BaZi Calculator and Analysis
Enter your birth date, time and place to get the complete Four Pillars. The time is corrected to true solar time using your birthplace longitude and the timezone actually in force that year.
This is a worked example: born Kuala Lumpur, 18 February 1950, 17:00, when the clocks in Kuala Lumpur ran on UTC+7:30. Enter your own birth above to cast yours.
Born between 11pm and midnight? The clock your birthplace kept that year What’s my zodiac sign
Birth details · 1950-02-18 · 17:00 · Kuala Lumpur — change
mingpan.co
BaZi Chart Report
Prepared for
Year
Metal Tiger (庚寅)
Month
Earth Tiger (戊寅)
Day
Wood Monkey (甲申)
Hour
Water Monkey (壬申)
- Date of birth
- 1950-02-18
- Clock time
- 17:00
- Place of birth
- Kuala Lumpur
- True solar time
- 1950-02-18 16:02
- Hour branch
- Monkey hour (申时)
- Gender
- Male
Prepared 28 October 2026
Every finding in this report names the classical text it comes from. Scores and grades are computed fits against what this chart wants, not forecasts. The birth time has been corrected to true solar time using the birthplace longitude and the timezone actually in force that year.
Executive summary
The chart on one page
| Day master | Yang Wood (甲) The Great Tree · yang Wood 甲木参天，脱胎要火，春不容金，秋不容土，火炽乘龙，水宕骑虎，地润天和，植立千古。 Yang Wood (甲) reaches to heaven: to shed its husk it wants Fire; in spring it will not tolerate Metal, in autumn it will not tolerate Earth. With Fire blazing it rides the dragon; with Water flooding it straddles the tiger. Ground moist and heaven mild, it stands planted a thousand years. |
|---|---|
| Strength | a strong self (身强) — strong (2 of 3 classical tests met) |
| Month pattern | The Indirect Wealth pattern (偏财格) — named for Indirect Wealth (偏财): what you control, same polarity |
| Helps / hurts (扶抑) | Helps: Fire, Earth, Metal · Hurts: Wood, Water Three other methods follow in the body; they need not agree. |
| Luck pillar | Now Fire Dog (丙戌) 2025–2034 · Very good |
| Year 2027 | Fire Goat (丁未) · Very good |
| Marriage | Spouse star Direct Wealth (正财) absent from the chart; spouse palace Monkey (申), punished by the year pillar; punished by the month pillar |
| Birth time | 17:00 → true solar time 1950-02-18 16:02 (−58 min). The clock time falls in Rooster hour (酉时); corrected, it is Monkey hour (申时) — so the hour pillar is different. |
Each line above is set out in full in the pages that follow, with its source: first the findings, then the working, then the decades and years, and last the method and its limits.
Your chart on one screen
- Day master: Yang Wood (Jia, 甲) — The Great Tree
From: the day you were born; what it is, in Di Tian Sui (滴天髓)’s own words, is below - Strength: a strong self (身强), 2 of 3 tests met (season, roots, numbers)
From: the three-look test (三看) this site applies; how, and where Zi Ping Zhen Quan (子平真詮) weighs it differently, is on the method page - Month pattern: The Indirect Wealth pattern (偏财格) — named for what you control, same polarity
From: your month branch, by the rules of Zi Ping Zhen Quan (子平真詮) and Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) - Helps and hurts: helps Fire, Earth, Metal; hurts Wood, Water
From: support-and-restrain (扶抑), following from the strength above; the seasonal method of Qiong Tong Bao Jian (窮通寶鑑), below, need not agree - Luck pillar now: Fire Dog (Bing Xu, 丙戌), 2025–2034: Very good
From: this site’s rating of how the period’s elements suit your helps and hurts (the weights are on the method page); a lookup, not a forecast - The year 2027: Fire Goat (Ding Wei, 丁未): Very good
From: this site’s rating of how the period’s elements suit your helps and hurts (the weights are on the method page); a lookup, not a forecast - Birth time: 17:00 on the clock was 16:02 true solar time (−58 min): Monkey hour (申时), not Rooster hour (酉时), so the hour pillar is different
From: this site’s correction, from your birthplace’s longitude and the clock it actually kept that year
Each line is set out in full below, with the working and the source’s own words.
Your day master
Yang Wood (Jia, 甲)
The Great Tree
Stands tall, principled, slow to bend.
The element of the day you were born. BaZi reads everything else in the chart against it.
More on the Yang Wood day master · Your day pillar, Jia Shen
What the classic BaZi text Di Tian Sui (滴天髓) says about Yang Wood
Yang Wood (甲) reaches to heaven: to shed its husk it wants Fire; in spring it will not tolerate Metal, in autumn it will not tolerate Earth. With Fire blazing it rides the dragon; with Water flooding it straddles the tiger. Ground moist and heaven mild, it stands planted a thousand years.
甲木参天，脱胎要火，春不容金，秋不容土，火炽乘龙，水宕骑虎，地润天和，植立千古。
Each element feeds the next one round the ring and controls the one across from it. Yours (filled) and the one that feeds it (shaded) back you up; the other three draw on you. The numbers count the other seven characters in your chart: 3 back you, 4 draw on you.
Strength
Strong (身强)
Passes 2 of 3 tests: born in its own season; rooted in the chart; more characters draw on it than back it.
How much backing your day master gets. Two tests out of three makes it strong.
Your month pattern
The Indirect Wealth pattern (偏财格)
Money that comes sideways rather than by salary — the uneven kind.
Set by the month you were born in.
Four pillars
Metal Tiger, Earth Tiger, Wood Monkey, Water Monkey (庚寅 戊寅 甲申 壬申)
Your birth year, month, day and hour, each written as a pair of characters — an element and an animal.
BaZi means “eight characters”: these eight.
Your 2027
2027 is the Fire Goat or Sheep year (Ding Wei, 丁未). Read against your own chart, by BaZi:
Fire Goat (丁未)
2027
Very goodWhat the year's two characters bring
- Stem Yin Fire (丁) — Fire wanted
- Branch Goat (未) — Earth wanted
- hidden Yin Earth (己) — Earth wanted
- hidden Yin Fire (丁) — Fire wanted
- hidden Yin Wood (乙) — Wood unwanted
What it does to your natal pillars
This year forms no clash, harmony, punishment or harm with your natal branches.
The band above is how well this year's elements fit what your chart wants. It is a computed fit, not a forecast. No source work grades a year on a scale — this grade is computed here, and the method page sets out how.
Your 2027 in full, with your luck decades and the years around it
The link carries your day master only, which one person in ten shares, never your birth. The card is dated and says one thing: what the year’s stem is to that day master.
Coming back to it
- Every day: bookmark this link. Each day it sets that day against this chart. It carries your birth, as chart links here do, so keep it for yourself rather than sending it on.
- 2027, month by month:
The twelve BaZi months that begin in 2027: the solar term that opens each, its pillar, and this site’s rating of how its elements suit your chart (a lookup, not a forecast). Your browser makes the file on this page; your birth is not in it.
About your birth time
You entered 17:00; the true solar time is 16:02, which falls in Monkey hour (申时). This time, today’s timezone gives the same two-hour period (时辰) — so this chart agrees with the one you would get elsewhere.
Why the sun and the clock differ by 58 minutes: Kuala Lumpur lies west of 112.5°E, the line its clocks were set to in 1950 (UTC+7:30), so the sun runs behind the clock there: −43.2 min. The time of year shifts it by another −14.4 min.
True solar time
1950-02-18 16:02
Shichen
Monkey hour (申时)
Four pillars
Metal Tiger, Earth Tiger, Wood Monkey, Water Monkey (庚寅 戊寅 甲申 壬申)
How firm is this two-hour period (时辰)
Firm. The corrected time is 58 minutes clear of Rooster hour (酉时) — the time you entered would have to be wrong by more than that before this became a different chart. (precision not stated, so this assumes a time rounded to the nearest half hour)
What the source itself says about fixing the hour
The Rat (子) and Pig (亥) hours are the hardest of all to settle, and want careful working out. The Rat hour runs to ten marks: the earlier marks belong to the previous night's Pig hour, and the later marks to today's Rat. In overcast or rainy weather one must use the compass to fix the true hour — for if it is out, the chart is not accurate.
如人生子亥二时最难定，准要仔细推祥，如子时有十刻，上午刻属昨夜亥时，下午刻属今日子时，如天气阴雨之际，必须罗经以定真确时候，若差讹则命不准矣。
Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (紫微斗数全书), vol. 3 — On Fixing the Birth Hour Exactly (论人生时要审的确). A Ming text setting the requirement itself: get the hour wrong and the chart is not accurate. That is the whole reason this site corrects to true solar time using the timezone actually in force on your birth date.
Not sure of your birth time at all? See all twelve for this date
What the chart says
The findings
Day master strength, the month pattern, and what the two classical methods each pick out.
How much you have in reserve
You have force to spare. What you need is somewhere to put it — work, money, responsibility. Things that use you up suit you better than things that build you up.
How that was worked out
- ✓You were born in a season that suits you.
in season (得令) — born in Tiger (寅), the season does back Wood - ✓The chart quietly supports you in 4 places. Not visible on the surface, but there.
rooted (得地) — rooted in 4 hidden stems - ·More of the chart drains you than helps you (3 to 4).
outnumbered (失势) — 3 supporting against 4 draining
2 of the 3 classical tests met → a strong self (身强) (strong)
Elements that help you: Fire · Earth · Metal Elements that do not: Wood · Water
These two sets are what the decade and year ratings below are scored against.
A strong Wood day master is best drained or controlled — Fire (output), Earth (wealth), Metal (authority).
This uses the support-and-restrain (扶抑) method. The other classical method, climate balancing (调候), reads the season instead — it is below, with the source's own words.
climate balancing and the useful element (调候用神) · the season you were born into
The block above uses support-and-restrain (扶抑) — how much the day master has behind it. A second method reads the temperature of the month you were born in instead: Wood born in winter wants Fire, Wood born in summer wants Water. The two often reach different answers. Both are shown; we do not pick between them.
Wood in the 1st month: early spring, the cold not yet gone. Meeting Yang Fire (丙) and Yin Water (癸) together gives both wealth and rank; Yin Water hidden in a branch with Yang Fire showing in the stems is called "cold wood turned to the sun", and is read as great wealth and rank.
The text treats this month and its neighbour under one entry.
The stems this passage names, and the words that name them:
The two methods disagree here. support-and-restrain (扶抑) puts one of those elements in your unfavourable set; Qiong Tong Bao Jian (窮通寶鑑) names it as the thing your chart is missing. Which rule takes precedence is a lineage position rather than a fact, and we do not settle it. This is not an edge case: across 1,200 charts the two conflict 45.9% of the time.
The Chinese, and where it comes from
正月甲木，初春尚有餘寒，得丙癸逢，富貴雙全。癸藏丙透，名寒木向陽，主大富貴。
Qiong Tong Bao Jian (窮通寶鑑), Ming, attributed Yu Chuntai (餘春台), a recension of Lan Jiang Wang (欄江網). source. The underlying work is long out of copyright; this particular transcription is ctext.org's open wiki text, which anyone can edit and which is not an authoritative edition. Only the opening principle of each entry is used — the conditional branches that follow it are not.
The month command and pattern (月令格局) · what kind of chart this is
The Indirect Wealth pattern (偏财格)
Taken from Yang Earth (戊) in your month branch Tiger (寅) — standing openly at a stem head — which is Indirect Wealth (偏财) to your day master.
hidden in a branch and showing at a stem (支藏干透) — Yang Earth (戊) is hidden in the month branch and also stands at a stem head, so it is taken in preference to the principal qi.
used forward (顺用) · what to do with the pattern now it is named
Zi Ping Zhen Quan (子平真詮), 卷八〈论用神〉 divides the eight gods in two: Wealth, Officer, Resource and Eating God (财官印食) are the good ones and are used FORWARD — protected and supported; Killings, Hurting Officer, Rob Wealth and Blade (煞伤劫刃) are the ones that are not good and are used IN REVERSE — controlled and converted. Your pattern takes Indirect Wealth (偏财), which is Wealth (财), so it is used forward — protected and supported.
财喜食神以相生，生官以护财 — Wealth likes an Eating God (食神) to produce it, and produces the officer to guard it.
- ✓What it wants, and your chart has: Eating God (食神)
- ·What it wants, and your chart lacks: Direct Officer (正官)
This lists what the chapter names as wanted and shunned, against what your chart contains. It does not grade the pattern: the chapter grades by whether the fit is apt (配合得宜), and aptness is a weighing this engine does not do. The same work: 吉凶喜忌，全在是否合于需要，不因名称而有分别也 — fortune and misfortune lie entirely in whether a thing meets the need, not in its name.
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會), volume 5 On Direct Officer (论正官): 正官先看月令，然后方看其余 … 故只此月令为正，余格例此 — look first at the month command and then the rest; only the month command is the true one, and the other patterns follow this same example. So the pattern is the ten gods (十神) relation between your day master and what the month branch holds: a stem that also stands openly is taken first (the work calls this hidden in a branch and showing at a stem (支藏干透)), otherwise the principal qi. Where the month is your own element there is no pattern to take, and the work names Established Prosperity (建禄) or the month robber (月劫) instead of forcing one. The name only — no verdict. The work says a great deal about what each pattern wants and dislikes, and that is a further layer rather than a sentence. One more thing, stated because it would otherwise look like an omission: the section also lists the main qi (正气) month for each of the ten day stems, and that list is carried verbatim rather than derived. The officer star's prosperity star (禄) is in all ten entries, but Wood Snake (乙巳), Metal Tiger (辛寅), Yang Water and Goat-Ox (壬未丑) and Yin Water and Dragon-Dog (癸辰戌) follow no rule the text states, and every rule tried against them over-generated somewhere else. A table stated outright does not need a derivation invented for it.
