Does BaZi use the lunar or the solar calendar?

Neither. BaZi follows the solar terms. The year changes at Start of Spring (Lichun), around February 4, and each month changes at a solar term such as Awakening of Insects. So if you were born in January or early February before Start of Spring, your year pillar belongs to the previous year. Just enter your birthday as a normal calendar date; the calculator converts it and also shows the lunar date.

Is Shichu Suimei the same as BaZi?

Yes, it is the same method. Shichu Suimei is the Japanese name for BaZi, which Chinese speakers also call Four Pillars or Ziping. The pillars are built the same way; the differences lie in how hidden stems are taken and read. Japanese books call the Ten Gods tsuhensei, Seven Killings henkan, and Direct Seal inju.

Can I read BaZi without my birth time?

You can use it as a rough guide, but the conclusion is less certain. The calculator asks for a birth time. If you are unsure, chart both likely hours and compare them. The hour branch is one of the four branches that decide strength, so a different hour can flip the result. Your birthplace's longitude also shifts the hour, which the calculator corrects with True Solar Time .

Is BaZi a kind of statistics?

No. BaZi is a traditional system worked out from rules about stems, branches and the Five Elements, and it has not been tested by modern statistics. It describes tendencies, not fixed outcomes. Use it as one way to understand yourself, not as a substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.

BaZi Four Pillars of Destiny: How to Read It

What Are the Eight Characters? Four Pillars from Your Birth Time

BaZi, or Eight Characters, is your birth year, month, day and hour written as four pairs of characters. Each pair is a pillar, with a Heavenly Stem on top and an Earthly Branch below. Each branch also hides one to three stems, called hidden stems.

Enter your birth date and time in the free BaZi calculator, and the four pillars it shows are your eight characters. The stem at the top of the day pillar is your Day Master, and it stands for you. The chart also lists the hidden stems, how strong your Day Master is and your favorable elements.

Every character belongs to one of the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. For example, someone born at noon on March 2, 1990 in Taipei has these four pillars:

Pillar	Year	Month	Day	Hour
Stem	Geng Metal	Wu Earth	Bing Fire	Jia Wood
Branch	Wu Fire	Yin Wood	Yin Wood	Wu Fire
Hidden stems	Ding, Ji	Jia, Bing, Wu	Jia, Bing, Wu	Ding, Ji

Calculate your BaZi chart

Enter your birth details to discover your Day Master, elemental balance, and how these concepts apply to your Four Pillars.

Try the Free BaZi Calculator →

What Do the Year, Month, Day and Hour Pillars Stand For?

The four pillars follow your life in order, from early years to later years, and from elders to the generation after you.

Pillar	Life stage and people	What to look for
Year pillar	Family background, elders, early life	The year branch is your zodiac animal
Month pillar	Siblings, peers, the years from school to work	The month branch sets the season, so it tells you whether the chart runs warm or cold
Day pillar	The stem is you; the branch is your partner and close relationships	The day stem is the Day Master, and every other character is compared with it
Hour pillar	Children, younger people, later life and long-term results	Needs an accurate birth time

These links only describe tendencies, and they read the same for men and women.

Five Steps to Read a BaZi Chart

Start with the Day Master, then judge its strength and pick the elements you need. Last, look at how the characters interact and how time moves through them.

Find the Day MasterThe stem of the day pillar is your Day Master. The other seven characters are all compared with it.
Judge its strengthThe main qi is the strongest hidden stem in a branch. If two or more of the four main qi share your element or feed it, you are strong. One or none means you are weak.
Pick the Useful GodFind the element that throws the chart off balance, then take the element that restores balance as your Useful God (Yong Shen). An element found in both stems and branches comes first, then one only in the stems, and last one hidden only in a branch. A winter birth needs Fire and a summer birth needs Water, which is called climate adjustment.
Read the relationshipsThe Ten Gods sort the other seven characters into ten kinds of relationship, so you can see which kinds are plentiful and which are missing. Between branches, combinations and clashes weigh more, while punishments, harms and breaks weigh less.
Check the cyclesA Major Cycle (Da Yun) changes every ten years, and you mainly read its branch. Each year also has its own stem and branch, called the Annual Fortune (Liu Nian). Years that bring your favorable elements tend to go more smoothly.

Example: Reading One Chart from Start to Finish

Run the 1990 chart through the five steps and you get a strong Bing Fire Day Master.

Step	This chart	Result
Find the Day Master	The day pillar is Bing Yin, so the stem is Bing	Bing Fire
Judge its strength	The main qi of Yin is Wood, which feeds Fire; the main qi of Wu is Fire itself	All four branches support the Day Master, so it is strong
Pick the Useful God	Too much Fire causes the imbalance; there is no Water at all, while Earth shows in both stems and branches	Earth
Read the relationships	Yin and Wu form a half Fire combination; the two Wu punish each other; the year stem and hour stem clash	Even more Fire; the punishment is mild
Favorable elements	What the calculator lists	Earth, Metal, Water
Five roles	Worked out from the Useful God	Useful Earth, favorable Metal, unfavorable Fire, hostile Wood, idle Water

Water is one of the favorable elements, but this chart has none to use. So the Useful God is Earth, which appears in both stems and branches. Water counts as idle, neither helping nor hurting.

Earth and Metal cycles and years tend to go more smoothly for this chart. Years heavy in Fire and Wood are more likely to feel like pressure.

Why Do Different Sites Give Different Results?

Different results usually come from different reading methods. Fortune Cloud uses only one: support a weak Day Master and restrain a strong one. The classic Ditian Sui Chanwei puts it as "restrain when restraint is due, support when support is due."

Some sites first fit a chart into a named pattern. For extremely strong or weak charts, they also switch to the opposite reading. Fortune Cloud does neither and reads every chart with the same five steps.

Strength only counts the main qi of the four branches, and that rule never changes. So the same chart always gives the same result.

Where to Start Learning BaZi

Start with the Day Master, then read on in this order.

To see how BaZi differs from Ziwei Doushu, read Ziwei Doushu vs BaZi.

BaZi (Four Pillars)