Reference
Chinese terms, with pinyin
A BaZi chart is written in Chinese characters, and most explanations in English skip over them. This page does the opposite: every term you will meet on this site, with its pinyin pronunciation and a plain-English meaning.
You do not need any of this to use the tool — the chart and the reading are both in English. It is here for when you want to know what the characters actually say, or when you are comparing our output against another tool’s.
The core vocabulary
Ten terms carry almost all of the weight. If you learn only these, you can follow most of a chart.
| Character | Pinyin | English | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 八字 | bā zì | Eight characters | The whole chart — four pairs of characters, hence "eight". |
| 四柱 | sì zhù | Four pillars | The four pairs: year, month, day and hour. |
| 天干 | tiān gān | Heavenly stems | The upper character of each pillar. Ten of them. |
| 地支 | dì zhī | Earthly branches | The lower character of each pillar. Twelve of them. |
| 日主 | rì zhǔ | Day master | The stem of the day pillar — the character the chart is read around. |
| 五行 | wǔ xíng | Five phases | Wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Phases rather than substances. |
| 十神 | shí shén | Ten gods | Ten named relationships between a character and the day master. |
| 大运 | dà yùn | Luck pillars | Ten-year periods. "Luck" is a loose translation — it means a large cycle. |
| 命盘 | mìng pán | Life chart | The Chinese term for the chart itself. 命局 (mìng jú) is the natal structure specifically. |
| 子平法 | zǐ píng fǎ | The Ziping method | The branch that centres the chart on the day master. The mainstream today. |
The five phases
五行 wǔ xíng — literally “five movements”. The usual English rendering, “five elements”, suggests substances; the Chinese describes phases. Each is read as a way of moving rather than a material.
| Character | Pinyin | English | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 木 | mù | Wood | Growth, expansion, reaching upward |
| 火 | huǒ | Fire | Rising, visible, giving out |
| 土 | tǔ | Earth | Settling, holding, absorbing |
| 金 | jīn | Contracting, cutting, refining | |
| 水 | shuǐ | Water | Storing, descending, finding a way through |
The ten heavenly stems
天干 tiān gān — the five phases in their yang and yin forms. They form the top character of every pillar, and the day-pillar stem is your day master.
| Character | Pinyin | English | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 | jiǎ | Yang wood | A tall tree |
| 乙 | yǐ | Yin wood | A climbing vine |
| 丙 | bǐng | Yang fire | The sun |
| 丁 | dīng | Yin fire | A candle flame |
| 戊 | wù | Yang earth | A mountain |
| 己 | jǐ | Yin earth | Cultivated soil |
| 庚 | gēng | Raw ore, a blade | |
| 辛 | xīn | A polished jewel | |
| 壬 | rén | Yang water | The ocean |
| 癸 | guǐ | Yin water | Rain, mist |
The twelve earthly branches
地支 dì zhī — the bottom character of every pillar. They are also the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, which is where the familiar “year of the horse” comes from. In BaZi, the animal is one character out of eight.
| Character | Pinyin | English | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 子 | zǐ | Rat | 23:00–01:00 |
| 丑 | chǒu | Ox | 01:00–03:00 |
| 寅 | yín | Tiger | 03:00–05:00 |
| 卯 | mǎo | Rabbit | 05:00–07:00 |
| 辰 | chén | Dragon | 07:00–09:00 |
| 巳 | sì | Snake | 09:00–11:00 |
| 午 | wǔ | Horse | 11:00–13:00 |
| 未 | wèi | Goat | 13:00–15:00 |
| 申 | shēn | Monkey | 15:00–17:00 |
| 酉 | yǒu | Rooster | 17:00–19:00 |
| 戌 | xū | Dog | 19:00–21:00 |
| 亥 | hài | Pig | 21:00–23:00 |
The ten gods
十神 shí shén — ten relationships between a chart’s characters and the day master. Not deities, and not people. Some of the traditional English translations sound alarming; the right-hand column shows both. The ten gods explained →
| Character | Pinyin | English | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 比肩 | bǐ jiān | Peer | Same phase as the day master |
| 劫财 | jié cái | Contending Peer | Same phase, opposite polarity |
| 食神 | shí shén | Nourishing Expression | What the day master produces |
| 伤官 | shāng guān | Unrestrained Expression | Also what it produces — traditionally "Hurting Officer" |
| 偏财 | piān cái | Indirect Wealth | What the day master controls |
| 正财 | zhèng cái | Direct Wealth | Also what it controls |
| 七杀 | qī shā | Stern Authority | What controls the day master — traditionally "Seven Killings" |
| 正官 | zhèng guān | Formal Authority | Also what controls it |
| 偏印 | piān yìn | Indirect Support | What produces the day master |
| 正印 | zhèng yìn | Direct Support | Also what produces it |
Other terms you will meet
| Character | Pinyin | English | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 生 | shēng | Generates | The outer cycle: water feeds wood, wood feeds fire, and so on. |
| 克 | kè | Restrains | The inner cycle: wood breaks earth, earth dams water, and so on. |
| 立春 | lì chūn | Start of spring | The solar term around 4 February — where the BaZi year turns. |
| 真太阳时 | zhēn tài yáng shí | True solar time | Clock time corrected for longitude and the equation of time. |
A note on pinyin
Pinyin is the official romanisation of Mandarin, and the tone marks carry meaning — the same syllable at a different tone is a different word. Where you see wǔ (third tone) it is not the same character as wù (fourth tone), even though both appear above.
Where to go next
- What is BaZi? — the system in plain English
- The day master — the one character everything is read around
- The five phases — how the system describes balance
- The ten gods — the ten relationships, without the alarming names
See it in a real chart
Generate your chart → — the characters above will appear in your own four pillars.