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 5 · On Direct Officer (论正官)
bridging (通關) · illness-and-cure (病藥) · the third and fourth routes to the useful god
There are four routes to the useful element (用神): support-and-restrain (扶抑), climate balancing (調候), bridging (通關) and illness-and-cure (病藥). This site computed the first two for a long time and carried the other two as quotations, because that is all the base texts give — Di Tian Sui (滴天髓) states bridging in twenty characters and Wu Yan Du Bu (五言独步) states illness-and-cure in one line, naming the idea and supplying no mechanism. The mechanisms are in later works: bridging in Di Tian Sui Chan Wei (滴天髓闡微) (Ren Tieqiao (任鐵樵)'s Qing commentary), illness-and-cure in Shen Feng Tong Kao (神峰通考) (Zhang Nan (張楠), Ming). So what this block computes rests on commentary rather than on the canonical five, and says so.
bridging (通關) — the bridge between two elements at war
「木土而要火，火金而要土，土水而要金，金木而要水」 通关者，引通克制之神也。
Every controlling pair in your chart (5) already has its bridging element present. Nothing is blocked.
illness-and-cure (病藥) — the flaw, and what removes it
「何以为之病？原八字中原所害之神也；何以为之药？如八字原有所害之字，而得一字以去之。」
Your pattern takes Indirect Wealth (偏财) and the chart holds Friend (比肩) — that is the disease. The remedy is present: Seven Killings (七杀). 如用财见比肩为病，喜见官杀为药也
Shen Feng Tong Kao (神峰通考) names two diseases and their remedies — using wealth and seeing a Friend (比肩), and using Eating God (食) or Hurting Officer (伤) and seeing a Resource (印) — and this site computes those two and does not generalise to the other patterns. The four fears in San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) name which god harms which; naming the REMEDY is what this work adds, and it adds it for two cases. Zhang Nan (張楠) records what changed his mind, which is carried beside the rule: 愚尝先前未谙病药之说，屡以中和而究人之造化，十无一二有验 — before he understood disease and remedy he judged charts by the mean, and scarcely one or two in ten proved out.
Named patterns in the BaZi
Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) names patterns for particular pillar combinations. Every one whose rule the work states exactly is judged: the six day-pillar patterns in volume 1, and ten more from On Likes and Dislikes (喜忌篇). The rest — On the Hour Tomb (论时墓), On Flanked Prosperity (论拱禄) and the others — are either loosely stated or turn on things this engine does not compute.
This chart matches none of the sixteen. Where nothing matches, nothing is claimed.
The analysis
The chart, in detail
The full working. Every line below is traceable to a named source text.
month by month (流月) · this year, month by month
This site stopped at the year. The months use the same scoring, the same favourable and unfavourable elements and the same five bands — no new convention is introduced. The boundaries are solar terms, not calendar months: a Tiger (寅) month begins at Start of Spring (立春), so each row is labelled by the term that opened it.
| From | Pillar | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Minor Cold (小寒) 2026-01-05 | Earth Ox (己丑) | Very good |
| Start of Spring (立春) 2026-02-04 | Metal Tiger (庚寅) | Good |
| Awakening of Insects (惊蛰) 2026-03-05 | Metal Rabbit (辛卯) | Even |
| Clear and Bright (清明) 2026-04-05 | Water Dragon (壬辰) | Hard |
| Start of Summer (立夏) 2026-05-05 | Water Snake (癸巳) | Even |
| Grain in Ear (芒种) 2026-06-05 | Wood Horse (甲午) | Good |
| Minor Heat (小暑) 2026-07-07 | Wood Goat (乙未) | Even |
| Start of Autumn (立秋) 2026-08-07 | Fire Monkey (丙申) | Good |
| White Dew (白露) 2026-09-07 | Fire Rooster (丁酉) | Very good |
| Cold Dew (寒露) 2026-10-08 | Earth Dog (戊戌) | Very good |
| Start of Winter (立冬) 2026-11-07 | Earth Pig (己亥) | Hard |
| Major Snow (大雪) 2026-12-07 | Metal Rat (庚子) | Hard |
What is rated is whether a month's elemental character suits yours, not what will happen in it. Identical birth details always give identical output: this is a lookup, not a prophecy.
On Wealth (论财) · which shape your chart's pattern actually took
The Wealth pattern (财格)
Zi Ping Zhen Quan (子平真詮) gives each pattern a chapter of its own — which configurations it can take and how each is judged — and a second chapter, On the Periods for Wealth (论财取运), saying what the decades should bring for each. The block above said only whether the pattern is used forward or in reverse. This is the rest of it.
「财喜根深，不宜太露，然透一位以清用，格所最喜，不为之露」
Wealth likes a deep root and dislikes standing too openly — though one stem showing, to make the use clear, is what the pattern most likes, and does not count as standing open.
「故财与印不分偏正，同为一格而论之」 — so direct and indirect are not split here. That is the work's own instruction, not a simplification.
「有财格佩印者，盖孤财不贵，佩印帮身，即印取贵」
Makes the pattern, noble by way of the Resource (印). Wealth alone is not noble; a Resource stands to support the self so the self can hold the wealth, and the two do not stand adjacent where they would cancel.
Shen Xiaozhan (沈)'s worked chart: Wood Goat, Wood Monkey, Fire Monkey, Metal Tiger (乙未 甲申 丙申 庚寅) — Vice-minister Zeng (曾参政)
Holds for 15.7% of the Wealth pattern (财格) charts, measured over 17,280 birth moments
With the wealth pattern wearing the Resource (印): officer decades suit it, and on a weak self a decade of strong Resource is what it most likes.
「有财用煞印者，党煞为忌，印以化之，格成富局，若冬土逢之亦贵格」
Makes the pattern, the configuration makes a wealthy one. Wealth siding with the Seven Killings (七杀) is the fault; a Resource (印) stands to turn the Seven Killings into support for the self instead.
Shen Xiaozhan (沈)'s worked chart: Wood Ox, Fire Pig, Earth Pig, Fire Rat (乙丑 丁亥 己亥 丙子) — Attendant Zhao (赵待郎) — 化煞而即以解冻，又不露财以杂其印，所以贵也
Holds for 32.7% of the Wealth pattern (财格) charts, measured over 17,280 birth moments
Where the wealth uses Seven Killings (七杀) and Resource (印) together: a decade of strong Resource suits it best and a wealth decade is certainly to be avoided; Hurting Officer and Eating God (伤食) decades may go either way.
「若财用煞印而印独，财煞并透，非特不贵，亦不富也」
Spoils it, not merely not noble — not wealthy either. One Resource (印) has to turn a Seven Killings (七杀) that the revealed wealth is actively feeding. It is not enough, and Shen Xiaozhan (沈) is explicit that this fails on both counts.
Holds for 3.4% of the Wealth pattern (财格) charts, measured over 17,280 birth moments
Where the wealth uses Seven Killings (七杀) and Resource (印) together: a decade of strong Resource suits it best and a wealth decade is certainly to be avoided; Hurting Officer and Eating God (伤食) decades may go either way.
More than one can hold at once, and that is not a contradiction: strong Wealth producing Officer (财旺生官) and Wealth carrying Seven Killings (财带七煞) describe different parts of the same chart, and Shen Xiaozhan (沈) lists them as “there are those who” (有……者) — shapes a chart can take — not as a partition. Configurations that make the pattern and configurations that spoil it are both printed, neither totalled against the other. Every grade is his own word.
「取运之道，一八字则有一八字这论，其理甚精，其法甚活，只可大略言之。变化在人，不可泥也」 — Each set of eight characters has its own reading. What follows can only be said in outline; the variation is the reader's, and none of it is to be applied rigidly.
1 configuration in this chapter that is not judged, and why
- leaving Wealth for the Killings (弃财就煞) — Shen Xiaozhan (沈) files this himself as a variation on a variation (变之又变) — the variation on a variation — and abandoning the month pattern for an outer one is referred to 卷四十七〈论杂格〉, which this file does not carry.
「至于劫刃太重，弃财就煞，如一尚书命，丙辰、丙申、丙午、壬辰，此变之又变者也」
Zi Ping Zhen Quan (子平真詮), Shen Xiaozhan (沈孝瞻), Qing. 14 configurations ruled in this chapter and 1 declined. Every clause above is checked against the source text on every build, character by character. So are his worked charts: each one is cast and must fire the rule it is the example for, or the build fails.
The weight of the five elements (五行轻重) · what this chart is made of
This site counted by the ten gods (十神) group, which says what roles stand around the day master. How much of each element is actually in the chart was never shown.
The weighting is a convention and not a measurement: 0.4 to the stem, 0.6 to the branch, hidden stems at 0.6 / 0.3 / 0.1 by rank. It is the same one the decade and year ratings use and that this site has stated as a convention throughout; two weightings on one page would be worse than one applied consistently. Read the shape, not the number — which element dominates, and which is not there at all.
thriving, assisting, resting, trapped, dead (旺相休囚死) · where each element stands in your season
You were born in a Tiger (寅) month, which Wood (木) rules. Your day master is Wood, which in this season is thriving (旺) — thriving.
The rule is stated plainly in San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會), volume 2: what rules the season thrives; what it produces rises; what produced it rests, its work done; what the rising element controls is imprisoned; and what the ruler controls is dead. The work then sets out all five seasons. The rule here was read from the spring-Wood paragraph alone and used to derive the other four, which the work states independently — all five match. trapped (囚) is the one to be careful with: the text derives it as Fire can control Metal (火能克金), what the RISING element controls, not what controls the ruler. Reading it backwards swaps two of the five and nothing would look wrong.
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 2 · On the Seasonal States and the Twelve Stages (论五行旺相休囚死并寄生十二宫)
The hidden stem on duty (人元司事) · which hidden stem held office on your birth day
The stems hidden in a branch are a fixed set. Which of them actually holds office is not: it moves with the day you were born. San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) gives the day counts for all twelve months — you were born 14 days after Start of Spring (立春) began on 1950-02-04.
This is shown and not scored. The hidden stems (藏干) this site uses come from Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平)'s Song of the Hidden Stems (地支藏遁歌) and are what the strength verdict is built on. San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) does not fully agree with them: Tiger (寅), Snake (巳) and Monkey (申) differ only in the order they are listed; Rat (子), Ox (丑), Rabbit (卯), Dragon (辰), Goat (未), Rooster (酉) and Dog (戌) name the same elements with the opposite polarity; and Horse (午) and Pig (亥) differ in the elements themselves. Two works, two readings, and no basis here for calling either wrong — so both are shown and neither is merged into the other. Swapping the table would change the reading on nine of the twelve month branches.
The passage in full
One qi undivided, form and substance not yet parted — which of it was yin, which yang? Once the great beginning opened, the one split into three; in a breath they divided. Heaven took what was light and clear and became yang; earth took what was heavy and turbid and became yin; and the human stands in the middle of heaven and earth, holding the qi where yin and yang meet and temper each other. So the light and clear are the ten heavenly stems, which govern the prosperity star (禄) and are called the heaven-origin; the heavy and turbid are the twelve earthly branches, which govern the body and are called the earth-origin. Heaven and earth being each in their proper place, what is completed between the two is what we call a person. Hence what the branches hold within them governs the destiny and is called the human-origin, named the spirit that holds office; and in the art of destiny it is the MONTH COMMAND. Thus: the first month is built on Tiger (寅), and within Tiger the Earth of Gen, the northeast (艮) holds office five days, Yang Fire (丙) at its long life five days, and Yang Wood (甲) twenty days. The second month is built on Rabbit (卯), and within Rabbit Yang Wood Wood holds office seven days and Yin Wood (乙) twenty-three. The third is built on Dragon (辰): Yin Wood holds office seven days, Yang Water (壬) in its storehouse five, Yang Earth (戊) eighteen. The fourth is built on Snake (巳): Yang Earth seven days, Yang Metal (庚) at its long life five, Yang Fire eighteen. The fifth is built on Horse (午): Yang Fire holds office seven days, Yin Fire (丁) twenty-three. The sixth is built on Goat (未): Yin Fire holds office seven days, Yang Wood in its storehouse five, Yin Earth (己) eighteen. The seventh is built on Monkey (申): the Earth of Kun, the southwest (坤) holds office five days, Yang Water at its long life five, Yang Metal twenty. The eighth is built on Rooster (酉): Yang Metal holds office seven days, Yin Metal (辛) twenty-three. The ninth is built on Dog (戌): Yin Metal holds office seven days, Yang Fire in its storehouse five, Yang Earth eighteen. The tenth is built on Pig (亥): Yang Earth five days, Yang Wood at its long life five, Yang Water holding office twenty. The eleventh is built on Rat (子): Yang Water holds office seven days, Yin Water (癸) twenty-three. The twelfth is built on Ox (丑): Yin Water holds office seven days, Yang Metal in its storehouse five, Yin Earth eighteen. These twelve branches, month by month, each store the five phases as the human-origin; matched against the four seasons they make spring warm, autumn cool, winter cold and summer hot, circling without end, finishing and beginning again, the year's work done and one year made.
夫一气浑沦，形质未离，熟为阴阳？太始既肇，裂一为三，倏息乃分，天得之而轻清为阳，地得之而重浊为阴，人位乎天地之中，禀阳阴冲和之气。故此轻清者为十干，主禄，谓之天元，重浊者为十二支，主身，谓之地元，天地多正其位，成才于两间者，乃所谓人也。故支吕所藏者主命，谓之人元，名为司事之神，以命术言之为月令。如正月建寅，寅中有艮土用事五日，丙火长生五日，甲木二十日；二月建卯，卯中有甲木用事七日，乙木二十三日；三月建辰，辰中有乙木用事七日，壬水墓库五日，戊土一十八日；四月建巳，巳中有戊土七日，庚金长生五日，丙火一十八日；五月建午，午中丙火用事七日，丁火二十三日；六月建未，未中有丁火用事七日，甲木墓库五日，己土一十八日；七月建申，申中有坤土用事五日，壬水长生五日，庚金二十日；八月建酉，酉中有庚金用事七日，辛金二十三日；九月建戌，戌中有辛金用事七日，丙火墓库五日，戊土一十八日；十月建亥，亥中有戊土五日，甲木长生五日，壬水用事二十日；十一月建子，子中有壬水用事七日，癸水二十三日；十二月建丑，丑中有癸水用事七日，庚金墓库五日，己土一十八日。此十二支按十二月各藏五行为人元，以配四时则春暖秋凉冬寒夏热，如环无端，终而复始，岁功毕而成一年。
Note: this transcription writes a miswritten Yin Earth (已土) where it means Yin Earth (己土) — The character for “already” (已), Yin Earth (己) and Snake (巳) differ by a stroke, and the passage confuses all three. Until that was found, Goat (未) and Ox (丑) came to twelve days instead of thirty. The corruption is recorded in the corpus rather than quietly corrected.
