What energy do you carry
See which element you carry, answered the three ways people usually ask: the element of your birth day in the Four Pillars, your birth-year element (such as Lộ Bàng Thổ) and your numerology number. Enter your birth date, plus birth hour and name if you have them, to get three answers side by side with their working.
Where this comes from
The page sets three answers to "what is my element" side by side: the element of the day stem (the day master) under Tử Bình, the Nạp Âm element of the birth year from the sixty-year table, and the numbers of numerology, a modern system. Picking the element to supplement is a counting rule of Nhật Nguyệt's own, at exactly the point where schools differ most.
Classical allusion
“Dẫu có bạc vàng trăm vạn lạng, chẳng bằng kinh sử một vài pho.”
Translation: A million taels of silver and gold are worth less than a few volumes of the classics and histories.
Lê Quý Đôn · A couplet hung in his study
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How is today for me
Want to know whether today suits your age? How's my day compares today's stem and branch with your age.
Open How is today for meWhat no one has shown
No study has shown that the element of the birth day, the element of the birth year or the numbers of a name say anything true about a person. The three approaches often give three different answers, and that is normal.
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Why does "what is my element" have three answers?
People ask "what is my element" in three different ways, and each is worked out from a different place. The page sets the three answers side by side instead of picking one.
The first is the element of your birth day. In the Four Pillars (Bát Tự), the stem of your birth day is the day master and stands for you. Born on a Kỷ Mão day, for example, your day master is Kỷ, an Earth stem. The day pillar turns at 23:00, so a birth after 23:00 takes the next day's stem and branch.
The second is the birth-year element Vietnamese people mean by 'tuổi gì mệnh gì': Canh Ngọ 1990 is Lộ Bàng Thổ (roadside earth), Giáp Tý 1984 is Hải Trung Kim (gold in the sea). It often differs from the birth-day element, because one comes from the year and the other from the day. That is normal.
The third is Western numerology: the Life Path number added up from your birth date, and the numbers taken from your name. Vietnamese names lose their diacritics before the letter table is applied (ă and â become a, đ becomes d, and so on), so a different spelling gives a different number.
The element balance counts the eight characters of the chart, with the month branch counted twice. If support outweighs drain the chart is called strong and the page picks a draining element; if drain outweighs support it is called weak and the page picks a supporting one; within that group it takes the element there is least of. This step (the useful element) is where schools differ most, and one chart can reach opposite conclusions depending on the book.
Birth hour and name are both optional. Without the hour the chart has three pillars and six characters to count; without a name there are no name numbers.
| Element | Traits usually mentioned | The flip side |
|---|---|---|
| Wood | Growing, expanding, likes what is new | Starts many things and finishes few |
| Fire | Lively, spreads quickly | Runs out of steam fast |
| Earth | Steady, holds and nurtures, someone to lean on | Carries too much, resists change |
| Metal | Clear, principled | Blunt at the wrong moment |
| Water | Flexible, reads situations | Drifts into other people's plans |
Frequently asked questions
Why does my birth-year element differ from my day master?
Because they come from two places: the birth-year element from the year's stem and branch, the day master from the stem of your birth day. Differing is normal; neither is wrong.
Can I use it without a birth hour?
Yes. The chart then has three pillars and counts six characters instead of eight, so the suggested element may change once you add the hour.
Do I need to enter my name?
No. Without a name you still get the day master, the birth-year element and the Life Path number; only the name numbers are missing.
Is it bad if my chart has no characters of one element?
No. A missing element only describes how the eight characters are spread. Bát Tự readers take it as something you do not have ready-made and need to learn, not a bad omen and not something to fix by buying objects.
Why not merge the three answers into one?
Because the three come from different systems with no common scale. Merging them would invent a sum that belongs to no tradition.