Glossary of terms
Each entry is a short definition with alternative names, where the schools differ, and a link to the longer article. This records cultural convention, not scientific conclusion.
I Ching & Five Elements
6 terms
What is Bát Quái?
Bagua (Eight Trigrams) are the eight basic trigrams in the I Ching, each composed of three yin or yang lines, symbolizing eight natural phenomena and the fundamental principles of universal movement.
What is Hào?
A yao (爻) is the basic unit composing a hexagram in the I Ching, consisting of two line types, yin and yang, with six yao arranged from bottom to top forming one hexagram.
What is Kinh Dịch?
The I Ching (Book of Changes) is an ancient Chinese philosophical and divination system based on 64 hexagrams formed from the eight trigrams (Bagua), interpreting the laws of change in the universe and all things.
What is Nạp Âm?
Na Yin is a system that assigns names and Five Elements attributes to each pair of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in the Sixty Jiazi cycle, used for interpreting destiny and fortune.
What is Ngũ Hành?
The Five Elements is a system of five categories, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, in Eastern philosophy, used to explain the relationships and transformations of phenomena through the cycles of generation and overcoming.
What is Quẻ?
A hexagram (卦) is a unit constituting the I Ching, consisting of six lines arranged from bottom to top, representing a situation or state of change in all things.
Tử Vi (Zi Wei Dou Shu)
7 terms
What is Chính tinh?
Chinh tinh (principal stars) are the core group of stars in a Tử Vi astrology chart, comprising 14 stars such as Tử Vi, Thiên Phủ, Thái Dương, shaping the core personality and destiny of each palace.
What is Cung Mệnh?
Cung Mệnh (命宮, Mệnh Palace) is the primary palace in a Tử Vi astrological chart, reflecting a person's character, temperament, inner nature, and potential life direction.
What is Cung Thân?
Cung Thân (Body Palace) is a special palace in Vietnamese Tử Vi astrology, not fixed but placed according to birth month and hour, reflecting inner tendencies, later life, and the practical 'body' aspect of the native.
What is Sát Phá Lang?
Sát Phá Lang is the term for the triad of major stars Thất Sát, Phá Quân and Tham Lang in Tử Vi astrology, symbolizing strong character, upheaval and a pioneering spirit.
What is Tứ Hóa?
Tứ Hóa refers to the four stars Hóa Lộc, Hóa Quyền, Hóa Khoa, and Hóa Kỵ in Tử Vi Đẩu Số, reflecting four directions: smooth flow, authority, reputation, and obstacles. Which heavenly stem assigns which star to Tứ Hóa is where schools differ most; for the stem Canh in particular, there are variant versions at two positions, Hóa Khoa and Hóa Kỵ, while Lộc and Quyền are the same in every version.
What is Tử Vi Đẩu Số?
Tử Vi Đẩu Số is a traditional Vietnamese-Chinese astrological system that uses birth time, day, month and year to cast a twelve-palace chart and interpret personality and fortune through its stars.
What is Vòng Trường Sinh?
The Twelve Life Stages is a sequence of twelve stars in Zi Wei Dou Shu that models the cycle of birth, aging, illness and death of all things, placed according to the Yang palace of the birth year.
Bát Tự (Four Pillars)
4 terms
What is Bát Tự?
BaZi (also called Four Pillars) is a traditional destiny analysis system based on the four pillars of birth year, month, day, and hour, each consisting of one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch, totaling eight characters, used to analyze the Five Elements and one's fate.
What is Dụng Thần?
Yong Shen (Useful God) is the most necessary element among the Five Elements to balance and remedy the Four Pillars chart, helping the destiny structure achieve harmony according to BaZi theory.
What is Nhật Chủ?
The Day Master (Nhật Chủ) is the Heavenly Stem of the Day Pillar in a Four Pillars chart, representing the querent and serving as the central reference point for interpreting the entire chart.
What is Thập Thần?
The Ten Gods are ten relationships of generation and control between the Day Master (the heavenly stem of the birth day) and the other stems and branches in a Four Pillars chart, used to interpret personality, career, wealth, and relationships.
Stems, branches & zodiac animals
8 terms
What is Can Chi?
Can Chi is the system that pairs the Ten Heavenly Stems (Giáp, Ất, Bính, Đinh, Mậu, Kỷ, Canh, Tân, Nhâm, Quý) with the Twelve Earthly Branches (Tý, Sửu, Dần, Mão, Thìn, Tỵ, Ngọ, Mùi, Thân, Dậu, Tuất, Hợi) to record years, months, days and hours in the traditional East Asian calendar.