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 2 · On the hidden stem on duty (论人元司事)
The ten gods (十神) · what each character is to you
A chart is not read as "Wood" and "Fire" but as what each character is to you: what you control is Wealth (财), what controls you is Officer and Killings (官杀), what produces you is Resource (印). Your day master is Yang Wood (甲), and everything below is relative to it.
| Pillar | Stem | Hidden in the branch |
|---|---|---|
| Year Metal Tiger (庚寅) | Yang Metal (庚) Seven Killings | Yang Wood (甲) Friend main qi (本气)Yang Fire (丙) Eating God middle qi (中气)Yang Earth (戊) Indirect Wealth residual qi (余气) |
| Month Earth Tiger (戊寅) | Yang Earth (戊) Indirect Wealth | Yang Wood (甲) Friend main qi (本气)Yang Fire (丙) Eating God middle qi (中气)Yang Earth (戊) Indirect Wealth residual qi (余气) |
| Day Wood Monkey (甲申) | Yang Wood (甲) Day Master | Yang Metal (庚) Seven Killings main qi (本气)Yang Water (壬) Indirect Resource middle qi (中气)Yang Earth (戊) Indirect Wealth residual qi (余气) |
| Hour Water Monkey (壬申) | Yang Water (壬) Indirect Resource | Yang Metal (庚) Seven Killings main qi (本气)Yang Water (壬) Indirect Resource middle qi (中气)Yang Earth (戊) Indirect Wealth residual qi (余气) |
Counting the visible stems and the principal hidden stem of each branch:
What each of these labels means
- Seven Killings (七杀) — What controls you, same polarity. Pressure with nothing softening it: demand, risk, and whatever you answer to whether you chose it or not.
- Friend (比肩) — Same element, same polarity as you. A peer: someone standing where you stand, competing for the same thing and equally able to share the load.
- Eating God (食神) — What you produce, same polarity. Output that comes easily: making, feeding, expressing, without strain.
- Indirect Wealth (偏财) — What you control, same polarity. Wealth that comes sideways rather than by salary — the uneven kind.
- Day Master (日主) — You. The day stem is the person the whole chart is read against.
- Indirect Resource (偏印) — What produces you, same polarity. Support of an indirect kind — the tradition treats it as nourishment that can also crowd out the Eating God (食神).
What Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) says about the 4 of these your chart carries
Seven Killings (七杀)
Seven Killings (七杀) is also called Seven Killings (偏官). It likes a strong self that binds the Killings (杀), likes the Killings held down, and likes the Yang Blade (阳刃); it dislikes a weak self, dislikes meeting Wealth (财), and where it is produced dislikes having nothing to check it. Self strong and the star with force in it, call it Seven Killings; self weak and nothing checking it, call it Seven Killings. Where this star is present, do not simply call it ill. Having a Seven Killings is better than having a Direct Officer (正官): many of the greatly rich and greatly honoured have it — but only where the self is strong and binds the Killings is it fine. Yang Wood (甲) takes Yang Metal (庚) as its Seven Killings and welcomes a Yang Fire (丙) or Yin Fire (丁) to hold it down; a Yin Wood (乙) binding it instead is called a binding that forgets the Killings (贪合忘杀), greedy for the union and forgetting the Killings. The Killings should be held down, but not held down too far — anything taken to its extreme turns back into misfortune. Self strong and running a period that strengthens the self makes blessing. Self weak and running toward further weakness, and the misfortune does not wait to arrive. If the four pillars already carry something that holds it down, a Seven Killings period is welcome. If they carry nothing, the Seven Killings coming out is the misfortune. Running toward strength for the self, with a Yang Blade as well, the honour is beyond speaking of — but Wealth in strength is unwelcome, because Wealth produces the Killings. When the year or the period comes onto it, even a strong self has much calamity, and a weak self far more. Wood Monkey (甲申), Wood Rooster (乙酉), Fire Ox (丁丑), Earth Tiger (戊寅), Earth Rabbit (己卯), Metal Goat (辛未) and Water Goat (癸未): people born on these seven days are governed by the Killings — quick-tempered, sharp, clever and deft of mind. Where much Killings is seen, it means a person harsh and short-lived and thin in means. Seen in the month it weighs heavy, in the hour light. Why? The day's Seven Killings is only one; if the year and the hour show it again, the Killings is many and becomes misfortune. Then ground that holds it down is wanted, and a strong self with something holding it down makes it authority instead. What it most fears is a clash, and the Yang Blade, which is very ill. An hour Seven Killings is only one, and the self must be strong; where the year, month and hour all hold it down there is blessing. Then a period where the Killings is strong is wanted, and a period reaching suitable ground in trine will also open out. Without anything holding it down, a period that holds it down is what brings the blessing. Running a strong-Killings period with nothing to check it, and misfortune is made. An hour Seven Killings fears neither the Yang Blade nor a clash. Take [Metal Ox, Wood Goat, Wood Rabbit, Fire Rat (辛丑 乙未 乙卯 丙子)]: the self is strong, born in the sixth month, with Metal Ox (辛丑) showing in the year as Seven Killings; happily the Fire Rat (丙子) binds the Metal Ox Killings, so there is rank and authority with it. Take [Wood Horse, Fire Tiger, Metal Rat, Fire Rat (甲午 丙寅 庚子 丙子)]: the self is weak, a Fire frame present, a Fire Tiger (丙寅) Seven Killings in the month and a Fire Rat again in the hour; Fire controls the Yang Metal and Metal dies at Rat (子). Self weak, Killings strong, and nothing holding it down — so illness and thin means, as it should be. Take [Fire Snake, Earth Monkey, Water Rat, Earth Monkey (丁巳 戊申 壬子 戊申)]: the self is strong, two Yang Earth (戊) as Seven Killings drawn back to Snake (巳); Yin Fire binds with Yang Water (壬) and Yang Earth binds with Yin Water (癸), Metal has its Birth (長生) at Snake and Yang Earth has its prosperity star (禄) at Snake. So both the Yang Water and the Yang Earth are strong, and hence the honour. In verse: Seven Killings is like a tiger and fears many clashes; with the fortune strong and the self strong, what can it do? Self weak and tiger strong makes calamity; self strong and the Killings held down is honour in balance. In verse: Seven Killings and Indirect Resource (偏印) are hardest of all to read; above and below producing each other there is profit and a name; the four stores seated on Wealth should face honour, and one steps out to duke and minister easily. In verse: if Yang Earth or Yin Earth (己) meets officer and Killings, with Metal and Water added to the frame; born with Fire it should meet Fire, and when the Fire withdraws it worries at Metal and fears Wood breaking in. In verse: Seven Killings held down turns into authority — one mounts the clouds at a touch and rises young; if the year and the period run to ground where the self is strong, the name is greatly used and blessing doubled. In verse: Seven Killings cannot be called ill as a rule — held down it gives clothing and income in plenty; an Eating God (食神) above with a binding in the branches, and there are grandchildren to fill the eye and blessing without end. In verse: a yin Yin Water meeting much Yin Earth is injured, and the Killings star needs Wood to bring it down; the name and profit may stand high, but the years of the life are not long. In verse: a Yang Fire person with much Pig (亥) and Rat has the Killings star holding the Resource (印) and turns back to balance; going east the name and profit rise, and the fortune reaching west turns everything to grinding. In verse: spring Wood without Metal is nothing rare, and much Metal risks danger in return; take the balanced qi within the pattern and there is blessing, long life, peace and everything in order.
夫七杀者，亦名偏官，喜身旺合杀、喜制伏、喜阳刃；忌身弱、忌见财，生忌无制。 身旺有气为偏官，身弱无制为七杀。 凡有此杀不可便言凶？有正官不如有偏官，多有巨富大贵之人；惟其身旺合杀为妙。 如甲以庚为七杀，喜丙丁制之；乙合之，谓之『贪合忘杀』。 七杀却宜制伏，亦不要制之太过；盖物极则反为祸矣！ 身旺又行身旺之运为福。 如身弱又行身弱之乡，祸不旋踵。 四柱中元有制伏，喜行七杀运；元无制伏，七杀出为祸。 如行身旺乡，更有阳刃，贵不可言；但忌财旺，财能生杀故也。岁运临之，身旺亦多灾；身弱尤甚。 甲申、乙酉、丁丑、戊寅、己卯、辛未、癸未，此七日生主杀，性急伶俐、心巧聪明。 如见杀多者，主人凶夭贫薄；月见之重，时见之轻。何也？日七杀，只一位见之，如年时再见，杀多为祸；却要制伏之乡，又要身旺有制伏为权，最怕冲与阳刃大凶。 时七杀只一位，要本身旺，如年月时三处有制伏为福；却要行杀旺运，运三合得地亦发；若无制伏，则要行制伏为福。 行杀旺运无制伏，则祸作。 时上七杀，却不怕阳刃，而亦不畏冲。 如【辛丑，乙未，乙卯，丙子】：此命身旺，生于六月之中，岁干透出辛丑为七杀；喜得丙子合辛丑之杀，乃贵而有权。 如【甲午，丙寅，庚子，丙子】：此命身弱，见火局，又见月令丙寅七杀，时又见丙子；火剋庚金，金死于子，身弱杀旺，又无制伏，宜乎带病贫薄。 如【丁巳，戊申，壬子，戊申】：此命身旺，见二戊为七杀，引归于巳；丁与壬合，戊与癸合，金又长生于巳，戊禄在巳；乃壬戊二字俱旺，所以贵也。 夫偏官者，盖甲木见庚金之类；阳见阳，阴见阴，乃谓之偏官，不成配偶，犹如经言：『二女不能同居，二男不可并处』是也。 偏官即七杀，要制伏，盖偏官七杀即小人；小人无知，多凶暴，无忌惮，乃能劳力以养君子，而服役护御君子者。小人也，惟是不惩不戒，无术以控制之，则不能驯伏而为用；故，杨子曰：『御得其道，则驯伏或作使；御失其道，则狙诈或作敌。』小人者，狙诈也，要控御得其道矣；一失控御，小人得权，则祸立见矣！ 经曰：『人有偏官，如抱虎而眠，虽借其威，足以摄群畜；稍失关防，必为其噬脐，不可不虑也。』如遇三刑俱全、阳刃在日及时、又有六害；复遇魁罡相冲，如是人之凶不可具述。 制伏得位，运复经行制伏之乡，此大贵之命也。 茍于前者，凶神俱聚，运游杀旺之乡，凶害有不可言者可知也。 如有一杀，而制伏有二三，复行制伏之运，反不作福。何以言之？盖尽法无法，虽猛如狼，不能制伏矣！是又不可专言制伏，要须轻重得所；不可太甚，亦不可不及。须仔细审详而言，则祸福如影响矣！ 又云，有制伏则为偏官，无制伏则为七杀；譬诸小人，御之得其道则可使，失其道则难敌，在吾控御之道何如耳！ 凡见此杀，勿便言凶，殊不知带此杀者，多有贵命。如遇三刑六害、或阳刃魁罡相冲，如是之凶，不可谓之制伏；但运行制伏，此贵人命也。茍如前凶神俱聚，其运复行杀旺之乡，祸不可言。 大抵偏官七杀，最喜身旺、有制伏为妙。元有制伏，可行杀旺之方；元无制伏，可行制伏之运。 身旺化之，得为偏官；身弱无制伏，则为七杀。 制伏复行制伏运，谓之大运，则为偏官无餘烬矣！ 月中之气，怕冲与阳刃。其本身弱，若杀强则难制；如身强杀浅，则是假杀为权刃。 如曰七杀不怕刑冲。宜详之！ 《诗诀》偏官如虎怕冲多，运旺身强岂奈何；身弱虎强成祸患，身强制伏贵中和。 《诗诀》偏官偏印最难明，上下相生有利名；四库坐财宜向贵，等闲平步出公卿。 《诗诀》戊己若逢见官杀，局中金水更加临；当生有火宜逢火，火退愁金怕木侵。 《诗诀》偏官有制化为权，唾手登云发少年；岁运若行身旺地，功名大用福双全。 《诗诀》偏官不可例言凶，有制还他衣禄丰；干上食神支又合，儿孙满眼福无穷。 《诗诀》阴癸多逢己字伤，杀星须用木来降；虽然名利能高显，争奈平生寿不长。 《诗诀》六丙生人亥子多，杀星拘印返中和；东方行去兴名利，运到西方事转磨。 《诗诀》春木无金不是奇，金多犹恐反遭危；格中取得中和气，福寿康寧百事宜。
Eating God (食神)
Eating God (食神) is the star that produces the Wealth (财) that is mine. Yang Wood (甲) is Wood and Yang Fire (丙) is Fire, and this is called the leaking of qi — so why is it called the eating god? Because Yang Fire can produce the Yang Earth (戊) that is Yang Wood's wealth, and it is named for that. A chart carrying it is read as thick in wealth and ample in food, generous in capacity, full in body, at ease and self-sufficient, with children and with length of years. It steadily dislikes meeting the Officer star (官星) and avoids the Overturned Meal (倒食), which would injure it, and it welcomes a Wealth to be produced into. One of it alone makes a person of blessing, though even then not entirely clean. It likes the self strong and does not like Direct Resource (印綬), which would injure it as well. When a period reaches suitable ground, blessing can come out; broadly it behaves like the Wealth star. Take [Earth Goat, Earth Snake, Fire Goat, Metal Ox (己未 己巳 丁未 辛丑)]: a Yin Fire (丁) meeting Yin Earth (己) is Eating God, and an Ox (丑) and Snake (巳) raise a Metal frame that becomes the Wealth; the self is not weak either, so there is office and long life both. Take [Wood Snake, Wood Rooster, Water Rooster, Wood Rabbit (乙巳 乙酉 癸酉 乙卯)]: three Yin Wood (乙) as Eating God, a Snake-Rooster-Ox (巳酉丑) frame forming Direct Resource, and the three Yin Wood turning into Hurting Officer (伤官). Yin Water (癸) uses Yin Wood as its Eating God, but the Metal frame controls the Yin Wood, and the three Yin Wood with a strong Rabbit (卯) control the officer star. So neither name nor profit came to anything. In verse: Eating God with force behind it beats Wealth and Officer (官) both, but the stem itself must be strong first; if instead it is injured and the food seized away, there is nothing but hurry, toil and trouble. In verse: Eating God undamaged makes a lofty pattern; Yang Wood, Yang Fire, Yang Metal (庚) and Yang Water (壬) hold that honour firmly, Yin Fire, Yin Earth, Yin Wood and Yin Metal (辛) have blessing and income in plenty, and heroes come out of that gate. In verse: a Yang Wood person meeting Yang Fire is leaking qi at root, but the Yang Fire goes on to produce wealth and is called Eating God — broad in mind and easy in body, thick in clothing and income; though facing Direct Resource it means solitude and poverty. In verse: a Yang Earth day at a Monkey (申) hour makes a rare Eating God, and only in autumn and winter are blessing and income even; Yang Wood and Yang Fire at Rabbit and Tiger (寅) come to break it, and then it is met and yet not met, and the person is left alone. In verse: the star of long life joining it is rarest of all, and then why fear a Seven Killings (七杀) in the year or hour; hold down the ill and check the Killings (杀) with a strong stem above, and here is a rich and honoured child of the world. In verse: Eating God standing before and the Killings behind means clothing and income undiminished, wealth and rank thick; Eating God close up against the Killings becomes calamity instead, and a life spent hurrying about the dusty world.
