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 (八字, “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 (天干) 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 (地支) 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 (五行) 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 (阴阳) present in every stem, branch, and element. Yin is receptive and inward; yang is active and outward.
- Ten Gods
- The ten relationships (十神) 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 (比肩) 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 (劫财) 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 (食神) produced by the Day Master, of the same polarity. It represents easygoing creativity, expression, enjoyment, and generative output.
- Hurting Officer
- A Ten God (伤官) produced by the Day Master, of opposite polarity. It represents intense talent, performance, and a rebellious, rule-bending creativity.
- Direct Wealth
- A Ten God (正财) the Day Master controls, of opposite polarity. It signals steady, earned wealth, reliability, and (for some charts) a spouse.
- Indirect Wealth
- A Ten God (偏财) the Day Master controls, of the same polarity. It signals fluid, opportunistic wealth, windfalls, and enterprise.
- Direct Officer
- A Ten God (正官) that controls the Day Master, of opposite polarity. It represents legitimate authority, discipline, status, and responsibility.
- Seven Killings
- A Ten God (七杀) 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 (正印) that produces the Day Master, of opposite polarity. It represents nurturing support, learning, protection, and a mother figure.
- Indirect Resource
- A Ten God (偏印) 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 (大运) 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 (流年), 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 (六十甲子) 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 (立春) 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 (节气) 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 (冲) between two Earthly Branches that sit opposite each other. Clashes signal movement, conflict, or sudden change.
- Combination
- A binding relationship (合) 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 (气) 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 (风水, “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 (八卦) 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 (紫微斗数), a sister system to BaZi that plots symbolic “stars” across twelve palaces to read personality and destiny.
- Chinese Metaphysics
- The umbrella tradition (五术) 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.