BaZi · 八字 · Four Pillars of Destiny
BaZi (八字), the Four Pillars of Destiny, is the foundational system of classical Chinese metaphysics — the most widely-practised method of Chinese astrology in continuous use across more than a millennium. A BaZi chart distils a person’s birth date and time into four pillars (year, month, day, hour), each composed of one Heavenly Stem (天干) and one Earthly Branch (地支). The Day Master — the Heavenly Stem of the day pillar — serves as the chart’s lens, with everything else read in relation to it.
This page is the entry point to Master Sean Chan’s complete BaZi reference library — free, practitioner-grade, sourced from classical texts.
Foundation references
The 10 Day Masters (十天干)
Yang Wood through Yin Water — start here for any chart
The 12 Earthly Branches (十二地支)
Rat through Pig — seasons, hours, hidden stems
The 60 Jiazi Cycle (六十甲子)
All 60 stem-branch pairings used as year/month/day/hour pillars
The 30 Nayin Elements (納音)
Classical poetic Five-Phase classification
