Year Pillar
The broadest layer of the chart. Many schools connect it with ancestry, early surroundings, public context, and the conditions into which a person arrived.
Chinese Astrology Reference
More Than One Zodiac Animal.
Explore the Chinese zodiac, the Five Phases, and BaZi, or Four Pillars: a traditional system that maps the year, month, day, and hour of birth.Free Chinese Zodiac Calculator
Calculate your Four Pillars.
Enter a birth date and, when known, a birth time. No account is required.History And Cultural Context
The zodiac began as a way to name time.
Long before the zodiac became a popular way to describe personality, Chinese calendars used repeating cycles to name periods of time. Twelve Earthly Branches marked years and other time periods. Each branch became associated with an animal, creating the familiar sequence from Rat through Pig.
Ten Heavenly Stems added Yin or Yang and one of the Five Phases: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water. Pairing a Stem with a Branch created a sixty-part calendar cycle. Four Pillars, or BaZi, applies that same calendar language to the year, month, day, and hour of birth.
Start With What You Know
Your birth-year animal is the first layer.
If you have said, “I was born in the Year of the Dragon,” you already know the animal connected with your birth year's Earthly Branch. BaZi adds the other time layers active when you were born.- 01
Every year has an animal.
The animal represents the year's Earthly Branch.
- 02
Every year also has a Stem.
The Stem adds Yin or Yang and a phase, creating results such as Yang Metal Dragon.
- 03
Month, day, and hour receive pairs too.
That is why one chart can contain several animals and elements.
- 04
Four pairs create Eight Characters.
Two characters in each of four pillars create BaZi.
庚GengHeavenly Stem · Yang Metal
+辰ChenEarthly Branch · Dragon
=庚辰Yang Metal DragonOne complete pillar
BaZi: Eight Characters
Four time layers form one chart.
The pillars move from broad context toward more personal experience. The Day is especially important because its Heavenly Stem becomes the Day Master, the point used to compare the rest of the chart.Month Pillar
Anchored to the solar season. It is central to judging elemental strength and is often associated with formative structures, work, family systems, and the climate surrounding development.
Day Pillar
Its Heavenly Stem is the Day Master, the chart's main reference point. The full pillar is also used to examine the private self and close partnership patterns.
Hour Pillar
Calculated from a traditional two-hour period. It is commonly associated with inner aims, creative output, legacy, and what develops later in life.
Calendar Method
The calendar changes by season, not by page.
Chinese calendrical traditions use both lunar and solar structures. The familiar animal year and the Four Pillars do not all change on January 1, Lunar New Year, or the first day of a month.The familiar zodiac year
Popular Chinese zodiac calendars usually change the animal at Lunar New Year. This is the animal-year convention most people meet first.
The BaZi solar year
Many Four Pillars schools change the Year Pillar at Li Chun, the Beginning of Spring solar term, usually near February 4. A birth near that boundary can therefore produce a different result than a Lunar New Year calculator.
Months follow solar terms
The Month Pillar does not change on the first day of a Gregorian month or at each new moon. The traditional solar year is divided by twenty-four seasonal markers. Twelve of those markers open the twelve BaZi months. Tiger month begins at Li Chun near early February, Rabbit month begins at Jing Zhe near early March, and the sequence continues through the seasons. Because the exact transition time changes by year, someone born near a solar-term boundary may belong to the previous BaZi month even after the Gregorian month has changed.
Wu Xing
Five phases of change.
Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water are better understood as dynamic phases or processes than as fixed substances.Wood
Growth, direction, flexibility, planning, and the impulse to develop.
Fire
Expression, warmth, visibility, connection, and the movement toward a peak.
Earth
Stability, nourishment, transition, integration, and practical support.
Metal
Structure, discernment, refinement, boundaries, and the value of precision.
Water
Depth, storage, reflection, adaptation, and movement toward possibility.
Twelve Earthly Branches
The Chinese zodiac animal cycle.
The twelve animals correspond to the twelve Earthly Branches. In Four Pillars, an animal can appear in the year, month, day, or hour.Zi Branch
Rat
Alertness, adaptation, resourcefulness, and the beginning of a cycle.Chou Branch
Ox
Steadiness, cultivation, endurance, and work that develops over time.Yin Branch
Tiger
Initiative, courage, movement, and the force of early spring.Mao Branch
Rabbit
Sensitivity, diplomacy, refinement, and responsive growth.Chen Branch
Dragon
Vitality, transition, authority, and concentrated creative force.Si Branch
Snake
Discernment, strategy, transformation, and focused perception.Wu Branch
Horse
Motion, visibility, independence, and the height of active yang energy.Wei Branch
Goat
Care, artistry, cooperation, and the tending of what has matured.Shen Branch
Monkey
Ingenuity, flexibility, problem-solving, and skillful response.You Branch
Rooster
Precision, timing, presentation, and the refinement of results.Xu Branch
Dog
Loyalty, protection, discernment, and responsibility to the group.Hai Branch