食神者，生我财神之谓也；如甲属木，丙属火，名盗气，故谓之『食神』。何也？殊不知丙能生我戊土中食丙之戊财，故以此名之也。 命中带此者，主人财厚食丰、腹量宽洪、肌体肥大、优游自足、有子息、有寿考。 恒不喜见官星，忌倒食，恐伤其食神；喜财神相生。 独一位见之，则为福人；然终亦不清。 却喜身旺，不喜印綬，亦恐伤其食神也。 如运得地，方可发福；大概与财神相似。 如【己未，己巳，丁未，辛丑】：丁见己为食神，有一丑巳合起金局得之为财；又喜身不弱，所以有官亦有寿也。 如【乙巳，乙酉，癸酉，乙卯】：此命见三乙为食神，见巳酉丑合局为印綬，又有三乙化为伤官。癸用乙为食神，被金局来剋乙木，再被三乙木并卯旺剋我官；所以名利都无成也。 《诗诀》食神有气胜财官，先要他强旺本干；若是反伤来夺食，忙忙辛苦祸千般。 《诗诀》食神无损格崇高，甲丙庚壬贵气牢；丁己乙辛多福禄，门阑弧矢出英豪。 《诗诀》甲人见丙本盗气，丙去生财号食神；心广体胖衣禄厚，若临印綬主孤贫。 《诗诀》申时戊日食神奇，惟在秋冬福禄齐；甲丙卯寅来剋破，遇而不遇主孤悽。 《诗诀》寿元合起最为奇，七杀何忧在岁时；禁凶制杀干头旺，此是人间富贵儿。 《诗诀》食神居先杀居后，衣禄无亏富贵厚；食神近杀却为殃，终日尘寰慢奔走。
Indirect Wealth (偏财)
What is Indirect Wealth (偏财)? Yang meeting yang wealth, yin meeting yin wealth. But Indirect Wealth is everyone's wealth, and the only fear is that brothers and sisters seize it — then the blessing is not whole; and if an officer star is present, a hundred troubles come out. So it is said: Indirect Wealth is glad to be out in the open and does not fear being hidden either; what it fears is having something divide and seize it, or falling into the Void (空亡). With either of those, the office will not be made and the wealth will not stay. The classic says: turning your back on the prosperity star (禄) and chasing the Horse (马), you keep to a hard road in distress. Weak Wealth (财) must wait for a strong period before it flourishes. Wealth in strength goes nowhere that is not fine — the only fear is that the self has no force. Indirect Wealth makes a person open-handed and not much given to hoarding money, provided only that it is on suitable ground. Wealth in plenty can also make the officer strong. Why? Because Wealth in strength produces an officer of itself — but the person is warm-natured and much given to guile. Wealth can profit a man and can also draw slander on him; with the fortune running strong, blessing and income arrive together. The only fear is its being too strong, for then brothers will certainly break it up, which is not fine either. Where Wealth is much, look at whether the Wealth and my own day stem are equal in strength; then running to an officer period can bring income out. If Wealth is strong and the self weak, a period reaching the officer means the qi is stolen by the Wealth and the self is controlled by the officer as well — not only will income not come, but trouble should be guarded against. If the four pillars carry an officer star from the start, read it as a good chart; but if brothers come out everywhere in the pillars, then even entering an officer period the income that comes out will be slight. So it is said: what matters is knowing how it turns.
何谓之偏财？盖阳见阳财，阴见阴财也。然而偏财者，乃众人之财也，只恐兄弟姊妹有夺之，则福不全；若有官星，祸患百出。 故曰：偏财好出、亦不惧藏，惟怕有以分夺，反空亡耳；有一于此，官将不成、财将不住。 经曰：『背禄逐马，守穷途而悽惶也。』 财弱亦待历旺乡而荣。 财盛无所往而不妙，且恐身势无力耳。 偏财主人慷慨、不甚吝财，惟是得地不止。 财丰亦能官旺，何以言之？盖，财盛自生官矣，但为人有情而多诈。 盖，财能利己，亦能招谤，运行旺相，福禄俱臻。只恐太旺，兄弟必多破坏，亦不美。 财多，须看财与我之日干强弱相等，行官乡便可发禄。 若财盛而身弱，运至官乡，是既被财之盗气，复被官之剋身；非惟不发禄，亦防祸患。 如命四柱中元带官星，便作好命看；若四柱中兄弟辈出，纵入官乡，发禄必渺矣！ 故曰：『要在识其变通』矣！
Indirect Resource (偏印)
The Overturned Meal (倒食) means the star that strikes at the god of wealth (财神); another name for it is the devouring malefic (吞啗煞). Where Wealth (财) is the useful element (用神) it is very much unwelcome, and where Eating God (食神) is the useful element it is unwelcome too. It is Yang Wood (甲) meeting Yang Water (壬) and the like. Yang Wood meeting Yang Fire (丙) is Eating God, which can produce the Earth that is Yang Wood's Wealth — but Yang Water controls Yang Fire, and a Yang Fire held down cannot produce Yang Wood's Earth wealth. That is why a Yang Wood using Eating God so dislikes seeing it. A chart carrying both is read as thin in blessing and short in years. Where Yang Metal (庚) appears as Seven Killings (七杀) and Yang Fire or Yin Fire (丁) hold it down, Water arriving turns the whole thing to misfortune. Anyone whose chart carries this is like a person governed by an elder and not free: they advance and then draw back and give up, begin without finishing, make a living and lose it and make it again, and are read as crooked in feature, small in frame, timid and easily alarmed, with nothing brought to completion. Take [Fire Goat, Fire Goat, Earth Pig, Fire Rabbit (丁未 丁未 己亥 丁卯)]. This is an Earth Pig (己亥) day, the Yin Earth (己) standing on Pig (亥) and weak there; the Pig-Rabbit-Goat (亥卯未) Wood frame controls the self, and three Yin Fire show in the year, month and hour eating the Yin Earth. In youth the fortune ran south, and Fire producing Earth kept the self strong. As soon as it turned to the Wood Snake (乙巳) period — Yin Earth's Seven Killings — it drew out the Pig-Rabbit-Goat frame, and in the Water Pig (癸亥) year he died. The misfortune here is not only the Overturned Meal and Seven Killings: a Water Pig year is the same case as producing the Killings (杀) and spoiling the Resource (印). Take [Wood Dog, Fire Tiger, Wood Dog, Water Monkey (甲戌 丙寅 甲戌 壬申)]. A Wood Dog (甲戌) day with a Yang Fire for Eating God, born in the first month with the Wood strong, so self and Eating God are both strong and it is a chart of rank by nature. But it does not sit well with the Water Monkey (壬申) hour: the Yang Water injures the Yang Fire and the Monkey (申) clashes the Tiger (寅), and Monkey holds a Yang Metal for Seven Killings. So neither profit nor name came of it. Running the Earth Snake (己巳) period, ground where Metal is produced, he met a Metal Rat (庚子) year — Yang Metal as Seven Killings with Rat (子) water behind it — and died an unnatural death.
夫倒食者，冲财神之谓也；一名『吞啗煞』。用财神大忌见之，用食神亦忌见之。 倒食者，如甲见壬之类。如甲见丙为食神，能生土财；然壬剋丙火，丙火不能生甲木之土财，所谓甲用食神，大忌见之。 凡命中带此二者，主福浅寿薄。 又见庚为七杀，得丙丁火制之，怕见水，反为祸矣！凡命中犯此者，犹尊长之制我身，不得自由也。作事进退悔懒、有始无终、财源屡成屡败、容貌攲斜、身品矮小、胆怯心慌，凡事无成也。 如【丁未，丁未，己亥，丁卯】：此命己亥日，己临亥上，身弱于亥；加以亥卯未木局剋身，年月时透出三丁食己。幼年行南方运，赖火生土，身犹旺；纔交乙巳运，为己之七杀，引出亥卯未木局，岁运癸亥，所以死矣！此命非但倒食七杀之祸，而癸亥年与生杀坏印之说同义也。 如【甲戌，丙寅，甲戌，壬申】：此命甲戌日，甲见丙食神，生于正月，甲木旺，身与食神俱旺，本是贵命；不合时上壬申，壬水伤其丙火，申金冲其寅木；又申中有庚七杀，所以利名无成。行己巳运金生之地，见庚子年；庚金为七杀，又见子水，死于非命。
Friend (比肩) — the work has no section of its own for Friend; it is treated inside On Rob Wealth (论劫财).
Labels the work names when they stand together
- the seal fearing wealth (印怕财) (on 90.4% of charts)
The seal fears wealth; coveting wealth, it is spoiled. 印怕财，贪财则坏 On the Old Names for Resource, Eating God, Officer and Wealth (论古人立印食官财名义)
- the eater fearing the owl (食怕枭) (on 54.3% of charts)
The eater fears the owl; meeting it, the food is snatched away. 食怕枭，逢枭则夺 On the Old Names for Resource, Eating God, Officer and Wealth (论古人立印食官财名义)
These two are counted, not chosen. Across the thirty-five sections of Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) still untranslated, Officer and Killings mixed (官杀混杂) appears in seven and Hurting Officer meeting Officer (伤官见官) in six — more often than the day stem as master (日干为主), which this engine was built on — and neither was detected at all. Both conditions are exact: two labels present together, nothing more. Named and not scored: the work is emphatic that they are ill (为祸百端) and equally emphatic elsewhere that a rescue changes everything, and weighing a rescue is a judgement this engine does not make. The other three come from San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會), 卷五〈论古人立印食官财名义〉, which states four of these in a single clause — 官怕伤，被伤则祸；财怕劫，被劫则分；印怕财，贪财则坏；食怕枭，逢枭则夺. The first of the four is Hurting Officer meeting Officer above, already here on a different citation; the other three were not detected at all. The percentage beside each is measured over a uniform sweep of 34,560 charts, and it is printed because Resource fearing Wealth (印怕财) lands on nine charts in ten. That is not a fact about your chart. Two of the ten gods are Resource (印) and two are Wealth (财), and across eight stems and their hidden stems at least one of each is close to certain. The work's sentence is carried as written and so is how often it applies; either one without the other would mislead.
Each position is derived from which element produces or controls which, plus polarity — no table was copied, because a 10×10 grid is a hundred chances to mistype. What sits under each label is Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平), translated sentence by sentence and machine-checked against the Chinese. Nine of the ten have a section of their own in that work; Friend (比肩) does not — it is handled inside On Rob Wealth (论劫财), and that is recorded rather than filled in from somewhere else.
punishment, clash, bind and harm (刑冲合害) · what your own pillars do to each other
This site has always measured a luck period against your pillars, and never shown what the four pillars do to one another. The three punishments (三刑), was not computed at all. Both are here now.
- no clash (不冲) Tiger-Monkey (寅申) — would clash, but Tiger (寅) appears 2 times, so it does not. Yuan Hai Zi Ping, Wu Yan Du Bu (淵海子平·五言独步): 二子不冲午；二寅不冲申 — two Rat (子) do not clash Horse (午), two Tiger do not clash Monkey (申). year ↔ day
- no clash (不冲) Tiger-Monkey (寅申) — would clash, but Tiger (寅) appears 2 times, so it does not. Yuan Hai Zi Ping, Wu Yan Du Bu (淵海子平·五言独步): 二子不冲午；二寅不冲申 — two Rat (子) do not clash Horse (午), two Tiger do not clash Monkey (申). year ↔ hour
- no clash (不冲) Tiger-Monkey (寅申) — would clash, but Tiger (寅) appears 2 times, so it does not. Yuan Hai Zi Ping, Wu Yan Du Bu (淵海子平·五言独步): 二子不冲午；二寅不冲申 — two Rat (子) do not clash Horse (午), two Tiger do not clash Monkey (申). month ↔ day
- no clash (不冲) Tiger-Monkey (寅申) — would clash, but Tiger (寅) appears 2 times, so it does not. Yuan Hai Zi Ping, Wu Yan Du Bu (淵海子平·五言独步): 二子不冲午；二寅不冲申 — two Rat (子) do not clash Horse (午), two Tiger do not clash Monkey (申). month ↔ hour
- punishment Tiger-Monkey (寅申) — The punishment of no gratitude (无恩之刑), the punishment of no gratitude year ↔ day
- punishment Tiger-Monkey (寅申) — The punishment of no gratitude (无恩之刑), the punishment of no gratitude year ↔ hour
- punishment Tiger-Monkey (寅申) — The punishment of no gratitude (无恩之刑), the punishment of no gratitude month ↔ day
- punishment Tiger-Monkey (寅申) — The punishment of no gratitude (无恩之刑), the punishment of no gratitude month ↔ hour
Every rule here comes from San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會), volume 2 and is checked against its own passage on every build: the clash is seven positions along (地支取七位为冲), the harms are six, the punishments fall in three named groups plus four self-punishments (Dragon (辰), Horse (午), Rooster (酉), Pig (亥)), and the five stem binds each carry a name and a transformation (甲己化土 and its four fellows). A three-way harmony (三合) frame needs all three branches — the section refuses a partial one outright, 若三字缺一则化不成局 — so the two-of-three half frame many readings use is not this claim and is not shown. What is shown is that they hold, not what they mean. The work says a great deal about the person who carries each one, and that is long and discursive; the sections are linked so it can be read where it stands.
