Bazi calculator:
your four pillars in one minute
The Bazi calculator turns your date and time of birth into your four pillars: year, month, day and hour, each made of an element and an animal. Plus your Day Master, the elements that carry you or are missing, and the connections between the pillars. Counted from Lichun, the start of spring, as Four Pillars does. Free and complete.
Your birth data
When were you born?
The date gives the year, month and day pillar.
Your four pillars in three steps
Date and time
The date gives three pillars, the time the fourth. Without a time we work with three.
Solar-term check
We look up which of the twelve solar months and which Lichun year you were born in.
Read your pillars
Day Master, elements, connections and patterns, each explained and open to check.
Video · 37 seconds
Four Pillars for you
In Chinese astrology (Bazi), we look beyond just your birth year. Your four pillars from your birth year, month, day and hour give a much clearer picture.
Read along
Your Chinese zodiac isn't just one animal. It's actually four. Think of your personal makeup as a team of four people, all working together. This team is your Four Pillars in Bazi. They come from the year, month, day, and hour you were born. Each pillar has its own element and animal. The day pillar often represents your core self. This is an invitation to see the different parts of yourself. Check for yourself how they might interact for you. Calculate your four pillars for free at theastroacademy.com.
What is Bazi?
Bazi (八字, “eight characters”) is the Chinese birth reading made of four pillars: the year, month, day and hour of your birth, each pillar an element with yin or yang (the heavenly stem) and one of the twelve animals (the earthly branch). Four pillars times two characters make the eight characters that give the teaching its name. In Chinese it is Bazi Suanming, “calculating fate from the eight characters”; in English often Four Pillars of Destiny. The word destiny misleads: what is calculated is a disposition, not a verdict.
The year animal everyone knows is only the first pillar. The Bazi calculator above works out all four, shows your Day Master, counts the five elements across your eight characters and reads the connections between the pillars. If you only want your animal, the Chinese horoscope page has it; the Western counterpart is the birth chart.
Year, month, day and hour
In tradition each pillar stands for an area and a season of life. Together they read like a house from the outside in.
- Year pillar: The year pillar is the animal everyone knows: your year animal and its element. In Four Pillars (Ba Zi) it stands for what you bring with you before you decide anything yourself: origin, grandparents, the times you were born into, and how strangers place you at first glance. It is the outside of your chart.
- Month pillar: The month pillar comes from the solar month of your birth, counted by the 24 seasonal terms of the Chinese farmer’s calendar. Tradition reads in it the parental home, the years of growing up and later the environment you work in. It is also the season of your chart: whether your element is in season or not is decided by this month.
- Day pillar: The day pillar is the most important one in Four Pillars: its element on top is called the Day Master and stands for you yourself, your core. The animal below counts as your “spouse palace”: how you live closeness and whom you bring to your side. This is where tradition looks first to see who you are when nobody is watching.
- Hour pillar: The hour pillar comes from the double hour of your birth. Tradition reads in it the side only people close to you know, your children or what you will one day pass on, and the later years of your life. It is the quietest of the four pillars and often the one people most readily say about: “yes, that is me at home.”
The ten heavenly stems
The heavenly stem of your birthday is called the Day Master and is your core in Four Pillars. Five elements times two sides make ten stems, each with an image that is easier to remember than the term: Yang Wood is the tall tree, Yin Wood the climbing plant, Yang Fire the sun, Yin Fire the candle.
| Stem | Character | Element | Image | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jia | 甲 | Yang Wood | the tall tree | upright, growing, straightforward |
| Yi | 乙 | Yin Wood | the climbing plant | flexible, patient, resourceful |
| Bing | 丙 | Yang Fire | the sun | warm, visible, generous |
| Ding | 丁 | Yin Fire | the candle | close, precise, changeable |
| Wu | 戊 | Yang Earth | the mountain | reliable, calm, immovable |
| Ji | 己 | Yin Earth | the garden soil | nourishing, patient, receptive |
| Geng | 庚 | Yang Metal | the axe | clear, decisive, just |
| Xin | 辛 | Yin Metal | the jewellery | fine, precise, demanding |
| Ren | 壬 | Yang Water | the sea | wide, moving, curious |
| Gui | 癸 | Yin Water | the rain | quiet, sensitive, penetrating |
The other stems of your chart stand in one of five relations to your Day Master, following the cycle of the elements: Same element (stands beside you), Resource (feeds you), Output (you feed it), Wealth (you shape it), Structure (shapes you).
The twelve animals
The second part of each pillar is an earthly branch, known as one of the twelve animals. Each branch carries its own fixed element and, in the hour pillar, a double hour of the day.
| Branch | Character | Animal | Fixed element | Double hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zi | 子 | Rat | Water | 23:00–00:59 |
| Chou | 丑 | Ox | Earth | 01:00–02:59 |
| Yin | 寅 | Tiger | Wood | 03:00–04:59 |
| Mao | 卯 | Rabbit | Wood | 05:00–06:59 |
| Chen | 辰 | Dragon | Earth | 07:00–08:59 |
| Si | 巳 | Snake | Fire | 09:00–10:59 |
| Wu | 午 | Horse | Fire | 11:00–12:59 |
| Wei | 未 | Goat | Earth | 13:00–14:59 |
| Shen | 申 | Monkey | Metal | 15:00–16:59 |
| You | 酉 | Rooster | Metal | 17:00–18:59 |
| Xu | 戌 | Dog | Earth | 19:00–20:59 |
| Hai | 亥 | Pig | Water | 21:00–22:59 |
Why the year starts at Lichun
The four pillars follow the solar calendar of the 24 solar terms (Jieqi). The year begins with Lichun, the start of spring, when the Sun reaches 315 degrees: in 2026 on 4 Feb 2026. Chinese New Year, by contrast, is a lunar date: in 2026 on 17 Feb 2026. Anyone born in 2026 between 4 Feb 2026 and 17 Feb 2026 is a Wood Snake by one calendar and a Fire Horse by the other. Both are correct, depending on the school; the calculator shows both animals.
