What Makes A Good BaZi or Zi Wei Dou Shu Report?

Thank you so much for being so patient and waiting the full 15 working days. I’ve changed the way I write my reports over the year so I’m going to write you a completely new one. I’ve accumulated a lot more experience since the last time you consulted me, so if you hear anything different this time (although I hope you won’t), this current report overwrites whatever I said previously. There are also some new rules of engagement on technical questions and number of questions per email, so do pay attention to them.

How this will work is that I’m going to break down your chart and let you have a bit of an understanding of your chart. I’ll bring in your partner’s chart in the later part of the report but please note that it’ll feel shorter as I won’t be repeating a lot of things. You’ll get what I mean as you go through the report.

The answers I give are based on theory and what I see in your chart, so don’t worry about where these answers I’m giving are coming from. Do note that some parts of this report are, of course, templated. Still, those are the parts meant for priming the client to understand the thought process that goes on behind the chart.

Parts of the report will be unique to your chart, and that’s where my knowledge and experience in reading charts come in, so I don’t want you to worry about me making things up. I have my own style of conducting this, which I hope you are receptive to.

The charts will be in Chinese, and it’s likely you’re not going to understand anything written there, but please remember this consultation is not for you to learn to decipher charts. So don’t be distracted by them and focus on my inputs first. I’ll point out where you need to look at in the charts if I’m bringing up any technicals.

Treat this as a conversation with me, and we’ll be exchanging a lot of emails moving in the coming days or weeks.

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Please find your chart attached. Do take note that I adjusted your birth time for Solar Time and it is still under 未时 which is the 1pm to 3pm time segment. BaZi was developed based on Solar Time, so we need to adjust for it whenever we generate a BaZi chart, taking into account the GMT zone and the longitude where you were born. The time on the clock is not the right time to use.

To guide you a bit on how the report will be structured:

• Overview of your natal chart, touching on the beneficial and destructive elements. We need to establish these first before we can deduce how your life pans out.
• Letting you understand what “Luck Pillars” or Elemental Phases are which we call ‘yun’ (运).
• Addressing the questions you put in the form. Your Q&A will also revolve around these initial questions.
• The Q&A is where we go into more details and you can take the opportunity to clarify anything you wish. Please take the Q&A seriously and don’t spam questions for the sake of it.

Techniques that I will apply:

• The report will be angled mainly using BaZi as it is the most uncomplicated technique for laypeople to understand. Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗数) is too complex for me to break it down in a meaningful way for you.
• I will still bring in Zi Wei Dou Shu when required at my discretion as it can give a lot more detail and look at root causes more clearly.
• I will also bring in Qi Men Dun Jia (奇门遁甲) if there are any short-term, tactical decisions you need to make. Applying Qi Men Dun Jia will also be at my discretion.
• Don’t worry about which method I apply as they will all point towards the same direction, although they express it differently.

Some parts of the report may feel a bit technical, but try not to be too distracted by it. The technicalities are broken down and explained so you can feel assured that the analysis was done rigorously and based on theory.

Foreword

There are a few things I want you to remember before you start reading your report:

• Chinese metaphysics is not a shortcut to realizing your desires nor is it about manifesting them out of nowhere. Like it or not, a lot of things are fated and you will have to accept that.
• There is absolutely no way for me to be able to solve your problems. I can only give you my opinions, and hopefully, you’re able to see things from another perspective and take some practical action towards changing things.
• If something positive is going to happen, then prepare for it and make it even better. Similarly, if something bad is identified, please dig deep and ask yourself what the root cause is so that you can alter the course. Remember the charts are not a reflection of “luck” – it’s a cause-and-effect.
• Please always remember to not misinterpret my tone. I might accidentally sound harsh, but the purpose is not to belittle or critique anyone. If needed, just imagine this as a conversation with a friend telling you hard truths for your own good. It will get uncomfortable.

With regards to how to transcend charts, it’s not something that I can guide my clients on as my job is to purely decipher charts. Please refrain from asking me “how” kind of questions. The most I can do is give my opinions. Do refer to my blog to hear my thoughts on this topic and when you have time.

