Decade phases and your roots: support supplied, support struck

In Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi), Day Master strength is weighed from the four pillars, and a decade phase does not rewrite it. What a decade phase does is add support for its ten years, or bring a test: its branch can give the Day Master a new root, or clash a branch that holds one.

Making up what is lacking

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠评注; ROC, 1936) says decade phases are matched to a chart on the same principle as the useful element is taken from it:

取运配合，不过助我喜用，补其不足

Our translation: Matching the decade phases does no more than help what I favor and use, and make up what is lacking.

A decade phase that supplies what the chart lacks is a good one. Among its examples of welcome decade phases, The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century) lists Wealth generating the Officer with a light Day Master, met by a phase that supports the Day Master. The structure is sound and only the Day Master is too light to carry it; a phase that helps the Day Master lets it carry the structure for those ten years.

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Decade Phases; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Decade Phases

A decade phase adds a root

A decade phase weighs more in its branch, so a new root for the Day Master comes mainly from the phase’s branch. If that branch holds the Day Master’s own element, the Day Master has one more root for these ten years; how heavy it is follows the table in the lesson on roots. A phase stem that is a Friend or Rob Wealth is a helper, not a root; a phase stem that is Resource generates and supports.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Annual and Decade Phases, original notes; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Stems in Season Yet Not Strong, Out of Season Yet Not Weak

A decade phase can root the chart’s other stems as well. The book’s example: a Yang Wood Day Master born in a Rooster month has Yin Metal, its Officer, revealed but weak; a Monkey or Rooster phase gives the Officer a root in the branches.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Decade Phases; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Decade Phases

A root a phase brings must also be able to stand. The True Interpretation of Ziping’s example: a Yang Fire Day Master is born in a Rat month with a Pig year branch, so Water holds the season. A Yang or Yin Fire phase is a Peer that helps the Day Master. A Snake or Horse phase is a root for Yang Fire, but it clashes the Pig and Rat that hold the season, the weak clashing the strong, and rouses the Water instead. So even when a phase’s branch is a root of the Day Master, see how it stands with the characters of the chart.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Decade Phases; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Decade Phases

A decade phase strikes a root

When a phase’s branch clashes a natal branch that holds a root of the Day Master, weigh it as in the lesson on weighing a clash. Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated (滴天髓阐微; Qing dynasty, 19th century) says a clash brought by a decade or annual phase is weighed the same way as one within the natal chart: if the struck side is strong, the root stands; if it is weak, the root is uprooted.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Earthly Branches

Once uprooted, a root stops counting for the length of that phase. A few things are then worth being mindful of, along with what tends to ease the loss:

• Whether the struck root is on the month branch. A root there weighs most, and a clash on it needs the most care.
• What else the Day Master stands on: other roots in the branches, and Resource on the stems generating it. With another root or Resource behind it, the Day Master often carries the clash.
• Whether a character in the chart combines with the struck branch and so defuses the clash; see the lesson on how combinations and clashes resolve each other.
• If the struck branch is the root of an element the chart does not want, clashing it away brings the chart some relief.

The chart itself does not change

The original notes to Dripping Heavenly Marrow (滴天髓) set the order for looking at decade phases: first be clear about the Day Master, set it against the other seven characters and weigh them, and only then see which decade phases it welcomes and which it does not. Day Master strength is fixed by the four pillars first, and the decade phase is weighed on top of it.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Annual and Decade Phases, original notes

So a phase that brings a root does not change the grade set in the lesson on Day Master strength; it makes those ten years steadier to carry. A phase that strikes a root does not change the grade either; it asks for a little more care in those ten years. When the phase passes, the chart is the chart it always was.

Try it on your chart

1. Write down your Day Master’s grade and each of its roots: in which branch, heavy or light.
2. For each decade phase, see whether its branch holds your Day Master’s element. If it does, note an added root and weigh it by the table; then see whether that branch clashes a stronger character in your chart.
3. Check each clash between the phase’s branch and your branches. If it strikes a branch holding a root of your Day Master, weigh both sides and note a struck root.
4. When a root is struck, write down what else your Day Master stands on, and see whether a combination in your chart defuses the clash.
5. The grade does not change. Beside each decade phase, note whether these ten years add support or call for a little more care.

See also: Roots: heavy and light

See also: Day Master strength: five grades from very strong to very weak

See also: Weighing a clash: uprooted or unharmed, and the storage branches

See also: How a decade phase meets your chart

See also: Decade phases and your structure