Ba Zi literally means 8 character. The 8 characters refers to the 4 Heavenly Stems and 4 Earthly Branches of our birth time. The year, day, month and time of our birth can be converted using the Chinese Solar calendar into 4 Heavenly Stems and 4 Earthly Branches each.
Fundamentals of Ba Zi consist of:
o Yin and Yang (sometimes referred to as polarity)
o 5 elements (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth)
o 10 Heavenly Stems
o 12 Earthly Branches
o 24 Solar Periods
o 12 Qi phases
o 10 Gods
o Shen Sha (Deities & Gods or others termed Stars)
o Imagery
Ba Zi can be divided into 4 pillars (Year, Month, Day & Hour) and each pillar consist of 1 Heavenly Stem and 1 Earthly Branch. Traditionally the chart is written from right to left, starting with the Year Pillar on the right.
Further to the imagery part, this is a list of Heavenly Stem and their image.
Jia – Trees
Yi – Flowers; shrubs
Bing – Sun
Ding – Fire
Wu – Mountains, stones
Ji – Soil
Geng – Axe
Xin – Scissors/Jewellery
Ren – Sea
Gui – Clouds; dew
It is useful during analysis to link the image back to chart
The earthly branches and their corresponding zodiac sign (which laymen are more familiar with) as as below:
Zi/Rat
Chou/Ox
Yin/Tiger
Mao/Rabbit
Chen/Dragon
Si/Snake
Wu/Horse
Wei/Sheep
Shen/Monkey
You/Rooster
Xu/Dog
Hai/Pig
All the branches have some form of relationship or inclination among themselves. The commonly used combinations are:
3 Combinations (San He)
Shen+Zi+Chen (Monkey+Rat+Dragon) ==>Water Frame
Hai+Mao+Wei (Pig+Rabbit+Ram)==>Wood Frame
Yin+Wu+Xu (Tiger+Horse+Dog) ==>Fire Frame
Si+You+Chou (Snake+Rooster+Ox)==>Metal Frame
3 Union (San Hui)
Hai+Zi+Chou (Pig+Rat+Ox) ==>Winter / Water Frame
Yin+Mao+Chen (Tiger+Rabbit+Dragon)==>Spring / Wood Frame
Si+Wu+Wei (Snake+Horse+Ram)==>Summer / Fire Frame
Shen+You+Xu (Monkey+Rooster+Dog)==>Autumn / Metal Frame
6 Combinations (Liu He)
Zi+Chou (Rat+Ox)==>Earth Frame
Yin+Hai (Tiger+Pig)==>Wood Frame
Mao+Xu (Rabbit+Dog)==>Fire Frame
Chen+You (Dragon+Rooster)==>Metal Frame
Si+Shen (Snake+Monkey)==>Water Frame
Wu+Wei (Horse+Ram)==>Fire Frame