What is Con giáp?
The zodiac animal system is the set of twelve Earthly Branches (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Cat, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig) used to reckon years, months, hours and ages in East Asian culture.
What is Địa Chi?
Earthly Branches is a system of 12 symbols (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Cat, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig) used to mark time, direction, and interactive relationships in East Asian calendrics and the Stem-Branch cycle.
What is Lục Hại?
Lục Hại (Six Harms) refers to six pairs of Earthly Branches that are in latent conflict within the 12 zodiac animals system, including Rat Goat, Ox Horse, Tiger Snake, Cat Dragon, Monkey Pig, Rooster Dog, often consulted for marriage and business relationships.
What is Lục Thập Hoa Giáp?
The Sixty Jiazi is a cycle of 60 sexagenary combinations of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches used to number years, months, days and hours in traditional East Asian calendrics, each combination paired with a Na Yin Five Element.
What is Tam Hợp?
Tam Hợp (三合) is a group of three Earthly Branches spaced four positions apart, forming one of four elemental combinations: Shen-Zi-Chen (Water), Hai-Mao-Wei (Wood), Yin-Wu-Xu (Fire), Si-You-Chou (Metal).
What is Thiên Can?
The Heavenly Stems are ten symbols (Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) in the Stem-Branch system, used to record days, months, years, and hours in East Asian calendrics, each stem associated with a Yin-Yang and Five Elements attribute.
What is Tứ Hành Xung?
Four conflicting zodiac signs are four Earthly Branches forming two opposing pairs, including Rat-Horse-Cat-Rooster, Tiger-Monkey-Snake-Pig, and Dragon-Dog-Ox-Goat, traditionally believed to be prone to conflict in marriage or partnership.
Feng shui
7 terms
What is 24 Sơn Hướng?
24 Mountain Directions is a system of 24 positions on the feng shui compass, each spanning 15 degrees, used to determine the orientation of houses and graves and to assess auspiciousness based on the five elements and eight trigrams.
What is Bát Trạch?
Bát Trạch (Eight Mansions) is a traditional feng shui method that classifies houses into eight mansion types based on the eight trigrams, combined with the owner's trigram number to select auspicious and inauspicious directions.
What is Cung Phi?
Cung Phi is the Eight Trigrams (Ba Zhai) palace assigned to a person based on birth year and gender, used to determine East Four Life or West Four Life in feng shui.
What is Đông Tứ Trạch?
Đông Tứ Trạch is a group of four dwelling orientations (Kham, Chan, Ly, Ton) in Bát Trạch feng shui, associated with people of Đông Tứ Mệnh, with favorable directions North, East, Southeast, South.
What is Huyền Không Phi Tinh?
Xuan Kong Flying Stars is a school of feng shui that uses the nine stars flying through time and directions to assess auspiciousness for dwellings and graves.
What is Phong Thủy?
Feng Shui is a traditional body of knowledge about arranging living spaces in harmony with landscape and energy flow, based on yin-yang, the five elements, and the eight trigrams.
What is Tây Tứ Trạch?
Tây Tứ Trạch (西四宅, 'West Four Houses') is the group of four house orientations in Bát Trạch feng shui, comprising Can (Northwest), Khon (Southwest), Can (Northeast), and Doai (West), considered suitable for people of the Tây Tứ Mệnh group.
Choosing dates and hours
2 terms
What is Giờ hoàng đạo?
Auspicious hours are six two-hour time slots in a day, based on the twelve Earthly Branches, regarded in folk calendrical practice as favorable times for beginning important undertakings.
What is Tiết khí?
Solar terms are 24 markers dividing the year by the Sun's position on the ecliptic, used in East Asian calendrics to determine seasons and festivals.
Face and palm reading
3 terms
What is Ngũ Quan?
Ngũ Quan (五官) refers to the five facial features, namely the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and eyebrows, used in Eastern physiognomy to observe and infer a person's character and destiny.
What is Nhân Tướng Học?
Physiognomy (Nhân Tướng Học) is a discipline that observes facial features, hands and body to infer personality and destiny. It exists in both Eastern and Western traditions, is intended for reference, and has not been verified by modern science.
What is Tam Đình?
Tam Đình (三停) is a method of dividing the face in physiognomy into three parts: the upper part from the hairline to the eyebrows, the middle part from the eyebrows to the tip of the nose, and the lower part from the tip of the nose to the chin, used to assess destiny and personality.
Folk taboos
4 terms
What is Hoang Ốc?
Hoang Ốc sorts lunar age into six positions, counted through the tens first then on by the units digit. Three of the six are considered unfavourable.
