How a decade phase meets your chart

In Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi), a decade phase has one stem and one branch, read together as one ten-year unit beside the four pillars. The two are never separated, but they take turns to lead: the stem leads in the first five years and the branch in the last five, each the other’s second in command. Each combination, clash, punishment or harm the phase makes with the natal pillars is then noted, and each clash is weighed.

The ten years taken together

A decade phase’s stem and branch are one unit for the full ten years and are never read apart. Within that unit they take turns to lead: in the first five years the stem leads and the branch is less felt; in the last five the branch leads and the stem is less obvious. Each serves as the other’s second in command.

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠评注; ROC, 1936) says a decade phase is weighed above all by direction: the Tiger, Rabbit and Dragon are east; the Snake, Horse and Goat south; the Monkey, Rooster and Dog west; the Pig, Rat and Ox north. When the stem and branch of a phase share an element, as in Yang Wood Tiger or Yang Metal Monkey, or their energies connect, as in Yang Wood Horse or Yang Metal Rat, they are favorable or unfavorable together. When the stem has no root in the branch, as in Yang Fire Rat or Yang Metal Tiger, the stem’s force is small and the branch’s direction weighs more: a favorable stem of this kind brings less benefit, and an unfavorable one less harm.

故看运须十年并论，不能以一字之喜忌，断章取义也。

Our translation: So a decade phase must be weighed over its ten years together; one cannot take a single character’s favor or disfavor out of context.

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

The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century) itself counts the effect of a phase that reveals a hidden stem, or combines with a natal branch into a group, within five years of that phase.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Favorable and Unfavorable Elements in the Branches, Revealed by a Decade Phase

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated (滴天髓阐微; Qing dynasty, 19th century) goes further: the stem and branch of a phase should generate and support each other. If a chart welcomes Wood, Yang Wood Tiger and Yin Wood Rabbit are best. In Yang Metal Tiger or Yin Metal Rabbit the branch is Wood, but Metal on the stem presses down on it, a covered head (盖头), and the benefit is halved. In Yang Wood Monkey or Yin Wood Rooster the stem is Wood, but the branch cannot hold it up, cut feet (截脚), and the benefit can hardly show. So a phase’s stem and branch are taken together, not split apart.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Annual and Decade Phases

The stem and the branch of a phase

First find which of the ten relationships each one is: the phase’s stem against the Day Master, and its branch by its main stem.

The True Interpretation of Ziping says the stems belong to heaven, moving and taking action, and the branches belong to earth, staying still and waiting to be put to use. So the stems a phase’s branch holds stay still, and show only when a clash or combination stirs them. The book’s example: a Yang Wood Day Master uses the Yin Metal in a Rooster month as its Officer. A Yang or Yin Metal phase puts Seven Killings mixed in with the Officer, or a second Officer, on the stems; a Monkey or Rooster phase only gives the Officer a root and counts as neither. A Yin Fire phase controls the Officer and is the Hurting Officer; a Horse phase holds Yin Fire and Yin Earth, still and unmoving, and does not count as the Hurting Officer. But if the chart has a Horse and the phase brings a Tiger or Dog, which combines with the Horse into Fire, the Fire is stirred and can then hurt the Officer.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On How Favorable and Unfavorable Differ Between Stems and Branches; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On How Favorable and Unfavorable Differ Between Stems and Branches

Phase stems of one kind can still act differently. A Yin Fire Day Master born in a Pig month has Yang Water revealed on the year stem as its Officer: a Yang Fire phase supports the Day Master, while a Yin Fire phase combines with the Yang Water and binds the Officer.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Decade Phases

Combinations, clashes, punishments and harms across the pillars

Set the phase’s stem against each of the four stems, and its branch against each of the four branches:

• Stem against stems: stem combinations, and the four stem clashes, Yang Wood with Yang Metal, Yin Wood with Yin Metal, Yang Fire with Yang Water, and Yin Fire with Yin Water.
• Branch against branches: six harmony; clash, punishment, harm and destruction; and any three harmony, seasonal combination or three-branch punishment (the Tiger, Snake and Monkey; the Ox, Dog and Goat) the phase’s branch completes with two natal branches. A phase branch that makes only two of such a trio with one natal branch is not a punishment.

For each one, note which pillar’s character it meets and which relationship that character is. If one phase branch clashes two pillars, note both. Punishment, harm and destruction are lighter; weigh them as in the lesson on branch clashes, punishments, harms and destruction. A clash weighs most and needs careful weighing.

Weighing a clash

A clash a phase brings is weighed as in the lesson on weighing a clash: strength first, then what is struck. Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated says a clash within the natal chart and one brought by a decade or annual phase are weighed the same way: when the strong clashes the weak, the weak is uprooted; when the weak clashes the strong, the strong is unharmed.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated · Earthly Branches

What is struck makes a large difference. On decade phases, The True Interpretation of Ziping weighs a clash by what the chart favors: a phase that suits the chart makes the clash it brings lighter, and one that already goes against the chart’s needs makes it heavier. Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping adds that a clash weighs more on the month branch than elsewhere, and more on a character the chart relies on than on one it does not want.

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

The natal chart can also defuse a phase’s clash. The book’s example: a Yang Wood Day Master uses the Officer in a Rooster month, and a Rabbit phase would clash the Rooster. If the chart has a Snake combining with the Rooster, the clash has no force; if the year branch is a Pig or Goat, the Rabbit combines with it first and leaves the month’s Officer alone. The principle is the one in the lesson on how combinations and clashes resolve each other.

A phase can also bring out a clash the chart holds unseen. A Yin Wood Day Master uses the Officer in a Monkey month, and the chart has two Monkeys and one Tiger: two against one, divided in force. A Tiger phase makes it two Tigers against two Monkeys, and the clash shows.

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

Try it on your chart

1. Pick a decade phase, such as the one you are in now, and write down its stem and branch and the relationship of each.
2. See whether the stem and branch share an element and whether the stem is rooted in the branch. Note the stem’s role for the first five years and the branch’s for the last five, and read the ten years as one unit.
3. Set the phase’s stem against your four stems, and find any stem combinations or stem clashes.
4. Set its branch against your four branches, and find any six harmony, clash, punishment, harm or destruction, and any three harmony, seasonal combination or three-branch punishment it completes with two of your branches (a three-branch punishment needs all three). Note the pillar for each.
5. For each clash, weigh both sides’ strength, see whether it strikes the month branch and whether the struck character is one the chart favors or does not want, then see whether a combination in your chart defuses it.
6. What you have is the tendency of these ten years. How your roots and structure fare in them comes in the next two lessons.

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

See also: How combinations and clashes resolve each other

See also: Decade phases and your roots: support supplied, support struck

See also: Decade phases and your structure

See also: The annual phase and its decade phase