BaZi Glossary: Four Pillars Terms in Plain Words
43 terms you meet when you read a BaZi chart, each in one or two sentences with its Chinese name. Every definition follows the tables the SPYLL engine calculates with.
Chart basics
- BaZi八字
- Literally "eight characters": the four birth pillars, each made of one heavenly stem and one earthly branch.
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- Four Pillars四柱
- The year, month, day and hour pillars of a birth. Without a birth time the chart still reads from three pillars.
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- Heavenly Stem天干
- The ten upper characters of each pillar (甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛壬癸): five elements, each in a yang and a yin form.
- Earthly Branch地支
- The twelve lower characters of each pillar (子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥), the same twelve as the Chinese zodiac animals.
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- Day Master日主
- The heavenly stem of the day pillar, the part of the chart that stands for you. Every other character is read relative to it.
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- Yin and Yang阴阳
- The polarity of each stem and branch. Same or opposite polarity decides the ten-god name, such as Direct Wealth versus Indirect Wealth.
Five elements
- Five Elements (Wu Xing)五行
- Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Each stem and branch carries one, and a chart reads from the balance of all five.
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- Generating Cycle相生
- Wood feeds Fire, Fire feeds Earth, Earth feeds Metal, Metal feeds Water, Water feeds Wood.
- Controlling Cycle相克
- Wood checks Earth, Earth checks Water, Water checks Fire, Fire checks Metal, Metal checks Wood.
- Strong or Weak Day Master身强身弱
- How much support the Day Master gets, judged by birth season (得令), roots in the branches (得地) and allies in the chart (得势). Charts near the middle often get different verdicts from different schools.
- Useful God (Yong Shen)用神
- The element a chart needs most to balance. The answer depends on the method (扶抑, 子平 structure or 調候), so different calculators can disagree.
- Climate Balance (Tiao Hou)調候
- Reading a chart by its temperature: a winter chart wants Fire, a summer chart wants Water.
- Follow Pattern (Cong Ge)从格
- A chart whose Day Master is so weak or so strong that the usual reading flips, and the chart follows its dominant element instead.
Ten Gods
- Ten Gods十神
- The name of each character's relation to the Day Master, by element and polarity. They come in five pairs: Peer, Output, Wealth, Officer and Resource.
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- Friend and Rob Wealth比肩 · 劫财
- The Day Master's own element. Same polarity is the Friend (比肩), opposite polarity is Rob Wealth (劫财).
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- Output (Eating God and Hurting Officer)食神 · 伤官
- The element the Day Master produces: how you put out ideas, work and words. Same polarity is 食神, opposite is 伤官.
- Wealth正财 · 偏财
- The element the Day Master controls: money, results, what you can manage. Opposite polarity is 正财 (Direct), same polarity is 偏财 (Indirect).
- Officer正官 · 七杀
- The element that controls the Day Master: rules, bosses and pressure. Opposite polarity is 正官, same polarity is 七杀 (Seven Killings).
- Resource正印 · 偏印
- The element that produces the Day Master: support, learning, the people who look after you. Opposite polarity is 正印, same polarity is 偏印.
- Wealth Storage财库
- An earth branch (辰戌丑未) that stores the Day Master's Wealth element among its hidden stems.
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Time and calendar
- Li Chun立春
- The start of the BaZi year, around 4 February. The shio and year pillar change here, not at Lunar New Year and not on 1 January.
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- 24 Solar Terms (Jieqi)节气
- Twenty-four points on the sun's path. The BaZi month changes at twelve of them, so a BaZi month never matches a calendar month.
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- True Solar Time真太阳时
- The birth time corrected to the sun's position at the birthplace, not the time-zone clock. The shift can change the hour pillar for births near a boundary.
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- Rat Hour (Zi)子时
- 23:00 to 01:00. SPYLL turns the day at 23:00, as the 子平 school does. The 夜子时 school turns it at midnight, so births from 23:00 to 24:00 can carry a different Day Master by school.
- Luck Pillar (Da Yun)大运
- A pillar that changes every ten years. It runs forward or backward by gender and the year pillar's polarity, and its starting age counts the days from birth to the next BaZi month change (forward) or the previous one (backward).
- Annual Pillar (Liu Nian)流年
- The pillar of the current year, read together with the birth chart and the luck pillar to look at that year.
- Tai Sui太岁
- The branch of the current year. "Clashing Tai Sui" means your shio clashes with that year's branch.
Stem and branch relations
- Spouse Palace夫妻宫
- The earthly branch of the day pillar, the seat BaZi keeps for a partner. Much of a pair's compatibility reads from these two seats.
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- Spouse Star男财女官
- The element that stands for a partner: Wealth for a man, Officer for a woman. That is why a partner reading needs gender.
- Five Stem Combinations天干五合
- Five stem pairs that bind each other: 甲己, 乙庚, 丙辛, 丁壬, 戊癸.
- Three Harmony (San He)三合
- Three branches that form one element together: 申子辰 Water, 亥卯未 Wood, 寅午戌 Fire, 巳酉丑 Metal. Two of the three make a half combination.
- Clash (Chong)冲
- Two branches that face each other: 子午, 丑未, 寅申, 卯酉, 辰戌, 巳亥. SPYLL grades them: 寅申 and 巳亥 hardest, 辰戌 and 丑未 softest.
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- Punishment (Xing)刑
- A drama pattern between branches: 寅巳申, 丑戌未, 子卯, and a branch meeting itself (辰辰, 午午, 酉酉, 亥亥).
- Harm (Hai)害
- A misunderstanding pattern between branches: 子未, 丑午, 寅巳, 卯辰, 申亥, 酉戌.
- Destruction (Po)破
- The lightest branch relation: 子酉, 卯午, 丑辰, 未戌, 寅亥, 巳申.
- Na Yin纳音
- A "sound" element for each pair in the 60-cycle (such as 海中金, Gold in the Sea). SPYLL leaves Na Yin out of the Chemistry score.
Symbolic stars
- Nobleman Star (Tian Yi)天乙贵人
- Branches found from the Day Master, read as people who help when you need it.
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- Intelligence Star (Wen Chang)文昌
- A branch found from the Day Master, tied to learning and writing.
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- Peach Blossom (Tao Hua)桃花
- One of 子午卯酉, found from the year or day branch, tied to charm and social pull.
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- Void (Kong Wang)空亡
- The two branches left without a stem in each ten-day run of the 60-cycle, read as a part of the chart that feels empty.
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Want to see these terms on your own chart? Open the free BaZi calculator. Read how SPYLL calculates.