BaZi · 八字
BaZi: The Four Pillars of Destiny
BaZi means "eight characters". Your birth year, month, day and hour, each written as a pair of characters — eight in total. It is the core system of Chinese astrology, and it is far more specific than the zodiac animal alone.
The four pillars
Four Pillars
Year, month, day, hour — and what each one actually governs in a life.
Ten Gods
The ten relationships between your Day Master and everything else in the
chart.
Five Elements
Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water — and how they generate and control each
other.
Stems & Branches
The ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches the whole system is built
from.
Why the animal is only a quarter of it
Most people know their zodiac animal, and that is the year branch — one character out of eight. The month pillar describes your career and drive, the day pillar is you, and the hour pillar covers your later years and what you produce. Two people born in the same year can have completely different charts.
The Day Master — the heavenly stem of your birth day — is the anchor. Every other element in the chart is read in relation to it.