《that’s China》 3/2012

NAME DROPPER
国际最著名风水大师赵易上海起名大师取名公司起名杭州风水别墅风水堪舆风水台湾风水大师房屋风水楼盘风水保生儿子办公风水玄空风水培训宝宝起名婴儿起名取名公司风水用品风水专家国际风水风水大师中国第一起名专家赵易周易经取名公司义乌起名北京起名产品起名商标起名品牌酿名轩
Meet the feng shui master who made his name by choosing yours
BY TONGFEI ZHANG AND HART HUGUET HAGERTY

People are living better lives and they want better names to accompany them

Feng shui master Zhao Yi (赵易)offers a number of services: fortune telling, feng shui consulting, naming companies and naming people. He has named and renamed over 2,000people to date and, with the Year of the Dragon upon us, anticipates naming many more over the next 12 months Here, he explains the significance of names, how he goes about choosing them and why China’s name game is changing.

So tell us…what’s in a name?
There’s an old Chinese saying “a name equals your fate,”meaning a name is closely connected with you for your entire life. Fate is the most important thing in life. It is comprised of Yin Yang and the five elements (wuxing).Similarly, Chinese characters also have Yin Yang and the five elements. A person’s fate does not have all five elements; there is always something missing, so the characters in name can be a supplement that fulfills which of the five elements someone’s fate is lacking and restore balance.

How do you manage to fit a baby’s name with its fate?
I spend two or three days studying how the baby’s birth date, hour of birth, family names and other factors all fit together with characters. To understand characters, it is crucial to be proficient with their origins because each character has a root in the five elements, For example, the character for ‘sky’ belongs to metal, ‘earth’ belongs to earth of course and ‘person’ is a compound of all five elements. After my analysis, I make several combinations then finally present my three best choices to the parents.

How do you think your own name worked out with fate?
My name is my original name. It’s an odd coincidence that there’s a character ‘yi’(易) in my name, the same as the ‘yi’ in Yi jing(易经)，the Chinese literary classic about Yin Yang I studied for so long. Furthermore the ‘sun’ and ‘moon’ characters together make ‘yi,’ which represents the universe and Yin Yang. I’d say it’s destiny.

Have you seen a lot of Dragon Babies in your office lately?
Very many, indeed. People desperately want to have Dragon Babies(long baobao龙宝宝). However, many people were misled by media reports and thought as long as their babies are born after January 1,they are Dragon Babies. In fact, in traditional Chinese culture neither New Year’s Day nor Spring Festival marks the start of the Dragon horoscope. It’s actually the first day of spring Festival marks the start of the Dragon horoscope. It’s actually the first day of spring, so only babies born on or after that day are real long baobao.

Why are Dragon Babies so desirable?Do they have better fates?
No, not really. People want long baobao so much because of their intense admiration of the dragon totem. But a Dragon Baby isn’t necessarily better off than, say, a Rabbit Baby.

Besides the Dragon Baby boom, has your business increased with China’s growing economy?
The more powerful our economy is, the more optimistic I feel about this industry. Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ says people will only seek spiritual needs once their material needs are fulfilled. The name-giving business is both material and spiritual and, thanks to the economy, people are living better lives and they want better names to accompany them.

Has the name-giving field changed at all since you began?
The industry is a bit of mess right now because many people are choosing names themselves with these websites that offer free online naming through computer programming [users insert basic information and preferences and the website automatically generates many names]. The names might be trendy, but, in my eyes, they’re just meaningless because you can’t find any basis for these characters. I’m a little concerned about this phenomenon.

What about names themselves?Have there been any trends?
Boys’ and girls’ names should be different so that people are able to tell the gender from the name. But as the sexes are becoming more equal, girls’ names are no longer what they used to be. Historically, doys’ names sound stronger and girls’ names sound softer, but this is changing with the time. Now girls’ names might be soft, but they should never be weak.

Do parents try to influence you?
Once a client insisted on giving her daughter a very fashionable name, saying “the more stylish, the better.” I told her it couldn’t be trendier than the name I chose and said, “You can’t name her a cutesie weibo username or your daughter will blame me when she grows up.” I have to draw the line somewhere.


Shanghai Naming Creative Co. Ltd 上海酿名创意有限公司
Rm 1402, Block 5, Lane 1258 Zhongxing Lu, by Gonghe xin lu
中兴路1258弄北方佳苑5号楼1402室，近共和新路（56321238， www.cctuv.com）

ZHAO YI’S SERVICE MENU
Name creation or name change:RMB1,980 per Person; for twins, RMB2,280 each; RMB2,980 for foreigners
Company name creation:RMB5,600/9,600/18,600(depending on the company size)
Assessment of a name’s luch:RMB980
Fortune telling(10-year forecast):RMB2,980
Analysis of best timing for a baby’s birth:RMB1,980

（附译稿/趙易）
上海《城市漫步》英文版，2012年3月刊
起名点滴
对话风水师 起名一席谈
作者：张桐菲和Hart Huguet Hagerty
人们为了生活更美好，都希望有个好名字陪伴自己一生。

