Structures: the Zi Ping Zhen Quan

The Zi Ping Zhen Quan is the BaZi manuscript of the Qing scholar Shen Xiaozhan (given name Yifan, a metropolitan graduate of 1739), thirty-nine chapters published by Hu Kunzhuo in 1776. It turns chart reading into a clear method: first fix the structure (Ge Ju) from the birth month, then see whether the four pillars hold the ten gods that support that structure and whether any break it.

A structure describes how the chart is built. The month carries the season's ruling energy and is the strongest force, so it is the backbone and everything else is weighed against it. A complete structure is clean and well ordered; a damaged one has something working against it that other elements or the luck cycles must repair.

The useful god is sought in the month

「八字用神，專求月令，以日干配月令地支，而生剋不同，格局分焉。財官印食，此用神之善而順用之者也；煞傷劫刃，用神之不善而逆用之者也。當順而順，當逆而逆，配合得宜，皆為貴格。」

The structure comes from how the Day Master relates to the month branch. Wealth, Officer, Resource and Eating God are benign and used directly, by supporting and protecting them; Seven Killings, Hurting Officer, Rob Wealth and Goat Blade are harsh and used in reverse, by restraining or transforming them. Handled the right way, either kind makes a good structure.

「財喜食神以相生，生官以護財；官喜透財以相生，生印以護官；印喜官煞以相生，劫才以護印；食喜身旺以相生，生財以護食。」

This is how the four benign gods are used directly: Wealth wants the Eating God to feed it and an Officer to guard it; the Officer wants Wealth to feed it and Resource to guard it; Resource wants Officers to feed it and peers to guard it; the Eating God wants a strong self to feed it and Wealth to guard it.

「七煞喜食神以制伏，忌財印以資扶；傷官喜佩印以制伏，生財以化傷；陽刃喜官煞以制伏，忌官煞之俱無；月劫喜透官以制伏，利用財而透食以化劫。」

This is how the four harsh gods are used in reverse: Seven Killings wants the Eating God to restrain it; the Hurting Officer wants Resource to restrain it or Wealth to channel it; the Goat Blade wants Officers or Killings to restrain it; the Month Rob wants an Officer to restrain it, or Wealth with an Eating God to channel the rivalry.

How the structure is chosen

A month branch holds one to three hidden stems. If its main stem shows among the heavenly stems, the structure follows it; if the main stem does not show but another hidden stem does, the structure follows the one that shows; if none shows, it follows the main stem.

If the month is the Day Master's own prosperity, its Goat Blade or its peer, the month itself cannot be the useful god; the reading turns to Wealth, Officers, Killings or Output shown in the stems. These are the Established Prosperity, Goat Blade and Month Rob structures.

「何謂透干？如甲生辰月，透戊則用偏財，透癸則用正印，透乙則用月劫是也。」

The Chen month hides Wu, Yi and Gui; whichever shows in the stems decides the structure.

「如木生寅卯，日與月同，本身不可為用，必看四柱有無財官煞食透干會支，另取用神。」

When Jia or Yi wood is born in a Yin or Mao month, the month shares the Day Master's element and cannot be the useful god; look for Wealth, Officers, Killings or Output elsewhere.

Special structures in the classical verses

The Xi Ji Pian, the Si Yan Du Bu and similar verses name further special structures by particular day and hour combinations. This site's chart checks the following ones, whose conditions are clear-cut, and lists them under the Structure section; structures such as Gong Lu, Gong Gui or Bei Lu Zhu Ma, which depend on implied branches and luck cycles, are not assessed.

Heavenly Stems as One

Condition: All four stems are the same. All four stems are the same character, a single-minded chart; the verse says those born so may rise to the highest rank. Focused and purposeful but can be stubborn; it depends on whether the branches can support it.

Prosperity Returns at the Hour

Condition: The hour branch is the Day Master's prosperity and no Direct Officer shows. The verse calls it the road to the blue clouds. Rooted in the hour, it suggests a firm footing in mid to later life built on one's own ability; tradition says it dislikes an Officer.

Ren Rides the Dragon

Condition: Ren Chen day. Yang water on the dragon's back: drive and the capacity for big undertakings; a Xu branch clashing Chen weakens it.

Yi Meets the Rat

Condition: Yi day with a Bing Zi hour. Zi is Yi wood's Heavenly Noble, so it suggests help from patrons; tradition says Geng, Xin, Shen or You (officers) spoil it.

Xin Faces the Sun

Condition: Xin day with a Wu Zi hour. Refined, bright and literary; tradition says a Wu branch clashing Zi spoils it.

