How to use this series, and the books it draws on

The Learn BaZi series is a course for people who want to understand their own Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi) chart, taught from five classical Chinese books and explained in plain modern English. It offers no quick formulas: it is read in order, with your own four pillars beside you, step by step from yin and yang and the five elements to structure, decade phases and annual phases, family relations and the symbolic stars.

A sense of proportion

In this series, a chart describes tendencies, not predictions. It shows which strengths come most easily and which areas call for more care; it is not a script with the ending already written. So every page starts with strengths, then turns to what to be mindful of, and what tends to balance it.

Here, looking at a chart is a consultation: something to talk over and weigh, not a verdict handed down on someone. A chart works like a mirror that helps you see your own temperament and rhythm clearly; how you walk your path is still up to you.

Read with your chart beside you

First have your own four pillars ready: the year, month, day and hour pillars, each made of one heavenly stem and one earthly branch. How to set them up is covered step by step in the lesson on setting up the four pillars.

Then read in order. The series follows the order of the books themselves: The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century) opens by saying that anyone who wants to learn this art must first understand the stems and branches before they can begin, and each later layer rests on the one before it.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Ten Stems and Twelve Branches

Each page ends with a section called "Try it on your chart", which tells you what to do with your own chart once you have finished the page. Links marked "See also" point to related lessons.

The learning path

• Getting started: this page.
• Foundations: yin and yang and the five elements, the ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches, hidden stems, setting up the four pillars, the ten relationships, the twelve life stages.
• Combinations and clashes: stem combinations and stem clashes; among the branches, the six harmony and three harmony pairings, seasonal combinations, clashes, three-way punishments, harms and destructions; and how these resolve one another.
• Day Master strength: being rooted, being in season, allies and opponents, and, once strength is known, whether to support or to restrain.
• Structure: taking the structure from the month branch; how it forms, is damaged and is restored; and whether it is clear or turbid, pure or mixed.
• Following, transformation and outer structures: following structures, transformation structures, and the outer structures used when the month branch offers no structure.
• Climate balance and the useful element: balancing cold and warm, dry and damp, and the role each element plays in a chart.
• Decade phases and annual phases: how a decade phase, or a single year, meets the natal chart.
• Family relations: parents, spouse, children, siblings and friends, seen through the elements and the palaces.
• Symbolic stars: the Nobleman stars, the Prosperity Star, the Traveling Horse and other auxiliary stars.

Decade phases and annual phases come after the natal chart, because looking at a period uses the same method as looking at the chart itself: the decade or the year is simply placed back into a natal chart that has already been understood.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Decade Phases

The symbolic stars come last, because they add color to a chart but do not decide its structure.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Why the Stars Do Not Decide the Structure

How each page shows its sources

The body of each page explains the books' teaching in our own words. Where a paragraph rests on a particular book, a short line beneath it names the book and the chapter. Where a book also exists in a commentary edition, the commentary is named by its own title, so the two are never confused.

The books' own lines are quoted only where they serve as evidence, and only rarely. A quotation stands on its own, with its source, in the original Chinese exactly as written, with our English translation beneath it. It is there to confirm the explanation, not to replace it.

The main view and another view

These books largely agree, but on some questions they look from different angles. Where that happens, a page first gives the view this series follows, then sets out the other book's view in a box marked "Another view", with the book named. Both views come from the classics, each has its reasons, and they can be read side by side. Where the difference is only in the wording of different editions of the same book, the page says that the editions read differently.

The books this series draws on

The True Interpretation of Ziping, and its commentary

The True Interpretation of Ziping (Qing dynasty, 18th century) takes the month branch as its guiding thread: it first takes the structure from the month branch, then looks at how that structure is supported, how it forms, how it is broken and how it is restored, and from there goes on to family relations and the decade phases. The backbone of this series broadly follows the order of this book. Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠评注; ROC, 1936) adds a commentary after each passage of the original, often with example charts, and mostly explains the useful element in terms of support and restraint, and of balance.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow, and its elucidation

Dripping Heavenly Marrow (滴天髓) is written in short rhymed verses, ranging from the stems and branches and from strength, weakness and balance through to clear and turbid, following and transformation, and family relations. Each verse is followed by original notes. Quotations from the verses and from the notes are both cited under Dripping Heavenly Marrow, with "original notes" added where the notes are meant. Dripping Heavenly Marrow Elucidated (滴天髓阐微; Qing dynasty, 19th century) unfolds the text verse by verse, with a large number of example charts.

The Deep Sea of Ziping

The Deep Sea of Ziping (渊海子平; Ming dynasty, 16th century) is a wide-ranging book that brings together teaching on the ten relationships, family relations, structure and the symbolic stars. Many of the terms in common use are discussed in it.

Comprehensive Guide to the Three Fates

Comprehensive Guide to the Three Fates (三命通会; Ming dynasty, 16th century) is a compilation on a vast scale, gathering a great deal of teaching on structures, family relations and the symbolic stars.

The Precious Mirror of Adversity and Success

The Precious Mirror of Adversity and Success (穷通宝鉴; Qing dynasty, 19th century) goes through the ten day stems one by one across the twelve months, with its weight on balancing cold and warm, dry and damp. This series uses it as a supporting reference: to confirm points the other books already make, never as the sole ground for a conclusion.

Try it on your chart

1. Write down your four pillars, each with its stem above and its branch below.
2. Circle the stem of the day pillar. This is the Day Master (日主), the "I" of the whole chart; every page that follows starts from it.
3. Go on to the next lesson and read on in order.

See also: Yin and yang and the five elements: generating and controlling