Learn BaZi: start with the chart, then the words

Quick answer: Learn BaZi in this order: (1) cast a chart and open the receipt, (2) find your Day Master, (3) read the Five Elements and hidden stems that support it, (4) learn how stems are labelled as Ten Gods, (5) learn the calendar rules that can change a pillar (Li Chun, true solar time, day boundary), then (6) luck pillars and annual years. This page is the hub for every guide on this site. It is a reading order, not a course that predicts your life.

BaZi (八字), also called Four Pillars or Ziping astrology, names four pairs of Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch from a birth instant: year, month, day and hour. The day stem is your Day Master. Everything else on a chart is read in relation to that stem — season, roots, labels, and decade steps. Our calculator shows the pillars, a receipt of every correction, and a transparent strength score. It does not output a favourable element (用神) or a fortune verdict.

Why start with a chart, not a glossary

Glossaries are useful, but BaZi vocabulary only sticks when you can see it on your four pillars. Two people can share a Day Master and still read very differently because of season and roots. That is why this site opens with a working chart and then explains the words.

1. Cast the chart. Use Find your chart with birth date, time (if known), and place. Open the receipt: UTC instant, daylight saving removed, longitude and equation-of-time minutes, solar terms on either side, and which day-boundary convention you used.
2. Name the Day Master. The stem of the day pillar is your Day Master. The Day Master calculator finds it from the date alone (plus the 23:00 question if you were born late at night).
3. Read season and roots before personality lists. Season comes from the month branch. Roots are the Day Master's own stem among the hidden stems in the branches. Our weak and strong pages explain how we score that.
4. Then learn the labels. Ten Gods are relation names from the Day Master to every other stem. They are labels, not character verdicts.
5. Then learn the calendar edges. Li Chun, true solar time, and the Zi-hour day boundary are the usual reasons two calculators disagree.

If you do not know your birth time, see what three pillars can and cannot show. We never fill in noon.

Reading order (recommended)

Step 1 — The chart and the receipt

The methodology page is the longest technical document on the site. Use it whenever another calculator differs from yours: the cause is almost always a convention, not arithmetic. See where schools disagree.

Step 2 — Day Master and the Five Elements

The Day Master is only the day stem. A "Wood year" (year stem Jia or Yi) is a different fact. The calculator scores support from the Day Master's own element and its resource element; it does not choose a favourable element for you.

Step 3 — Labels: Ten Gods

Once you can see every stem relative to the Day Master, read What are the Ten Gods in BaZi?. The naming logic is the same table as on methodology § Ten Gods: same element, output, wealth, power, resource — each split by yin/yang polarity. English names on this site (Friend, Rob Wealth, Eating God, Hurting Officer, Indirect/Direct Wealth, Seven Killings, Direct Officer, Indirect/Direct Resource) match that table. Classical Chinese names follow the Yuanhai Ziping list that works them out using Jia as its example.

Do not treat a Ten God as a personality verdict. Two charts can both show Direct Officer and still be read differently once season, roots and structure are weighed.

Step 4 — Calendar rules that change pillars

These pages exist because popular tools often disagree at the edges. Our defaults are documented and switchable where practitioners genuinely differ (day boundary; true solar time). The year always starts at Li Chun on this site; that switch is not offered.

Step 5 — Luck pillars and years

How luck pillars work covers direction (yang-year male / yin-year female forward; otherwise backward), start age (three days = one year from the nearest solar term), and the ten-year step. Luck pillars need a gender choice; if you prefer not to say, we omit them. Annual pillars (流年) are the year-by-year layer; the 2027 overview is a calendar fact page, not a forecast.

For a worked sample of how a paid report chapters this material, see the sample BaZi report. The sample is descriptive structure, not a promise about your life.

Step 6 — Two charts: compatibility

BaZi compatibility compares two charts under the same engine rules. It is a structural comparison page, not a marriage verdict. There is a sample compatibility report if you want to see the chapter layout before buying.

Example charts you can audit

Reading abstract tables is harder than opening a known input. The example charts hub lists 18 public figures with sourced civil birth dates. An hour is shown only where a source gives one. A short appendix keeps fictional engine fixtures for teaching boundary cases. Use the hub to practise Day Master, season, Ten Gods labels and the receipt — not as a ranking of lives.

