What Is a 'Cong Ge' (Following Chart) in BaZi? Which Path — Following Wealth, Authority, or Output — Works Best?

Where the Following Chart Comes From

Many people first encounter the term "Cong Ge" (Following Chart) when a fortune-teller tells them their "Day Master is too weak and must follow the dominant force." There is a complete logic behind that statement — and it is also one of the most debated areas in BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny) analysis.

Ordinary BaZi emphasizes that the Day Master should have roots and support, seeking balance between strength and weakness. The Cong Ge takes a different road: the Day Master finds almost no rootedness in the chart, Resource Stars and Rob Wealth Stars are severely absent, and the entire chart is completely dominated by one force — Wealth Stars, Officer/Power Stars, or Output Stars. At that point, traditional Ming Li (Chinese metaphysical arts) holds that rather than struggling to hold on, the Day Master should fully surrender — abandoning itself and flowing with the strongest force, thereby achieving wealth and distinction.

It sounds a bit like the Ming Li version of "a wise person adapts to circumstances."

A Cong Ge requires several firm conditions. The Day Master must be extremely weak, the month branch must not support the body, and the Rob Wealth and Resource Stars across Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches must either be entirely absent or reduced to one or two that are neutralized by combination or suppression. At the same time, one particular elemental force must hold absolute dominance in the chart — scattered Five Elements (Wu Xing) cannot form a Cong Ge; the energy must be pure and overwhelming.

The hardest part of confirming a Cong Ge is the "false following" problem. The chart may look like an extremely weak Day Master, yet a faint Rob Wealth remnant lurks in some Earthly Branch, or the month branch hides a Resource Star in its core qi — this is called a Jia Cong (False Following Chart), and the entire reading direction changes completely. A true Cong Ge flourishes when Luck Pillars flow with the dominant force; a false one, when luck moves in the wrong direction, can produce misfortunes more pronounced than in an ordinary chart. This is why many folk practitioners take a conservative stance toward Cong Ge — they would rather read it as an ordinarily weak chart than hastily declare it a Following Chart.

Cong Cai, Cong Guan, Cong Er: Three Paths, Three Theories

Cong Ge is classified by what the Day Master follows. The three most common types are: Cong Cai Ge (Following Wealth), Cong Guan Ge (Following Authority), and Cong Er Ge (Following Output — also called Following Food and Hurting Officer).

Cong Cai Ge (Following Wealth Chart): Wealth Stars dominate the season and appear prominently in the Heavenly Stems, while Rob Wealth and Resource Stars are virtually nonexistent and the Day Master submits entirely to the Wealth Stars. Traditionally, this chart type is said to indicate wealth; Wealth and Output Luck Pillars work best, while Rob Wealth and Resource Luck Pillars are unfavorable. The reason: once Rob Wealth arrives, the Day Master gains support and stops "following" — when the Following structure breaks, the chart that had been flowing smoothly becomes disordered instead.

History offers some cited wealthy merchant charts labeled as Cong Cai Ge, but I remain personally skeptical of such cases — it is easy to match events after the fact; genuine forward prediction is the real test.

Cong Guan Ge (Following Authority Chart) (also called Cong Sha Ge): Officer and Power Stars are extremely prosperous and the Day Master has no capacity to resist, submitting to the authority force. Officer/Power Luck Pillars and Wealth Luck Pillars (Wealth produces Officer/Power) tend to go smoothly; Output Luck Pillars that control the power force are unfavorable, as are Rob Wealth Pillars that strengthen the body. Tradition holds that Cong Guan Ge favors official careers and carries the image of power and status.

One detail in Cong Guan Ge is worth noting: the Zheng Guan (Regular Officer) and Qi Sha (Seven Killings) are inherently different in nature. Some Ming Li texts distinguish between "following the Officer" and "following the Killer," arguing that Cong Sha Ge personalities tend to be more forceful while Cong Guan Ge tends toward balance and correctness. In practice, many practitioners do not draw this distinction and group mixed Officer-and-Power-dominant charts under the same Cong Guan label. That strikes me as an oversimplification.

Cong Er Ge (Following Output Chart): Shi Shen (Food God) or Shang Guan (Hurting Officer) is extremely prosperous and the Day Master submits to the Output force. Luck Pillars in Output and Wealth (Output produces Wealth) are most favorable; Resource Luck Pillars (Resource restrains Output) are unfavorable; Officer/Power Luck Pillars create a double squeeze — Officer/Power presses the Day Master while Output was already draining it. Tradition says Cong Er Ge indicates intelligence and artistic talent, and it is often seen in those who achieve something in the arts or technical fields. That said, "intelligence and artistic talent" is a broad brush — it is essentially a generic label for any Output-heavy chart and is not exclusive to the Following structure.

Which Path Works Best?

This is the most practical question in the title, but there is no single answer that fits every case.

If a comparison must be made, Cong Er Ge tends to be the most straightforward to assess in practice. The characteristics of an Output-dominant chart are relatively stable, and the developmental trajectory during Output and Wealth Luck Pillars is fairly clear. Cong Er Ge also carries a lower risk of structural collapse — unless a very heavy Resource Luck Pillar arrives, the structure is not easily disrupted.

Cong Cai Ge and Cong Guan Ge are more sensitive to Luck Pillars. Once Rob Wealth or Resource Luck Pillars appear, the fates of a true Following Chart and a false one diverge sharply. People with a true Cong Ge in such Luck Pillars tend to encounter setbacks, but once through them the structure restores and they return to flowing with the dominant force; people with a false Cong Ge may remain stuck in a perpetual tug-of-war, neither advancing nor retreating.

Cong Guan Ge carries an additional variable: Officer and Power Stars exert a controlling force over the Day Master, so even in a Following Chart, when Luck Pillars and Annual Fortune stack Officer/Power simultaneously, pressure can still concentrate. Traditional Ming Li includes the saying "excessive Following of the Killer also brings misfortune" — meaning when Officer/Power becomes so overwhelming that the Day Master is completely crushed, it is no longer auspicious.

One point that is often overlooked: people with a Cong Ge should not try to "remedy" weakness the way an ordinary chart would. Many people, knowing their Day Master is weak, naturally think of using more Resource Stars to produce the self or more Rob Wealth Stars to assist — but if the chart is a true Cong Ge, doing so is going against the current, and in terms of Luck Pillars it is likely to cause trouble rather than help. This is where Cong Ge readings most often point in the wrong direction.

Identifying a Cong Ge and analyzing its Luck Pillars is, at its core, one of the highest-risk judgments in BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny). Get the structure wrong and the entire reading reverses. If someone tells you that you have a Cong Ge, ask a follow-up question: does the chart contain any residual Rob Wealth or Resource Stars, and in which Earthly Branch are they hidden? How they answer that detail will give you a reasonable sense of whether they actually looked carefully at your Destiny Chart, or simply applied a template.