Common BaZi Chart Fields
Purpose
Explain what information blocks a complete BaZi chart has, where each comes from, and what it is for when reading. Fields are produced by charting and later deduction—they are not a separate theory.
Core fields
| Field | How produced | Reading use |
|---|---|---|
| Year pillar stems/branches | Year boundary (often Lichun) + Jiazi year sequence | Traditional imagery for early years, ancestry, outer environment |
| Month pillar stems/branches | Solar-term month change + Five Tigers escape | Hub for month command, in-season force, and pattern discussion |
| Day pillar stems/branches | Day count + Zi-hour rules | Day Master; day branch as spouse palace imagery, etc. |
| Hour pillar stems/branches | Double-hour + Five Rats escape | Imagery for children, later years, how effort is expressed |
| Day Master | Day stem | Origin of all Ten Gods and support/restrain judgments |
| Ten God per stem | Deriving Ten Gods | Relational encoding |
| Hidden stems | Earthly Branch hidden-stem table | Quality of revealed stems; rooting |
| Na Yin | Sixty Jiazi mapping (optional) | Auxiliary imagery; do not mix-calculate with primary Five Elements |
| Luck-cycle sequence | Deriving Luck Cycles | Ten-year background |
| Annual pillar | Year stem–branch | That year’s overlay layer |
Optional fields
- Emptiness, Traveling Horse, Peach Blossom, and other spirit stars: additive layer; mark which spirit-star table is used.
- Climate Useful-God tables: school-specific.
- True-solar-time switch, Zi-hour rule, solar-term source: metadata that must be exportable.
Usage principles
- Have verifiable four pillars before interpreting fields.
- More fields do not mean stronger conclusions; converge layer by layer per Reading Order.
- When any field is missing (e.g. no birth hour), narrow the claim range and say so explicitly.