Hurting Officer Case Study: An Elitist Who Ended Up Nowhere

The Hurting Officer ‘god’ is perhaps one of the most controversial ‘gods’ and is one of the most talked-about topics in BaZi. In a chart where Hurting Officer is playing a positive role, they can be the most creative and intelligent people who break the mould and come up with new ways to do things. At their worst, they are easily the most despised and unliked people within a group or organization. If there are two ‘gods’ which annoy practitioners the most, it would be negative Hurting Officer and Indirect Resource charts, with Rob Wealth in a close third place. There is a reason why Hurting Officer is considered one of the four Inauspicious Gods back in the olden days where this ‘god’ was shunned upon.

There has been a lot of chatter about people’s characters lately for reasons I do not wish to mention in my blog. You just have to look at the news from any country and someone will be in the hot seat being scrutinized by the public.

I’ve mentioned time and again that if someone forces him or herself into a position of power where he or she doesn’t belong, trouble will follow. There’s just this mysterious force that will drag these people down and make them fall from grace for some reason. It happens everywhere.

I feel particularly strongly about the topic of leadership because good leaders are extremely rare these days. I appreciate the value and inspiration they can bring and the world could do with more great leaders. I’ve not had the fortune of meeting many great leaders at the workplace, but it’s not like I’m expecting myself too anyways.

For some reason, a lot of them bring their issues to work and have some huge chip on their shoulder and you can tell they’re trying so hard to get validation and to make themselves feel a higher sense of self-worth. They enjoy being in a position that holds more power, and will not hesitate to wield this power in the pursuit of their own interests.

I want to talk about a Hurting Officer chart-holder that I’ve been observing for a few years now, but first, let’s talk a bit more about this flamboyant BaZi ‘god’.

The Positive Sides Of Hurting Officer

Please note that whenever I refer to a positive side of a ‘god’, it always means that the particular ‘god’ is playing a positive role in one’s chart. This is the only condition that allows for a positive side of any ‘god’ to show.

Hurting Officer is, unfortunately, labelled as an Inauspicious ‘God’ (凶神) but it is more accurate in the context of feudal China where challenging norms and speaking up are extremely frowned upon. It’s a more volatile ‘god’ that can potentially cause more harm than its counterpart – Eating God (食神).

There are still positive sides to this notorious Output ‘god’ and they are a lot more welcomed in modern times, with a lot of Hurting Officer chart-holders doing well in society. For beginners, when we say Output, it basically refers to the element which your Daymaster gives birth to and it must be of the opposite Yin Yang polarity. For example:

• For a Yang Wood (甲木) Daymaster, Yin Fire would manifest as the Hurting Officer ‘god’.
• For a Yin Water (癸水) Daymaster, Yang Wood would manifest as the Hurting Officer ‘god’.

Hurting Officer chart-holders does not shy away from the limelight, and you will see a lot of celebrities and media personalities fall under this category. As an output ‘god’, they do possess an artistic side and are always seeking an outlet to express themselves. Most often, this is done through talking a lot of being the center of attention in a group.

Hurting Officer chart-holders are also extremely intelligent, and the one thing that makes them stand out the most is that they are not afraid to change the old way of doing things and challenge structure and norms. It exercised correctly, they can be extremely valuable to an organization, but if done incorrectly, they are are the last people you’ll want around you. They are the complete opposite of Direct Officer chart-holders which are known to stick to the rules and structure.

There are a lot of well-known BaZi chart structures that revolve around Hurting Officer, such as:

• Hurting Officer Accompanied By Resource/Seal (伤官配印）
• Hurting Officer With Missing Direct Officer (伤官伤尽)

Don’t be upset if you have a strong Hurting Officer chart, because it may very well be a very good chart.

That being said, there is of course a flip-side to everything in BaZi.

The Negative Sides Of Hurting Officer

I won’t be shy to say that a negative Hurting Officer chart can be one of the most deplorable you can meet. As a practitioner, I dislike negative Hurting Officer charts as much as I dislike negative Indirect Resource charts because their character flaws stand out the most and they usually don’t end up doing very well.

The negative side of Hurting Officer can be easily summarize as such:

Overestimating Their Abilities & Wanting To Be The Center Of Attention

The Output ‘god’ that drains the Daymaster, the best side of an Output ‘god’ only shows up when the Daymaster is strong. When it is weak, it manifests as the chart-holder trying to exert themselves but without any substance.