Lastly, please always respect the rules of engagement for the consultation. I understand you will be very tempted and wish to understand what’s going on in the two charts above, especially when it describes your life, but please understand you’re not expected to know what’s going on and it will be impossible for me to explain it to you. Again, I cannot turn this consultation into a lesson on metaphysics. Focus on asking what you wish to know in the years ahead, and just trust me and focus on my input.

Please respect the boundaries I’ve drawn for the consultation, and I promise I will do my best to make it fruitful.

Let’s Look At Your Daymaster (日元)

I would recommend that you generate the chart on my website here and make sure it’s the right chart but do take note that Solar Time adjustment but please make sure you’ve followed the Solar Time adjustment, if any, that I mentioned above: www.masterseanchan.com/bazi-calculator

BaZi is essentially a timekeeping system. The 4 Pillars represent the Year, Month, Day and Time in which you were born. The top row is the Heavenly Stems (天干) and the bottom row are the Earthly Branches (地支)。 Your birthday and birth time essentially determines your 8-Characters (八字) shown by the Year (年)，Month (月)，Day (日)，Hour (时) columns as shown in the chart I have attached.

This is your natal chart and it represents your foundation and what you were born with. Your family, your character make-up, flaws, and talents (if any). Your “Luck Pillars” or Elemental Phases, also known as ‘yun’ (运) in Chinese, are shown by the horizontal rows below your natal chart labelled 大运 (10-Year Phases) and 流年 (Annual Phases).

Elemental Phases are extremely critical to one’s life as it describes how your life unfolds and it unfolds from your natal chart. What this also means is that your Elemental Phases are already set in stone the moment you were born.

Everyone will experience positive and negative phases differently because the Elemental Phases interact with the natal chart which sets the basis of things. You can see your 10-Year Elemental Phases as your development as a person and the environment you are operating in.

Of the eight characters that appear in your natal chart, your Daymaster represents YOU as a person and your Day Branch represents it right under the “日” character. The surrounding seven characters represent other aspects of your life, and each position has its associated element. These elements manifest as ‘gods’ with their own traits and characteristics. Each of them will have some form of influence on your chart, and it will manifest differently in life. This is the information practitioners use to deduce how things unfold.

Your Daymaster, also known as the Self-Element is Yang Earth 戊土 born during the season of autumn in the month of 申 where Metal is dominant.

Typically, there are a few steps to take when analyzing a BaZi chart, all of which must be taken into account to give a holistic assessment of the quality of your chart and how things will unfold:

1) Ensuring that the Daymaster is balanced and that is it neither too weak nor too strong which we call 中和为贵。 Note that you cannot artificially change the strength of your Daymaster. Your chart is a description of how your life unfolds and it follows a formula and it is fixed.

2) Making sure favourable elements that uphold the chart structure (格局) continues to do so and those unfavourable elements are remedied by the different Elemental Phases (运) you go through. In other words, your favourable elements need to strengthen and your destructive elements need to be kept under control.

3) Paying attention to the season you were born in and ensuring the environmental factors are ideal, meaning a chart cannot be too ‘hot’/’cold’ or ‘dry’/’wet’ which we call 调侯法。 This is a chart analysis technique and is not describing the actual, physical environment in real life.

4) Make a mental note that your Elemental Phases (运) forms part of your chart as well, and it’s extremely important to be able to find elements or remedies to your natal chart from your Elemental Phases (运)。 I will touch more on this in the sections below.

All four criteria above need to be considered and analyzed concurrently.

Before I go further, please remember that having this consultation should be seen as part of your life’s plan, and in no way should you let this consultation affect you. If you hear positive things, tap on it so that you can reap greater rewards, and if you hear negative things, use it as additional information or a map to guide yourself and make better decisions. Under no circumstances should you let this consultation end up a self-fulfilling prophecy, in particular for the negative things you hear. It would defeat the whole purpose of getting a consultation if you allow that to happen. Our ancestors developed this so we can understand ourselves better so that we can transcend our charts and not be bound by them – they wouldn’t have spent centuries developing this only to tell us we can’t change anything.

Let me touch on a few things traits about your chart and what makes it unique before we zoom into the details you want me to look at:

Chart Structure Overview (格局) & Beneficial & Destructive Elements (用神，喜神，忌神)

Chart Structure (格局)

Every chart has a structure that is determined by the season you were born and the dominant element or ‘god’ that appears. Some charts have a ‘broken structure’ (破格) which are deemed low-quality charts because ‘broken structure’ suggests one’s beneficial elements being harmed, and this trait is built into one’s natal chart.

