Tag Archives: ba zi

What is the Chinese Four Pillars of Destiny (or Ba Zi)?

by KM Chan

The Chinese Four Pillars of Destiny or Ba Zi is a branch of study of Chinese Metaphysics Science. The Four Pillars Chart is derived from the Date of Birth of a Person using the Chinese Solar Calendar, which is also known as the Hsia Calendar or Farmer’s Calendar. This chart can be use to forecast the destiny and characteristics of an individual and the relationships and interaction between the individual with the surrounding environment:

The theory behind the study of four pillars is that The Sun, Moon, Earth; planets in the Solar System emit cosmic energy (chi) all the time. This Cosmic energy is not constant but varies with time depending on the relative positions of the planets.

The Chinese has discovered a few thousand years ago that at any point of time the energy field (chi) surrounding us can be mapped and represented by a combination of 22 characters known as the Ten Heavenly Stems and Twelve Earthy Branches. This in turn is known as the Hsia Calendar. This calendar is also used for feng shui and for another branch of Chinese Astrology known as Purple Star astrology.

When a person is born and takes the first breath of air, the influence of this cosmic energy on the newborn is said to map the destiny and characteristics of that particular person.

The typical Four Pillars chart (Ba Zi) consist of two charts; the main chart and the secondary chart. The main chart is represented by Eight Characters arranged into Four Columns representing the year, month, day and hour of the date of birth obtained from the Hsia Calendar. The secondary chart otherwise known as the Luck Pillar chart consists of a set of pillars with each pillar representing a period of 10 years of an individual’s life.

An example of a Four Pillars (Ba Zhi) chart for a male individual born on 28th June 1988 between 5pm to 7pm. is as shown. The arrangement of the Four Pillars chart is based on its original form and its read from right to left.

a

Yin Water

Gui

a

Yin Water

Gui

Yang Wood

Jia

Yang Wood

Jia

Yang Earth

Wu

Yang Earth

Wu

Yang Earth

Wu

Yang Earth

Wu

Heavenly Stems

a

Yin Water

Gui

Yang Wood

Jia

Yang Earth

Wu

Yang Earth

Wu

 

 

 

 

 

Metal

You

Metal

You

Wood

Yin

Wood

Yin

Fire

Wu

Fire

Wu

 Earth

Chen

 Earth

Chen

Earthly Branches

Metal

You

Wood

Yin

Fire

Wu

 Earth

Chen

Hour
Pillar

Day
Pillar

Month
Pillar

Year
Pillar

 

 

Example of the secondary chart for the above individual is shown as follows. This chart will be different if the individual is a female but the main chart will be the same.

10-YEAR LUCK PILLARS

63

53

43

33

23

13

3

Yin Wood

Yi

Yin Wood

Yi

Yang Wood

Jia

Yang Wood

Jia

Yin Water

Gui

Yin Water

Gui

Yang Water

Ren

Yang Water

Ren

Yin Metal

Xin

Yin Metal

Xin

Yang Metal

Geng

Yang Metal

Geng

Yin Earth

Ji

Yin Earth

Ji

Yin Wood

Yi

Yang Wood

Jia

Yin Water

Gui

Yang Water

Ren

Yin Metal

Xin

Yang Metal

Geng

Yin Earth

Ji

Earth

Chou

Earth

Chou

 Water

Zi

 Water

Zi

 Water

Hai

 Water

Hai

Earth

Qu

Earth

Qu

Metal

You

Metal

You

 Metal

Shen

 Metal

Shen

 Earth

Wei

 Earth

Wei

Earth

Chou

 Water

Zi

 Water

Hai

Earth

Qu

Metal

You

 Metal

Shen

 Earth

Wei

72

62

52

42

32

22

12

 

From the Four Pillars chart by studying the interaction of the characters with each other, one can tell the characteristics of an individual and the relationship between the individual with the surrounding environment:

The Four Pillars chart can also forecast the strength and weakness in our destiny which represents the ups and downs of life by comparing the interaction of the Four Pillars chart with the 10-Year Luck Pillars.

In the study of Ba Zi, one has to understand the characteristics and meanings of the ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches. Upon understanding these characters, the interaction of these characters between each other can be used to foretell the story.

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Four Pillars and Me

by Master Peter Leung

I don’t even remember how many 4P charts or ZWDS charts I have spent hours staring at.

The past 10 years, I have focused my research mainly on personality analysis and health. Most of the time we don’t know who we are and we don’t know our loved ones. Through four pillars studies, I learned to accept the uniqueness of each individual, the natal 4P chart gives us the basic personalities and characters, the basic personality may be affected by the 10 year luck period and annual luck period. We may see people behave differently, or personalities change from time to time.

A lot of family feuds, divorces and human conflicts are often caused by misunderstandings and personal ego. A wife or husband may try to change the other into his/her mirror image; a mother may try to clone her kids into herself. We, as human, refuse to accept that we are born different. If we try to change others by force, we are looking for a fight, we can only try to understand others better, know ourselves better, change ourselves and accept others if we want to live in harmony.

Knowing our strengths will allow us to utilize them to benefit us in life. Knowing our weaknesses will allow us to work on them, to remind us of them, or to mask them.

Knowing our luck periods will allow us to make the right move at the right time and to lay low during bad luck periods, so we can save our ammunition for the coming good luck.

If we can find out what may be the organs that can most affect our individual health, it’s possible for us to look into preventive medicine at birth for each individual, or it’ll be easier for us to tackle illness by dealing with the organs that may be the root cause.

Knowing the different deities and their specific characteristics might help us to understand criminal behaviours and might help police investigations in crime or to prevent someone from committing a crime.

There are many, many different areas for us to use 4P knowledge, it should be used in a more positive ways to improve our life and society, not as a prediction of when we’re going to get rich etc.., if you are destined to be rich, you will be rich anyway.

We have spent far too much time trying to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of a chart, the useful god, the useful elements etc.., to me these are only one of the many layers of 4P. 90% of people get stuck in these aspects and get confused and give up learning 4P. It’s very important to learn all of these aspects, but it’s not everything in 4P.

I use the deities and the past luck periods to verify what is good and what is bad. If a deity is favourable certain areas of our life will be affected in a positive way, if it’s unfavourable, certain areas of our life will be affected in a negative way. Different deities represent different events. Learning the deities in details can help to understand 4P better.

There are many, many things we can see from a chart without looking into all those confused theories.

I have studied 4P for almost 30 years now, I’m still learning, I’m continually amazed by what I have learned.

Sharing knowledge is the only way to help others to learn, I’m grateful to a lot of 4P professionals who have shared their experiences and knowledge, that’s the only way to take 4P to the next level to benefit humankind.

(Article kind courtesy of Master Peter Leung)

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