BaZi, explained
What is BaZi?
BaZi is a Chinese birth chart built from the year, month, day, and hour you were born. It uses eight characters to describe the structure of a chart, with the day stem standing for you.
What BaZi Is
Ba zi means eight characters. A chart is four pillars, and each pillar has a stem on top and a branch below.
Those eight characters are drawn from the year, month, day, and hour of birth. The system is known in Korea as saju and in Japan as shichu suimei, but the core chart is the same.
BAAK calls it a birth chart, not a horoscope. It does not claim to be scientific, and it does not predict a fixed outcome.
The Four Pillars
The four pillars are the year, month, day, and hour. Each one is a column with two characters: a heavenly stem on top and an earthly branch below.
The year pillar turns around February 4 at the solar term, not on January 1. A person born on January 30 counts as the year before.
The hour pillar covers two hour blocks. Without the hour you only have six characters.
Stems and Branches
There are ten heavenly stems. BAAK names them Tree Wood, Vine Wood, Sun Fire, Lamp Fire, Mountain Earth, Field Earth, Blade Metal, Jewel Metal, Ocean Water, and Rain Water.
There are twelve earthly branches, and they are the twelve animals: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.
The year branch gives your zodiac animal, but that is only one of eight characters.
The Five Elements
Wood, fire, earth, metal, and water are the five elements. They feed each other in a cycle: wood feeds fire, fire feeds earth, earth feeds metal, metal feeds water, and water feeds wood.
They also control each other: wood controls earth, earth controls water, water controls fire, fire controls metal, and metal controls wood.
Every stem and branch belongs to an element. The spread of elements in your chart shapes how the Day Master reads.
The Ten Gods in Plain Words
The ten gods are not gods in the religious sense. They are ten relationships between the Day Master and every other stem.
BAAK names them Craft, Challenge, Income, Opportunity, Duty, Pressure, Backing, Insight, Peer, and Rival. Each name describes how one stem relates to the Day Master, like what feeds you or what taxes you.
You do not need to memorize them at first. The chart shows them, and you can read them one at a time.
BaZi vs Western Astrology and Your Zodiac Animal
Western astrology often starts with the sun sign at your birth date. BaZi starts with the Day Master, which comes from the day stem, and then reads the other seven characters around it.
Your Chinese zodiac animal is only the year branch. Two people born in the same year share that animal, but their full BaZi charts can look very different because the month, day, and hour also matter.
BaZi uses solar terms for the year and month, not Lunar New Year, so the boundaries do not match the January 1 calendar.
Questions people ask
- What does BaZi mean?
- Ba zi means eight characters. A chart has four pillars, and each pillar holds one stem and one branch, so eight characters in total.
- Is BaZi the same as Chinese astrology?
- BaZi is one branch of Chinese metaphysics, and it overlaps with Chinese astrology. It uses the birth date and time, not just the zodiac animal. The same chart system is called saju in Korea and shichu suimei in Japan.
- What do the eight characters represent?
- They represent the year, month, day, and hour of birth. The top character in each pillar is a heavenly stem, and the bottom is an earthly branch. The day stem is your Day Master.
- How is BaZi different from my zodiac animal?
- Your zodiac animal is just the year branch, one of the eight characters. BaZi reads all four pillars together, with the Day Master at the center. That gives a more specific chart than the year animal alone.
- Is BaZi scientific?
- No. BaZi is not scientifically proven, and BAAK does not claim it is. It is a structured system for reading a birth chart, and people use it to see patterns in the chart.
- When does the BaZi year start?
- The BaZi year starts around February 4 at the solar term, not on January 1 or Lunar New Year. A person born on January 30 counts as the year before. The month pillars also turn on solar terms.