Before we can assess the quality of one’s natal chart and its structure, we need to identify the critical element required to balance it. You will often hear of the term “strong Daymaster” or “weak Daymaster”, but please remember it is just a way of describing the state of the chart.

A strong Daymaster does not necessarily mean it’s a good chart; a weak Daymaster does not necessarily mean it’s a bad chart. One has to look at the chart holistically as we perform the analysis.

Whenever we talk about Earth Daymasters, we always look at the state of Earth. For Earth or soil, to be useful, it might be in the right state. If cannot be too dry and compact, and neither can it be too wet as earth/soil will simply get washed away. Like every other element, certain conditions and elements need to appear in order for the best of Yin Earth to be brought out, and this usually revolves around the right amount of Wood and Water relative to Earth’s strength which is determined by Fire and the Earth element itself.

Now, despite the fact that you were born during an Earth month where the strength of Metal is already waning, your Daymaster would still be regarded to be on the strong side due to the sheer amount of Earth that appears in your natal chart and it’s one of those charts where we need your Daymaster to weaken. The question that remains is which element do we use and where do we find it in the chart?

Beneficial & Destructive Elements

Every chart will have one critical element that we call ‘Yong Shen’ (用神)。 Its role is to balance the chart and ensure the smooth flow of the elements and can be seen as the lynchpin that upholds the integrity of the chart.

It is an absolute must for a chart to encounter one’s critical element if one were to speak about progress in life. The critical element will need to be accompanied by a supporting element we call ‘Xi Shen’ (喜神) and its role is to support and protect the critical element.

The order in which they appear is important and the critical element must appear before the supporting element. The remaining elements would usually be regarded as the destructive, non-beneficial ones which we call ‘Ji Shen” (忌神) or ‘Xian Shen’ (闲神) which we’ll want to avoid.

The element that plays the most effective and vital role in balancing the chart will be labelled the critical element or 用神, and the responsibility of this falls to 申 Metal because 申 Metal here drains Earth which is exactly what we want. It is only when Metal is established that we bring in Water to further enhance things because the hope here is that Water can give birth to Wood to control Earth even further. Water also represents your wealth, which is important for a strong Daymaster chart-holder. One thing that I didn’t point out in our previous consultation was the fact that Metal is far more important than Water because we want to flow to be going Earth=>Metal=>Water, and we cannot skip from Earth to Water without seeing Water being harmed.

For your ease of understanding, just remember it’s Metal first, and Water second. The fact that your Month Branch is a Metal Branch is a really good thing because the month influences the strength of the elements the most, so to have your most critical element in your Month Branch is considered a very good trait.

Destructive elements-wise: It would be Fire and Earth. They serve no constructive purpose in your chart and will only drag down its overall quality and balance. Wood on the other hand is more of a neutral element as its effects will vary depending on how weak or strong is appears.

The reason why we need to get one’s beneficial and destructive elements right is that, firstly, it tells us whether one’s Elemental Phases are on their side. Having your Elemental Phases being on your side is far more important than having a good natal chart.

Each element also represents a certain aspect of our lives, so we’ll need to know the role each element plays before we can make a deduction. Before we go into what each element means and how it manifests in your life, I’ll need you to understand the differences between the 10-year Elemental Phases and Annual Elemental Phases.

Elemental Phases Analysis (運勢)

Understanding Elemental Phases

When analyzing a Bazi chart, it is paramount to look at the Elemental Phases as part of the overall assessment of the chart. There’s a Chinese saying 命好不如运好, meaning more important to have positive elemental phases than to have a good natal chart. Positive elemental phases basically mean a smoother life with progress, but please remember it is also a reflection of your growth as a person.

A good chart structure is wasted without positive elemental phases whereas a negative chart structure can be remedied with them, giving the chart-holder a huge chance at success. Remember your natal chart is what you are born with and represents you. Your Elemental Phases will come in to interact with your natal chart, leading to different manifestations.

Difference Between 10-Year Phases (大运) & Annual Phases (流年运)

There are two kinds of Elemental Phases, one of which governs your life for 10 years (大运) whereas the other one governs your life on an annual basis (流年运).

