A
- Archetype
- Your guardian spirit: your core element plus the strongest force in your chart.
- In Elemental Fate, a personality profile for one Day Master in one structure. 10 Day Masters times 8 regular structures gives 80 archetypes. Read more
B
- Balance element用神
- The element that brings you balance. A gentle suggestion from one school, since old books often disagree.
- The element that best balances a chart. In our reports it is decided by strength and climate; it is a different idea from the structure, which names the chart's theme.
- BaZi八字
- The Chinese art of reading the moment you were born, written as 8 characters.
- "Eight characters." The Chinese system that reads personality and life patterns from four pillars calculated from birth year, month, day and hour. Read more
C
- Climate adjustment調候
- Warming a winter chart, cooling a summer one: the season's own balance.
- Correcting a chart for its season: a deep-winter chart needs Fire for warmth, a high-summer chart needs Water for moisture. When that element is also the balancing one and is scarce, it becomes the balance element. Read more
- Controlling cycle相剋
- How each element tames (holds back) another, like rain putting out a campfire.
- Wood tames Earth, Earth tames Water, Water tames Fire, Fire tames Metal, Metal tames Wood.
D
- Day Master日主
- Your core element, the one that stands for you. For example: Yin Water, the rain.
- The Heavenly Stem of your day pillar. It stands for you, and every other character in the chart is read in relation to it. Read more
E
- Earthly Branches地支
- The 12 animal signs (Rat, Ox, Tiger...). One sits at the bottom of each pair.
- The twelve branches, paired with the zodiac animals: 子 Zǐ (Rat), 丑 Chǒu (Ox), 寅 Yín (Tiger), 卯 Mǎo (Rabbit), 辰 Chén (Dragon), 巳 Sì (Snake), 午 Wǔ (Horse), 未 Wèi (Goat), 申 Shēn (Monkey), 酉 Yǒu (Rooster), 戌 Xū (Dog), 亥 Hài (Pig).
F
- Five Elements五行
- Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Everyone carries all five, in a different mix.
- Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water: the forces whose generating and controlling cycles organise the whole chart. Read more
- Follow structure從格
- A rare chart where you go with the strongest current instead of resisting it.
- A rare chart in which the Day Master is so isolated, or so overwhelming, that it goes with the dominant force instead of resisting it. We flag only clear candidates and treat the label with caution. Read more
- Four Pillars四柱
- Your 8 characters, standing in 4 pairs: your year, month, day and hour.
- The four columns of a BaZi chart: Year, Month, Day and Hour. Each holds a Heavenly Stem over an Earthly Branch.
G
- Generating cycle相生
- How each element feeds the next, like dry logs keeping a fire alive.
- Wood feeds Fire, Fire feeds Earth, Earth feeds Metal, Metal feeds Water, Water feeds Wood.
H
- Heavenly Stems天干
- The 10 sky signs. One sits on top of each pair, from the Tree to the Rain.
- The ten stems: 甲 Jiǎ, 乙 Yǐ, 丙 Bǐng, 丁 Dīng, 戊 Wù, 己 Jǐ, 庚 Gēng, 辛 Xīn, 壬 Rén, 癸 Guǐ. Each is one of the five elements in a Yang or Yin form.
J
- Jian Lu建祿
- A birth month that holds your own element, so another force leads the chart.
- A month branch that holds your own element at full strength (for example a Jia Day Master born in a Tiger (寅) month). The month cannot be its own theme, so the theme is taken from the strongest revealed officer, wealth, killings, output or seal.
L
- Li Chun立春
- The start of spring, around February 4, when the BaZi year begins.
- The Beginning of Spring, around 4 February. The BaZi year changes here, not on 1 January or at Chinese New Year.
- Luck pillars大運
- Your 10-year chapters: each one brings a different element forward.
- Ten-year phases that shift the elemental emphasis of a life over time.
S
- Seasonal states旺相休囚死
- How strong each element is in each season, from thriving to resting.
- Thriving, assisted, resting, confined, dead: the five states an element passes through with the seasons. Wood thrives in spring, Fire in summer, Metal in autumn, Water in winter, Earth in the last weeks of each season.
- Sexagenary cycle六十甲子
- The old Chinese calendar: 60 pairs of signs that count years, months, days and hours.
- The cycle of sixty stem and branch pairs that counts years, months, days and hours. The backbone of the Chinese calendar.
- Solar terms節氣
- The sun's 24 seasons. A new BaZi month begins when the sun reaches a new one.
- The 24 divisions of the solar year. In BaZi they set where each month begins, so a month pillar can change on the 4th, 5th or 6th of a Gregorian month.
- Strength旺衰
- How well supported your core element is by the rest of your chart.
- Whether your Day Master is supported (by its own element and the one that produces it) or under pressure. Judged from season (得令), roots in the branches (得地) and backing among the stems (得勢). It sets the balancing element, not your archetype. Read more
- Structure (month-order)月令取格
- The strongest force in your chart, read from your birth month.
- The chart's theme, taken from the month branch as the Zi Ping school teaches. A revealed main qi decides first, then a revealed middle or residual qi, then a complete three-harmony or directional combination, and failing all of these the main qi. The result is one of eight regular structures (正格). Read more
T
- Ten Gods十神
- The forces in your chart: Leader, Warrior, Builder, Adventurer, Scholar, Mystic, Creator, Rebel, and 2 mirrors.
- The ten relations between your Day Master and any other character: Friend, Rob Wealth, Eating God, Hurting Officer, Indirect Wealth, Direct Wealth, Seven Killings, Direct Officer, Indirect Seal, Direct Seal. Read more
Y
- Yang Ren陽刃
- The 'blade' month: a birth month that holds an outward element at full edge.
- The "blade" month, one step past Jian Lu, which only the five Yang stems have (Jia in Mao, Bing and Wu in Wu, Geng in You, Ren in Zi). Classical texts want it restrained, so an officer or seven killings is preferred as the theme.
- Yin and Yang陰陽
- Every element comes in an outward (Yang) and an inward (Yin) form.
- Each element has a Yang (outward, active) and a Yin (inward, receptive) form, which is why five elements give ten Day Masters.
- Yue Jie月劫
- Another birth month that holds your own element, so another force leads.
- A month whose main qi is a Rob Wealth or Friend stem to your Day Master without being a Jian Lu or Yang Ren month. It is read like Jian Lu: the theme comes from another Ten God.