Five Elements and Day-Master Strength

The five elements are the skeleton of BaZi. Every one of the eight characters carries an element, and between any two there are only two possible relations: generation and control.

Generation and control

Generation: Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal carries Water, Water grows Wood. A closed loop.

Control: Wood breaks Earth, Earth dams Water, Water quenches Fire, Fire melts Metal, Metal cuts Wood. Also a loop, skipping one position.

Stems: Jia and Yi are Wood, Bing and Ding Fire, Wu and Ji Earth, Geng and Xin Metal, Ren and Gui Water. Branches: Yin and Mao Wood, Si and Wu Fire, Chen Xu Chou Wei Earth, Shen and You Metal, Hai and Zi Water.

Those two loops are the whole rule set, with no exceptions. In code they are two modular additions — generation is "plus one", control is "plus two".

The month branch weighs most

The eight characters do not count equally. The month branch counts most, because it stands for the season. Water born in winter and Water born in summer are not the same Water.

This is called holding the monthly command. Before judging any element's strength, look at whether it is in season.

Strong or weak

"Strength" here means the day stem — "me". A chart is strong or weak depending on whether more characters support me or drain me.

Two groups support: the Resource that generates me, and the Friend and Rob Wealth that match me. Three groups spend: the Output I generate, the Wealth I control, the Officer that controls me.

The rough method: add up the Resource and peer characters, and see whether they make up more than half of the eight; weight it up if the month branch is also one of them. That is exactly what this site computes, and the result states the verdict as very strong, strong, weak or very weak.

The favourable element

Once strength is settled, the favourable element follows — what this particular chart most needs.

Strong charts have a surplus and need draining or spending: Wealth, Officer, Output
Weak charts lack support and need generating: Resource, peers

Within that group, pick whichever element the chart has least of. That is the favourable element.

Everything downstream follows it: whether a given day helps or hurts it decides that day's score; the lucky colour, direction and hour all come from it; and even the governing element of the Five Grids of a name is judged by whether it supplies this one element.

A worked example

Say the day stem is Xin (yin Metal), born in the Wu month — high summer, Fire at its peak. The chart holds two Metal characters and three Fire. Fire controls Metal, and the season is Fire: the chart is weak.

A weak chart needs support, so the candidates are Resource (Earth, which generates Metal) and peers (Metal). The chart already has two Metal and no Earth at all, so Earth is the favourable element. That is why this person's lucky colour is amber, the direction is the centre, and Earth-strong days run more easily.

Every step is a fixed rule, and you can run your own chart through it — enter your birth details and the day master, the strength verdict and the favourable element are all shown in the result.