BaZi · 八字

# What is BaZi?

BaZi (八字, literally "eight characters") is a Chinese system that describes the moment of birth as four pillars: year, month, day and hour. Each pillar holds two characters, which makes eight. The chart is read as a picture of the five elements and how they relate, with your birth day at its centre.

On this page

1. [Four pillars, eight characters](#pillars)
2. [Stems, branches and the five elements](#elements)
3. [The Day Master: the centre of the chart](#day-master)
4. [Luck Pillars and years](#luck)
5. [BaZi and the Chinese zodiac by year](#zodiac)
6. [BaZi vs Western astrology](#western)
7. [What BaZi is for, and its limits](#use)

## Four pillars, eight characters

The Chinese calendar counts years, months, days and hours with one cycle of pairs. Each pair is a Heavenly Stem on top and an Earthly Branch below. There are ten stems and twelve branches, and together they form 60 pairs (the 60 Jia Zi) that repeat in a loop.

Your year, month, day and hour of birth each have their own pair. These four pairs are your BaZi chart: the year, month, day and hour pillars. Without a birth time the hour pillar is unknown, and the chart keeps six of its eight characters.

## Stems, branches and the five elements

Every stem and every branch belongs to one of five elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, and is either Yin or Yang. For example, 甲 Jia is Yang Wood and 丁 Ding is Yin Fire.

The elements are linked by two cycles. In one, each element produces the next: Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal carries Water, Water feeds Wood. In the other, each controls another: Wood holds Earth, Earth dams Water, Water puts out Fire, Fire melts Metal, Metal cuts Wood. Most of what a chart says comes from these two cycles.

Earthly Branches also hide stems inside them: the 未 branch, for instance, holds 己, 丁 and 乙. That is why the element balance of a chart is not counted from the eight visible characters alone.

## The Day Master: the centre of the chart

The Heavenly Stem of your birth day is called the Day Master. It stands for you, and the rest of the chart is read in relation to it. That is why two people born in the same year can have very different charts: they share the year, not the day.

Every other stem in the chart plays one of ten roles towards the Day Master, the Ten Gods: what supports you, what you create, what you manage, what puts pressure on you and what stands beside you as an equal. This decides whether the Day Master is strong or weak and which elements are favourable to it.

## Luck Pillars and years

Besides the four birth pillars, a chart has Luck Pillars: pairs that change roughly every ten years. They show which elements dominate a given decade of life.

Every calendar year has its own pair too. 2027 is 丁未, Yin Fire over the Goat. How the pair of the year meets your chart and your Luck Pillar is what a BaZi yearly forecast reads.

## BaZi and the Chinese zodiac by year

The Chinese animal zodiac takes only the branch of the year: you are a Horse, a Goat or a Rat. In BaZi that animal is one character out of eight, and the main figure of the chart is the Day Master.

The year boundary differs too. The animal of the year is usually counted from Chinese New Year, while BaZi counts from Lichun, on 3 to 5 February. People born between the two dates can have a different year animal in their chart than in the zodiac. We show both and explain why.

## BaZi vs Western astrology

A Western natal chart is built from the positions of the planets and the houses at the moment of birth. BaZi uses no planets: it takes the solar calendar, the year, the solar month, the day and the hour, written as pairs of stems and branches.

Both depend on the exact time and place of birth. In BaZi the place gives the time zone and the true solar time, which decides the hour pillar.

## What BaZi is for, and its limits

BaZi gives you a language for thinking about your tendencies, your strengths and how the periods of life change. People use it for self-reflection and planning.

It does not predict specific events and is not a substitute for medical, legal or financial advice. We calculate charts by open rules and show them on every chart.

[Calculate my chart](https://bazi.astroway.info/en#form)

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Source: https://bazi.astroway.info/en/what-is-bazi