What is Kim Lâu?
Kim Lâu is a folk taboo found by dividing lunar age by nine. Remainders of 1, 3, 6 or 8 count as affected, each named for whoever tradition holds is touched. It is the most avoided of the three house-building taboos.
What is Tam Tai?
Tam Tai is a run of three consecutive years in which folk belief advises extra caution, recurring every twelve years and determined by the trine of your birth-year animal.
What is Vietnamese lunar age?
Lunar age equals the current year minus the birth year, plus one. Someone born in 1990 is 37 in 2026, even before their Gregorian birthday. It is the number folk calculations use.
Vietnamese folk beliefs
4 terms
What Is Đạo Mẫu (Đạo Mẫu), Vietnam's Mother Goddess Worship?
Đạo Mẫu is an indigenous folk belief of the Vietnamese people, worshipping Holy Mothers and female deities who govern the realms of the universe according to the Three Palaces or Four Palaces system.
What is Hầu đồng?
Hầu đồng (also lên đồng, hầu bóng) is the central ritual of Mother Goddess worship in Vietnam, in which a medium incarnates the spirits of the Four Palaces through a series of 'giá đồng', with dances and offerings to seek health, fortune, and thanksgiving.
What is Ông Công Ông Táo?
Ông Công Ông Táo is the folk term for the three Kitchen Gods (Táo Quân, Thần Bếp) who watch over household affairs and are sent to heaven on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to report to the Jade Emperor.
What is Tứ Bất Tử?
Tứ Bất Tử is the collective name for four immortal saints in Vietnamese folk belief: Tản Viên Sơn Thánh, Saint Giong, Chử Đồng Tử, and Holy Mother Lieu Hanh.
Tarot
4 terms
What is Ẩn Chính?
The Major Arcana is a group of 22 trump cards in a Tarot deck, numbered 0 to 21, representing the soul's journey and major life lessons.
What is Ẩn Phụ?
The Minor Arcana is the remaining 56 cards of a Tarot deck (after the 22 Major Arcana), divided into four suits, Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles, reflecting everyday events and experiences.
What is Tarot?
Tarot is a system of 78 cards, commonly used in divination and spiritual counseling to reflect situations, trends, and inner lessons.
What is Trải bài?
A spread is a predefined layout of Tarot cards in which each position carries its own meaning to help interpret a question.
Western astrology
6 terms
What is Bản đồ sao?
A natal chart is a diagram of the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets across the 12 zodiac signs and 12 houses at the moment of birth, used in Western astrology to interpret personality and life themes.
What is Cung Hoàng Đạo?
A zodiac sign is one of twelve equal divisions of the ecliptic in the sky, each associated with a constellation and used in Western astrology to describe personality traits, love, and career.
What is Cung Mặt Trăng?
The Moon sign is the zodiac sign the Moon occupied at a person's birth, reflecting their inner world, emotions, and subconscious.
What is Cung Mọc?
The Rising Sign (Ascendant) is the zodiac sign on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, representing first impressions, outward persona, and how a person approaches the world.
What is Khía cạnh chiêm tinh?
An astrological aspect is the angle formed by two planets or points on a chart, used to interpret their interaction and the degree of harmony or tension between them.
What is Nghịch hành?
Retrograde is the apparent backward motion of a planet against the background stars as seen from Earth, caused by differences in orbital speed, and in astrology it is often linked to slowdowns, revisiting, or reversals of related themes.
Numerology
4 terms
What is Số Đường Đời?
The Life Path Number is the core number in numerology, calculated by adding and reducing the day, month, and year of birth in the Gregorian calendar to a single digit, except when preserving 11, 22, or 33.
What is Số Linh Hồn?
The Soul Urge Number is a numerology index calculated from the vowels in one's full birth name, reflecting a person's innermost desires, motivations, and deepest longings.
What is Số Sứ Mệnh?
The Expression Number is a numerology figure calculated from a person's full birth name, reflecting innate potential, talents, and the mode of expression a person is said to carry through life.
What is Thần Số Học?
Numerology is a traditional system of knowledge that assigns meaning to numbers linked to birth date and name, serving as a reference for personality tendencies and life lessons.
Other
9 terms
What is Bệnh Dược?
Bệnh Dược (Illness and Remedy) is a principle for reading Bát Tự destiny set out by Zhang Nan (style name Shen Feng, Ming dynasty) in Shen Feng Tong Kao, in the section on the illness and remedy theory: the "illness" is the character in the birth chart that harms the deity one needs, and the "remedy" is another character that removes that character, with the aim of moving toward balance of the Five Elements.
