How to read the diagram
The solid arrows are the generating cycle, 生: Wood feeds Fire, Fire leaves Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal carries Water, Water feeds Wood. The dashed lines are the controlling cycle, 克: Wood parts Earth, Earth contains Water, Water quenches Fire, Fire melts Metal, Metal cuts Wood.
Both cycles run at the same time in every chart. That is the single idea most popular explanations leave out: an element is never simply good or bad, and “adding what you lack” is not how the tradition works. What matters is which element the chart needs (用神), in which season, in which position.
The five pages
Which element is yours?
Every chart has all five elements in some proportion; the one people mean when they say “my element” is the element of the day master — the stem of the day pillar. There are ten of them, two per element, and they are read quite differently from each other.
| Element | Stems | Season | Reads as |
|---|---|---|---|
| 木 Wood | Jia (甲) · Yi (乙) | Spring | the plan, the seed, the reach toward light |
| 火 Fire | Bing (丙) · Ding (丁) | Summer | what happens when something private becomes visible |
| 土 Earth | Wu (戊) · Ji (己) | The four transitions | the ground between what grows and what is built |
| 金 Metal | Geng (庚) · Xin (辛) | Autumn | the cut that separates what stays from what goes |
| 水 Water | Ren (壬) · Gui (癸) | Winter | The element of intelligence that moves around a problem instead of into it |
Why the season changes everything
The month pillar is the strongest single influence in the classical weighting, and our calculator multiplies it by 1.6 for exactly that reason. Wood born in spring and Wood born in autumn are the same stem in opposite weather: one is in season and expanding, the other is being cut. The 旺相休囚死 model — prosperous, supported, resting, trapped, dead — is how the tradition names those five states, and every element page explains its own version of it.
The calculator shows all five elements weighted by your month, plus your day master and its seasonal state.
Calculate your chartQuestions people actually ask
Are the five elements the same as the four Greek elements?
No, although the comparison is tempting. The Greek scheme is about substances; the Chinese one is about processes and relationships — five phases that generate and restrain each other in a fixed order. That is why Wood can “control” Earth in BaZi in a way earth, air, fire and water never do in the Western scheme.
Do I need more of the element I am missing?
Usually not. The classical question is not what is missing but what the chart needs — 用神 — and a chart can be perfectly workable with very little of one element. A missing element is a place to look, not an instruction.
Where do the percentages on the result page come from?
They are a weighted count: each of the eight characters contributes its element, branches are weighted at 0.8 of a stem, the month branch at 1.6, and the season adjusts each element by its 旺相休囚死 coefficient. The exact numbers are documented on the method page.
BaZi is a traditional cultural system used here for reflection and study. Nothing on this page is a prediction about a specific person, a medical opinion, or financial advice. Element correspondences to organs come from classical Chinese medicine and are mentioned to explain the imagery, not to diagnose anything.