Bazi chart
A Bazi chart is arranged as Year, Month, Day and Hour pillars. In this site’s output, each pillar has a stem and branch, the Day stem identifies the Day Master, and hidden stems are listed separately. Use the synthetic chart below to find each part before interpreting it. Source: actual example output.
Find the four columns
This deliberately made-up example uses June 15, 2024 at 11:30, America/New_York, longitude −74°, Gregorian calendar, known time, midnight day boundary and solar time OFF. Its receipt resolves to 15:30 UTC. Source: example inputs and outputs.
| Pillar | Stem / branch | Visible-stem relationship | Hidden stems / relationships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Jia Chen | Indirect Wealth | Wu / Indirect Resource; Yi / Direct Wealth; Gui / Hurting Officer |
| Month | Geng Wu | Friend | Ding / Direct Officer; Ji / Direct Resource |
| Day | Geng Xu | Day Master | Wu / Indirect Resource; Xin / Rob Wealth; Ding / Direct Officer |
| Time | Ren Wu | Eating God | Ding / Direct Officer; Ji / Direct Resource |
Find the reference point
The Day column is Geng Xu in this example. Its Geng stem is the Day Master; the example output identifies its element as Metal. The other visible-stem relationships in the table are expressed relative to that reference. Source: dayMaster and pillar fields.
Keep visible and hidden entries separate
The Month column is Geng Wu, while its hidden-stem list contains Ding and Ji. Those hidden entries are not extra visible pillars. Counting visible characters and weighting hidden contributions are different tasks. Sources: Month output; our contribution-ledger guide.
Read the clock receipt before comparing charts
For the identical recorded example with solar time ON, the Hour changes from Ren Wu to Xin Si while Year, Month and Day remain unchanged. Keep the clock convention with the chart instead of comparing only its final characters. Source: civil and solar test rows.
What if the hour is unknown?
The calculator has an unknown-hour setting and omits the Hour pillar from its partial output. Boundary-sensitive possibilities remain uncertain; a noon reference does not recover a missing birth time. Source: our missing-hour tests and limitations.
Next checks
- Check time zone, daylight saving and solar time separately
- Verify a lunar or leap-month input
- Distinguish element counts from weighted support
The three-minute time check
Enter the same synthetic date, recorded time, time zone and longitude, check the historical UTC offset and UTC instant, then toggle solar time and compare the Day and Hour results with the linked eight-case ledger.
- Time zone. Keep the recorded local clock time and select the birth-place zone for that date. Record the historical UTC offset and resolved UTC instant. Time-zone reference.
- Daylight saving. Check whether the named zone has already included the seasonal offset; do not subtract it again. US DST reference and our tested offset pairs.
- Solar time. Hold the inputs fixed, switch solar time off and on, then record the pillar clock and Day/Hour results. In this calculator that switch changes the selected clock, not the resolved UTC instant. Solar-time formula and our measured cases.
Read the worked answer and eight-case ledger ↗Find related time-setting pages ↗