Glossary · 字有意
A plain-English guide to the ideas in a Chinese birth chart, each with its Chinese name, its pinyin and where the tradition explains it. Start with the four ideas every reading uses, or search for any word.
These terms describe a traditional symbolic framework. Chart interpretation and our naming method remain experimental. A term listed here may not appear in your chart.
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The eight calendar characters assigned to a birth year, month, day and hour. Arranged in four pairs, they form the basis of a Chinese birth chart.
Each pair contains a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch. The Day Master provides a reference point for reading their relationships, rather than a complete description on its own.
BaZi · Eight Character Chart
The four stem-and-branch pairs for the birth year, month, day and hour. Together they form the eight characters of a BaZi chart.
A pillar is a calendar pair, not a separate personality type. Year and month boundaries follow solar terms in our chart calculation.
Four Pillars of Destiny
The Heavenly Stem of the birth day, used as the reference point for a BaZi chart. Its element and yin-yang polarity determine how other stems are classified.
It is one character within the whole chart, not automatically the most abundant element. A reading considers the surrounding stems, branches and seasonal context as well.
Day Stem
Two complementary polarities describing contrasting but connected qualities. Each Heavenly Stem is classified as yin or yang; this distinction helps determine its Ten God relationship to the Day Master.
Neither polarity is a better or worse version of the other. Stem polarity is a traditional classification and is distinct from the sex at birth entered in our form.
Yin-Yang
Ten calendar symbols pairing each of the Five Elements with yin or yang. A stem is the first character of each pillar.
The sequence is Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui. The stem of the day pillar is the Day Master.
Celestial Stems · Ten Stems
Twelve calendar symbols that pair with the Heavenly Stems to mark years, months, days and two-hour periods. A branch is the second character of each pillar and carries traditional element and hidden-stem associations.
Each branch is also linked to one of the twelve zodiac animals. These animal names are calendar labels; a whole chart contains more information than its year animal.
Terrestrial Branches · Twelve Branches
Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water: five interrelated categories used to describe patterns in Chinese thought. In BaZi, their generating and controlling relationships help organize a chart.
These are symbolic categories, not measurements of the physical substances in a person. Our naming approach considers their relationships and context rather than simply adding the least represented element.
Wu Xing
The Five Elements' nurturing sequence: Wood produces Fire, Fire produces Earth, Earth produces Metal, Metal produces Water, and Water produces Wood. It describes a traditional relationship, not a measurement of physical energy.
A producing relationship is read in the context of the whole chart. Producing more of an element is not automatically the most useful naming choice.
Productive Cycle · Sheng Cycle
The Five Elements' regulating sequence: Wood controls Earth, Earth controls Water, Water controls Fire, Fire controls Metal, and Metal controls Wood. Control describes restraint or regulation, not an automatic negative outcome.
The direction matters: Earth controls Water, while Water controls Fire. Reversing a pair describes a different relationship.
Regulating Cycle · Ke Cycle
Ten relationship labels comparing another stem with the Day Master by element and yin-yang polarity. They distinguish peers, expression, resources, responsibility and support within a chart.
The five element relationships each split into same-polarity and opposite-polarity forms. These traditional labels are symbolic roles, not literal beings or proof of a particular event.
Ten Deities · Ten Relationships
A stem with the same element and the same yin-yang polarity as the Day Master. It traditionally represents peers, self-reliance and a shared outlook.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, another Yang Wood stem has this relationship. Its presence provides symbolic material for a reading, not a verdict about friendships.
Friend
A stem with the same element as the Day Master and opposite yin-yang polarity. It traditionally represents peer interaction, shared resources and competition.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, a Yin Wood stem has this relationship. The traditional name describes a category, not a prediction of losing money or of another person taking it.
Robbing Wealth
A stem whose element is produced by the Day Master's element, with the same yin-yang polarity. Traditionally associated with expression, making things and an unforced creative approach.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, a Yang Fire stem has this relationship. The imagery concerns how something is expressed or created, not a claim about eating habits.
Eating Deity
A stem whose element is produced by the Day Master's element, with opposite yin-yang polarity. Traditionally associated with independent expression, innovation and questioning established approaches.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, a Yin Fire stem has this relationship. Its traditional name does not imply that someone is harmful or destined for conflict.
Hurting the Officer
A stem whose element is controlled by the Day Master's element, with the same yin-yang polarity. Traditionally associated with flexible resource management and noticing opportunities.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, a Yang Earth stem has this relationship. The label does not establish a source of income, an investment result or a personal financial history.
A stem whose element is controlled by the Day Master's element, with opposite yin-yang polarity. Traditionally associated with steady resource management, planning and practical responsibility.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, a Yin Earth stem has this relationship. It is a symbolic relationship category, not evidence of a salary, possessions or a particular financial position.
A stem whose element controls the Day Master's element, with the same yin-yang polarity. Traditionally associated with decisiveness, pressure and responding to demanding situations.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, a Yang Metal stem has this relationship. The traditional name is a technical label and does not predict a harmful event or define someone as aggressive.
Indirect Officer · Seven Sha
A stem whose element controls the Day Master's element, with opposite yin-yang polarity. Traditionally associated with responsibility, standards and working within agreed structures.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, a Yin Metal stem has this relationship. It can supply a symbolic theme for a reading without establishing a job title or social rank.
Direct Official · Officer
A stem whose element produces the Day Master's element, with the same yin-yang polarity. Traditionally associated with unconventional learning, intuition and indirect forms of support.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, a Yang Water stem has this relationship. Its symbolism allows for learning through observation and unusual connections, without claiming a special ability or qualification.
Indirect Seal
A stem whose element produces the Day Master's element, with opposite yin-yang polarity. Traditionally associated with structured learning, guidance and dependable support.
For a Yang Wood Day Master, a Yin Water stem has this relationship. It offers a symbolic way to discuss receiving knowledge or support, not proof of a degree or a particular family relationship.
Direct Seal
The group of Ten God relationships formed by the element the Day Master controls. Same polarity gives Indirect Wealth; opposite polarity gives Direct Wealth.
Here, star is a traditional relationship label, not an astronomical object. The symbolism concerns resources and their management; its presence does not establish how much money someone has.
Wealth Element
The element selected to support a chart's overall needs in our experimental naming approach, rather than whichever element appears least. The term has different meanings across BaZi traditions.
In Zi Ping Zhen Quan, the discussion of Useful God centers on the month branch and chart pattern. Our current naming usage refers to a proposed supporting element for the whole chart. That interpretation remains experimental and is not a numerical balance score.
Useful Element · Supporting Element
The seasonal influence represented by the birth month's Earthly Branch. It provides context for reading the whole chart, rather than automatically naming the element a person needs.
The month branch changes at one of the twelve jie solar terms. Its seasonal associations belong to the traditional calendar framework, rather than a measurement of local weather at the birthplace.
Seasonal Command
The chart type read from the Month Command: the Ten God that the month branch's leading or revealed hidden stem forms with the Day Master. It is the reference type the whole chart is read against.
Our experimental method takes a revealed hidden stem of the month branch first, and otherwise its principal stem. Classical manuals add many special patterns that this simplified reading does not use. A pattern describes a traditional type, not a fixed outcome or a ranking of people.
Chart Pattern · Ge Ju
One of five traditional states describing how an element meets the season of the birth month: at its peak, rising, resting, constrained or at its low. It describes seasonal context, not a person's worth.
The element ruling the month is at its peak, the element it produces is rising and the element that produces it is resting. The element that controls it is constrained, and the element it controls is at its low. Our chart uses the simple earth row for the four earth months.
Seasonal States · Five Seasonal States · Wang Xiang Xiu Qiu Si
A peer month in which the month branch is the Day Master's own lu branch, where its element is established. The chart begins with seasonal backing for the Day Master.
Each stem has one lu branch, for example Yin for Jia and Zi for Gui. Because this energy is the Day Master's own, the reading looks to other revealed stems for its outward direction. Our method notes it only when the leading month stem is a Companion or Rob Wealth.
Lu Month · Establishing the Salary
The branch where a yang Day Master's element reaches its peak, such as Mao for Jia and Zi for Ren. When it holds the month, the chart starts with very full strength.
The name is a traditional technical label and does not describe harm. Tradition pairs it with a counterweight, usually an Officer or Seven Killings, that gives the strength discipline. Our method notes it only for yang Day Masters whose leading month stem is a peer.
Blade · Goat Blade
A classical way of choosing a chart's useful direction: support a Day Master that reads as needing strength, or give an outlet or restraint to one that reads as strong.
It depends on judging the Day Master's strength across the whole chart, not on counting elements. Our naming direction comes from an approved basis that applies this idea experimentally. Other traditions also weigh climate and special patterns.
Fu Yi · Supporting and Restraining
The 24 markers of the Sun's yearly path used in the Chinese calendar. Twelve of them, called jié, begin BaZi months; Beginning of Spring also begins the BaZi year.
The other twelve markers, called zhōngqì, alternate with the jié and do not start BaZi months. These solar boundaries are distinct from the new moons that begin lunar calendar months.
Twenty-Four Solar Terms · Jie Qi
Beginning of Spring, or Lìchūn, is the solar term that starts the BaZi year and its first month. It occurs when the Sun reaches an ecliptic longitude of 315 degrees.
It is a precise calendar instant, not a fixed date or the Lunar New Year. Its name comes from the traditional seasonal calendar and does not describe spring weather everywhere.
Start of Spring · Spring Commences · Lichun
The repeating sequence of sixty valid Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch pairs. BaZi uses these pairs to label years, months, days and two-hour periods.
The stem and branch sequences advance together and return to the same pair after sixty steps. This glossary uses the calendar sequence, without adding future luck-cycle forecasts.
Sixty Stem-Branch Pairs · Gan-Zhi Cycle
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Your free reading names your Day Master, pattern and seasonal state, and explains your Chinese name through them.
