Four Pillars Calculator
Enter your birth moment to draw the eight characters of your BaZi chart.
- What it answers
- Your character, work, money and relationships, and the themes of this decade and this year.
- What you need
- Your birth date, time and place. Without the hour it still works, with one pillar fewer.
- What you get
- Your four-pillar chart and a plain reading, each point with its reason. It does not call good or bad fortune.
Sample chart: 15 June 1990, 08:30, Shanghai
You are Yin Metal
Stars come from San Ming Tong Hui. Different schools count them differently, so read them as hints and not as verdicts.
Five Elements
Ten-year luck cycles
Starts at 7 years, 5 months · Runs forward
Yearly pillars
Each year runs from Start of Spring.
Plain readingTrial
What this chart says in plain words. Each line shows its basis. For culture and reflection only.
In one line
Xin metal: fine jewellery, refined and exacting. Gifted, outspoken and hard to govern.
Basis: Hurting Officer stands out in the month, hour, dayCharacter
You are gifted and quick, you speak your mind, and you dislike being managed. You can come across as proud.
Basis: Hurting Officer stands out in the month, hour, dayWork
Suits work built on talent and expression: writing, design, consulting and performance.
Basis: The month pillar shows Hurting OfficerMoney
Wealth is hidden in the branches, so money tends to build quietly rather than show.
Basis: Wealth is hidden in 亥, 辰Love
You need respect and room. Watch out for sharp words.
Basis: The day branch 亥 is the seat of your partner, and its main stem is Hurting OfficerFive Elements
water is the most common element in your chart and wood is missing.
Basis: Count of the eight characters: wood 0, fire 2, earth 1, metal 2, water 3These ten years
Stem 乙, Indirect Wealth: Chances, side income and money on the move. Branch 酉, Friend: Your own strength, friends and peers. A time to rely on yourself and work with others.
Basis: Current luck cycle 乙酉, from age 27This year
Stem 丙, Direct Officer: Rules, duty and reputation. Things tend to be formal and on the record. Branch 午, Seven Killings: Pressure, challenges and hard fights. A time when things are asked of you.
Basis: This year is 丙午This version gives themes and does not say good or bad. Good or bad depends on how strong the day master is, and we are still testing that method.
Traits follow Yuan Hai Zi Ping and common teaching, in our own plain words. Modern job examples are ours.
Understanding Four Pillars
Four Pillars, or BaZi, turns your birth moment into eight Chinese characters: a stem and a branch for each of the year, month, day and hour. Readers use them to describe temperament and strengths, and to map the timing of life's phases.
How it is calculated
- YearThe year pillar changes at Start of Spring, around 4 February. It does not change on 1 January or at Chinese New Year.
- MonthThe month pillar changes at twelve solar terms, which follow the sun rather than the moon.
- DayThe day pillar follows an unbroken sixty-day cycle.
- HourThe day divides into twelve double hours. The day stem sets the stem of each hour.
How to read it
- Find your Day MasterThe stem of the day pillar stands for you. Everything else is read in relation to it.
- Check the element balanceSee which of the five elements are strong, weak or missing.
- Read the Ten GodsEach stem takes a role, such as Wealth or Officer, based on its relation to your Day Master.
- Follow the luck cyclesEach ten-year cycle brings new elements, which shift the balance of the chart.
Our method
- Birth time
- Local clock time at the birthplace, including historical time zones and daylight saving.
- Late Zi hour
- A birth from 23:00 counts as the next day. Some schools keep the same day.
- Luck start age
- Three days to the nearest solar term equal one year of age.
- Element count
- Each stem and branch counts once by its main element. Hidden stems are not counted.
- True solar time
- Optional. Uses your city’s longitude and the equation of time. It moves the day and hour pillars only, because the year and month follow the instant of birth.
Common questions
What if I do not know my birth time?
You can still draw six of the eight characters. The hour pillar stays blank.
Why does my zodiac animal differ on other sites?
Four Pillars turns the year at Start of Spring. Many zodiac sites use Chinese New Year.
Does this predict my future?
It shows how a traditional system describes a birth moment. Treat it as culture and reflection, not as advice.
Is my birth data stored?
Only if you press Save, and then only in this browser. It is never sent to us, and you can remove it at any time.
Sources
- 淵海子平 Yuan Hai Zi Ping
- 三命通會 San Ming Tong Hui
- 滴天髓 Di Tian Sui
- 子平真詮 Zi Ping Zhen Quan