Glossary
BaZi & Feng Shui Glossary
This glossary defines the core terms of BaZi (Chinese Four Pillars astrology) and its sister discipline, feng shui — from Day Master and Heavenly Stem to Wu Xing, luck pillars, and True Solar Time. Each entry is a one- to two-sentence definition you can use to read your own chart or follow a Qysmet reading.
A–Z terms
- BaZi
- BaZi (“Eight Characters”) is the Chinese astrology system that maps your exact birth moment into eight characters across four pillars. It is also known as the Four Pillars of Destiny.
- Four Pillars of Destiny
- The English name for BaZi. The four pillars — Year, Month, Day, and Hour — are derived from your birth date and time, each pairing a Heavenly Stem with an Earthly Branch.
- Eight Characters
- The literal meaning of “BaZi”: the four pillars contribute two characters each (a stem and a branch), for eight characters total that describe your energetic makeup.
- Heavenly Stem
- One of ten celestial signs (tiān gān) that combine with the Earthly Branches to form the pillars. Each stem carries one of the Five Elements in a yin or yang form.
- Earthly Branch
- One of twelve terrestrial signs (dì zhī) corresponding to the zodiac animals. Each branch holds one or more hidden stems and anchors a pillar to a month, hour, and element.
- Day Master
- The Heavenly Stem of your Day pillar — the single character that represents your core self and the reference point from which the rest of the chart is read.
- Year Pillar
- The pillar derived from your birth year, describing ancestry, early environment, and how you present to the wider world. It also carries your zodiac animal.
- Month Pillar
- The pillar derived from your birth month (by solar term), governing career instinct, parents, and formative environment. It is central to judging Day Master strength.
- Day Pillar
- The pillar derived from your birth day. Its Heavenly Stem is your Day Master (your core self) and its Earthly Branch is the “spouse palace,” linked to partnership.
- Hour Pillar
- The pillar derived from your birth hour, describing your inner world, ambitions, children, and later life. It requires a known birth time to compute.
- Five Elements
- Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water — the five modes of energy every stem and branch carries. Their balance across your chart is the practical core of a reading.
- Wu Xing
- The Chinese name (wǔ xíng) for the Five Elements, sometimes rendered “five phases.” Wu Xing underpins both BaZi and feng shui.
- Productive Cycle
- The generating cycle in which each element feeds the next: Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal carries Water, and Water grows Wood.
- Controlling Cycle
- The overcoming cycle in which each element restrains another: Wood parts Earth, Earth dams Water, Water quenches Fire, Fire melts Metal, and Metal cuts Wood.
- Yin and Yang
- The two complementary polarities (yīn yáng) present in every stem, branch, and element. Yin is receptive and inward; yang is active and outward.
- Ten Gods
- The ten relationships (shí shén) between the Day Master and every other element in the chart. They translate raw elements into meaning: wealth, authority, creativity, support, and more.
- Friend (Bi Jian)
- A Ten God (bǐ jiān) describing an element of the same type and polarity as the Day Master. It signals peers, self-reliance, and competition on equal footing.
- Rob Wealth
- A Ten God (jié cái) of the same element as the Day Master but opposite polarity. It relates to rivals, risk-taking, and the pull to spend or share resources.
- Eating God
- A Ten God (shí shén) produced by the Day Master, of the same polarity. It represents easygoing creativity, expression, enjoyment, and generative output.
- Hurting Officer
- A Ten God (shāng guān) produced by the Day Master, of opposite polarity. It represents intense talent, performance, and a rebellious, rule-bending creativity.
- Direct Wealth
- A Ten God (zhèng cái) the Day Master controls, of opposite polarity. It signals steady, earned wealth, reliability, and (for some charts) a spouse.
- Indirect Wealth
- A Ten God (piān cái) the Day Master controls, of the same polarity. It signals fluid, opportunistic wealth, windfalls, and enterprise.
- Direct Officer
- A Ten God (zhèng guān) that controls the Day Master, of opposite polarity. It represents legitimate authority, discipline, status, and responsibility.
- Seven Killings
- A Ten God (qī shā) that controls the Day Master, of the same polarity. It represents power, pressure, drive, and the capacity to act decisively under stress.
- Direct Resource
- A Ten God (zhèng yìn) that produces the Day Master, of opposite polarity. It represents nurturing support, learning, protection, and a mother figure.
- Indirect Resource
- A Ten God (piān yìn) that produces the Day Master, of the same polarity. It represents unconventional knowledge, intuition, and non-mainstream support.
- Luck Pillar (Da Yun)
- A ten-year cycle (dà yùn) of stem-and-branch influence that layers over your natal chart, describing the seasons of your life and how favorable elements shift with time.
- Annual Pillar
- The stem-and-branch pillar of a given calendar year (liú nián), read against your natal chart and current luck pillar to gauge the flavor of that specific year.
- 60-Jiazi Cycle
- The sexagenary cycle of sixty unique stem–branch combinations (liù shí jiǎ zǐ) formed by pairing ten Heavenly Stems with twelve Earthly Branches. It cycles through years, months, days, and hours.
- True Solar Time
- Local time corrected to the actual position of the sun, rather than clock or time-zone time. BaZi uses True Solar Time so the Hour pillar reflects the real sky at birth.
- Li Chun
- The solar term (Lì Chūn) marking the start of spring and the true beginning of the BaZi year — around February 4th, not January 1st.
- Solar Term (Jieqi)
- One of twenty-four divisions (jié qì) of the solar year that define when each BaZi month begins. Month pillars are set by solar terms, not by the lunar calendar.
- Favorable Element
- An element your chart needs to balance the Day Master — strengthening it if weak, or draining and controlling it if strong. Favorable elements guide beneficial colors, directions, and choices.
- Unfavorable Element
- An element that pushes the Day Master further out of balance. Recognizing your unfavorable elements helps you avoid what tends to work against you.
- Day Master Strength
- A measure of how supported or drained your Day Master is by the rest of the chart — strong, weak, or balanced. It determines which elements are favorable.
- Clash
- A tense, destabilizing relationship (chōng) between two Earthly Branches that sit opposite each other. Clashes signal movement, conflict, or sudden change.
- Combination
- A binding relationship (hé) between stems or branches that draws them together and may transform their element, softening or redirecting the chart’s energy.
- Zodiac Animal
- One of twelve animals tied to the Earthly Branches (Rat, Ox, Tiger, and so on). Your Year branch gives your familiar zodiac sign, one small part of a full BaZi chart.
- Qi
- Qi is the vital energy or life force that flows through people, time, and space. BaZi reads the qi of your birth moment; feng shui shapes the qi of an environment.
- Feng Shui
- Feng shui (“wind-water”) is the Chinese art of arranging space and orientation to harmonize the flow of qi. Like BaZi, it is built on the Five Elements.
- Bagua
- The eight trigrams (bā guà) representing fundamental principles of reality, arranged around a compass. In feng shui the bagua maps areas of a space to life aspects.
- Ziwei Doushu
- Purple Star Astrology (Zǐ Wēi Dǒu Shù), a sister system to BaZi that plots symbolic “stars” across twelve palaces to read personality and destiny.
- Chinese Metaphysics
- The umbrella tradition (wǔ shù) encompassing BaZi, feng shui, Ziwei Doushu, divination, and related arts — all grounded in yin-yang and the Five Elements.
- Kua Number
- A number derived from your birth year and gender in feng shui, used to determine your favorable and unfavorable directions for sleeping, working, and facing.