needs to pay attention to: fan tai sui and he tai sui. In fan tai sui, “zhi tai sui” (the year’s natal zodiac) and “chong tai sui” are considered to have the strongest impact on one’s luck. Zhi tai sui usually brings major fluctuations, while chong tai sui also brings many setbacks—sometimes even heavier than zhi tai sui. When you encounter these two types, you need to be more careful about your health, emotions, career, and finances.

In addition, there are also “hai tai sui” and “po tai sui.” I’ve seen online explanations about what po tai sui is, but they’re still quite vague. But roughly speaking, po tai sui is related to broken relationships, losing money, health problems, or damage to things. Hai tai sui causes impacts from outside—mischievous people, disputes, trouble with rumors and arguments—affecting relationships and career. Tai sui “xing” is also special: it’s an underlying influence that can lead to legal troubles, so you need to pay attention to contracts and your health.

But it’s not all bad. If there’s fan tai sui, there’s also good he tai sui. Liuhe (two zodiac branches combining) and Sanhe (three zodiac branches combining) are years with good luck. Specifically, during this Year of the Horse, people born in the Year of the Goat have the best luck due to Liuhe; next are those born in the Year of the Tiger and the Year of the Dog due to Sanhe. However, the Year of the Horse has the worst fortune for those born in the Year of the Horse due to zhi tai sui and tai sui xing; people born in the Year of the Rat run into chong tai sui; and those born in the Year of the Ox and the Year of the Rabbit also have some unfavorable elements.

This is actually just superstition, so you shouldn’t rely on it completely. Even so, if you run into an unlucky year, just be more careful in transactions and pay attention to your health. If it’s a good year, you can be reasonably ambitious. Finally, I wish everyone a lucky Year of the Horse—whatever you put in will bring greater returns, and you’ll reap success in finances, relationships, and personal influence!