    风水大师趙易提供多项服务：算命预测，风水咨询，公司和个人起名。经他起名、更名的人数超过了2000位，今年是龙年，预计未来的12个月里，将会有更多的人到他这里起名。他起的名，比较符合中国的传统命理，并满足名字的寓意、读音、字形搭配以及时代感等各种要件。

    问：（记者，下同）能否告诉我们，名字究竟是什么？
    答：（趙易，下同）中国有句老话“名，自命也”，这意味着你一生的命运其实与自己的名字密切相关。命运对人的一生影响极大，中国传统命理认为，人出生的时间不同，秉承的先天阴阳和五行之气各不相同，其后天的命运也有区别。如果某个人的命运八字中缺了点什么五行或力量不足，那么就可以在起名用字加以补充，满足或恢复五行的平衡，使你的命运更顺达。 

    问：为保证婴儿的名字符合他的命运，你起名时如何操作呢？
    答：我起个名一般需要花两三天时间。按照该婴儿的出生日期包括时辰，研究这个人的五行喜忌，知道用什么五行的字最合适，同时也要了解他的天性、命运，考虑他的姓氏等因素，列出可用的汉字。起名的关键，其实还在于对汉字的精通，汉字有它们特有的字源、字根、字意等，你要能把握所用之字的五行性质，可惜一般业者把握不好。例如，“天”字的五行属于金（天为乾为金），“地”字的五行属于土（地为坤为土，土偏旁的字一般人也知道是土五行），“人”字是什么五行呢？人秉五行之气，只有人是五行齐全的，所以“人”或人字旁的字是五种能量都有的混合体，比较平均温和。我在综合分析了上述因素后，再进行名字的酝酿、组合，最后我选择出三个自认为是最合适的名字，让做父母的最终选用。

    问：你如何看待自己的名字与命运的关系？
    答：我原来就一直是这名字，和你们一样，我的顾客也常常问起，有人以为我这是艺名。这是一个奇怪的巧合，我的名字有一个《易经》的 “易”字，我做这一行，人们就有点好奇。《易经》，是一部有关阴阳学的中国传统文化经典书，我学了它很久。日月为“易”，这个字可以代表了解天地或阴阳规律，我的名字既然叫“易“，我也可以说这是命运的安排。

    问：到你办公室来的龙宝宝是不是见得特别多？
    答：的确比较多，人们迫切希望生育属龙的婴儿（龙宝宝）。然而，许多人被媒体报道所误导，以为只要他们的婴儿出生在正月初一之后，就是属龙的。事实上，在中国传统文化里，属相的转换既不是从元旦开始，也不是从农历春节的正月初一开始，而是以每年的立春节为标志。今年壬辰龙年是2月4日18时40分立春后才开始计算的，严格而言这之后出生的婴儿，才能算是龙宝宝。风水先生礼品专卖上海取名公司上海酿名创意赵易 

    问：龙宝宝为什么那么被人追逐，他们有更好的命运吗？
    答：没有，真的没有。人们那么喜欢龙宝宝，是因为普遍存在强烈的龙图腾崇拜心理。其实，属龙的宝宝不一定就比别的属相宝宝命运好，比如，不一定比一个属兔的宝宝命运更好。单独一个属相说明不了命运，所以最好不要拘泥属什么。

    问：对起名领域的发展变化，你能作点评价吗？
    答：这个行业有点乱。现在因为信息网络普及，很多人都上网选择起名的，甚至到某些提供免费线上起名的网站起名，通过计算机编程，用户输入基本信息，就能自动生成许多名字，其中包括很多收费的职业者也这么干。这么起出的名字，有可能是时髦的、电脑评价高的名字，但是，在我眼里，他们之中很大部分只是毫无意义的文字堆砌，因为你找不到任何这些名字之间五行、读音、寓意等基础要素。我对此现象表示某种担忧。

    问：名字之间的区别在哪里？起名的趋向如何？
    答：男孩和女孩的名字应该是不同的，人们应该一眼就能看出名字主人的性别。但由于现代社会男女日趋平等，女孩的名字不再是一般人所习惯的风格。从历史上看，男孩子们的名字听起来更强势，女孩子的名字则声音柔和。随着时代的发展变化，现在的女生名字可能还需要文雅，但不应该是太过柔软的，这叫文而不弱。

    问：是否有孩子的家长试图影响你的观点？
    答：偶尔也会碰上。一般起名前我都会与客户进行耐心、充分的交流，多年前曾碰上个女客户，坚持要求给自己女儿起一个“时髦” 的名字，她说：“越时尚越好。”我就告诉她：“凡事都该有个度，所谓‘时髦’一定是有很明确时间性的，越时尚落伍被淘汰越快，所以起名最好不要比谁的更时尚，虽然我也会考虑一定的时代感，但如果真为她起个网名似的所谓时髦名字，你的女儿长大后也许要责怪我了。”我必须有自己敬业的底线。上海风水|风水|上海起名|起名|公司起名|杭州风水青岛风水大师鞍山取名公司上海崇明风水宝地

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