BaZi basics
The 10 Day Masters of BaZi
In a BaZi chart, eight characters describe your birth moment. One of them is you. Here is what each of the ten means.
What is a Day Master?
BaZi (八字, “eight characters”), also called the Four Pillars of Destiny, describes the moment you were born as four pillars: year, month, day and hour. Each pillar has a Heavenly Stem on top and an Earthly Branch below, which makes eight characters in all.
The stem of your day pillar is your Day Master (日主). It is the anchor of the whole chart. Every other character is read by how it relates to it: what supports you, what you produce, what you manage and what challenges you. That is why a BaZi reading always starts with the Day Master.
There are ten Day Masters: a Yang and a Yin version of each of the five elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Yang stems tend to be outward, direct and forceful, like a tree or the sun. Yin stems tend to be inward, adaptive and subtle, like a vine or a candle.
- Jia Wood · Yang Wood The Tall Tree Principled, steady and quietly ambitious. Grows one way: up.
- Yi Wood · Yin Wood The Flowering Vine Adaptable, perceptive and tougher than they look. Finds a way around.
- Bing Fire · Yang Fire The Sun Warm, open and generous. Lights up every room it walks into.
- Ding Fire · Yin Fire The Candle Flame Insightful, warm and quietly intense. A steady light in the dark.
- Wu Earth · Yang Earth The Mountain Dependable, calm and protective. The one everyone leans on.
- Ji Earth · Yin Earth The Garden Field Nurturing, practical and resourceful. Makes people and projects grow.
- Geng Metal · Yang Metal The Sword Direct, decisive and loyal. Gets sharper under pressure.
- Xin Metal · Yin Metal The Jewel Refined, precise and perceptive. Shines when valued.
- Ren Water · Yang Water The Ocean Intelligent, adaptable and always in motion. Big ideas, wide view.
- Gui Water · Yin Water Rain and Dew Intuitive, imaginative and empathetic. Quiet influence that reaches everywhere.
How the rest of your chart relates to you
Once you know your Day Master, every other element in your chart takes on a role. These five relationships, later split into the ten “Ten Gods”, are the backbone of every BaZi reading:
- ResourceThe element that produces yours: support, learning, mentors, rest.
- CompanionYour own element: friends, peers, confidence, competition.
- OutputThe element you produce: talent, expression, creativity, children.
- WealthThe element you control: money, resources, what you manage.
- OfficerThe element that controls yours: structure, career, discipline, pressure.
Whether each one helps or strains you depends on how strong your Day Master is. A strong Day Master usually wants outlets (Output, Wealth, Officer); a weak one usually wants support (Resource, Companion). A full reading weighs all of this, along with your birth season and your 10-year luck cycles.
Find your Day Master free
Enter your birth date, time and city. We calculate your Four Pillars to the minute, corrected for daylight saving and true solar time, and show your Day Master straight away.
Questions
What is my Day Master?
Your Day Master is the Heavenly Stem of the day you were born, one of ten: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren or Gui. It comes from your exact birth date (and, near midnight, your birth time and place). Our free calculator shows it in seconds.
Is my Day Master the same as my Chinese zodiac sign?
No. Your zodiac animal comes from the branch of your birth year, so everyone born in the same year shares it. Your Day Master comes from your birth day and is far more personal. In BaZi it is the character that represents you.
Which Day Master is the best?
None. Each has strengths and blind spots, and each can be strong or weak depending on the rest of the chart. A well-balanced chart matters far more than which Day Master you have.
Can two people have the same Day Master?
Yes. There are only ten, so about one person in ten shares yours. Their full charts will still differ, because the other seven characters, the birth season and the luck cycles are different.