A map of the whole Learn cluster

/learn  (this page)
  ├─ Chart & rules ── / · /methodology · /classical-sources · /about
  ├─ Day Master ───── /day-master-calculator · /day-master/* · weak · strong
  ├─ Elements ─────── /five-elements · /hidden-stems · /ten-gods
  ├─ Calendar edges ─ /li-chun… · /2027… · /true-solar-time · /zi-hour…
  ├─ Time missing ─── /unknown-birth-time-bazi
  ├─ Luck / years ─── /luck-pillars · /2027…
  ├─ Examples ─────── /example-charts
  └─ Two people ───── /compatibility · sample reports

What this site will not teach you here

• Favourable element / 用神 as a calculator output. Different classical methods can name different needs for the same chart. We explain how weak/strong and climate-adjustment traditions approach the question; we do not print a single "your useful god".
• Fixed fortune lines from classical books about wealth, rank, marriage or lifespan for particular pillar patterns. See Classical sources for what we quote and what we leave out.
• "You will…" predictions, medical, legal or financial advice. BaZi here is a cultural practice for reflection and education.
• Thin Ten God or star pages that reduce a label to luck or danger. The Ten Gods hub explains naming only.

Suggested first hour

1. Cast your chart on the home form.
2. Confirm the Day Master on the Day Master calculator.
3. Skim Five Elements and hidden stems for season and roots.
4. Open Ten Gods with your day stem in mind.
5. If another site disagrees, read methodology and the matching edge page (Li Chun, true solar time, or day boundary).

How this hub differs from a blog index

A blog index usually sorts by publish date. This Learn page sorts by dependency: you need a Day Master before Ten Gods mean anything, and you need calendar edges before you trust a disagreement with another app. Related links in the footer of individual guides still help; they do not replace this order.

When a guide exists only as a methodology section today (for example luck pillars historically lived only under /methodology#luck), the dedicated Learn-linked page is the long educational form. Methodology remains the normative rule sheet whenever product behaviour must be cited.

Free chart first, reports later

Every guide on this page is written to support the free chart and receipt. Paid PDF reports deepen chapters you already met for free; they are not a substitute for learning the vocabulary. If you want to see chapter shape before buying, use the sample report links in Step 5 — then return here. Pricing pages stay thin on purpose; education stays on Learn spokes.

For readers coming from popular zodiac apps

If you arrived with only an animal year:

1. Forget the idea that the year animal is your BaZi chart.
2. Cast four pillars (or three without a time).
3. Find the Day Master.
4. Only then compare year-branch animals as one column among four.

The 2027 Goat year page exists for calendar timing; it is not a personality article about Goats.

What should I learn first if I am completely new?

Cast a chart, name the Day Master, then learn Five Elements and hidden stems. Leave luck pillars and annual years until the natal pillars make sense. This Learn page is the index.

Do I need to read the classical books first?

No. Start with the chart and our plain-English guides. When a page quotes a line, it links to Classical sources so you can see the edition we used.

Is BaZi the same as Chinese zodiac years?

No. The popular animal year is only the year branch (and often switched at Chinese New Year). A BaZi chart has four pillars; the Day Master is the day stem; the BaZi year changes at Li Chun.

Where do I compare my chart with someone else's?

Use the compatibility calculator. Read it as structure under shared rules, not as a relationship verdict.

Checklist before you trust another website's chart

1. Does it state Li Chun vs Chinese New Year for the year?
2. Does it state 23:00 vs midnight for the day?
3. Does it remove daylight saving and/or apply true solar time?
4. Does it show a receipt you can audit?
5. Does it invent a favourable element or a noon hour when data is missing?

If the answers are hidden, use our chart and methodology as the comparison baseline, then decide whether the other tool is simply on another convention. Learn spokes exist so you can name the convention in plain English.

Next step: Calculate your full chart and keep this Learn page open while you read the receipt.

Sources

• Rule set and engine conventions: How we calculate your chart
• Book list and quoted editions: Classical BaZi texts
• About the editorial policy: About

BaZi is a traditional Chinese cultural practice. This page is for education and navigation; it is not medical, legal, financial or psychological advice. Different schools may read the same chart differently.

Last updated: 2026-10-07