What is Bazi?

A Bazi chart is made of four pillars, with each pillar being referred to as a ganzhi (“干支”) that makes up the sixty-year sexagenary cycle (六十甲子).  Each pillar is further divided into the top part called the heavenly branch (“天干”) and the bottom part called terrestrial branch (“地支”). The latter is basically the 12-year cycle animal zodiac signs that most people know about as part of the popular Chinese culture.

In a Bazi chart, the four pillars are stacked next to each other with the farthest right pillar being the year pillar, followed by the month pillar, the day pillar, which is the day of one person’s birth and then lastly the time pillar which represents the time a person is born during the day.  In this system, the time stem represents a timeframe of two hours, therefore someone born say at 10AM will have the same time pillar as someone say born at 10:30AM on that particular day.  Together the four pillars make up the 8-character Bazi chart that is used to read someone’s destiny.

So every year, we have a pillar that carries two energies; for example, this year, Wood Dragon year contains Yang wood Jia 甲 on top part of the pillar and Yang earth 辰 on the bottom; while next year’s Wood Snake year is a combination of Yin Wood Yue 乙 sitting on Yang Fire Snake 巳. 

Elements either create another element or places pressure on another element (see diagram below). In a nutshell, water creates wood, wood creates fire, fire creates earth, earth creates metal and finally metal creates water. Water, on the other hand, puts out fire, while fire places pressure on metal, metal suppresses wood (just like we use an axe to chop wood!), wood destroys earth and earth finally destroys water as it makes it all muddy! The way the five elements work really is actually quite intuitive.  

Each pillar also represents different aspects of a person’s life.  For example, the day terrestrial branch is often considered the house of our spouse, while the year pillar represents a person’s ancestors.  Time pillar is often associated with someone’s offsprings or subordinate etc..

Each Bazi character is further decoded as “Ten Gods” (十神) based on the relationship each character makes with the day pillar’s heavenly branch (otherwise known as your day master), which include Friend 比肩、Rob Wealth 劫財、Eating God 食神、Hurting Officer 傷官、Indirect Wealth 偏財、Direct Wealth 正財、Seven Kill 七殺、Direct Officer 正官、Indirect Resource 偏印 and Direct Resource 正印.

These relationships are determined by the elements of each character and their relationship with the day master’s element. For example, if your day master is Yang Water Ren 壬, Yin earth 己 is your Director Officer 正官 which represents your boss, job and/or romantic partner (for a woman’s chart). This earth element can either already be in the woman’s natal Bazi chart, or if she doesn’t have it in her chart, it can show up in a luck stem (luck stems are 10-year cycles that run throughout a person’s life and is an integral part of a Bazi chart reading, for those who understand Western astrology, Bazi luck stems are like the planetary transits throughout your life), or in a certain year in her life. And such periods when the Direct Officer energy shows up will be interpreted as an optimal time for attracting a mate (if she is single) and / or a new boss or job into her life.  Bazi readings can be quite revelatory and predictory in this sense.

The Cycles of Life and Why Get Your Bazi Chart Read?

One of my astrology teacher used the word “pattern” to describe what each person comes to our life with. 

I like to think of a Bazi chart or a Western astrology chart to be illustrative and representative of the karma one brings into a life, or what a soul has chosen to play out and experience in this life.  There is basically no good or bad, right or wrong, whatever patterns and experience we’ve sought out in this life are here for us to experience and evolve from.  At the end of day, everything is an experience that leads us to greater consciousness and the learning of self-love.

I think understanding my own Bazi chart has helped me to become more accepting and at ease with where I am in life.  It also helps me to understand my strength and weaknesses so that I can play “my cards” in the best way possible.  It reminds me that just like all things in nature, good times and bad times always come and go.  

I think many will agree with me if I say that timing is everything in life.  Bazi certainly helps to offer insights and clues on the timing of many things in life. There are times in life to be outwardly active, pushing, achieving, taking risks etc., and then there are times when all such actions may be met with resistance and frustrations because resting, going within, stopping to smell the roses may be much more favored. For example, if you’re riding through a strong Seven Kill energy wave that is challenging, you’re aware that this is simply the energy weather pattern that you’re going through now and you then know that firstly, this time shall pass when the energy wave is over, and secondly, you know that there are things you can do to not get too wrapped up in the stress. This is not to say that everything is pre-destined. Like the quotation on the opening page of my website, astrology and Bazi are like weather reports, knowing the weather just helps you to decide if you should bring an umbrella or dress warmer.  

I personally also believe in the law of attraction and the power of one’s mind and heart to create the things we need and deeply desire in life. And Bazi does not undermine this, Bazi offers self-understanding as well as clues on timing for many things; but having the willingness to trust, to make an effort towards building the life you desire is still up to you.

Anyway, the knowledge and insights that can come from getting a Bazi reading or learning the art of Bazi are immense. It is an ancient system with a long history and plentiful statistics to back up its legitimacy and value. Do book a reading if you are in any way curious as a one-pager write-up on a website doesn’t do this elaborate ancient system much justice!