The History and Origins of Bazi (Four Pillars)

What is Bazi? A simple overview

Bazi (“eight characters”) records a person’s year, month, day, and hour of birth using ancient Chinese heavenly stems and earthly branches—eight characters in total. Through Yin–Yang and Five Elements theory, it studies balance and interaction among these energies.

Traditional Chinese thought held that the world is made of five basic energies—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Similar ideas appear in ancient India (earth, water, fire, air) or Greece (earth, water, fire, air, ether): using patterns in nature to understand life’s rules.

What are “heavenly stems” and “earthly branches”?

Heavenly stems first

There are ten stems, representing “heaven” energy in Yin and Yang pairs: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui. Each has its own character and strength—for example, Jia Wood like a tall tree, Bing Fire like the bright sun.

Earthly branches

There are twelve branches for “earth” directions and energies: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai.

Stems and branches form ancient China’s time-keeping system, traceable to oracle-bone inscriptions around the Shang dynasty (~1600 BCE). A sixty-day Jiazi cycle marked days in orderly cycles.

Bazi is built from calendar methods

Charts mainly use the traditional lunisolar calendar, but the key is solar rhythm—especially the twenty-four solar terms—not only the moon’s phases. For accuracy (especially the hour pillar), many people adjust with true solar time. Together, these yield a reliable chart.

The lunar calendar tracks months by moon phases while solar terms track the sun’s year—both are considered.

Core ideas: Yin–Yang and the Five Elements

• Yin–Yang: Everything has paired, complementary sides—day and night, heat and cold. Balance feels steady; imbalance shows up as strain.
• Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water—not “stuff,” but cycles of generating and controlling.

In a chart, the day stem is the self; the other seven characters show how they generate, control, support, or drain it. After seeing strength and balance, ten-year “luck pillars” and yearly “flow years” sketch life’s phases.

History and origins

Bazi did not appear overnight. It grew over millennia from sky-watching, seasons, and lived experience.

Early antiquity (before Shang, ~before 1600 BCE)

Stems and branches appear in Shang oracle bones for dates, farming, and sky events. People already linked “heaven’s way” with human affairs—the seed of Bazi thinking.

Warring States to Han (475 BCE–220 CE)

Yin–Yang Five Elements matured. In the Han, Wang Chong’s Lunheng spoke of “receiving qi” at birth—absorbing heaven-and-earth qi that shapes one’s pattern. The state catalogued these arts—Bazi’s ancestors became a recognized predictive tradition.

Before the Tang (before 618 CE)

Early work leaned on stars and sky omens; methods were coarser. Before ~600 CE, many techniques still looked upward for signs.

After the Tang: from three pillars to full four pillars

Systematic Bazi took shape after the Tang (618–907) as society grew more complex and people wanted personal tools.

Li Xuzhong’s “three pillars, six characters” used only year, month, and day—still a landmark foundation.

Around 900 CE, Xu Ziping added the hour pillar, completing the four pillars we use today. His school was compiled as Yuan Hai Zi Ping, so Bazi is often called “Ziping” method.

Once an officially recognized field

By the Ming (~1600), the Yongle Dadian collected Bazi texts; the Qing Siku Quanshu did likewise. Even the imperial observatory had officials who could cast charts—showing how seriously the state took the art.

To try charting with modern tools, visit Ming Ming 3 Bazi.