Ba Zi · Chinese Four Pillars

Your Day Master

The element of the day you were born, and in Ba Zi, the part of the chart that is you.

Find your Day Master

Enter your date of birth. It's calculated from the 60-day cycle, the same way a full Ba Zi chart is.

The short answer

In Ba Zi, the Chinese Four Pillars, your birth is written as four pairs of characters: year, month, day and hour. The top character of your day pillar is your Day Master. It represents you, and every other part of the chart is read in relation to it. There are ten Day Masters: Yang and Yin versions of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

Why it mattersMore personal than your zodiac animal

Most people know their Chinese zodiac animal, which comes from their birth year. Everyone born in the same year shares it. Your Day Master is different: it comes from your birth day, from a 60-day cycle that has been counted without a break for more than two thousand years. In Ba Zi it is considered the core of who you are, and it can't be guessed from your star sign or your year.

The tenFind yours below

Each element has a Yang form (strong, outward, like a great tree or the sun) and a Yin form (subtle, inward, like a vine or a candle).

甲Yang Wood乙Yin Wood丙Yang Fire丁Yin Fire戊Yang Earth己Yin Earth庚Yang Metal辛Yin Metal壬Yang Water癸Yin Water

How they connectThe five-element cycle

In the feeding cycle, Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth (ash), Earth bears Metal, Metal carries Water (condensation), and Water nourishes Wood. In the controlling cycle, Wood breaks Earth, Earth dams Water, Water puts out Fire, Fire melts Metal, and Metal cuts Wood. Every Day Master guide shows what these relationships mean for that element.

One honest note: your Day Master is only the starting point. Whether your element is strong or weak, and what balances it, depends on the rest of your chart, especially your birth month.

Your Day Master is one of five signs.

Your free Glimpse reads your birth date through five traditions: your Western and Vedic Sun, your Chinese animal, your Ba Zi Day Master and your Mayan day sign.

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Sources and notes Imagery follows the classical Ba Zi tradition, including the Di Tian Sui (滴天髓) and the Qiong Tong Bao Jian (穷通宝鉴), retold in plain English. Background: Heavenly Stems, Four Pillars of Destiny. Famous examples: day pillars calculated by SkyConfluence from documented birth dates (Gregorian calendar, by calendar date; birth times are not known, so a late-evening birth could fall on the next day in some schools). Ba Zi is a traditional system of symbolism, offered for reflection and entertainment, not prediction.