Eating God at Its Seat

Condition: Wu day with a Geng Shen hour. The Eating God sits in its own prosperity: talent that flows freely and a comfortable living; tradition says Jia, Bing, Yin or Mao spoil it.

Indirect Wealth at the Hour

Condition: The hour stem is Indirect Wealth and no Wealth shows in the year or month stem. Good with money, with finances improving later in life; peers who share the wealth are the main worry.

A Single Noble at the Hour

Condition: The hour stem is Seven Killings and no Officer or Killings shows in the year or month stem. A lone Seven Killings in the hour: with a strong Day Master to carry it, authority and drive.

Selected Zi Ping verses

Below are lines on principle from the Wu Yan Du Bu, the Si Yan Du Bu and the Zi Ping Ju Yao Ge. These verses also contain many lines on family, lifespan and poverty, which are left out here.

From the Wu Yan Du Bu

「有病方為貴，無傷不是奇。格中如去病，財祿喜相隨。」

A chart with a flaw (the illness) and something to cure it (the medicine) is the better chart; one with no tension at all is not necessarily remarkable. This is the basis of choosing the useful god by illness and medicine.

From the Si Yan Du Bu

「先看月令，次看淺深。」

Read the birth month first, then how deep or shallow each element's strength runs.

From the Si Yan Du Bu

「財官印綬，破則無功；殺傷梟劫，去之發福。」

Wealth, Officer and Resource are benign and lose their use when broken; Seven Killings, Hurting Officer, Indirect Resource and Rob Wealth are harsh and turn good when restrained or removed. This matches the Zi Ping Zhen Quan's direct and reverse use.

From the Si Yan Du Bu

「煞不離印，印不離煞；殺印相生，功名顯達。」

Seven Killings transformed by Resource, the Killings feeding Resource and Resource feeding the self, turns pressure into support.

From the Si Yan Du Bu

「提綱有用，最忌刑沖。」

The month is the backbone of the chart, and when it holds the useful god a clash or punishment does the most harm. In this site's structure check, a clash on the month branch counts as a taboo for the Direct Officer structure.

From the Si Yan Du Bu

「食神生旺，勝似財官。」

A strong Eating God producing Wealth, good fortune earned through talent, can be better than Wealth and Officers themselves.

From the Zi Ping Ju Yao Ge

「露官藏殺方為福，露殺藏官是禍胎。」

An Officer shown and Killings hidden keeps the Officer clean; Killings shown and the Officer hidden brings pressure to the surface without the order of the Officer.

From the Zi Ping Ju Yao Ge

「貪合忘官榮不足，貪合忘殺為己福。」

An Officer tied up by a combination cannot act; Seven Killings tied up by one loses its threat.

Taboos and rescue

「成中有敗，必是帶忌；敗中有成，全憑救應。」

A structure can hold both what completes it and something it fears, and a broken one can be repaired by another element that resolves the problem. So a structure is never judged from one or two characters alone, but from the whole chart and the luck cycles.

「四墓不忌刑沖，刑沖未必成格。」

Clashes among Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei are earth against earth and do little harm, but neither does a clash "open the treasury" and complete a structure. Shen Xiaozhan explicitly rejected the popular saying that Wealth or Officers stored in a tomb branch need a clash to emerge.

「十干不論月令休囚，只要四柱有根，便能受財官食神而當傷官七煞。」

Even if the Day Master is out of season, roots in the branches of the four pillars let it carry Wealth and Officers and withstand the Hurting Officer and Seven Killings. Being in season is not the same as strong, nor out of season the same as weak.

How this site judges structures

When you cast a chart, the Structure section names your structure by the method above, then applies the conditions of the chapter on success, failure and rescue to the ten gods shown in the year, month and hour stems and to this site's estimate of the Day Master's strength. It lists the conditions that complete the structure (✓) and those it fears (✗), and sums up as complete, damaged, complete with a taboo, or undecided.

This is a simplified automatic reading: it ignores how far apart the stems sit, stems that combine and transform, and branch alliances, and it does not assess special structures such as transformation or following. The book attaches verdicts of wealth and rank to every structure; those are left out here. A structure describes how a chart is built, not whether a life is good, and the luck cycles and personal choices matter just as much.

More topics

• The Four Pillars
• The Ten Day Masters
• The Ten Gods in BaZi
• The Five Elements and Favourable Elements
• BaZi Symbolic Stars and the Twelve Stages
• Branch Interactions
• Void (Kong Wang)
• The Twelve Earthly Branches
• Seasonal Adjustment
• Key ideas of the Di Tian Sui

This is fixed text compiled from general convention, not a reading of any individual chart and not a prediction. For important decisions, please consult qualified professionals.