Bazi (Four Pillars of Destiny) is a traditional Chinese fate-reading system closely tied to the Stems-and-Branches and Five Elements systems. "Bazi" means "eight characters," drawn from four time pillars, Year, Month, Day, Hour, each made of one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch.
There are 10 Heavenly Stems, each linked to one of the Five Elements (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) and a Yin/Yang polarity, and 12 Earthly Branches matching the 12 zodiac animals. Stems and Branches combine in a 60-term cycle still used today to name years (e.g., "the year of Giap Thin").
The Day Pillar is considered most important: its Stem, the "Day Master," represents the person themselves. The other three pillars are analyzed for how they generate or overcome the Day Master's element, revealing whether the chart is "strong" or "weak" and which element should be reinforced for balance.
People apply this analysis to choose names, colors, or auspicious directions for a home or desk.
Building an accurate Bazi chart requires correctly converting the Stems and Branches of the birth year, month, day and hour, the day pillar being the most computationally demanding, tied to Julian day counting, so a reliable lookup tool should be checked against authoritative almanac sources.