The months are solar months too: each begins with one of the twelve Jie terms, the Tiger month with Lichun, the Rabbit month with Jingzhe and so on. The exact instants are published, for example, by the Hong Kong Observatory; our calculator computes them from the solar longitude after Meeus, in Beijing time, and hits the day boundaries to the day.
Trine, friend and opposite
Between the animals of your pillars the same relations apply as between two people in the Chinese horoscope: the trine (San He, three animals equally spaced on the circle), the secret friend (Liu He), the opposite (Liu Chong) and the quiet friction (Liu Hai). If your day animal is in trine with your hour animal, core and quiet side work together; if the month animal stands opposite your day animal, the parental home rubs against who you are yourself. These are images to check, not verdicts.
| Element | feeds | is fed by | checks | is checked by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood | Fire | Water | Earth | Metal |
| Fire | Earth | Wood | Metal | Water |
| Earth | Metal | Fire | Water | Wood |
| Metal | Water | Earth | Wood | Fire |
| Water | Wood | Metal | Fire | Earth |
How rare is your Day Master?
Your Day Master is rare and common at once. Rare, because ten stems are possible and each one has its turn only about every tenth day. Common, because the distribution is almost perfectly even: between 1950 and 2030 the rarest day stem occurs on 2,958 days, the most frequent on 2,959. The reason is the 60-day cycle: the ten stems and twelve branches run on without a gap, for millennia, with no leap day. No element and no animal is favoured.
What is missing is the more interesting part. Counting the six characters of year, month and day, at least one element is absent entirely on 88.9% of all days. Water is missing most often (30.3% of days), Earth least often (14.8%). The animals are the reason: four of the twelve branches carry earth (Ox, Dragon, Goat, Dog), fire and water only two each. Lacking earth takes a rare combination.
And the matter of the two calendars: on 2.0% of all days, roughly 7 days a year, the date falls between the lunar New Year and Lichun or the other way round. Anyone born then has a different year animal in the Chinese horoscope than in the four pillars. Check above whether that applies to you; the calculator tells you.
| Stem | Element | Image | Share of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jia 甲 | Yang Wood | the tall tree | 10.00% |
| Yi 乙 | Yin Wood | the climbing plant | 10.00% |
| Bing 丙 | Yang Fire | the sun | 10.00% |
| Ding 丁 | Yin Fire | the candle | 10.00% |
| Wu 戊 | Yang Earth | the mountain | 10.00% |
| Ji 己 | Yin Earth | the garden soil | 10.00% |
| Geng 庚 | Yang Metal | the axe | 10.00% |
| Xin 辛 | Yin Metal | the jewellery | 10.00% |
| Ren 壬 | Yang Water | the sea | 10.00% |
| Gui 癸 | Yin Water | the rain | 10.00% |
Every calendar day from 1950 to 2030 counts equally (29,585 days), no birth registers. Day pillar from the 60-day cycle, month pillar from the twelve Jie solar terms (Beijing time), year pillar from Lichun; missing elements from the stem and the branch's fixed element of the three pillars, without the hour pillar and without hidden stems.
Bazi FAQ
- What is Bazi?
- Bazi (八字, “eight characters”) is the Chinese birth reading made of four pillars: the year, month, day and hour of your birth. Each pillar consists of a heavenly stem (an element with yin or yang) and an earthly branch (one of the twelve animals), eight characters in all. The teaching is also called Bazi Suanming or Four Pillars of Destiny. The year animal of the Chinese horoscope is only the first of these four pillars.
- How do I calculate my four pillars?
- Enter your date of birth above and, if you know it, the time. The year pillar follows the Lichun year, the month pillar the solar month (twelve Jie terms), the day pillar the 60-day cycle and the hour pillar the double hour of your birth. The calculator shows all four with pinyin and characters, plus Day Master, elements, connections and patterns.
- What is the Day Master?
- The Day Master (Rì Zhǔ) is the heavenly stem of your birthday, the element of the day with yin or yang. In Four Pillars it stands for you yourself; every other character is read against it: they feed it, check it or are shaped by it. Yin Wood is the climbing plant, Yang Fire the sun, Yin Metal the jewellery.
- Do I need my birth time?
- Not for three of the four pillars: year, month and day follow from the date. The hour pillar needs the time, because the Chinese day has twelve double hours and the Rat hour starts at 23:00. Without a time the calculator shows three pillars and says so.
- Why does the Bazi year start on 4 February and not at Chinese New Year?
- The four pillars follow the solar calendar of the 24 solar terms. The year begins with Lichun, the start of spring, when the Sun reaches 315 degrees, usually on 3, 4 or 5 February. Chinese New Year, by contrast, is a lunar date between 21 January and 20 February. Anyone born between the two dates therefore has a different year animal in the horoscope than in the four pillars. The calculator shows both.
- What does a missing element mean?
- If one of the five elements does not appear among your eight characters, tradition says this area was not given to you, you have to fetch it deliberately. Without water, the feel for moods is often missing, without metal the clear boundary. That is not a lack but a pointer to check. That is common: counting only year, month and day, at least one element is missing on almost nine days in ten; less often with the hour pillar.
- Is Bazi the same as the Chinese horoscope?
- No, but related. The Chinese horoscope usually means only the year animal, twelve animals for twelve years. Bazi takes four pillars and eight characters, plus Day Master, element balance and connections. If you only want your animal, our Chinese horoscope page is the place; if you want to go deeper, this one.
Your four pillars in a minute
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