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 2 · On the three punishments (论三刑) · On the six harms (论六害) · On Clashes (论冲击) · On the Ten Stem Bindings (论十干合)
The symbolic stars (神煞) · the symbolic stars on your chart
Other BaZi apps list twenty to forty symbolic stars. This site had none — not by oversight: the first three source works either omit them or state them too loosely to place, and this site does not print what it cannot cite. San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會), volume 3 gives each a section of its own, and the twenty-two whose placement rule is exact are computed here. The work opens its own survey of them by disowning most of the category — 神煞，古有百二十名，其说穿凿支离，造化恐不如是: anciently there were a hundred and twenty names, their explanations forced and fragmentary, and the making of things is probably not like that — and it closes by refusing to read any of them mechanically: 吉凶神煞，不可拘定；轻重较量，要在通变. A gentleman's chart may carry Seven Killings (七煞) and the Yang Blade (阳刃); a mean man's may carry Direct Resource (正印) and the Officer star (官星).
the travel horse (驿马) — day Monkey (申), hour Monkey (申) (on 22.9% of charts)
Movement, travel, and a life that does not stay put.
寅午戌生人，马在申 （Tiger (寅) → Monkey (申)）
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 3 · On the Travel Horse (论驿马)
the elegance stem (秀) — month Yang Earth (戊) (on 65.4% of charts)
Read together as virtue and elegance (德秀): 赋性聪明，温厚和气. The work notes a clash weakens it — weakened by clash and control (冲克减力).
寅午戌月，丙丁为德，戊癸为秀 （Tiger (寅) 月 → Yang Earth (戊), Yin Water (癸)）
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 3 · On Virtue and Elegance (论德秀)
the three marvels (天上三奇) — day Yang Wood (甲), month Yang Earth (戊), year Yang Metal (庚) (on 6.5% of charts)
Three consecutive stems, all present. Yu Xiao Bao Jian (玉霄宝鉴) gives this set; the section reports competing traditions and settles between none of them.
奇为贵也；奇者，异也 （Yang Wood (甲), Yang Earth (戊), Yang Metal (庚)）
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 3 · On the Three Wonders (论三奇)
Every placement here is stated outright; these are the ones worth showing. The Nobleman (天乙贵人) is taken from the day stem (Yang Wood (甲), Yang Earth (戊) and Yang Metal (庚) in Ox (丑) and Goat (未), and so on) — and the same section states the table a second time by a different route, through the six harmonies (甲戊庚在子午). The two derive to each other, and the build checks that round trip. It is the strongest check available anywhere in this corpus: one table, stated twice by different reasoning. The Travel Horse (驿马) comes from the year branch's triad (Tiger-Horse-Dog (寅午戌) → Monkey (申)). The Void (空亡) comes from where the day pillar sits in its run of ten — Wood Rat (甲子) leaves Dog (戌) and Pig (亥) without a stem, which is the work's own worked example. On the Void the work is explicit that it is not simply ill — 空而有实，亡而有存，所以未可便为凶论 — so the position is marked and no verdict attached. The percentage beside each star is measured, not estimated: a uniform sweep of 34,560 charts, both sexes, because the Prime Ordeal (元辰) is placed differently for men and women. It is printed because seven of these land on more than forty percent of charts and virtue (德) lands on two in three, and a star most people have is not a distinction. That is the work's own warning made concrete rather than merely quoted — The explanations are forced and fragmentary (其说穿凿支离). Every other symbolic star whose placement is stated loosely is declined, and named on /method, on the same footing as the sixty-odd Zi Wei formations this site refuses.
The Nature of the Sixty Pillars (释六十甲子性质吉凶) · what the work says your pillars are
This site has printed the sound element (纳音) as a bare name — Water Dragon (壬辰) is long-flowing water (长流水). Two sections fill that in. The Nature of the Sixty Pillars (释六十甲子性质吉凶) says what the author took each pillar to BE — 龙水，喜雷电及春夏, dragon water, which likes thunder and the spring — and On the Images of the Sound Elements (论纳音取象) says why the name was chosen at all. Images, not verdicts.
松柏干节，喜秋冬
Metal Tiger, Metal Rabbit (庚寅辛卯) — 庚寅辛卯则气已乘阳，得栽培之势力其为状也，奈居金下，凡金与霜素坚，木居下得其旺，岁寒后凋，取其性之坚也，故曰松柏木
·庚寅辛卯对庚申辛酉，松柏石榴，一坚一辛，性味迥异也
Broken Salary and Horse (破禄马), mutual punishment (相刑), the Caning (杖刑), the Deaf-Mute (聋哑)
甘井，喜春及夏
Wood Monkey, Wood Rooster (甲申乙酉) — 甲申乙酉，气息安静，子母同位，出而不穷，汲而不竭，乃曰井泉水
Broken Salary and Horse (破禄马), the Roadblock (截路), the Flat Head (平头), the Broken Character (破字), the hanging needle (悬针)
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會), Wood Monkey and Wood Rooster: Water in the Spring (甲申乙酉井泉水) — what this sound element (纳音) does when it meets the others
井泉水者，寒泉清冽，取养不穷，八家凿之以同饮，万民资之以生活。此水生于金而出于木，故喜见金为福，砂中有土，性与之最宜，钗钏清秀次之，蜡金与钗金相冲，故不宜再见；剑锋申酉太旺，恐有泛滥之灾；海金无取，乙丑为艮，山下出泉，亦吉。此非木不能出，譬之桶论，故见木皆吉，如见平地、大林，须假剑金削之，方可取用；桑拓、杨柳无用；松柏则互换归禄，此其最吉。诸火阴阳互见则吉，霹雳名为入圣，太阳号为显照，二火相见最吉，但不宜并有则凶。诸土路旁、砂中最吉，屋上有天门生水之源，亦吉；城头，壁上与此水则无干涉；大驿就位相克，水为土掩则井不食，须有木去之方可。水喜大海，为引凡入圣；天上、涧下、长流亦不为在灾；大溪甲寅乙卯为吉，如甲申见乙酉，乙酉见甲申，官星互换，最吉；如二水在年时，二木在月日，谓之水绕花堤，乃贵格也。
On the Stems: Yin and Yang, Birth and Death (论天干阴阳生死) · where your day master is born, and where it dies
Yang Wood (甲) 长生于亥，死于午，禄在寅 born at Pig (亥), dies at Horse (午), the prosperity star (禄) at Tiger (寅)
「甲木乃十干之首，主宰四时，生育万物；在天为雷为龙，在地为梁为栋，谓之阳木」
Yang Wood (甲) is the first of the ten, governing the four seasons and bringing all things to life. In heaven it is thunder and the dragon; on earth the ridgepole and the beam. It is yang wood.
「长生于亥，亥为河潭池沼之水，名曰死水，故死木放死水中，虽浸年久，不能朽坏」
「赋曰：阳生阴死，阳死阴生，循环逆顺，变化见矣」 — the section states that principle first and then gives the ten positions, and the two agree: for each element the yang stem's birth is the yin stem's death and the reverse, ten for ten. The build checks every pair. The prosperity star (禄) it states for all ten stems also matches the prosperity star table this site already held from Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平), which is a different work.
The Sound Elements (总论纳音) · the sixty are not a table, they are a rule
「纳音之法，同类娶妻，隔八生子，律吕相生之法也」
The method of sound element (纳音): marry your own kind, and skip eight to beget. It is how the pitch-pipes generate one another.
「甲子，金之仲，同位娶乙丑，隔八下生壬申；金之孟壬申，同位娶癸酉，隔八上生庚辰；金之季庚辰，同位娶辛已，隔八下生戊子」
Wood Rat (甲子), the middle of metal, marries Wood Ox (乙丑) at the same position and begets Water Monkey (壬申) eight along; Water Monkey, the first of metal, marries Water Rooster (癸酉) and begets Metal Dragon (庚辰); Metal Dragon, the last of metal, marries Metal Snake (辛巳) and begets Earth Rat (戊子).
That is not a table, it is a procedure. Walked literally — marry the pillar beside you, skip eight to beget, three begettings to an element, starting at Wood Rat (甲子) and again at Wood Horse (甲午) — it reproduces all sixty sound element (纳音) the calendar gives. Sixty for sixty. It is the most checkable thing this site quotes: the work supplies the method, the calendar supplies the answers, and neither was derived from the other.
a miswritten Metal Snake (辛已) → Metal Snake (辛巳) — the corpus writes the character for “already” (已) for Snake (巳), which it confuses in two places in this section
「五行之中，惟有金铸而为器，则音响彰，纳音所以先金」
Of the five, only metal cast into a vessel gives a clear sound — which is why sound element (纳音) begins with metal.
On the Images of the Sound Elements (论纳音取象) opens by reading the twelve branches as one life
昔者，黄帝将甲子分轻重而配成六十，号曰花甲子，其花字诚为奥妙，圣人借意而喻之，不可著意执泥。夫自子至亥十二宫，各有金、木、水、火、土之属，始起于子为一阳，终于亥为六阴，其五行所属金、木、水、火、土，在天为五星，于地为五岳，于德为五常，于人为五脏，其于命也为五行。是故甲子之属乃应之于命，命则一世之事。故甲子纳音象，圣人喻之，亦如人一世之事也。何言乎？子丑二位，阴阳始孕，人在胞胎，物藏根，未有涯际。寅卯二位，阴阳渐开，人渐生长，物以拆甲，群葩渐剖，如人将有立身也。辰巳二位，阴阳气盛，物当华秀，如人三十、四十而有立身之地，始有进取之象。午未二位，阴阳彰露，物已成齐，人至五十、六十，富贵贫贱可知，凡百兴衰可见。
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會), The Nature of the Sixty Pillars (释六十甲子性质吉凶). Each of the sixty entries states its own sound element (纳音), and this engine takes sound element from the calendar — so the sixty can be compared, and they are, on every build: fifty-nine agree and one does not, noted above. The build also checks that twenty-nine of the thirty pairs give both pillars the same element, which is the argument that the odd one out is the corpus slipping rather than the author disagreeing. On the Images of the Sound Elements (论纳音取象) is checked the same way: all thirty pairs name the sound element the calendar gives, three by a spelling the section prefers (金泊金, 井泉水, 路傍土) and two after correcting a mistyped pair name, all five declared and all five re-checked against the corpus.
The conception pillar (胎元) · the life palace (命宫) · minor luck (小运) · three standard readings this site never printed
the conception pillar (胎元) — Earth Dragon (戊辰)
The work takes the day three hundred days before birth — 1949-04-24, a Wood Monkey (甲申) day. Three hundred days is five full sixty-cycles, so that day carries the same stems and branches (干支) as the birth day, which is why the work can say 甲子日生便以甲子为受胎之日. What is taken from it is the month it fell in. This is NOT the rule most apps use — they take the month stem forward one and the branch forward three, which is a different claim from a different source. This site follows the work it cites.
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 2 · On the Conception Pillar (论胎元)
The life palace (命宫) the destiny palace — Goat (未)
Counting the lunar month backward from Rat (子) (first month at Rat, second at Pig (亥)) lands on Rat; walking forward with the hour until it reaches Rabbit (卯) takes 7 steps, which puts the palace at Goat (未). The section works one example itself — a third-month birth at the Dog (戌) hour sits at Rabbit — and that example is what the build checks this against.
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 2 · On the Officer in the Self (论坐命官)
minor luck (小运), one pillar a year
0 Fire Tiger (丙寅)1 Fire Rabbit (丁卯)2 Earth Dragon (戊辰)3 Earth Snake (己巳)4 Metal Horse (庚午)5 Metal Goat (辛未)6 Water Monkey (壬申)7 Water Rooster (癸酉)A decade governs ten years, says the section; minor luck governs one. The rule taken is the one stated as fixed: a man starts at Fire Tiger (丙寅) and runs forward, a woman at Water Monkey (壬申) and runs back, one pillar a year. The section also gives Zui Xingzi (醉醒子)'s method — start from the hour pillar, direction set by the year — and endorses it (尝试用之，屡验). It is not used here: the direction rule does not resolve (逆顺亦以年定 sits beside 阴命阳年逆行亦然), and choosing a reading would be our decision rather than the work's.
day and hour readings (日时断) · your day stem against your hour
Volumes eight and nine pair each of the ten day stems with each of the twelve hours — 120 sections, and every chart lands on exactly one. This is yours:
The six Yang Wood days at the Water Monkey hour (六甲日壬申时断)
A Yang Wood (甲) born at the Water Monkey (壬申) hour: open injury and hidden ghost sit upon the self; with no Yang Fire (丙) or Yang Earth (戊) in the pillars and autumn or winter strong, a drifting person with nowhere fixed. For a Yang Wood day at the Water Monkey hour: Yang Wood is cut off at Monkey (申); Monkey Earth gives Yang Water (壬) its long life and Yang Metal (庚) its established the prosperity star (禄) — open the Owl (梟) and hidden ghost. Where Yang Wood is strong the ghost turns into the officer, though cruelty is still not escaped. If born in autumn with Yang Metal strong, or in winter with Yang Water strong, and the pillars have no Yang Fire or Yang Earth to hold it in check, it is an image of drifting. In a Snake (巳) or Horse (午) month, greatly favourable. Where Yang Metal shows strongly it is read as the Killings (煞), and running a northern period, noble. Wood Rat (甲子) day at the Water Monkey hour: Monkey, Rat (子), Dragon (辰) or Pig (亥) months — Water floods and the Wood drifts, moving the root and changing the leaves, the nobility of the jade hall and the golden horse. Water and Earth periods, ill. Wood Tiger (甲寅) day at the Water Monkey hour: loss in the midst of strength. Dragon, Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, the Hook Array (勾陈) gets its position; Tiger (寅), Horse and Dog months, the Seven Killings (偏官) is held in check; an autumn month running a southeastern period — all noble. Wood Dragon (甲辰) day at the Water Monkey hour: Tiger and Dragon in year or month, conspicuous in writing and noble. Yang Fire and Yang Earth showing at the stems, finer still. Wood Horse (甲午) day at the Water Monkey hour: Monkey, Rat and Dragon months — changing surname and altering lineage, a generous and thick destiny. A Horse month, noble. Wood Monkey (甲申) day at the Water Monkey hour: a Tiger month, self and Killings in balance; a Rabbit (卯) month, the blade binding the Killings — both noble. Rat and Dragon in year or month turn the Killings into a Resource (印); Snake and Horse Fire months hold the Killings in check — both favourable. What it fears most is the Killings strong and the self weak: greatly ill. Wood Dog (甲戌) day at the Water Monkey hour: Dragon, Dog, Ox and Goat months, brocade robes and something achieved; a Pig month, the hall of learning; a Tiger month, the established the prosperity star — all noble. Horse and Rooster (酉) months shorten the life, and if not that then poor and low. Verse: a Yang Wood day glad to meet Monkey at the hour — Seven Killings and Indirect Resource (偏印) fear punishment and clash; wanting name and profit it stays undecided to the end, and any rescue must be taught by the period running through. Verse: a Yang Wood day meeting Water Monkey at the hour — The Overturned Meal (倒食) and the hidden ghost press in. Born with the self strong it governs flourishing; the self weak, and the temper is unsettled. Little help from the rank of siblings or the six relations; what it does, it makes for itself. When the period runs favourable ground the name is heard; when the period is weak, an ordinary destiny.
六甲生时遇壬申，明伤暗鬼坐其身；柱无丙戊秋冬旺，坎□飘流无定人。甲日壬申时，甲木绝在申，申土壬水长生，庚金建禄，明袅暗鬼，甲旺化鬼为官，犹不免凶暴。若生秋庚旺，生冬壬旺，柱无丙戊制伏，漂流之象。若巳午月，大吉。强横透庚，作煞论，运行北方，贵。甲子日壬申时，申子辰亥月，水泛木漂，移根换叶，玉堂金马之贵。水土运，凶。甲寅日壬申时，旺中有失。辰戌丑未月勾陈得位；寅、午、戌月，偏官有制；秋月，行东南运，俱贵。甲辰日壬申时，寅辰年月，文章显贵。透丙戊尤美。甲午日壬申时，申子辰月，改姓更宗，敦厚之命。午月贵。甲申日壬申时，寅月，身煞两停；卯月，以刃合煞，俱贵。子辰年月，以煞化印；巳午火月，七煞有制，俱吉。最怕煞旺身弱，大凶。甲戌日壬申时，辰戌丑未月，衣锦有成；亥月学堂；寅月建禄；俱贵。午酉月寿促，不然贫贱。甲日时逢喜遇申，偏官偏印怕刑冲；欲求名利终难定，有救须教运气通。甲日时逢壬申，倒食暗鬼相侵。生逢身旺主昌荣，身弱性情不定。雁侣六亲少力，谋为自立自成。运行吉地显声名，运弱平常之命。
The passage is full of conditions — 年月无庚辛申酉, reaching the month’s qi (通月气) and the like — which this engine does not evaluate one by one. So the text is shown as it stands and no conclusion is drawn on the work's behalf.
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 8 · The six Yang Wood days at the Water Monkey hour (六甲日壬申时断)
The six relations (六亲) · which character stands for whom
The The Six Relations (六亲总篇) of Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) maps each the ten gods (十神) onto a person: Direct Resource (正印) is the mother, Indirect Wealth (偏财) the father, Friend (比肩) the brothers and sisters, and so on. The work gives a different mapping for a man's chart and a woman's and says so — 妇人命取六亲，与男命不同. What follows uses the man's one.
- Seven Killings — son year Yang Metal (庚); day Yang Metal (庚), hidden — main qi; hour Yang Metal (庚), hidden — main qi
- Friend — brothers and sisters year Yang Wood (甲), hidden — main qi; month Yang Wood (甲), hidden — main qi
- Eating God — grandson year Yang Fire (丙), hidden — middle qi; month Yang Fire (丙), hidden — middle qi
- Indirect Wealth — father year Yang Earth (戊), hidden — residual qi; month Yang Earth (戊); month Yang Earth (戊), hidden — residual qi; day Yang Earth (戊), hidden — residual qi; hour Yang Earth (戊), hidden — residual qi
- Indirect Resource — stepmother, and the grandfather day Yang Water (壬), hidden — middle qi; hour Yang Water (壬); hour Yang Water (壬), hidden — middle qi
These have no star anywhere in your chart: mother (正印); wife (正财); brothers and sisters (劫财); daughter (正官); granddaughter, and the grandmother (伤官). The work treats an absent star as its own kind of statement — 时上伤官及空亡，难为子息 — rather than as nothing.
The six relations (六亲) sections of Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平)
The Six Relations (六亲总篇)
The six relations are: father, mother, brothers, wife and wealth, children, grandchildren. Take the day stem as the ruler. Direct Resource (正印) is the true mother; Indirect Resource (偏印) the secondary mother, and the grandfather. Indirect Wealth (偏财) is the father — it is the mother's officer star — and also the secondary wife. Direct Wealth (正财) is the wife; Indirect Wealth is the concubine, and is the father. Friend (比肩) is brothers and sisters. Seven Killings (七杀) is the son; Direct Officer (正官) the daughter; Eating God (食神) the grandson; Hurting Officer (伤官) the granddaughter, and the grandmother. A woman's chart takes the six relations differently from a man's: it takes the officer star as the husband star; Seven Killings is the second husband; Eating God is the son; Hurting Officer is the daughter. The classic says: a man takes what his stem controls as his line, a woman takes what her stem produces as her children and servants. The year is the ancestors; the month the parents, uncles and brothers, the gate of the household; the day the spouse and the self. And how are the six relations harmed? A Direct Resource (印綬) meeting Wealth (财) harms the mother and the grandmother; meeting Friend or the Yang Blade (阳刃) harms the wife and the father; much officer and Killings (杀) makes brothers difficult; much Hurting Officer and Eating God makes children difficult; an Owl Resource (梟印) injures the grandchildren and harms the grandmother. Take a Yang Wood (甲) day as the ruler: Yin Water (癸) is the mother; Yang Earth (戊), Dragon (辰) and Dog (戌) are the father and the concubine; Yin Earth (己), Ox (丑), Goat (未) and Horse (午) contend with that Yang Earth and injure the Yin Water as well, so the sense of harming the mother is plain. Yang Wood and Tiger (寅) harm the father and the concubine; Yang Metal (庚) and Monkey (申) harm the elder brother and sister; Yin Wood (乙) and Rabbit (卯) harm the younger; Yang Fire (丙) and Snake (巳) harm the children. The rest follow. Then see which character the year or the period brings, and that tells which person is harmed; weigh clash, control, strength and direction with it — what is coming advances, what has done its work withdraws. With the Lonely Star (孤神) and the Widow Star (寡宿) as well, and the Void (空亡) within the decade, it is unwelcome; two or three of them turn favourable instead. Metal empty then rings, Fire empty then flares, Water empty then flows — these three are favourable; Wood empty then rots and Earth empty then collapses — these two are ill. Reckon from the birth year, and the harm is beyond doubt. The Song of the Six Relations (六亲捷要歌) runs: dividing the prosperity star (禄) must injure the one who provides; Friend piled upon Friend harms the stern parent; Direct Wealth harms the mother and Indirect Wealth the father, and husband and wife punishing each other meet the withdrawing spirit. Eating God means long years and a wife with many children; Seven Killings (偏官) means many daughters and few sons; Hurting Officer riding strength certainly cuts the line off; and a balanced Direct Resource brings honour to the self.
夫六亲者：父、母、兄弟、妻财、子、孙是也。 用日干为主：正印正母；偏印偏母及祖父也；偏财是父，乃母之夫星也，亦为偏妻；正财为妻；偏财为妾，为父是也；比肩为兄弟姐妹也；七杀是男；正官是女；食神是男孙；伤官是女孙及祖母也。 妇人命取六亲，与男命不同：取官星为夫星；七杀是偏夫；食神是男；伤官是女。 经云：『男取剋干为嗣，女取干生为子息及奴婢也。』 年为祖上，月为父母伯叔兄弟门户，日为妻妾己身。 且如六亲受剋何如？印綬见财，剋母及祖母也；见比劫阳刃，剋妻妾及父也；官杀多者，难为兄弟；伤官食神多，难为子息；梟印伤孙，剋祖母也。 假如甲日为主，见癸为母，见戊辰戌为父及妾，见己丑未午字，则与戊字相争夺，又伤癸水，剋母之义明矣；见甲寅字，剋父及妾；见庚申字，主剋兄姊也；见乙卯字剋弟妹；见丙巳字剋子女也；餘倣此。此必以岁运见何字，则剋何人；更将冲剋衰旺向背，将来者进，功成者退。兼有孤神寡宿，旬中有空亡者忌，二三反吉。 金空则鸣，火空则发，水空则流，此三者上吉；木空则朽，土空则崩，二者主凶。当以本生年起，剋害无疑也。 Song of the Six Relations (六亲捷要歌), 分禄须伤主馈人，比肩重叠损严亲；正财剋母偏财父，夫妇相刑值退神。食神有寿妻多子，偏官多女少麒麟；乘旺伤官嗣必绝，中和印綬自荣身。
This section carries sentences that fix a female relative's chastity or worth from the chart — wife, concubine, mother, sister, grandmother, granddaughter. They are removed here in the Chinese as well as the English, on the same footing as everywhere else on this site; the full text is at the source.
On the Father (论父)
Indirect Wealth (偏财) is the father, being the officer star of the Direct Resource (印綬). A Yang Wood (甲) day takes Yang Earth (戊) as its father; meeting Yang Wood or Tiger (寅) again, or a complete Wood frame, or ground of death, cutting-off, clash or punishment, means harm to the father. If not that, then separation and discord, or illness and injury. If a Yang Metal (庚) or a Monkey (申) rescues it, there is no great harm. Where Yang Wood is strong and Yang Earth weak, it likewise means illness and little to lean on. Where the Yang Earth stands on living, strong ground, on a nobleman (贵人) or a Heavenly Virtue (天德) or Monthly Virtue (月德) place, it means honour as well; and getting Yang Fire (丙) or Yin Fire (丁) to produce and help it, the father's blessing is enjoyed without end. Standing on Killings (杀) ground, the father dies away from home. Sitting in decline, held down, or in the store or the cutting-off, the father is ordinary and no strength is had from him.
偏财是父，乃印綬之官星也。 如甲日以戊为父，再见甲寅字、或木局全、或临死绝冲刑之地，主剋父也；不然，主离异不睦、或疾病残伤。若得庚字申字救，庶无大害。 如甲旺戊衰，亦主有疾少靠。 如戊临生旺、贵人、天月德地，亦主有贵；更得丙丁生助，享父之福无穷。 如临杀地，父死他乡。 居衰败受制之处、墓绝之地，主父平常，不得父力也。
On the Mother (论母)
Direct Resource (正印) is what produces my own body. A Yang Wood (甲) day takes Yin Water (癸) as its mother; meeting Yin Earth (己), Ox (丑) or Goat (未) means harm to the mother, and meeting many of them means the mother marries twice. A single Yang Earth (戊) out of place, or controlled, means the mother was injured by a former husband. Where the Resource (印) is at its Birth (長生), the mother is kind and gentle and long-lived, and mother and child do each other good. It must be reasoned through, and then there is nothing that does not prove out.
正印者，乃生我之身也。 如甲日以癸为母，遇己丑未主剋母；见多，主母嫁二夫。 一戊失地、或被剋，主母伤前夫。 如印长生，主母慈淑寿长、益和子母。 须以理推，无不验矣！
This section carries sentences that fix a female relative's chastity or worth from the chart — wife, concubine, mother, sister, grandmother, granddaughter. They are removed here in the Chinese as well as the English, on the same footing as everywhere else on this site; the full text is at the source.
论兄弟姊妹
Friend (比肩) is the brothers. For a Yang Wood (甲), another Yang Wood is the elder brother and Yin Wood (乙) the younger brother or sister; Tiger (寅) and Rabbit (卯) likewise. Meeting Yang Metal (庚) harms the elder brother; meeting Yin Metal (辛) injures the younger. Where Yang Wood is strong and prospering, brothers and elder sisters contend for the wealth; where Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Tiger and Rabbit are many, the brothers and sisters seize the wealth and are not at peace — there is quarrelling and dispute. Meeting a Yin Earth (己) that binds the Yang Wood, the elder brother and sister are not upright. Meeting a Yang Metal, the younger are not upright. Where much Killings (杀) is seen and the Yin Wood gets a frame, the Killings binds and gathers with the Yin Wood and injures the Yang Wood: here the elder brother has less blessing than the younger, and leans on the younger's strength. A Yang Wood in a Tiger month with the Yin Wood held down means the elder brother strong and the younger weak. For the rest, harmony or discord, judge it by rest, strength, death and cutting-off in the eight characters, and there is nothing that does not answer.
比肩者，兄弟也。 且如，甲见甲为兄，乙为弟妹；寅卯亦然。 见庚则剋兄，见辛则伤弟。 甲木旺相，兄姊争财；甲乙寅卯既多，则兄弟姊妹夺财不和，争斗是非。 见己合甲，兄姊不正。 见庚，弟妹不正。 如见杀多，乙木得局，是杀合会乙木而伤甲；此兄不若弟之福，借弟之力而加恃。 甲木寅月，乙木受制，主兄旺弟衰。 其餘和顺不睦，但以八字休旺死绝推之，无不应验矣！
On Wives (论妻妾)
Direct Wealth (正财) is the true wife and Indirect Wealth (偏财) the concubine. A Yang Wood (甲) takes Yin Earth (己) as Direct Wealth and Yang Earth (戊) as Indirect Wealth. Meeting a Yin Wood (乙) frame, or Pig-Rabbit-Goat (亥卯未), injures the wife. Meeting Yin Earth with Ox (丑) or Goat (未), the self is at peace. Where the day or the month sits on Wealth (财) and Officer (官), the wife is much help within and wealth comes with her. Where the Indirect Wealth has its position, the concubine outweighs the wife. Where the Wealth is strong of itself, the wife will not have a concubine in the house. Where officer and Killings (杀) show repeatedly, the wife brings trouble that is to be feared. Where Wealth and Officer are both fine, the person fears their wife; and meeting a Killings is more unwelcome still. Where Wealth is much and the self weak, the wife overcomes the husband instead. Where the Wealth and the destiny both have qi, wife and concubine are at peace, and strength is had from the wife. Where the day sits on the Void (空亡), a wife is difficult. Look also at the Lone Phoenix (孤鸞) days and at yang error (阳错) and yin error (阴错), which mean harm to the wife; or marriage brought about through relatives, a cold and poor wedding, marrying in or filling a vacancy.
正财为正妻，偏财妾也。 甲木见己土为正财，戊土为偏财。 又见乙木局，亥卯未伤妻。 见己土丑未字，则主自安。 日下月下坐财官，主妻多内助，更得妻财。 偏财得位，妾胜于妻。 主财自旺，妻不容妾。 官杀重见，妻招干蛊可畏。 财官并美，为人怕妻；见杀尤忌。 财多身弱，妻反胜夫。 财命有气，妻妾和顺，是得妻力。 日坐空亡，难为妻妾。 又看孤鸞之日、阳错阴错，主剋妻；或因亲致眷、寒房冷娶、入赘填房。女人犯此，主父母家陵替、或致讼事。餘倣此例。
This section carries sentences that fix a female relative's chastity or worth from the chart — wife, concubine, mother, sister, grandmother, granddaughter. They are removed here in the Chinese as well as the English, on the same footing as everywhere else on this site; the full text is at the source.
On Children (论子息)
Seven Killings (七杀) is the son. A Yang Wood (甲) takes Yang Metal (庚) and Monkey (申) as the son and Yin Metal (辛) and Rooster (酉) as the daughter. Meeting Yang Fire (丙) with Horse (午) or Tiger (寅), or a Killings (杀) standing on the Yang Blade (阳刃) or the Killings palace, means harm to the children; if not, illness or unworthiness. Meeting Yang Earth (戊) or Yin Earth (己) in season, the children are capable and harmonious. Where the Killings stands on a Birth (長生), a Monthly Virtue (月德) or Heavenly Virtue (天德), and on ground of the nobleman (贵人), the prosperity and the Horse (禄马), the Eating God (食神) or the Wealth (财), it means a strong father and honoured children — and it must be balanced. A yang day with a yang hour, sons repeatedly; a yang day with a yin hour, sons first and daughters after; a yin day with a yin hour, daughters repeatedly; a yin day with a yang hour, daughters first and sons after. Hurting Officer (伤官) meeting the officer makes the children harsh and stubborn. An hour Hurting Officer, or a Void (空亡) there, makes children difficult. A woman's chart takes Hurting Officer as the son and Eating God as the daughter; meeting a Direct Resource (印綬) or an Owl (梟神), children are hard to get. A man's chart with officer and Killings on suitable ground, and balanced, means he has children. Judge the number by the reckoning of production: at strength double it, at death and cutting-off halve it. Too much or too little is not judged this way — too much means children who are harmed or die early, or who are harsh; too little means few born and raised. Where officer and Killings have their ground and are helped, with many favourable stars, the children are loyal, worthy and clear-minded. Where they sit in rest, imprisonment, death, cutting-off, breaking, ruin, decline, illness, the Hook and Noose (勾绞), the arch-ill or the empty places, the children are unworthy, poor and sickly. With the Lonely Star (孤神) and the Widow Star (寡宿) besides, it means solitude and no one to lean on.
七杀者子也。 如甲见庚申是子，辛酉是女。若见丙火午寅、或杀临阳刃杀宫，主剋子；不然疾病不肖。遇戊己土得令，则子得力和顺。若杀临长生月德天德，所临之地，贵人、禄马、食神、财乡，言有强父贵子；要稟中和。 阳日阳时男重见；阳日阴时，先男后女；阴日阴时女重见；阴日阳时，先女后男。 伤官见官，子孙凶顽。 时上伤官及空亡，难为子息。 女命取伤官是子，食神是女；若见印綬梟神，难得子也。 男命官杀得地，而稟中和者，言其有子。将生成之数断之，生旺倍加，死绝减半；太过不及，不以此断。太过有子而多剋夭、或凶顽；不及则少生养。 官杀得地而有扶助，吉曜多者，其子忠孝贤明；居休、囚、死、绝、破、败、衰、病、勾绞、元凶、空虚之地，则子当不肖，贫贱疾病之子。更兼孤神寡宿，主孤苦伶仃。 且如甲子之日，甲子之时：庚死于子，死中至老没儿郎；入墓之时难保双；受气绝中一个子；胎中头女有姑娘；养中三子只留二；长生之位，旬中半合，主七个儿子也；沐浴一双保吉康；冠带临官三子位；旺中五子自成行；衰中二子；病中一；自己数至亥病中一。依此推之。 且如八字中若无子星，时上又不生旺，运行官杀旺乡，主有子；运过却无。 如柱中有官杀，而行伤、食、休、衰、绝、弱之运，伤损其子；运过方存。 八字有一杀一子，二杀二子，无杀无子。 如柱中身杀两停，而杀逢旺乡，就作多子断之；亦看财神何如，逐时增减，多寡推之。无不验矣！
This section carries sentences that fix a female relative's chastity or worth from the chart — wife, concubine, mother, sister, grandmother, granddaughter. They are removed here in the Chinese as well as the English, on the same footing as everywhere else on this site; the full text is at the source.
This is a Song text and its family is a Song family — wives and concubines, lines of descent — set out as the work has it, not as we would put it. Which character stands for whom is stated plainly and can be computed; what the work then says about that person is its verdict, translated and not endorsed. With one exception: sentences fixing a female relative's chastity or worth from the chart are not shown at all. Translating without endorsing is not enough for those, so they are cut and the cut is stated, as everywhere else here.
marriage (婚姻) · what one chart says
The word for matching two charts, He Hun (合婚), appears 0 times across all four source works. There is no section on pairing two people. What the works do read is marriage from the subject's own chart: which character stands for the spouse, which palace they sit in, and what the rest of the chart does to that palace. That is what follows.
The spouse star
Direct Wealth (正财) — the wife star. It appears nowhere in this chart. Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) treats an absent star as its own kind of statement rather than as a blank.
The spouse palace — the day branch
Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平), The Six Relations (六亲总篇): 日为妻妾己身 — the day branch is the spouse palace. Here it is Monkey (申).
- punishment the spouse palace is punished by the year pillar Tiger-Monkey (寅申)
- punishment the spouse palace is punished by the month pillar Tiger-Monkey (寅申)
Di Tian Sui (滴天髓), the marriage chapter
夫妻因缘宿世来，喜神有意傍天财。
It holds — month Earth Tiger (戊寅)（Fire (火), Earth (土)）
beside (傍) is read as standing in the same pillar: a favourable element and the wealth star sharing one pillar. The corpus carries no commentary on this couplet; this is the reading taken, and it is stated as one.
The clauses of On Wives (论妻妾) this chart meets
日下月下坐财官，主妻多内助，更得妻财。
a wife who is much help, and money that comes with her
Why it applies: Wealth (财) or Officer (官) among the hidden stems of the day or month branch
官杀重见，妻招干蛊可畏。
the section calls what the wife draws on herself something to be feared
Why it applies: Direct Officer (正官) and Seven Killings (七杀) together appearing three times or more
财命有气，妻妾和顺，是得妻力。
harmony at home, and strength drawn from the marriage
Why it applies: the wealth element present and the day master not weak
Clauses of On Wives (论妻妾) read but not computed
- 日坐空亡，难为妻妾。
This site reckons the Void (空亡) from the day pillar, and by that reckoning the day branch is never among its own voids — so the condition can never be tested. It is printed and not computed. - the Lone Phoenix (孤鸞) and the yin-yang error days (阳错阴错) day pillars
Neither the Lone Phoenix (孤鸞) nor the yin-yang error days (阳错阴错) is given a list of day pillars anywhere in the four works, so which days they are is not stated and cannot be computed. The back half of the same sentence passes a verdict on a woman's family, which this site does not print either. - two clauses ranking a concubine against a wife
Both rank a concubine against a wife. This site does not print them. - 甲木见己土为正财，戊土为偏财。
An illustration of the definition above it, not a condition.
The compatibility percentage offered elsewhere has no source in these works — marriage matching (合婚) does not appear in them once. What two charts do to each other at the branch level is a computable fact, and two charts can be set side by side. What it means for two people is the part no source supplies, and this site does not invent it.
On Temperament (论性情) · what kind of person
Character is what the joy, anger, grief, delight, love, hate and desire in a person give out, and what benevolence (仁), righteousness (义), propriety (礼), wisdom (智) and trust (信) — benevolence, right conduct, propriety, wisdom and good faith — spread through them; the father's essence and the mother's blood make the shape of it, and all of it is a matter of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth.
the element of your day master (木) a strong self (身强)
Wood is called bending and straightening; its taste is sour and it governs benevolence (仁). A heart that feels for others; kind, mild and easy; helping people and doing the world good; caring for the orphaned and the widowed; quiet, clean and high-minded. The person is clear-featured and fine, long in the body, the face bluish-white. Hence: Wood in plenty means much benevolence. In excess it breaks: holding to things, the nature grows one-sided.
木曰曲直，味酸，主仁。惻隐之心、慈祥愷悌、济物利民、恤孤念寡、恬静清高、人物清秀、体长、面色青白，故云：『木盛多仁』。太过则折，执物性偏；不及少仁、心生妒意。
Each element carries a too much (太过) (in excess) and a too little (不及) (in deficit) clause, and the section ends by saying which to read: A strong day stem overreaches, holds to one thing and is proud of itself. All the above is spoken by weight, and there is not one failure in ten thousand. The weight it means is the strength of the day master, and this chart reads a strong self (身强) — so the too much clause is the one shown.
The Forms of the Stems and Branches (干支体象)
day stem (Yang Wood, 甲)
Yang Wood (甲) stands first among the heavenly stems, with no branch, leaf or root of its own; to last a thousand years between heaven and earth it must be buried ten thousand fathoms straight down in the sand. Cut for a roof-beam, Metal has its use of it; turned to ash and charcoal, Fire is its calamity. A dull block of a thing with no workings in it, it lets the springs and autumns come and go as they will.
甲木天干作首排，原无枝叶与根荄；欲存天地千年久，直向沙泥万丈埋。断就栋樑金得用，化成灰炭火为灾；蠢然块物无机事，一任春秋自往来。
Tiger month branch (the month command)
The Wood of the Gen, the northeast (艮) palace, built in spring, its qi gathering the three yang, and Fire lies within Tiger (寅). Its purpose joins the snake and the monkey, the three honoured guests; it is of a kind with Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未), one household. To pass beyond the ordinary it needs only to meet Horse (午); what alone is to be feared is Monkey (申) breaking the prosperity star (禄) and injuring the month command. With much Fire in the pillars it dislikes Fire ground: dry Wood has never run south.
艮宫之木建于春，气聚三阳火在寅；志合蛇猴三贵客，类同卯未一家人。超凡入圣惟逢午，破禄伤提独虑申；四柱火多嫌火地，从来燥木不南奔。
This section is translated, not endorsed. The work reads an element off a person's face and frame — a bluish-white colour, a low nose, a lopsided face — and that is a Song text talking, kept as it stands rather than smoothed over. Which row applies to you can be computed; whether the row is true of you is the work's claim, not ours.
Rhapsody on Reading the Heart (相心赋) · character by the labels
On Temperament (论性情) says what kind of person your day master's element makes. Rhapsody on Reading the Heart (相心赋) asks the same question along a different axis — the ten gods and the named day-pillar patterns — both of which this engine has computed all along and never used for this. Your chart keys onto 4 of its clauses.
The Eating God (食神) is good at eating and drinking: thick-bodied, and fond of singing.
食神善能饮食、体厚而喜謳歌。
The Seven Killings (偏官), the Seven Killings (七杀), in its force overbears the three highest offices: fond of wine and women and given to contention and fighting; loving a high bearing, propping up the weak and bullying the strong; a nature like a tiger, impatient as the wind.
偏官七杀，势压三公，喜酒色而偏争好斗、爱轩昂而扶弱欺强、情性如虎、急躁如风。
Where the Owl Resource (梟印) holds power: scheming, diligent at the start and idle at the end; fond of learning a skill, and learning much while completing little.
梟印当权，使心机而始勤终惰、好学艺而多学少成。
Indirect Wealth (偏财) and Direct Wealth (正财) showing at the stems: careless of money and fond of right dealing; loving to be courted; fond of talking of who is right and who is wrong; given to wine and to flowers — such a one is like this too.
偏正财露，轻财好义，爱人趋奉、好说是非、嗜酒贪花，亦係如此。
Twenty-seven clauses in all; seventeen key onto labels this site computes — five of them only since the engine began judging the pattern (格局) they name. The other ten are not stretched to fit: six name patterns this engine does not judge (the Well Railing (井栏), flying to heaven (飞天) and their neighbours — On the Day as Master (论日为主) in this same work calls those Hurting Officer (伤官) taken apart and given another name), four state a condition with no threshold in it (Fire blazing and Earth parched (火炎土燥) does not say how much Fire), and the rest open or close the piece. All fifteen are listed with the reason. The work reads a face as well as a chart — high cheekbones, big eyes and thick brows (颧高骨俊、眼大眉粗) — and that is kept as it stands, on the same footing as On Temperament (论性情): translated, not endorsed.
Yuan Hai Zi Ping (渊海子平) · Rhapsody on Reading the Heart (相心赋)
The sections keyed last
These were the last of the corpus to be keyed. Five of them sat in research/corpus-ledger.json marked readable, keyable and not done; the other two only surfaced when the coverage measurement stopped counting a stray word in a code comment as a recorded decision. Each has its own build check and each is quoted here from its own section.
On the Overturned Meal (论倒食) · Indirect Resource (偏印) as the Owl (枭神), and the nineteen pillars that disarm it
The Indirect Resource (偏印) Yang Water (壬) stands, but the Eating God (食神) Yang Fire (丙) does not. 柱中无食，只以偏印论 — with nothing to invert it is read as a plain seal.
The section's own last word is 切不可一见倒食，便以凶论 — never call a chart bad merely because the star is in it. So the star and its restraint are reported and no verdict is drawn.
The lines this reads (3)
倒食即偏印之谓，一名吞啖煞，食神最忌见之
前忌倒食，逢制合反贵，切不可一见倒食，便以凶论
柱中无食，只以偏印论
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 6 · On the Overturned Meal (论倒食) — the section in full
On Rise and Fall (论兴亡) · the An Inch of Gold for the Marrow (寸金搜髓论) day-pillar verse
The day pillar Wood Monkey (甲申) is in the verse:
- wealth and office seated under the day stem
- seal, wealth and office stored within
The lines this reads (2)
辛巳、壬午、甲申、乙酉，俱是坐下财官，逢之富贵不少
己亥甲申见庚戌，印綬财官内里藏；更得丙辰壬戌至，四时符印不非常
Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) · On Rise and Fall (论兴亡) — the section in full
Rhapsody on Love and Hate (爱憎赋) · the day stem's temper, four named pairs, four signs
Day stem Yang Wood (甲) — yielding, kind, and large-minded (甲乙顺而仁慈大量)
The rhapsody (赋) gives the Kui Gang days (魁罡) to the proud and six harmony (六合) to the yielding. The stars can be computed and the person cannot, so the stars are listed and no character is read back off them.
