Introduction to Eight Characters: What is the Four Pillars Eight Characters

Basic concepts

The Four Pillars and Eight Characters, abbreviated as "Eight Characters", are the core methods of traditional Chinese fortune telling. It is based on the year, month, day, and hour of a person's birth, represented by the heavenly stems and earthly branches, with a total of eight characters, hence the name "Bazi".

Composition of Four Pillars

Column position Representative Meaning
Year pillar Ancestors, parents Foundation, family
Moon Column Brothers and sisters Growth Environment
Sun Pillar Myself (Day Stem) Essence of Myself
Time pillar Children, juniors Home, achievements

Among them, * * day stem * * is the core of the entire Eight Characters, representing the master himself.

Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches

Ten days to dry

A, B, C, D, E, J, G, Xin, Ren, Gui

Twelve Earthly Branches

Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai
The heavenly stems and earthly branches are paired together to form sixty sets, which are used for recording years, months, days, and times.

The method of arranging BaZi characters

Year pillar

Divided by the Beginning of Spring (not the Spring Festival):
-After the Beginning of Spring on February 4, 2024 → Year of Jiachen
-Before the Beginning of Spring on February 4, 2024 → Year of Guimao

Moon pillar

Divided by solar terms:
-Beginning of Spring → Moon Moon
-Jingzhe → Maoyue
-Qingming Festival → Chen Yue

Sun pillar

Retrieve the stem and branch of a birthday through a perpetual calendar.

Time column

According to the daily routine, use the "Five Rat Escape" mnemonic to calculate:
-From Jiaji Day to Jiazi Time
-From the day of the seventh lunar month to the hour of the third child
-From the day of Bingxin to the hour of Wuzi
-From the day of Dingren to the hour of Gengzi
-From the day of Wugui to the hour of Renzi

Give examples to illustrate

Someone was born on August 15th, 2000 at 10am:
-Year pillar: Geng Chen
-Moon pillar: Jiashen
-Sun pillar: check perpetual calendar
-Time column: calculated based on daily dryness

Learning advice

  1. First, memorize the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches
  2. Learn to arrange the Eight Characters
  3. Understand the Five Elements' generation and restraint
  4. Study the Ten Divine Systems
  5. Read more examples for analysis