Your 10-year Elemental Phase (大运) is the long term, macro view of your life and can refer to your macro-environment, a new chapter of your life, and you fit into everything. Your 10-year Elemental Phase basically sets the stage and context.

Your Annual Elemental Phase (流年运) acts as the enhancer, mitigator or trigger to the positive and negative events. The annual elemental phase gives us an indication of how a particular year might go, taking into account the context of your 10-year elemental phase. Note that everyone goes through the same Annual Elemental Phase as it is determined by the year we are in. For example, 2020 is 庚子 (Metal Rat) and 2021 is 辛丑 (Metal Ox) and this will appear in everyone’s charts. The 10-year Elemental Phase will be unique to everyone as it is determined by the natal chart.

Your 10-year elemental phase holds more weight and it is infinitely more important because it is the macro view of things and lays the foundation of how your life will unfold, so the effects are more significant and it impacts the long term. Having a favourable year alone but within an unfavourable 10-Year Elemental Phase is not a true remedy for one’s chart although it will still help. In other words, you must have a favourable 10-Year Elemental Phase in order for success and progress to be meaningful and sustainable.

The Elemental Phases Interact With Your Natal Chart

We can deduce how your life will unfold by looking at how your 10-year Elemental Phase (大运) and Annual Elemental Phase (流年运) interactive with your natal chart (本命盘).

In other words, your natal chart also plays a big role in how your life unfolds and it determines the magnitude, severity, and form of how an event will unfold. For example, a severely imbalanced chart will often face a more tumultuous life whereas a balanced chart will have fewer bumps along the way. This is why there is a lot of emphasis on having a balanced chart.

You can see your Elemental Phases as your surroundings and environment, as well as how you are engaging them. I do not like to use the word “luck” because it suggests that good or bad things happen to us arbitrarily, which is not true. Metaphysics is but a description of cause-and-effect, so the literal translation of 运 as “luck” is not very appropriate.

If one’s Elemental Phases are challenging, it suggests a negative change in the environment as well as one’s inability to manoeuvre out of that environment. It also suggests that the chart-holder is not developing as a person, and the character flaws are not remedied, and in bad situations, the character flaws are amplified. Negative 10-Year Elemental Phases are meant to be challenging, sluggish and tiring but the key thing to remember is that the chart-holder is still ultimately the root cause of whatever is happening. On rare occasions, such phases can be calamitous, and it is due to their own character flaws and bad decision making that leads to these challenges. As such, if a practitioners say you’re going through a negative 10-Year Phase, please ask yourself “why”.

On the flip side, if your Elemental Phases are positive, it means that your environment is favouring you and your actions, along with your environment have a very virtuous relationship that complements each other, so a lot of progress can be made during such a phase.

For my thoughts on what 10-Year Phases mean, please refer to this blog post: What To Do When You Encounter A Negative 10-Year Phase (大运) Or ‘Luck Pillar’

Trying To Understand All These As A Layman

The quality of your natal chart is determined by multiple factors as I briefly described above. If you lack a certain key element in your chart, there is no artificial way of changing a chart by using colours or charms. In other to ‘change’ a chart, self-awareness and pragmatic action is needed, not charms or items. If you ask me how you can strengthen a particular element, I wouldn’t have an answer for you to be honest. Please refer to the blog post on the topic of whether you can change your astrological chart to hear my thoughts on this.

Metaphysics is not about predicting arbitrary random events, but understanding cause-and-effect. The only thing difference between someone with a good chart and a bad one is their mindset and the decisions they make. If you are interested to know what makes a good chart and a bad chart different, you can refer to my blog post here to hear my thoughts on this topic: What’s The Difference Between A Good BaZi Chart And A Bad One?

Application Of Theory & Addressing Your Questions (大運總論)

This is the part where theory is applied to address your questions (and basically the part you are paying me for). The sections above break down the logic behind the analysis and how your beneficial and destructive elements are identified. I know it’s long-winded, but it is a required step before we can address your questions and I wanted you to understand what the thought process is like.

Please note that what appears here is based on what you filled in the form and the Q&A will only revolve around the questions you’ve put in the form.

