Bazi Calendar 2026

A Bazi calendar is the traditional Chinese almanac known as Huánglì (黄历). It overlays every Gregorian date with three layers of information that a Western calendar does not carry: the lunar date (following the moon's phases), the daily ganzhi (干支, one Heavenly Stem paired with one Earthly Branch from a 60-day cycle), and the solar term(节气) that is in effect. Together these tell you the “Chinese reading” of any given day.

For Bazi practitioners, the calendar is also how the month pillar is determined: a new Bazi month begins not on the first day of the Gregorian month, but at the moment a jiéqì (节气, solar term) such as Lìchūn (立春, Start of Spring) arrives. This is why two people born days apart in the same Gregorian month can land in different Bazi months.

The two fields most people check first are 宜 (yí, auspicious activities) and 忌(jì, inauspicious activities). 宜 lists actions traditionally considered well-supported by the day's energy — moving house, signing a contract, opening a business — while 忌 lists actions considered better postponed. These are derived from the day's stem-branch and element relationships under classical Huánglì rules.

The 冲煞(chōng shà, clash & sha) line notes the animal whose energy clashes with the day, and the inauspicious direction. The five auspicious directions (吉神方位) — for joy, wealth, fortune, and the two noble helpers — are the compass bearings traditionally associated with favorable influence on that day.

Ganzhi (干支) is the backbone of the Chinese calendar. The ten Heavenly Stems (天干) and twelve Earthly Branches (地支) are paired in sequence, producing a 60-step cycle that repeats endlessly — the same day label recurs once every 60 days. Each day of your life therefore has a unique-ish signature, and the year, month, day, and hour ganzhi together form the Four Pillars (四柱) of a Bazi chart.