As Hurting Officer is about outward, extroverted expression, these chart-holders love to jump at the opportunity to prove their worth when they actually have very little to offer. To give a real-life example, they’re likely the ones who lie just to look better and will buy fake social media followings just to appear more popular or legitimate.

Challenging And Not Respecting Authority

If Hurting Officer triggers any problems or flaws within a BaZi chart, you can almost always expect the chart-holder to get into trouble with authority. In mild cases, it’s just ticking off one’s manager. In more severe cases, one would get into trouble with the law.

There’s something about negative Hurting Officer charts that make them hate being bound by rules or structure. It’s not that it is inherently a bad thing because rules and structures have to change from time to time, but Hurting Officer people do it in such a way that is very unconstructive for everyone.

Case Study Of An Unfortunate Hurting Officer Chart-Holder

The below case study is an interesting one but also an extremely unfortunate one. Let’s just say that I know this chart-holder very, very well but he is by no means a friend.

Let me list down the key things about this chart-holder:

• The chart-holder is very intelligent, but this intelligence is only limited to books. At first blush, his Daymaster appears to be strong, but it is actually not. Fortunately for him, there is still enough Earth and Fire elements propping up the quality of his chart, and beneficial auxiliary stars like Tian Yi Gui Ren (天乙贵人) and Guo Yin Gui Ren (国印贵人) both appear. Studies-wise, he’s definitely going to do OK. He graduated with a degree in law from Oxford. Who wouldn’t be envious?
  
• Hurting Officer is just far too strong. Remember that in BaZi, the elements always come first. No matter how good or how many auxiliary stars appear, it won’t matter if your chart’s elements is imbalanced and has flaws.
  
• The character flaws of Hurting Officer definitely apply to him. This chart also has Kui Gang Gui Ren (魁罡贵人) which, in negative cases, make gives the chart-holder a very domineering and sometimes obnoxious disposition. Please remember that this only applies in negative cases. There is a positive side to this auxiliary star.

You might think that someone with a law degree from Oxford is doing well, but you’ll be surprised that this person is really not having it easy. To be fair, he only has himself to blame because this person gets ostracized wherever he goes due to his character flaws. You just have to talk to him to know that there is something peculiar about him. As far as I know, wherever he goes, his colleagues despise him.

He had a good start upon graduation, naturally ending up in a top investment firm upon graduating from Oxford. For reasons unknown to me, this stint only lasted a little more than a year, after which he tried his hand at starting his business but failed miserably. He had no choice but to return back to the corporate world and ended up with an average job that did not justify his elite degree law degree. It’s not surprising that he had trouble getting back into the top firms because of the years he’s lost and his very awkward demeanour.

As you can see in the chart, he shifted into a new 10-year phase in 2015 which was the start of a very challenging phase for him. From 2016 to 2020, he has lost his job four times. He was either told to leave or the company he was in shut down. To my knowledge, despite having a degree from Oxford, he is currently unemployed and having trouble finding a job and good reference. His ‘luck’ with finding employment so far is due to his elite degree, but the companies he gets into are the ones that people have not heard of instead of the reputable MNCs because an interviewer will know he won’t be a good cultural fit.

This chart-holder’s consistent failures are not the issue here, because failures should sometimes be celebrated as it makes us better people. The issue is the obvious character flaws that anyone with a bit of life experience will be able to tell just by talking to him. The combination of a negative Hurting Officer and Kui Gang Gui Ren has made him perhaps one of the obnoxious persons I’ve ever met. He is a condescending elitist for reasons I don’t understand – because he’s really not that good.

It’s downhill all the way from here. His next two 10-year phases are all considered negative, and for someone to undergo such negative 10-year phases at their prime is, unfortunately. You can tell from the charts that he’s not going to change. In fact, you don’t even have to know how to read charts to know that – because it’s so obvious.

I mentioned in a blog post of mine about how something can seem auspicious but it actually isn’t. Chinese metaphysics is impartial and a lot of the things we value on the surface are just labels.

This person and case study is extremely interesting to me personally. It is a classic example of why your degree really doesn’t matter and how your success is based on a lot of other factors rather than just the university you graduated from. An intelligent person with outstanding academic achievements can have serious character flaws. But then again, how you define intelligence these days encompasses more than just doing well in exams.

I hope everyone will never, ever have to meet or work with someone like that.

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