What are the Five Elements in BaZi?

The five elements (五行, Wu Xing) are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. BaZi writes your birth moment as 8 Chinese characters, and each character belongs to one of the five. Your chart is read as a mix of all five, centred on one character that stands for you: your core element (classical books call it the Day Master).

How do the elements interact?

Each element feeds the next one around a circle: Wood feeds Fire (dry logs keeping a fire alive), Fire feeds Earth (it burns down to ash, and ash becomes soil), Earth feeds Metal (gold and iron growing deep in the ground), Metal feeds Water (dew gathering on cool metal), and Water feeds Wood (rain waking up a garden). Each element also tames (holds back) another: Wood tames Earth, like roots breaking up hard ground; Earth tames Water, like a riverbank keeping a river on its path; Water tames Fire, like rain putting out a campfire; Fire tames Metal, like a blacksmith's forge softening steel; and Metal tames Wood, like an axe. Taming is not a fight: it keeps things from growing out of shape.

Your element is your core element: the element of the top character of your birth day in your BaZi chart. In the Chinese calendar every day carries one of 60 pairs of characters, in a cycle that has run without a break for well over 2,000 years, so the day you were born fixes your core element. Your Chinese zodiac animal comes from your birth year, so it cannot tell you. A free chart on Elemental Fate works it out in about a minute.

Can a chart be missing an element?

Yes. When we count the 8 characters, plus the elements hidden inside each animal sign, some charts have little or none of one element. That describes a balance, not a flaw: the rest of the chart shows how the other elements carry the load.

Five kingdoms

The Five Elements. Five kingdoms, one sky.

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Everyone carries all five, and one of them rules you. Here is what each is like.

Short answer

The Five Elements (五行) are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. In BaZi each of the eight characters of your birth chart carries one of them. Your own element is the element of your Day Master (your core element); the balance of all five shapes how it is expressed.

On this page

01How the elements are read
02Who feeds whom
03Who tames whom

How the elements are read

A BaZi chart is your birth moment written as 8 Chinese characters. Each character carries one element, and each animal sign hides one to three more inside it. Counting them all gives your mix of the five.

That mix is read around one character: your core element, the top character of your day. Elements that feed it support you. Elements it feeds or shapes are what you create and manage. Elements that tame it (hold it back) bring pressure and discipline. Each of those pulls has a plain name, like the Leader or the Creator: see the forces in your chart.

Who feeds whom

Each element feeds the next one around the circle, like a family passing something down:

Wood feeds Fire, like dry logs keeping a fire alive.
Fire feeds Earth, as it burns down to ash, and ash becomes soil.
Earth feeds Metal, like gold and iron growing deep in the ground.
Metal feeds Water, like dew gathering on cool metal.
Water feeds Wood, like rain waking up a garden.

Fire

Fire feeds Earth, as it burns down to ash, and ash becomes soil.

Fire tames Metal, like a blacksmith's forge softening steel.

Which one are you?

Choose an element on the circle to light up who it feeds and who it tames.

Who tames whom

Each element also keeps another in check. This is not a fight. It keeps things from growing out of shape:

Wood tames Earth, like roots breaking up hard ground.
Earth tames Water, like a riverbank keeping a river on its path.
Water tames Fire, like rain putting out a campfire.
Fire tames Metal, like a blacksmith's forge softening steel.
Metal tames Wood, like an axe.

For the curious: the proper names

Wu Xing 五行: The Chinese name for the five elements. Some books translate it as the five phases.
Generating cycle 相生: The classical name for one element feeding the next.
Controlling cycle 相剋: The classical name for one element taming another.
Day Master 日主: Your core element: the top character of your day pair.

The five kingdoms

Which kingdom is yours?

Each element has 2 core elements and 16 guardian spirits, 80 in all.

FAQ

Questions people ask

What are the Five Elements in BaZi?: The five elements (五行, Wu Xing) are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. BaZi writes your birth moment as 8 Chinese characters, and each character belongs to one of the five. Your chart is read as a mix of all five, centred on one character that stands for you: your core element (classical books call it the Day Master).
How do the elements interact?: Each element feeds the next one around a circle: Wood feeds Fire (dry logs keeping a fire alive), Fire feeds Earth (it burns down to ash, and ash becomes soil), Earth feeds Metal (gold and iron growing deep in the ground), Metal feeds Water (dew gathering on cool metal), and Water feeds Wood (rain waking up a garden). Each element also tames (holds back) another: Wood tames Earth, like roots breaking up hard ground; Earth tames Water, like a riverbank keeping a river on its path; Water tames Fire, like rain putting out a campfire; Fire tames Metal, like a blacksmith's forge softening steel; and Metal tames Wood, like an axe. Taming is not a fight: it keeps things from growing out of shape.
What is my element?: Your element is your core element: the element of the top character of your birth day in your BaZi chart. In the Chinese calendar every day carries one of 60 pairs of characters, in a cycle that has run without a break for well over 2,000 years, so the day you were born fixes your core element. Your Chinese zodiac animal comes from your birth year, so it cannot tell you. A free chart on Elemental Fate works it out in about a minute.
Can a chart be missing an element?: Yes. When we count the 8 characters, plus the elements hidden inside each animal sign, some charts have little or none of one element. That describes a balance, not a flaw: the rest of the chart shows how the other elements carry the load.

Which element is yours? Find out free.

Type your birthday. We find your core element and the guardian spirit it leads to.