MICHAEL · SHILAI BAZILEARNING GALLERY / 20 LESSONS
時來 · BaziTHE FOUR PILLARS

LESSON P03 / 06 OF 20

Following a chart calculation

Let the app calculate. Your job is to read what it produced.

Original app lesson · freely available here

Where each pillar comes from
YearChanges at Start of Spring, not on January 1 or Lunar New Year
MonthChanges at each solar term, not with the lunar month
DayOne stem-branch pair per day, in an unbroken cycle
HourFrom the birth hour, with its stem worked out from the day stem

Check three things first: the time zone, solar or lunar calendar, and whether the time is really known.

01

Where the four pillars come from

The year pillar follows the term-based year, the month pillar the solar term, the day pillar a continuous sexagenary count, the hour pillar the hour combined with the day stem.

All four are lookup and arithmetic, so apps should agree. Differences usually come from time zone or term handling.

02

The three things worth checking

One: the birthplace time zone. Two: solar versus lunar date. Three: whether the hour is known or guessed.

Get those right and you can trust the output.

03

Then comes the real work

Calculation just lays out the data. The work is comparing each cell to the Day Master and saying it plainly.

The rest of the course does that and does not return to arithmetic.

Calculation is mechanical. Check three things: time zone, calendar type, and whether the hour is known.

CHECK YOURSELF

Try the lesson questions

No score. An incorrect first answer enters your review book.

Two apps disagree on a chart. Most likely cause?

Which three things should a beginner check?

Sources and further reading

YOUR STUDY / P03

Make this lesson yours

You can learn without a birth chart. If you want to compare, open your chart in another tab; this gallery does not save birth details yet.

Open my chart ↗