IS THE HOUR OF YOUR BIRTH IMPORTANT?

BAZI: THE 4 PILLARS OF DESTINY

One fascinating aspect of culture is that you can choose any encounter as a point of entry, but sometimes the unknown can be intimidating. Whether your situation places you into daily ritual and knowledge of Chinese tradition at birth, in a discovered curiosity for history and cultural philosophy, or perhaps in a position of spiritual thirst for heritage, the journey is always worthwhile. Therefore, it is with great delight that Fête Chinoise was able to explore something that is often spoken about and intertwined with life decisions yet rarely understood by most people: the 4 Pillars of Destiny, also known as the 8 Characters of Destiny, pronounced as BaZi. BaZi holds great cultural significance, as millions of Chinese populations around the world, including here in Canada, rely on this seemingly mystical system to make decisions of all kinds. This may sound familiar to event managers and real estate sales teams, perhaps wedding professionals and children of traditional parents alike, because these pillars of destiny have helped to determine which exact date and moment to get married, when to sign a real estate offer, who is a compatible spouse, what career to pursue, and what to invest in — almost every aspect of life. It is for many people, an astrological road map to help guide life’s biggest decisions.

With notes from Master Jackie Chan, we present the basics of a masterful Chinese system — demystifying references we often come across and in the same breath, magnifying the amazing code in Chinese Astrology, which is as full of wonder as the universe to which it is bound.

WHAT IS BAZI? IS IT LITERALLY “8 CHARACTERS”?

It is believed that your life is charted based on 8 characters. How do you know which 8 are yours? And why 8? There are 4 Pillars of Destiny from which these are derived at birth: the Year, the Month, the Day, and the Time of your arrival and first breath. Each pillar is assigned 2 characters, which is why there are 8 in total.

To determine which 8 characters are yours, we turn to a mathematical and methodical system based on the Chinese Lunar Calendar, that intrinsically incorporates a system of 10 elements and a system of 12 values, which cycles through a 60-year calendar and then repeats itself.

The 2 characters of each pillar are written stacked: the top character is one of the 10 elements, and represents the “heavenly stem,” and the bottom character is one of 12 values, also known as the “branches of the earth.” Together, they form the narrative of our existence — our life chart and destiny.

The group of 10 elements mentioned above is derived from 5 elements, paired with an attribute of either Ying (negative) or Yang (positive), which equates to 10 unique elements: + Wood, – Wood, + Fire, – Fire, + earth, – Earth, + Metal, – Metal, + Water and – Water.

The 12 values are characters that are used to represent different things in each pillar. For the sake of simplicity, let’s first imagine them as roman characters I, II, III, IV, etc. XII:

• When attributed to the Year Pillar, it is often being referred as one of the 12 Chinese symbolic animals (I = Rat, II = Ox, III = Tiger, etc. )

• In the Month Pillar, it is related to the month (in the Chinese lunar calendar which is roughly a month be behind the western calendar, so

I = January, II = February, etc.)

• For the Time Pillar, it is related to 2-hour period of that day (so I = 11 pm to 1 am, II = 1 am to 3 am, III to 3 am to 5 am, etc.)

• And for the Day Pillar, it is usually just referred to as the date in the Chinese lunar calendar. Therefore, unlike the above usage in Year/ Month/Time, there is no fixed relationship for each value to a particular day, but one must follow the calendar that has been counting for thousands of years of history.

Every calendar is based on cycle of 60, by fusing the top (10 elements) and bottom words (12 values) of the pillar in that order: 1) A+I, 2) B+III, 3) C+III …… 10) J+X, 11) A+XI, 12) B+XII, 13) C+I, 14) D+II ….. 60) J+XII, 61) A+I …. Therefore, in the application of years, based on the zodiac of 12 animals, the cycle will repeat itself every 60 years.

One school of fortune telling focuses on balance and neutrality and believes that if you have too much of a certain types of element (but not overwhelming too much like 90% or more which became a special case), then you generally do not like to go through a time period that is classified by more of those elements (i.e. bad luck). For example, if you have too much Wood in your 4 Pillars, you would not want to go through the time periods of Wood and Water (which enhances Wood). Furthermore, it is also believed that seasonality plays a role in creating the optimal, balanced condition for the element of an individual. So for a winter born waterelement individual, he or she would need fire in its elements.

On the following pages, we have put together some illustrative diagrams to present the system in years, days, hours and months, as well as an explanation of a single page of the daily paper calendars. We encourage you to dive in and learn more about your own life chart and cycles — it may help you in your next big decision or career change!