I will be using a mix of BaZi (八字) and Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗数) to provide the insights. Please remember that everything I say here will be from what I’m seeing in the charts. I will provide some technical illustrations for some of your questions but there is no need for you to understand how these technicalities work. They are just to reassure you how I’ve arrived at my conclusions but I won’t do this for every single question in the interest of keeping things clear and concise.

We don’t have your partner’s birth time so I can only attach an incomplete BaZi chart for her case:

I will focus mainly on Qi Men Dun Jia when I address your question on relationships.

Her Daymaster is Yang Metal 庚金 born during the season of summer in the month of 巳 where Fire is dominant.

The nature of Yang Metal and Yin Metal is very different, in the sense that Yang Metal is the kind of Metal used to forge weapons and tools, whereas Yin Metal is the kind where you use it for ornaments and jewellery. If you flip through the Chinese classics on metaphysics, you will realize the elements that bring out the best in these two Metals are very different.

For Yang Metal people, we will never lean away from Fire and Wood, in particular, Yin Fire (丁) and Yang Wood (甲). These are the two elements that are required to bring out the best in Yang Metal as Yin Fire and Yang Wood is required for the ‘forging’ process of the Metal. Yang Fire and Yin Wood can be used as well but only under certain conditions and they aren’t as ideal as Yin Fire and Yang Wood. That being said, one’s Daymaster must be strong in order for Yang Metal to be conducive for forging.

Even without her birth time, we can quite confidently conclude that her Daymaster is considered weak and is in need of strengthening and the best way to do this is to use Earth so that her Yang Metal Daymaster is protected from the excessive Fire in her chart. Counter-intuitively, the other element her chart will welcome is actually Water because it helps Earth to be in a state that can produce Metal because summertime Earth is too arid and unable to produce high-quality Metal. The last resort would be to use Metal to balance her chart directly.

Destructive elements-wise: Wood and Fire. They serve no constructive purpose in her chart.

I’ll only be able to comment this far for now but this information is enough for us to determine whether her 10-year phases are on her side and whether her spouse element is a positive or negative element, which plays a role in assessing how smooth her relationship goes.

Now that we know what both charts need, we can move on to your questions and depending on how your questions are phrased, the format of my responses will be different. I will either address them by the different aspects of your life, or by the specific question.

Question 1: On Relationships & Compatibility

I’ll be a bit more forthcoming this time in breaking down your chart and I believe I’ve spoken a bit about this in our previous consultation:

• The main issue here is that the presence of Earth in your chart is extremely strong so there is always this risk of Earth coming in to harm Water which is your spouse element. Your actual Spouse Element is Yin Water 癸水 and the only source of this appearing is in your Day Branch of 辰 where you see a black-coloured 财 in there, so whatever happens to it will determine how things play out in your relationship.
• Although your chart has a lot of Earth that can potentially harm Water, one fortunate thing is that your 辰 does not get clashed, so your Spouse Element does not get harmed. The last time this happened severely was in 2018 when it was a 戌 year which forms 辰戌冲 and it even removed the 空亡 in your Year Pillar, causing a clash that comes not just from your 流年运 but also from your Year Pillar. The next fortunate thing is that the month you were born in helps to mitigate this clash because as mentioned above, the flow is going Earth=Metal=>Water and Metal is helping to drain Earth and prevent a clash between Earth and Water.
• What this also means is that should anything happen to Metal, Earth will get harmed and it will manifest as relationship issues. This happens when 申 is harmed by interactions like 巳申刑。

• There are actually very strong signs of a relationship working out because first of all, 2021 saw you moving into your 壬子 10-year phase which a very strong matter phase which benefits you. Water is also your Spouse Element as mentioned.
• 2022 is 壬寅 year, but 壬 here is your 偏财，not your 正财，so whether this girl you’re dating now will eventually become your wife is still in question. 2023 is 癸卯 and 癸 Water here is your 正财 which is your actual, proper spouse element, so the signs for 2023 are a lot stronger especially when 癸 also sits on 卯 which is a 桃花 Branch. Note that 癸 and 卯 here both interact with your Day Pillar, so the signs of a partner coming into your life is very strong.

Let me use QMDJ now to see if this girl you’re currently dating is the one:

You don’t have to understand how this technique works. Just follow my breakdown for now: