Bazi: start with the four pillars and the Day Master
Bazi takes the year, month, day and hour of your birth and turns each into a pair of characters — a heavenly stem and an earthly branch. Eight characters in all, which is what 八字 means; four pairs, which is why it is also called the four pillars.
Of the eight, the one that matters most is the stem of the day pillar. It is called the Day Master, and it stands for you.
What each pillar speaks to
Year pillar Ancestry, family background, and the circumstances of your early years.
Month pillar Parents, upbringing, and the ground a working life stands on. It is also the single most important pillar for deciding whether the Day Master is strong or weak.
Day pillar You. The stem is the Day Master, your core self; the branch is the spouse palace.
Hour pillar Later life, children, and the more inward side you do not show easily.
The Day Master and the elements
There are ten Day Masters: 甲 and 乙 are Wood, 丙 and 丁 Fire, 戊 and 己 Earth, 庚 and 辛 Metal, 壬 and 癸 Water.
Wood governs growth and reaching outward, Fire warmth and expression, Earth bearing weight and practicality, Metal restraint and principle, Water flow and intelligence.
Once the Day Master is known, the next step is the spread of elements across the whole chart — what there is a lot of, and what is missing. That is what decides what a person should lean on and what to keep away from, and it is the question the favourable element (喜用神) and its opposite (忌神) exist to answer.
Can a chart be cast without a birth hour
It can. The year, month and day pillars are completely unaffected, and the Day Master sits in the day pillar, so the core of the reading is still there.
Only the hour pillar depends on it. A chart without a birth hour is still a chart, with the last pillar left empty for now. If you ask an older relative later, or find the birth certificate, it can be filled in at any time.
Common questions
- Does Bazi use the lunar or the solar calendar?
Enter the solar (Gregorian) date and the conversion is done for you. What is worth knowing is that the Bazi year turns at 立春, the start of spring — around 4 February — not at Lunar New Year and not at 1 January.
- How is the Day Master's strength judged?
First by whether the month supports it, then by whether more of the remaining seven characters feed it or drain it. This site uses a simplified form of 得令、得地、得势 — enough to show you the direction, and not a substitute for a professional reading of the whole chart.
- Are Bazi and the zodiac animal the same thing?
No. The animal is only the branch of the year pillar — one character out of eight. Two people born in the same animal year can have completely different charts.
Enter your birth details once and all seven systems are worked out together. The core number, the Day Master, the four pillars, your zodiac profile and the daily reading are all free.
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