The lines this reads (1)
甲乙顺而仁慈大量
Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) · Rhapsody on Love and Hate (爱憎赋) — the section in full
Fine Points of Reading (论命细法) · which stem stands for whom, and twelve hour pillars
The day branch is one of the four Birth (长生) — An intelligent spouse.
10 clauses of this section are quoted and refused: five fix a woman's conduct by her chart, three read an illness off it, and two place a relative's death. A birth date is not a diagnosis, and a woman's conduct is not a property of her birth hour.
The lines this reads (2)
假令，六甲日，以偏阳土为父，阴土为妻，阳金子，阴金女；阳木阴木同法，餘皆倣此
寅申巳亥，乃四长生，必得聪明妻
Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) · Fine Points of Reading (论命细法) — the section in full
Assorted Sayings (杂论口诀) · Hurting Officer (伤官) by pillar, the ten transforming days (化日), and what the branches pile into
The day pillar is one of the ten transforming days (化日) — Even where the chart forms no there is wealth and rank to spare (格).
The section separates a true transformation from a false one and never says how to tell them apart, so we report the day and not which kind it is.
The lines this reads (2)
化者有十日：甲申、乙酉、庚寅、辛卯、壬午、癸未、丙子、丁丑、戊午、己丑，八字虽不入格，富贵亦是盈餘；另有福德秀气，各有天地神祇
论化之格，化之真者，名公巨卿；化之假者，孤儿异姓
Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) · Assorted Sayings (杂论口诀) — the section in full
On Advancing, Meeting, Retreating and Hiding (论进交退伏) · four watches of fifteen days
Also standing elsewhere in the chart: Earth Tiger (戊寅)
The lines this reads (2)
阎东叟云：以十干为四候，十五日为一候，十二日为进神候，外三日为交退伏神候
故甲子为第一进神，则丙子、丁丑、戊寅为交退伏神；己卯为第二进神，则辛卯、壬辰、癸巳为交退退伏神；甲午为第三进神，则丙午、丁未、戊申为交退伏神；己酉为第四进神，则辛酉、壬戌、癸亥为交退伏神
San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會) · volume 2 · On Advancing, Meeting, Retreating and Hiding (论进交退伏) — the section in full
Over time
Decades and years
Ten-year stretches and single years, scored against the element sets above.
Decade cycles
Life is read in ten-year stretches. Some run with you and some against — this is how well each one suits you.
One pillar per decade, scored against the two element sets above. Luck begins 1955-05-18, at 5y 3m.
| Years · age | Pillar | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955–1964age 6–15 | Earth Rabbit (己卯) | Even | |
| 1965–1974age 16–25 | Metal Dragon (庚辰) | Good | |
| 1975–1984age 26–35 | Metal Snake (辛巳)corner graft (接木)punishment · month | Very good | |
| 1985–1994age 36–45 | Water Horse (壬午)half trine · Fire | Good | |
| 1995–2004age 46–55 | Water Goat (癸未) | Even | |
| 2005–2014age 56–65 | Wood Monkey (甲申)corner graft (接木)clash · month | Hard | |
| 2015–2024age 66–75 | Wood Rooster (乙酉) | Even | |
| 2025–2034 nowage 76–85 | Fire Dog (丙戌) | Very good |
You are in the 2025–2034 stretch right now (ages 76–85). For you this decade runs strongly with you.
The years ahead
The same thing, one year at a time.
The marked years are the day pillar's relation to the year’s ruling star (Tai Sui, 太岁): offending the year’s lord (犯岁君) (the day stem controls the year stem), war (征) (the day pillar clashes it), gloom (晦) (the day pillar binds it). That is a different question from whether the year's elements suit you, so it is not folded into the rating. The work says whether these actually bring calamity turns on whether the chart holds a rescue — 五行有救，其年反必招财 — which is a judgement this engine does not make.
The two Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) sections behind these marks
The year’s ruling star (Tai Sui, 太岁) is the son of heaven within the year, and so must not be offended; offend it and it is ill. The classic says: the day offending the year's ruler, the calamity is certainly heavy; but where the five phases have a rescue in them, that year brings wealth instead. Take a Yang Wood (甲) day meeting a Yang Earth (戊) year — that is the Tai Sui — and where the control is heavy it kills. A Yang Wood or Yin Wood (乙) with a Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯), Pig (亥) or Goat (未) day or hour offending and controlling the year's ruler dies beyond doubt; with a rescue it is favourable, and the rescue is a Yang Metal (庚), Yin Metal (辛), or a Snake-Rooster-Ox (巳酉丑) Metal frame in the eight characters. The classic says: where Yang Earth and Yin Earth (己) grieve to meet Yang Wood and Yin Wood, there must be a Yang Metal or Yin Metal at the head of the stems. Or a Yang Fire (丙) or Yin Fire (丁) frame burning the Wood, and the calamity is not to be blamed. Or getting a Yin Earth to bind the Yang Wood resolves it as well. Broadly the Tai Sui must not be injured; producing each other is favourable, and where the five phases have a rescue the year brings wealth instead. Whoever offends the year's ruler will that year meet mourning, harm to the wife, money broken and disputes, and the regret of offending those above. With the Hook and Noose (勾绞), the Void (空亡), the Peach Blossom (咸池), the grave, the Sickness Charm (病符), the Death Charm (死符), the White Tiger (白虎) and the Yang Blade (阳刃) arriving together, a hundred troubles come out. Even where the day stem does not control the year, the period may control the year's ruler; and with the year and period clashing or punishing, or the Yang Blade clashing and binding, it means loss and mourning. If there is a nobleman (贵人) or a prosperity and the Horse (禄马) to resolve it, it is a little better, and with a rescue in the eight characters there is nothing to fear. So it is said: the Tai Sui is the ruler of all the malefics, and entering a chart it is not necessarily a calamity — but meeting a country of war, it certainly brings punishment on the destiny itself.
太岁乃年中天子，故不可犯，犯之则凶。经云：『日犯岁君，灾殃必重；五行有救，其年反必招财。』 且如甲日见戊年，太岁是也，剋重者死。甲乙若寅卯亥未日时者，犯剋岁君，决死无疑；有救则吉，乃八字庚辛巳酉丑金局也，经云：『戊己愁逢甲乙，干头须要庚辛』；或丙丁火局焚木，有灾勿咎，效此推之；或得己合甲亦解之。 大抵太岁不可伤之，相生者吉；乃五行有救，其年反必为财。 犯岁君者，其年必主凶丧、剋妻妾及破财是非、犯上之悔；加以勾绞、空亡、咸池、宅墓、病符、死符、白虎、阳刃诸杀併临，祸患百出。神煞加临，轻重推之。 日干虽不剋岁，犹恐运剋岁君，若加岁运冲刑、阳刃冲合，主破耗丧事；倘有贵人、禄马，解之稍吉，八字有救无虞。 故云：『太岁乃众杀之主，入命未必为灾；若遇战斗之乡，必主刑于本命。』
Yuan Hai Zi Ping (渊海子平) · On Tai Sui, Lucky and Unlucky (论太岁吉凶)
war (征) means war: as when a minister offends his ruler, the sense of the below offending the above. The day stem and branch clashing or controlling the year’s ruling star (Tai Sui, 太岁) is called war; the period's stem or branch injuring or clashing the Tai Sui is likewise war; and the Tai Sui's stem and branch clashing the day's is war as well. Only look at whether the eight characters hold a rescue. Weigh it closely and it hits a hundred times in a hundred. The day's stem and branch BINDING the Tai Sui's stem and branch is called gloom (晦), dulling; the year and period binding the year stem is the same. Whoever meets this has a dulled year — everything doubles back, and haste does not arrive. Take [Wood Ox, Wood Pig, Water Monkey, Wood Snake (乙丑 乙亥 壬申 乙巳)], running the Metal Goat (辛未) period, in a Fire Tiger (丙寅) year. The day's Yang Water (壬) controls the year's Yang Fire (丙); the day branch Monkey (申) with its Yang Metal (庚) controls the year's Tiger (寅) with its Yang Wood (甲); and Tiger punishes Snake (巳), Snake punishes Monkey, and Monkey punishes Tiger. Running the Metal Goat period binds the year's Wood frame into a Hurting Officer (伤官), and none of it is favourable. In the Wood Horse (甲午) month of that year Fire was strong and warred on the Yin Earth (己), and the Yin Wood (乙) produced what made the war — so he died an unnatural death.
征者，战也；如臣触其君，乃下犯上之意。 日干支冲剋太岁曰征，运支干伤冲太岁亦曰征，太岁干支冲日干支者亦曰征；但看八字有无救助。仔细推详，百发百中。 日干支合太岁干支曰晦，岁运合岁干亦然；遇此者主晦气，一年反覆、欲速不达。 假如【乙丑，乙亥，壬申，乙巳】：运行辛未，丙寅年。日干之壬，剋太岁之丙，日支申庚，剋太岁之寅甲；又忌寅刑巳、巳刑申、申刑寅。行辛未运，合太岁之木局伤官，皆不为吉；其年甲午月火旺，战剋己土，乙木生所为战，故死于非命矣！
Years that should run easier
2026 · 2029 · 2030
Years worth being careful in
2035 · 2032 · 2034
This is arithmetic, not prophecy. It scores whether a period's character suits yours — not what will happen in it.
▸How clashes and combinations are counted
Beyond element fit, each period is also read for how its branch relates to your four birth branches. three-way harmony (三合) and six harmony (六合) produce an element — helpful if it suits you, unhelpful if it does not — and punishment (刑) is read as friction. Those directions are agreed on, so they adjust the rating (using the month and day branches only, the two every lineage treats as primary). The adjustment is capped so it modulates the element score rather than overriding it.
Clashes and harm (害) are reported but never scored. A clash is disturbance, not misfortune: clashing a branch you needed is bad, clashing one working against you can be a release. The direction depends on a reading this engine does not have, and assigning a sign anyway would be dressing a coin flip as a calculation.
Famous people with your day master, Yang Wood (Jia, 甲)
A shared day master is not a shared chart: the year, month and hour pillars all differ. Each has a page with the three pillars the date fixes and all twelve hours cast.
Elon Musk 马斯克
CEO, Tesla and SpaceX
1971-06-28 · Wood Monkey day (甲申)
Jacky Cheung 张学友
Singer and actor · the "God of Songs"
1961-07-10 · Wood Dragon day (甲辰)
Bruce Lee 李小龙
Martial artist
1940-11-27 · Wood Dog day (甲戌)
Jawaharlal Nehru 尼赫鲁
First Prime Minister of India, 1947–1964
1889-11-14 · Wood Horse day (甲午)
Soong Ching-ling 宋庆龄
Politician · Honorary President of the People's Republic of China
1893-01-27 · Wood Rat day (甲子)
Tu Youyou 屠呦呦
Pharmaceutical chemist · Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2015, for artemisinin
1930-12-30 · Wood Tiger day (甲寅)
All 100 famous people’s charts › (9 share this day master)
Method and limits
Where all of this comes from
Which texts, what is deliberately not judged, and why.
The same birth, the other system
Zi Wei Dou Shu casts the same birth into twelve palaces and fourteen main stars. It looks at different things from BaZi — not the same reading in other words.
See the Zi Wei chartIs any of this true?
Two questions live in that, and they get different answers.
Whether the chart is correct — we are accountable for that. The same birth details always produce the same chart, the working is shown, and every source is listed. If it is wrong, that is a bug and we want to hear about it.
Whether the readings describe you — that is the tradition's claim, not ours. Zi Wei Dou Shu and BaZi are symbolic systems several centuries old. No controlled evidence shows they predict anything, and we offer none. What we can say is that these readings are the system's own, applied identically to every chart, and never softened to sound more like you.
So if a reading does not fit, that is not a malfunction. It is where the system and your life diverge — which is worth more than a description vague enough that anyone would nod at it.
The source texts
Every line this site prints names the text it came from. The five classics in full, with sentence-by-sentence translation — Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平), San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會), Qiong Tong Bao Jian (窮通寶鑑), Di Tian Sui (滴天髓), Zi Ping Zhen Quan (子平真詮), alongside Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (紫微斗數全書) — are on the method page, section by section.
Read the sourcesKeep this chart
Print it as an A4 report: a cover, a one-page summary, then every section above with its sources opened out. Choose "Save as PDF" in the print dialog to keep a file.
Say something back
Every reading here traces to a named text, and that much a machine can check. Whether any of it reads well is not something a machine can check — only a person can. If a passage made no sense, or read badly, or sounded like nonsense, say so plainly.
This form does not carry your birth details. What is stored is your message, whatever contact you chose to give, the page path with everything after the question mark cut off, and a visitor hash whose salt rotates daily — nothing tied to a chart, and nothing reversible to a person.
What BaZi is
BaZi — literally "eight characters", also called Four Pillars — expresses your birth year, month, day and hour as four pairs of a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch. Eight characters in total. It uses no stars; the reading comes from the balance and interaction of the Five Elements.
| Pillar | Governs | Boundary set by |
|---|---|---|
| Year | Ancestry, early life, background | Start of Spring — not 1 January |
| Month | Parents, career, young adulthood | Solar terms — not lunar months |
| Day | Yourself and your spouse (the day stem is you) | Turns at the Rat hour (子), 23:00 |
| Hour | Children, later life, inner life | True solar time, two hours wide |
Why the time needs correcting
The hour pillar is a quarter of the chart, and each of the twelve hours (shichen, 时辰) is two hours wide. Clock time is not solar time: it needs correcting for your birthplace longitude, and for the timezone actually in force in your birth year. Most tools skip the second part.
Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore only adopted UTC+8 on 1 January 1982. Before that it was UTC+7:30, and UTC+9 under Japanese occupation. The full explanation, and how to check.
Common questions
What if I don't know my birth time?
The year, month and day pillars are still exact — only the hour pillar and anything depending on it becomes unreliable. Casting with 12:00 noon works, as long as you treat the hour pillar as an estimate.
Solar or lunar date?
Use the solar (Gregorian) date — the one on your IC or passport. BaZi month pillars are set by solar terms, so they never depended on lunar months anyway.
How is BaZi different from Zi Wei Dou Shu?
BaZi reads timing and balance through the Five Elements; Zi Wei Dou Shu describes character and structure through twelve palaces and their stars. Both derive from the same birth moment, so they are not independent confirmations of each other. Zi Wei calculator.