Bazi Help
Frequently Asked Questions
Clear answers about Bazi calculations, birth time, chart accuracy, interpretation, and how to use the Four Pillars responsibly.
Yes. Generating your Four Pillars chart is completely free, with no login required. Optional AI-powered readings are available for those who want deeper insight.
Our calculator uses the tyme4ts calendar library for chart generation and applies a documented true solar time method based on the historical UTC offset, birth-city longitude, and the Equation of Time. Results still depend on the birth record, historical data, coordinates, and Bazi boundary convention. Read the true solar time method.
You can select "I don't know my exact birth time" for a three-pillar analysis. This covers the Year, Month, and Day pillars, with a slightly reduced level of detail.
Bazi (ε
«ε), also known as the Four Pillars of Destiny, is a classical Chinese system of destiny analysis. It translates the exact time and date of your birth into eight characters drawn from the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, then interprets the balance of the five elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) at the moment you were born.
Not quite. The Chinese zodiac (the animal of your birth year, such as Dragon or Rabbit) is just one small piece of Bazi. A full Bazi chart includes the year, month, day, and hour pillars, giving a much richer and more personalized reading than the zodiac animal alone.
Bazi builds four pillars β year, month, day, and hour β from your birth information using true solar time. Each pillar contains one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch. Relationships such as clashes, combinations, and generating cycles between the stems, branches, and elements are then read to reveal patterns in personality, career, relationships, and life cycles.
You need your birth date, the time of birth (as accurate as possible, ideally to the hour), and the location of birth. The location and time are used to perform a true solar time correction so that your hour pillar reflects the actual position of the sun where you were born, not the clock time on the wall.
Bazi is best understood as a framework for understanding tendencies and timing rather than a fixed prediction of events. It highlights strengths, challenges, and recurring patterns, and it shows which elements and phases are emphasized at different points in your life. How you act on those insights is always up to you.