Free Bazi Calculator with True Solar Time
Enter your birth details to generate your Four Pillars chart — Day Master, Ten Gods, Hidden Stems, Five Elements, and Luck Pillars.
- No sign-up required
- Results generated instantly
- True-solar-time accurate
Primer
What is Bazi?
Bazi (八字) literally means “eight characters.” It is a system from classical Chinese metaphysics — often called the Four Pillars of Destiny — that describes a person through the exact moment they were born. Your birth year, month, day, and hour each form one pillar, and each pillar is written with two characters: one Heavenly Stem on top and one Earthly Branch below. Four pillars, two characters each — eight characters in total.
The Ten Heavenly Stems (天干) are a cycle of ten signs, each carrying one of the five elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water — in either a yang (active, outward) or yin (receptive, inward) form. Jiǎ is yang Wood like a tall tree; Yǐ is yin Wood like a climbing vine, and so on through the cycle.
The Twelve Earthly Branches (地支) are a cycle of twelve signs better known in the West through the Chinese zodiac animals — Rat, Ox, Tiger, and the rest. Each branch also belongs to an element and quietly contains one to three “hidden” stems inside it, which is where much of a chart’s subtlety lives.
A Bazi reading is not about a single lucky sign. It looks at how all eight characters interact: which elements are strong or missing, how the other characters support or challenge the one that represents you, and how those patterns shift across ten-year Luck Pillars. Think of it as a traditional weather map of temperament and timing — a centuries-old vocabulary for self-reflection rather than a verdict about your future.
Reading guide
How to read your chart
Start with the Day Master 日主
The stem of your day pillar is the Day Master — the character that stands for you. Note its element and polarity (for example, yin Fire or yang Water). Everything else in the chart is read relative to it.
Read the Ten Gods 十神
Each of the other characters gets a label naming its relationship to your Day Master. There are ten, in five pairs:
- Friend / Rob Wealth 比肩·劫财 — your element: peers, siblings, competition, allies.
- Eating God / Hurting Officer 食神·伤官 — what you produce: skill, expression, craft.
- Direct / Indirect Wealth 正财·偏财 — what you act on: income, resources, opportunity.
- Direct Officer / Seven Killings 正官·七杀 — what acts on you: structure, duty, pressure, authority.
- Direct / Indirect Resource 正印·偏印 — what produces you: support, learning, mentors, nourishment.
A label is a description, not a verdict — “Seven Killings” sounds alarming and often simply means you respond well to demanding environments.
Check the Hidden Stems 藏干
Every branch conceals one to three stems — a Main Qi plus possible Middle and Residual Qi. A chart that looks short of an element on the surface may hold it in reserve inside a branch. Hidden stems also receive Ten-God labels, adding nuance to each pillar.
Weigh the Five Elements 五行
Count how Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water are distributed across your eight characters. Traditional analysis asks which elements strengthen your Day Master and which drain it, and whether the chart leans heavily toward or away from any single element — a starting point for questions of balance.
Follow the Luck Pillars 大运
Luck Pillars are ten-year chapters that begin a few years after birth, each bringing its own stem and branch. Reading them against your natal chart shows which elements — and therefore which Ten-God themes — come to the foreground in each decade.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What is a Bazi chart?
A Bazi (八字, 'Eight Characters') chart, also called the Four Pillars of Destiny, is a snapshot of the year, month, day, and hour you were born, written in the traditional Chinese calendar. Each pillar has two characters — a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch — for eight characters in total. Practitioners read the relationships between these characters to describe temperament, strengths, and life themes.
What is the Day Master?
The Day Master (日主) is the Heavenly Stem of your day pillar. It represents you at the center of the chart. Every other character is interpreted through its relationship to the Day Master — supporting it, draining it, or challenging it.
What are the Ten Gods?
The Ten Gods (十神) are ten labels describing how each character relates to your Day Master — for example Direct Wealth, Direct Officer, or Eating God. They translate raw five-element relationships into life themes such as career, resources, expression, and discipline.
What are Hidden Stems?
Each Earthly Branch conceals one to three Heavenly Stems, called Hidden Stems (藏干). The strongest is the Main Qi, followed by the Middle and Residual Qi. They add depth to a reading because a branch can quietly carry elements that don't appear on the surface of the chart.
What is True Solar Time?
True Solar Time is the time shown by a sundial at your birthplace, which can differ from clock time by up to an hour or more. Clock time uses broad time zones, while the hour pillar in Bazi was traditionally defined by the sun's actual position. This calculator can correct for your birth city's longitude and the equation of time.
Do I need my exact birth time?
An exact time gives you a complete four-pillar chart. If you don't know it, tick 'I don't know my exact birth time' — the calculator defaults to the Zi hour (23:00–01:00) or lets you pick one of the twelve Chinese double-hours. The year, month, and day pillars remain fully accurate either way; only hour-based details are tentative.
Is Bazi the same as the Chinese zodiac?
No. The Chinese zodiac animal comes from just one character — the branch of your birth year. Bazi uses all eight characters across four pillars, so it is far more specific: people born in the same zodiac year can have completely different Bazi charts.
What are Luck Pillars (Da Yun)?
Luck Pillars (大运) are ten-year periods that begin a few years after birth, each written as a stem-branch pair. They describe the shifting backdrop of your life — which elements become prominent in each decade — and are read against your natal chart.
Which day-changing rule should I use?
Schools differ on when a new day begins: at the start of the Zi hour (23:00) or at midnight. The default here is 23:00, the more widely used convention. If you were born between 23:00 and 00:59, try both settings and note how your day pillar changes.
Is this calculator really free?
Yes. The full chart — Four Pillars, Day Master, Ten Gods, Hidden Stems, Na Yin, Twelve Growth Stages, Five Elements, and Luck Pillars — is free, with no sign-up, no login, and no paywall.
How accurate are the calculations?
Solar-term boundaries are computed from the sun's apparent longitude using standard astronomical formulas, accurate to within minutes. If you were born within a few minutes of a solar-term boundary or use the approximate Lunar New Year option, results at the boundary may vary by school and source.
Can Bazi predict the future?
No system can guarantee future events, and this tool doesn't claim to. Bazi is best treated as a traditional framework for reflection — a vocabulary for thinking about temperament, timing, and tendencies. Your decisions remain your own.