Bazi Reading 子平八字

What can Bazi be used for? 

Bazi can used to analyse a person's life including character, personality, health, relationships as well as identify any potential upcoming opportunities or pitfalls. 

How is Bazi derived? 

Bazi can be directly translated as "eight characters", which is formed using a person's birth year, month, day and time; forming 4 Pillars (四柱). Each pillar are further represented by 2 Chinese characters - 1 from the Heavenly Stem (天干) and 1 from the Earthly Branch (地支), which are based on the 5 elements (五行). 

Bazi can also be represented by 4 Pillars reading (四柱论命) and 6 Pillars reading (六柱论命). 4 Pillars reading focuses on the person's life while 6 Pillars reading analyses the interaction between the person's life and their environment, which is defined by a person's 10 year opportunity cycle (十年大运) and specific year (流年运). Bazi is based on the Chinese solar calendar (阳历). 

Origin of Bazi

Bazi reading originates from China's Tang Dynasty (唐朝, 618-917 CE). Li Xu Zhong (李虚中, 761-813 CE)  was widely viewed as the founder for Bazi. The first version was based on a person's birth year, month and day; with birth year as the main life pillar. 

As the Chinese continued to observe, gather data, and refine the Bazi system, Xu Zi Ping (徐子平, 907-960 CE) made a significant breakthrough during the 5 Dynasty period. Zi Ping extended the Bazi system to analyse a person's birth time, and leveraged on the interactions among the 5 elements (例如: 合冲害刑), elements' strengths (旺衰平衡) to analyse the actions and impact with more precision and accuracy. He also changed the main life pillar from the birth year to the birth day. Hence, the modern Bazi is also known as Zi Ping Bazi (子平八字).

Each person's bazi can be made up by 10 gods (十神): Direct Resource (正印), Indirect Resource (偏印)，Hurting Officer (伤官)、Eating God (食神)，Direct Officer (正官), Seven Killings (七杀)，Direct Wealth (正财)、Indirect Wealth (偏财)，Self / Friend / Companion (比肩), Vision / Rob Wealth (劫财).

Our Bazi system

Through years of observation and enhancements along our lineage, our Bazi system was further developed to classify each of the 5 elements into Auspicious 喜, Supportive 原, Ominous 忌, Avoidance 仇, Idle 闲, which provide a reference metrics to assess if the element is favourable to the person. Through our observation, we further expanded the use of the metrics to more accurately identify a person's maximum life potential and their greatest life barriers. This enables us to coach our clients, to progressively overcome their weakness and work towards enhancing their strengths.

Reference

1. 李虚中命书 

2. 徐子平

Further Reading: Story 5 - Bazi = Life + Opportunities + Experiences

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Last updated: 17 Jan 2025

First Published: 27 Dec 2024