On a Sunday evening, at the invitation of a high-end jewelry brand, I was asked to speak to their core clientele about Chinese learning and traditional culture.
Honestly, in this day and age, talking about broad, sweeping Chinese cultural topics is entirely pointless. Anyone with even modest education can casually quote Taoist texts or Buddhist sutras.
And in circles where people have built real wealth, nobody wants to hear vague abstractions. What everyone values comes down to four simple words: real and practical.
So that evening, I shared content drawn from years of my own observation — advice I genuinely feel is effective, and that helps people’s state of being and Chi fortune (qi yun) steadily improve over time.
Skipping the pleasantries, here is the core of what I shared:
1. When the broader environment is in decline, never flaunt your wealth or your connections. Don’t be talking about how a recent investment paid off, or how you know someone who effortlessly resolved some difficult problem.
Understand this: it’s not simply about the worldly wisdom of keeping a low profile while building wealth. It’s deeper.
When the general environment turns downward, people’s hearts collectively shift toward negativity and darkness. When they see you thriving, at least 80% of them will silently criticize — or even curse — you behind your back.
Don’t underestimate the power of intention (yuan li). It’s formidable. If ten, twenty, or thirty people around you are secretly hoping you’ll fail, wishing financial ruin upon you — that invisible force will find a way to reach you.
2. Let me emphasize this next point strongly: over these past two years, your overall posture must be one of gathering and guarding rather than leaking and scattering. What does this mean?
Take the most basic human desire — physical pleasure. I wouldn’t advise anyone to indulge without restraint simply because they feel physically robust. Everything should be kept within a moderate range, with discipline and intentionality.
I don’t want to make this sound overly mystical, but from the most traditional cultural perspective: a person’s fortune (fu) over an entire lifetime has a general mean, and it needs to be allowed to rest and replenish in order to gradually recover and grow.
Excessive depletion damages the root. And once the root is damaged, recovery becomes very difficult.
So regardless of which of the seven emotions and six desires we’re talking about — a moderate amount is fine, but don’t indulge endlessly. Cultivate self-control.
3. A supplementary point on “leaking and scattering”: if circumstances allow, focus your energy as much as possible on core matters and your career development.
In daily life — speak less idle words, open your mouth less, ramble less, gossip less. Say only what is necessary. And aim to make your words increasingly precise.
If you’re a doctor, teacher, lawyer, or in sales — a role requiring constant communication — you already feel this in your body: on days when you talk constantly under the same workload, you end up more exhausted than on days of intense physical labor. Some people are more depleted after a full day of talking in an office than after a grueling day of physical work.
4. Have you ever noticed why high-level government offices almost always include gardens and landscaped spaces?
There is good reason for this. Without going into too much detail, here is the key reminder: when you feel things are stalled and progress is difficult, don’t just grind your teeth and push through.
Instead — spend more time in the midday and afternoon sun. Regularly lean your back against large, old trees — the older and more impressive the tree, the better. Walk barefoot on the grass in a beautiful park, even just for a short distance.
These are all ways to draw in positive energy (zheng neng liang). Make them a practice.
5. If you’ve been going through a prolonged stretch at work where everything feels off — where you keep encountering unexpected problems, one after another without end — that’s not a challenge. That’s a sign.
That sign is telling you: in all likelihood, this particular thing is not meant to be completed in your hands. Even if you eventually force it through with enormous effort, the return on that investment will be very poor.
In such a situation, it’s wiser to find a graceful way to pivot in a different direction — or simply bring that matter to a close.
6. Here’s another important point I often share with high-net-worth individuals: make a regular practice of visiting places that are magnificent, luminous, and thriving. This isn’t about vanity. These environments carry Feng Shui and Chi fields (qi chang) oriented toward “attracting wealth and generating endless abundance” — so your own state will be lifted by simply being there, and the stagnant, dark energy around you will naturally be dispelled.
This is why you’ll notice that the core social circles of any major city tend to cluster around the same handful of top luxury commercial districts, hotels, restaurants, office buildings, and affluent neighborhoods.
There’s a reason: these environments are nourishing. They genuinely elevate your state.
That said, I’m not dismissing humbler, more grounded environments. I myself regularly wander through very ordinary everyday places — but what a grounded environment gives me is vitality, while an elevated environment gives me amplifying power (jia chi li).
Both matter. Don’t favor one at the expense of the other.
7. If your Chi field (qi chang) feels chaotic — if you frequently experience inexplicable restlessness, anxiety, or cold sweats — minimize your exposure to violent content and deeply sorrowful stories of human suffering.
This isn’t about becoming cold-hearted. If you genuinely have compassion, channel it into concrete action — donate, volunteer, give generously.
What’s truly unwise is being someone with weak energy and soft fortune, yet subjecting yourself daily to violent and graphic content that fills you with dread, and weeping alone over the suffering of strangers. Neither serves you.
I sometimes find myself genuinely exasperated — particularly by certain women.
One client — a quite good one — came to me and said: “Master, I feel like my Chi fortune (qi yun) has been terrible lately. Especially every morning, I just can’t find the energy to face the day.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, I asked: “Have you been watching any complicated, emotionally tangled drama series at night lately? Or reading tragedy-filled novels?”
She was immediately startled: “Yes, actually! I’ve been binge-watching a series every night, and I cry through every single episode!”
“Well,” I told her, “there’s your answer. This is exactly why girls who chase these kinds of dramas always have troubled romance fortune (tao hua yun) — always going around in circles. What you focus on shapes you. What you let in becomes you.”
8. The most fundamental advice — the foundation beneath all seven principles above — is this: live simply.
In a single sentence: attend seriously to the work before you; sleep deeply and well each night; never stop reading and moving your body; stay close to nature often; do not squander your fortune through indulgence; live with discipline and moderation, enjoying small blessings at their proper pace; frequent places of brilliance and prosperity; keep your distance from darkness and gloom.
Do all of this, and rest assured — your life will slowly, steadily improve. It is only a matter of time.