Parents in the chart

In Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi), the books take Resource as the mother and Wealth as the father, matched by the day stem and the same for a man’s chart and a woman’s. Parents are also looked at through the year and month pillars, where the birth family sits.

Resource is the mother, Wealth the father

Resource generates the Day Master, so it is the mother who gave birth. The father is the mother’s partner: the Wealth that combines with the mother star is the father. A Yang Wood Day Master takes Yin Water as the mother; Yang Earth combines with Yin Water, so Yang Earth is the father. The original notes to Dripping Heavenly Marrow (滴天髓) say that the Ziping method takes Wealth as the father and Resource as the mother; The Deep Sea of Ziping (渊海子平; Ming dynasty, 16th century), on the father and on the mother, matches them the same way.

The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Matching Family Relations to Palaces and Elements; Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Parents, original notes; The Deep Sea of Ziping · On the Father; The Deep Sea of Ziping · On the Mother; Comprehensive Guide to the Three Fates · On Family Relations

Matched by the day stem, for every chart

Comprehensive Guide to the Three Fates (三命通会; Ming dynasty, 16th century) states the rule most clearly: the yin stem that generates the Day Master is the mother, and the yang stem the Day Master controls is the father. It is the same for a man’s chart and a woman’s; the book says a woman’s parents and siblings are judged as a man’s are.

So both Day Masters of an element take the same two stems as mother and father; only the relationship names change with the polarity of the day stem. With a yang Day Master, the mother is Direct Resource and the father Indirect Wealth; with a yin Day Master, the mother is Indirect Resource and the father Direct Wealth. Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠评注; ROC, 1936) says the same: the five yin stems take their parents as the yang stems do, so a Yin Wood Day Master also takes Yin Water as the mother and Yang Earth as the father.

Comprehensive Guide to the Three Fates · On Family Relations; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On Matching Family Relations to Palaces and Elements

The year and month pillars

父母或降与或替，岁月所关果非细。

Our translation: Whether parents prosper or decline, the year and the month bear on it in no small way.

The year and month pillars weigh heavily on how the parents fare. The original notes say that when the year’s energy helps the month branch, and the year and month do not harm what the chart favors, the parents tend to do well; they add that the whole chart must be weighed, not Wealth and Resource alone. The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century) likewise says that a month branch with force, or a year stem the chart can use, points to parents who are a real help.

Dripping Heavenly Marrow · Parents, original notes; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Wife and Children

The Deep Sea of Ziping sets out what each pillar stands for: the year is the ancestors; the month is the parents, uncles and siblings, the household; the day is the spouse and yourself. So the year pillar shows your ancestry and origins, the month pillar your parents and the household as a whole, and the two together are the birth family. If the year branch or month branch is struck by a clash or a punishment, note it as a change to be mindful of in the birth family, and still weigh it with the chart as a whole.

The Deep Sea of Ziping · General Discussion of Family Relations

When the mother star is missing

When the father star is present and the mother star is missing, Comprehensive Guide to the Three Fates gives the case of a Yang Wood or Yin Wood Day Master: if the chart has Yang Earth but no Yin Water, Yang Water is taken as the mother, and Yang Earth stays the father. Yang Water and Yin Water are both Water and both Resource, so when the father star is present and the mother star is missing, the other Resource stem stands in for the mother. The book gives no stand-in for a missing father star.

Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping also says that when a chart shows no Wealth or Resource, it must be weighed flexibly, without holding rigidly to one rule: on the whole, parents are seen through how the chart takes to Resource, without insisting that one particular character is the mother.

Comprehensive Guide to the Three Fates · On Family Relations; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On Matching Family Relations to Palaces and Elements

All of this describes the help the birth family gives you, and what to be mindful of. It is not a judgment of your parents as people.

Try it on your chart

1. Find your Day Master in the table above, and write down the stems for mother and father.
2. Look for these two stems on the four stems and among the hidden stems of the branches: revealed on a stem is clearest, the main stem of a branch next.
3. If the father star is present and the mother star missing, see whether the other Resource stem is there to stand in for the mother.
4. Look at the year and month pillars: does the month branch have force, and is the year stem of use to your structure? Is the year branch or month branch struck by a clash or a punishment?
5. Put it together and write down the tendencies of your birth family: where the help lies, and what to be mindful of.

See also: Family relations: the star and the palace

See also: The ten relationships to the Day Master

See also: Chart structure starts from the month

See also: Siblings, friends, colleagues and business partners