What is Điều Hậu?
Điều Hậu (調候) is a principle for choosing the useful god in Bát Tự to regulate the hot, cold, dry, or damp climate of the chart toward balance, and it is typically used when the destiny structure leans strongly in temperature. The theoretical basis is presented in Trích Thiên Tủy (the Hàn noãn chapter) and Cùng Thông Bảo Giám.
What is Dương Nhận?
Dương Nhận (陽刃, also written 羊刃) is a shen sha in Bát Tự Tứ Trụ, located in the earthly branch immediately after the Nhật Chủ's Lộc, indicating fierceness, conflict, and latent danger. Vạn Dân Anh's Tam Mệnh Thông Hội records two spellings of this name and two directions of interpretation: nhận is a fierce sha when encountered in the hour and in tuế vận, but it may also not cause harm when the day stem has no qi. It is necessary to distinguish the Dương Nhận of Bát Tự from the Kình Dương star of Tử Vi.
What is Hỉ Thần?
In Tử Bình, the favorable deity (hỉ thần) is the element or stem-branch that benefits the chart, opposite the unfavorable deity (kỵ thần). Trích Thiên Tủy, in the chapter on idle deities, says: "The favorable deity need not be many; one favorable brings all goodness. The unfavorable deity need not be many; one unfavorable brings all harm." Later texts divide the process into three steps: assess the strength or weakness of the day master, determine the useful deity (dụng thần), then call the element that supports the useful deity the favorable deity and the element that controls it the unfavorable deity, with the condition that if the supporting element is already excessive, it is no longer favorable. The favorable deity is not a fixed god or demon looked up by a formula based on the day stem or day branch, nor is it fixed by age; it is the conclusion from weighing the entire chart. In Tử Vi Đẩu Số, Hỷ Thần is instead the name of a auxiliary star in the Bác Sĩ circle, sharing only the same characters as the Tử Bình favorable deity.
What is Kiến Lộc?
Jian Lu is a configuration in BaZi where the Day Master obtains Lu in the month branch, meaning the day stem meets its own Lu position in the month pillar, indicating a strong self and self-reliance. Classical texts such as Yuan Hai Zi Ping hold that people with Jian Lu mostly lack ancestral property, must establish themselves independently, and that analyzing Jian Lu requires further consideration of wealth and officials.
What is Nguyệt Lệnh?
Nguyệt Lệnh (月令) is the Can Chi of the Month Pillar in Bát Tự Tứ Trụ, representing the seasonal climate of the birth month and playing a primary role when assessing the strength or weakness of the Nhật Chủ. The Month Pillar changes according to solar terms (Lập Xuân, Kinh Trập, Thanh Minh, and so on), not according to the first day of the lunar month.
What is Phù Ức?
Support and Restraint is the balancing principle in Bazi: use the resource deity to generate and support when the Day Master is weak, use the officer or output deity to control or drain when the Day Master is strong, aiming to bring the chart back to neutrality. Di Tian Sui states this principle with the phrase "fu zhi yi zhi de qi yi" (support or restrain must be appropriate), alongside separate chapters on mediating, cold and warmth (climate adjustment), and following momentum. One must remember that generation is not necessarily good and control is not necessarily bad: an element that generates the Day Master, which is already strong, instead becomes a Ji Shen. For Follow patterns and Transformation Qi patterns, Support and Restraint does not apply; one must follow the strong momentum rather than restrain it.
What is Thông Quan?
Thông Quan is a condition in a Bát Tự chart where an intermediate element or one of the ten gods resolves the clash between two sides, helping the mệnh cục flow and the dụng thần function. Trích Thiên Tủy (traditionally attributed to Liu Ji), in the chapter on Thông cách, calls the place blocked between two elements the quan cách, and removing that blockage is thông quan; the mediating element varies by pair, such as Kim and Mộc being mediated by Thủy, and Thủy and Hỏa by Mộc.
What is Tòng Cách?
Tòng Cách is a special pattern in Bát Tự where the Nhật chủ is extremely weak, lacking any root from Ấn or Tỷ, and must follow the element of the most prosperous thập thần in the chart to interpret destiny. The book Trích Thiên Tủy (traditionally attributed to Liu Ji) divides it into true tòng and false tòng: true tòng is when the Nhật chủ is isolated and weak, without any qi, the three yuán have no support at all, and Tài and Quan are extremely strong; false tòng is when the Nhật chủ is weak, Tài and Quan are strong, and although it cannot but follow, there is still some assistance in the chart, and if the luck cycle meets Tài and Quan in favorable positions, it may also lead to wealth and honor.