A Basic Introduction - Bazi

You may have heard of Bazi 八字 or also known as 4 Pillars. But do you know how does a Bazi look like?

Basically, Bazi is made up of 4 pillars which is consists of 4 columns and 2 rows of Chinese Characters. The upper row houses the Tian Gan 天干 (Heavenly Stems), while the lower row houses the Di Zhi 地支 (Earthly Branches).

To plot a Bazi, you need the Date of Birth and Birth time. To convert the Date of Birth and Birth time, you need a Wan Nian Li 万年历(Ten Thousands Calender) to convert into Tian Gan 天干(Heavenly Stems) and Di Zhi 地支 (Earthly Branches).

The 4 columns (4 pillars) are used to represent Year, Month, Day and Hour. And the placement of the Year starts on the right side (on the first column as indicated below), Month is on the second column, while Day is on the 3rd column and Hour is on the 4th column.

---------> Hour Pillar--- Day Pillar -- Month Pillar -- Year Pillar
---> Upper Row [ 4th Column ] [3rd Column] [2nd Column] [1st Column] Tian Gan
---> Lower Row [ 4th Column ] [3rd Column] [2nd Column] [1st Column] Di Zhi

Tian Gan 天干 (Heavenly Stems) is consisted of Ten different Elements, which are known as
Jia 甲 (Wood), Yi 乙 (Wood), Bing 丙 (Fire), Ding 丁 (Fire), Wu 戊 (Earth), Ji 己 (Earth), Geng 庚 (Metal), Xin 辛 (Metal), Ren 壬 (Water) and Gui 癸 (Water).

Di Zhi (Earthly Branches) is consisted of Twelve different Elements, which are known as Zi 子(Water), Chou 丑(Earth), Yin 寅(Wood), Mao卯 (Wood), Chen 辰(Earth), Si 巳(Fire), Wu 午(Fire), Wei 未(Earth), Shen申 (Metal), You 酉(Metal), Xu 戌(Earth) and Hai 亥(Water).

To read a Bazi, you have read it from right to left.

If you are interested to learn more about Bazi, please email me.