BaZi · Four Pillars
Free BaZi Calculator
Enter your birth date and time to cast your Four Pillars of Destiny — your day master and the elemental balance of your chart, drawn straight from the Chinese sexagenary calendar.
How a BaZi reading works
Your birth date and time map onto the Chinese calendar. It's a pure calculation from your birth date and time — no shuffling, no chance — using the traditional sexagenary (stem-and-branch) cycle.
The year, month, day, and hour each become a pillar, and each pillar carries a heavenly stem and an earthly branch, together carrying one of the five elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water.
The day pillar's stem is your day master — the self at the centre of the chart. Every other pillar is read for how it supports or drains it.
The five elements
- 木 Wood — Growth and reach — the season of beginnings.
- 火 Fire — Expression and momentum — the season in full bloom.
- 土 Earth — Stability and gathering — the pause between seasons.
- 金 Metal — Precision and letting go — the season of harvest.
- 水 Water — Depth and reflection — the season of rest.
The ten day masters
- Yang Wood 甲 — the tall tree
Upright growth and steady principle; strength that bends without breaking.
- Yin Wood 乙 — the climbing vine
Flexible and persistent; finds a way around what it cannot push through.
- Yang Fire 丙 — the sun
Warmth that reaches everyone in the room at once; hard to ignore, harder to dim.
- Yin Fire 丁 — the lamp flame
A smaller, steadier light — warmth given one person at a time, up close.
- Yang Earth 戊 — the mountain
Unmoved by weather; a presence others navigate by and shelter against.
- Yin Earth 己 — the garden soil
Quietly fertile; what is planted here is patiently, generously grown.
- Yang Metal 庚 — the raw blade
Blunt, forged strength; cuts straight to the point without apology.
- Yin Metal 辛 — the fine jewelry
Refined and exacting; small in scale but polished to a sharp, deliberate shine.
- Yang Water 壬 — the ocean
Vast and restless; carries whatever it meets far beyond where it started.
- Yin Water 癸 — the rain and dew
Quiet and pervasive; soaks in unseen and nourishes what it touches.
What is BaZi?
BaZi (八字), the Four Pillars of Destiny, maps the year, month, day, and hour of your birth onto the Chinese calendar of ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches. Each pillar carries one of the five elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water — and together they sketch the raw material of a life.
The day pillar's heavenly stem is your day master: the self at the centre of the chart. Reading how the other pillars support or drain it is where the tradition finds strengths, tensions, and timing. This calculator shows you the pillars; the app reads them for you.
Common questions
- Do I need my exact birth time?
- The year, month, and day pillars only need your birth date. Your birth time adds the hour pillar and sharpens the reading, but you can cast a chart without it.
- Is this BaZi calculator free?
- Yes. Casting your Four Pillars here is completely free and runs in your browser — no account needed. A full interpretation across five traditions is a tap away.
- How accurate is the calculation?
- The day pillar is exact. The year and month boundaries follow the solar terms (Lichun ≈ Feb 4), accurate except within a day of each term — plenty for a reflective reading.