BaZi: your Four Pillars

BaZi, the 'eight characters', writes the moment of birth as four pairs of a heavenly stem and an earthly branch: for the year, the month, the day and the hour. Each pair is one of the sixty of the Chinese cycle. In the tradition the stem of the day stands for the person, the other characters for what surrounds them.

How it is calculated

The year changes at Lichun, the Start of Spring around 4 February, not at the Chinese New Year; the month at each of the twelve sectional solar terms (jie); the day at 23:00, as most schools hold; the hour by the clock at the place of birth. Some schools count differently: from New Year's Day, by local solar time, or with a late Rat hour. The solar terms are calculated to about a minute.

BaZi is a living tradition in Chinese families, used for reflection and for choosing good days. This page gives the pillars as the calendar yields them and reads nothing into a life.