Tan Cheng Lock’s BaZi chart 陈祯禄

The three pillars the date fixes

Each pillar is two characters: a stem on top (an element, yin or yang) and a branch below (one of the twelve zodiac animals). The day stem is the day master — the person. The label above each other stem is its ten god (Shi Shen, 十神): what that element is to the day master.

Each animal also hides stems of its own, strongest first: the Goat hides Yin Earth (己, Friend), Yin Fire (丁, Indirect Resource), Yin Wood (乙, Seven Killings); the Dragon hides Yang Earth (戊, Rob Wealth), Yin Wood (乙, Seven Killings), Yin Water (癸, Indirect Wealth); the Rabbit hides Yin Wood (乙, Seven Killings).

Indirect Wealth (Pian Cai, 偏财)

What you control, same polarity. Wealth that comes sideways rather than by salary — the uneven kind.

Friend (Bi Jian, 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.

Indirect Resource (Pian Yin, 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).

Seven Killings (Qi Sha, 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.

Direct Resource (Zheng Yin, 正印)

What produces you, opposite polarity. Straightforward support: what teaches, shelters and backs you.

Rob Wealth (Jie Cai, 劫财)

Same element, opposite polarity. A peer who takes rather than shares — the tradition reads it as what draws on your resources through people close to you.

Day master

Born in a Dragon month (Chen, 辰), when Earth rules the season. In that season Yin Earth is thriving (Wang, 旺): the season is its own. (One of five seasonal states, Wang Xiang Xiu Qiu Si, 旺相休囚死, after the San Ming Tong Hui, 三命通會, book 2.)

Elements in the six known characters

None of the six is Metal. The hour pillar’s two characters may supply it or may not — that depends on the hour. Hidden stems are not counted here.

All twelve hours, cast one by one

Of the twelve hours, 6 read strong and 6 weak (strong: the Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig hours). Strength, and the useful element that follows from it, depend on the hour — the date alone cannot settle them.

Each row is exactly what the full calculator would say for a birth in that hour. Strength comes from three tests: in season (De Ling, 得令) — born in the season of the day master’s own element; rooted (De Di, 得地) — the same element hidden in a branch; backed (De Shi, 得势) — as much support around it as drain. Two of three reads strong. The favoured elements come from support and restrain (Fu Yi, 扶抑): a strong day master wants draining, a weak one wants support. There are three other methods for the useful element — climate (Tiao Hou, 调候), bridging (Tong Guan, 通關) and disease and cure (Bing Yao, 病藥) — each from its own text; see the useful god page. Hours are solar time at the birthplace, so a clock time needs correcting first; and a birth after 23:00 falls in the late Rat hour, where the two schools disagree about whether the day has turned.

Tan Cheng Lock’s bone weight (Cheng Gu, 称骨)

Lunar date: day 28 of the 2nd month, Water Goat year (癸未年二月廿八). Its weights: year 0.7 liang, month 0.7 liang, day 0.8 liang — 2.2 liang before the hour. Over the twelve hours that makes 2.8 liang to 3.8 liang.

Bone weighing is a folk almanac sum over the calendar positions of the year, month, day and hour — not the elements, and not the chart above. How heavy is heavy? The tables and the spread ›