BaZi ("eight characters"), also called the Four Pillars of Destiny, is the main Chinese system of birth-chart astrology. It is widely used across China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The four pillars
Your birth date and time are written as four pillars: year, month, day and hour. Each pillar has two characters:
- a heavenly stem (one of 10, each tied to an element and to yin or yang)
- an earthly branch (one of 12, the zodiac animals)
That gives eight characters in all, hence the name.
The year starts at Lichun
In BaZi the year changes at Lichun (the start of spring), around 4 February, not at Chinese New Year or 1 January. Someone born in late January belongs to the previous year's animal in BaZi.
Your Day Master
The heavenly stem of your day pillar is your Day Master, the element that represents you. The five elements are:
- Wood: growth and kindness
- Fire: passion and warmth
- Earth: stability and trust
- Metal: discipline and fairness
- Water: wisdom and flexibility
Each comes in a yang and a yin form, for ten Day Masters in all.
Balance of elements
A BaZi reader counts how strongly each element appears across the eight characters. A missing element is often read as a quality to develop consciously, or one that others in your life provide.
Rekha shows your four pillars, Day Master and missing elements free in the Kundli page, alongside your Vedic chart.
Strong and weak Day Masters
BaZi readers judge whether your Day Master is strong or weak by counting how many of the other seven characters support it. Elements that produce or match your Day Master support it; elements that it produces, controls or is controlled by drain it. A strong Day Master is thought to benefit from elements that channel its energy; a weak one from elements that support it. These helpful elements are called "useful gods".
The productive and controlling cycles
The five elements interact in two cycles:
- Productive: Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal carries Water, Water nourishes Wood.
- Controlling: Wood breaks Earth, Earth dams Water, Water puts out Fire, Fire melts Metal, Metal cuts Wood.
BaZi and the Chinese zodiac
Your year pillar's earthly branch is your zodiac animal, but BaZi uses all four pillars. Your day and hour pillars often say more about your personality than the year animal does.