How to use & guide
BaZi, the Four Pillars, takes a stem-and-branch pair for the year, month, day and hour of birth: eight characters in all. The day stem is the "Day Master", standing for you; the balance of the five elements, the ten gods and the clashes and combinations of the branches describe character and tendencies, and the luck cycles and annual years show change over time. Years and months follow the solar terms (the year turns at Start of Spring); this tool works them out for you, entirely in your browser.
How to use
- Enter your Gregorian birth year, month, day, hour and minute (24-hour clock), your sex and the time zone of your birthplace. Sex sets the direction of the luck cycles; the name is optional.
- For more precision, tick "Correct to true solar time" and enter the longitude of your birthplace; the hour is adjusted for longitude and the equation of time. Recommended if you were born near the boundary of a two-hour period.
- Press "Cast the chart" to see the four pillars with their stems, branches, ten gods, hidden stems and growth stages, plus branch interactions, the five-element balance, a ten-gods tally, symbolic stars, void branches, luck cycles and annual years.
- The buttons under the four pillars download an image of the chart, copy a link, copy the chart for AI or print it.
- Links beside each section open full explanations of the terms.
BaZi AI reading: ask an AI to read your Four Pillars
Once the chart is cast, you can hand the whole BaZi chart to an AI chat service such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask it for a reading or a specific question.
- Press "Copy for AI" under the four pillars. The ten gods, hidden stems and Na Yin of each pillar, the five-element balance, this site's estimate of strength and favourable elements, branch interactions, symbolic stars, the luck cycles, and the current luck cycle and year are copied as text.
- Open any AI chat and paste into the message box (Ctrl+V or ⌘V on a computer; on a phone, press and hold the box and choose Paste).
- Write what you want to ask after "My question:" on the last line and send it. If you have no particular question, write "Please give an overall reading".
- Ask follow-up questions as you like; within the same conversation the AI keeps the chart in mind.
Specific questions get more useful answers. For example: "Is my Day Master strong or weak, and which elements help it?" "How does my current luck cycle affect my career and money?" "What kind of work environment suits me?"
The copied text already asks the AI to work only from the chart data, not to calculate anything itself, and to answer in the language of this page; for another language, just say so after your question. AI readings can be wrong and may differ from what other practitioners would say, so do not rely on them alone for important decisions.
A reading order
- Find the Day Master (day stem): your element and basic character.
- Check the five-element balance and the birth month to judge whether the Day Master is strong or weak and which elements it needs.
- Look at the ten gods: what peers, output, wealth, officers and resources stand for, and which are plentiful or missing.
- Add the branch interactions, symbolic stars and void branches.
- Finally relate the luck cycles and annual years to the chart for timing.
Common questions
- Not sure of your birth time?
- Only the hour pillar depends on it; the year, month and day pillars do not. Cast each possible hour and compare.
- Born after 11 pm?
- This tool starts the next day's Zi hour at 23:00, so the day pillar moves to the next day.
- Born near a solar-term change?
- The month pillar changes at the exact moment of the term; if you were born within an hour or two of it, check the month pillar against a precise almanac.
- Daylight saving time at birth?
- Enter the clock time and choose the standard time zone of your birthplace; if daylight saving was in force, subtract one hour first.
- Is my data uploaded?
- No. The chart is calculated in your browser, and it is stored on this device only if you tick "Remember my birth details". "Copy for AI" only copies text on your device; once you paste it into an AI service, it is handled under that service's privacy policy.
Learn more: BaZi guide · Four pillars · Five elements · Day Masters · Ten gods · Branch interactions · Symbolic stars · Void branches · Seasonal adjustment · Structures · Di Tian Sui