Recomputable
The year, month, day and hour stem-branch labels can be calculated again from the same date, clock time and place, using the calendar, civil-time and solar-time rules stated on this site.
Four Pillars · Annual reading
Free Four Pillars
Calculator
Check Four Pillars calculations against a birth record, learn traditional stems, branches and elements, and explore sourced classical readings with edition notes and exercises in the Reading Room. Keep calculation separate from interpretation.
Make my chart ↘Input and result checklist · How to read a BaZi chart · Method and limits
Fire 火
Water 水
Earth 土
四柱your year
in balance
in balance
YEARBOOK / 01丙午 Bing-WuFire Horse · 2026 · public year-pillar example
ELEMENT IN FOCUSFire / 火Momentum, visibility, warmth
A READING FORReal lifePublic cultural context, not based on your birth data.
The chart desk
Start with the
moment you arrived.
Four pillars translate your birth date and time into a pattern of stems, branches, and elements. We calculate it in your browser. Your details stay here.
◎Private by design
No account. No stored birth data.
No account. No stored birth data.
Your annual reading
The year opens
where you are.
No personal result generated: the public example and checking prompts below are not your personal reading.
FOUR PILLARS / SAMPLEIllustration · not a personal chart
YEAR辛巳Stem + branch
MONTH壬辰Solar-term month
DAY辛亥Day Master: Xin
HOUR甲午Adjusted hour
Example input: 18 April 2001, 12:18, Los Angeles. See the verification steps
What these labels mean
- The year pillar is the stem-branch pair for the birth year under this site's stated calendar rule.
- The month pillar follows a solar-term month, not the number of the Gregorian month.
- The day pillar is the stem-branch pair for the birth day under this site's midnight day boundary.
- The hour pillar names the corrected traditional two-hour period, and a clock time near a boundary can change it.
- The Day Master is the day pillar's stem and the reference for other symbols, not a personality conclusion.
- Heavenly stems are the ten calendar symbols from Jia to Gui, and each pillar begins with one.
- Earthly branches are the twelve calendar symbols from Zi to Hai, and the animal name is only a memory aid.
Folk entertainment, not verifiable
Personality notes, annual advice and fortune language are folk-cultural material for reflection and entertainment. They are not verifiable predictions, and they are not medical, financial, legal, or relationship advice.
Check all four pillars
The public example uses 18 April 2001, 12:18, Los Angeles; it is not calculated from your birth details.
Keep the birth record
Use the Gregorian date, birthplace local clock time and location; then check the report’s time adjustment.
Separate the claims
Stem-branch labels are recomputable from the stated rules; personality and year advice are folk entertainment and not verifiable.
Read with a question
Check the day stem and hidden stems, then study source passages, edition notes and worked exercises—not just an animal label.
02 / BASIC CONCEPTS
Learn the symbols,
then the relationships.
Each pillar has a stem and a branch. The day stem is the Day Master. Understand those definitions before comparing elements, hidden stems, Ten Gods or time periods.
Open the basic concepts ↘03 / Reading Room
Reading Room
Six selected books
Read twenty Yuanhai Ziping articles, twenty-five Sanming Tonghui articles and nineteen Ziping Zhenquan articles and seventeen Di Tian Sui articles, with complete text, original figures and differentiated sources. Thirteen Qiong Tong Bao Jian readings in three collections are also available. Fifteen I Ching readings in three collections bring the total to one hundred and nine.
How to read Yuanhai Ziping: an edition, a map, and a method — Identify the witness and distinguish main text, commentary and unresolved readings.
A complete fictional reading: from checked input to conditional conclusions — Reproduce the time correction and four pillars before considering conditional traditional interpretation.
How do the Tuan and Xiang explain a hexagram without becoming its classical statement? — Distinguish the classical statement from the objects and responsibilities of its Tuan and Xiang explanations.
Enter the Reading Room ↗How this works and privacy
Your reading applies consistent traditional rules for the Gregorian calendar, solar terms, stems and branches, ten-year cycles, five-element relationships, common auxiliary stars, and the I Ching. A selected city uses its reference point; “Other city” uses a regional reference point. A more precise birthplace can affect the hour pillar near a traditional two-hour boundary. Mainland China city names follow the Ministry of Civil Affairs' 2023 administrative-division codes, while coordinates and international city data come from GeoNames. Your birth details stay in this browser while the reading is generated. This is folk-cultural content for entertainment and personal reflection.