BaZi (Four Pillars) Basics

New to BaZi? Start with how to read a chart. Want to know which element you need? Read the Useful God entry. Worried about Seven Killings or Hurting Officer in your chart? Go straight to that Ten God.

Getting started

How do you read a BaZi chart?Reading a BaZi chart means asking, for each of the eight characters, whether it feeds, helps, drains or controls you (the Day Master), then deciding whether the chart needs strengthening, restraining, or should simply be allowed to follow its strongest force.

Strength

Strong or weak Day Master: how do you tell?Being born in season means the month supports your Day Master, which is strong evidence but not a verdict; true strength depends on season, allies across the chart and the branch it sits on, taken together.

Useful God

How do you find the Useful God in BaZi?The Useful God is the element that best brings your Day Master back to balance; elements that help it are favourable and those that undermine it are unfavourable, and the main rule is simple: restrain a Day Master that is too strong, support one that is too weak, then correct extreme heat or cold.

Ten Gods

What is Seven Killings in BaZi?Seven Killings is the element that controls your Day Master and shares its polarity (yang with yang, yin with yin); it stands for blunt, direct pressure, which becomes drive and nerve when you can carry it or something keeps it in check, and plain strain when neither is true.What is the Direct Officer in BaZi?The Direct Officer is the element that controls your Day Master and has the opposite yin-yang polarity; it stands for measured restraint such as rules, position and reputation, and it works in your favour when you are strong enough to carry it and it is fed by Wealth and guarded by Resource.What is the Eating God in BaZi?The Eating God is the element your Day Master produces with the same yin-yang polarity; it stands for talent, enjoyment and self-expression, works best when you are strong and it flows on into Wealth, and its one real enemy is Indirect Resource.What is the Hurting Officer in BaZi?The Hurting Officer is the element your Day Master produces with the opposite yin-yang polarity; it is your talent pushing outward, sharper than the Eating God, useful when it flows into Wealth, wasteful when it does not, and prone to conflict when it meets the Direct Officer with nothing to mediate.

Branch relations

How do the six branch clashes work in BaZi?The six clashes pair Earthly Branches that sit directly opposite each other; what really collides are their hidden stems, and the result depends on strength: the strong side damages the weak one, while a weak branch clashing a strong one only provokes it.

Heavenly Stems

What is a Bing Fire Day Master?Bing is yang Fire among the ten Heavenly Stems: robust and outward, hard to suppress and hard to pull into a combination; reading a Bing chart is about its season and the balance of Fire and Water, not about stretching the “sun” metaphor into a personality type.