Bazi: reading the Four Pillars

Bazi means eight characters: year, month, day and hour each receive a Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch.

Learn about the Four Pillars in Chinese astrology — year, month, day, and hour pillars that form the foundation of Bazi chart reading.

Traditional shichen divide a day into twelve two-hour periods named for Earthly Branches.

Learn about the Ten Heavenly Stems in Chinese astrology — from Jia Wood to Gui Water, their elements, polarities, and meanings.

Learn about the Twelve Earthly Branches in Chinese astrology — from Zi to Hai, their elements, hidden stems, and the Chinese zodiac connection.

The sexagenary or Sixty Jiazi cycle advances the ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches together.

The Day Master is the Heavenly Stem of the Day Pillar in Bazi.

The Five Elements or Five Phases, Wuxing, are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water in a traditional classification of qualities and relationships.

Understand what Yin and Yang really means—its classical roots, how it shapes Chinese metaphysics, and how it appears in Bazi, Feng Shui, and divination.

Learn the Ten Gods (十神): how each role is calculated from the Day Master and how to read support, output, wealth, power and companion stars.

Hidden Stems are the Heavenly Stems assigned inside an Earthly Branch in Bazi.

The Month Commander is the Earthly Branch of the Bazi Month Pillar, used as the seasonal reference for chart strength and pattern analysis.

Chart strength means the traditional assessment of how well the Day Master is supported.

A Bazi pattern is a classification of the chart's dominant Ten-God relationships, often beginning with the month branch.

Useful God, Yong Shen, has more than one meaning in Bazi literature.

Learn about Favorable Elements in Chinese astrology — the secondary beneficial elements that support the Useful God.

Learn about Unfavorable Elements in Chinese astrology — elements that disrupt balance and oppose the Useful God.

Learn Luck Pillars (大运): how ten-year cycles are derived from the Month Pillar and how they interact with Day Master, Ten Gods and annual timing.

Learn about Annual Cycle in Chinese astrology — how each year brings different elemental influences that interact with your natal chart.

Learn about Start of Luck in Chinese astrology — how to calculate when your Luck Pillar cycles begin based on birth timing.

Learn about Clash in Chinese astrology — when Earthly Branches oppose each other, creating tension, movement, and potential change.

Combination, He, names specified pairings or groups among Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in Bazi.

Learn about Harm in Chinese astrology — the six pairs of branches that create hidden friction, backstabbing, or subtle obstacles.

Understand Penalty (Xing) relationships between Earthly Branches in Bazi, including self-penalty, ungrateful penalty, and bullying penalty types.

Peach Blossom, Tao Hua or Xian Chi, is a named symbolic marker in Bazi.

Learn about Qian Chart in Chinese astrology — the male Bazi chart pattern and how Luck Pillars progress.

Learn about Kun Chart in Chinese astrology — the female Bazi chart pattern and how Luck Pillars progress.

Learn about Element Balance in Chinese astrology — how the distribution of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water affects your Bazi chart.

Understand Wealth Star in Bazi Ten Gods system, including Direct Wealth and Indirect Wealth, representing money, assets, and material resources.

Learn about Power Star in Bazi Ten Gods system, including Direct Officer and Seven Killings, representing authority, career, and social status.

Understand Resource Star in Bazi Ten Gods system, including Direct Seal and Indirect Seal, representing support, education, and nurturing influences.

Learn about Output Star in Bazi Ten Gods system, including Eating God and Hurting Officer, representing creativity, expression, and productivity.

Seven Killings is the Ten God whose element controls the Day Master and has the same yin/yang polarity.

Direct Officer is the Ten God whose element controls the Day Master and has opposite yin/yang polarity.

Direct Wealth is the Ten God controlled by the Day Master's element with opposite yin/yang polarity.

Indirect Wealth is the Ten God controlled by the Day Master's element with the same yin/yang polarity.

Eating God is the Ten God produced by the Day Master's element with the same yin/yang polarity.

Hurting Officer is the Ten God produced by the Day Master's element with opposite yin/yang polarity.

Direct Resource is the Ten God that produces the Day Master's element with opposite yin/yang polarity.

Indirect Resource is the Ten God that produces the Day Master's element with the same yin/yang polarity.

Companion stars are the two same-element Ten-God roles: Friend or Bi Jian has the Day Master's polarity, and Rob Wealth or Jie Cai has the opposite polarity.

The Chinese zodiac names years with twelve animals associated with the twelve Earthly Branches.

The twelve zodiac animals correspond to Zi–Rat, Chou–Ox, Yin–Tiger, Mao–Rabbit, Chen–Dragon, Si–Snake, Wu–Horse, Wei–Goat, Shen–Monkey, You–Rooster, Xu–Dog and Hai–Pig.

Bazi compatibility compares two complete birth charts through element relationships, Day Masters and branches.

Relationship compatibility narrows a two-chart comparison to a partnership question.

Career fortune is a report topic that interprets work-related traditional symbols, often Officer, Resource and Output relationships in Bazi or the Career Palace in Zi Wei.

Wealth fortune is a reading theme built around traditional resource and Wealth-role relationships.

Love fortune is a broad report topic about traditional romance symbolism such as Peach Blossom, spouse-palace relationships and timing overlays.