FAQ

The Eight Characters (BaZi) are the Year, Month, Day and Hour pillars — a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch each, eight characters in all — mapping the Five-Element energy of your birth moment.

The core app is free — the daily chart, chart casting and all readings calculate instantly in your browser with no sign-up, and it can be installed for offline use. Signed in, you also get one free basic analysis report and one pairing a day; the two-year outlook and the Pro annual pass are optional paid extras.

Pillars use True Solar Time and solar-term month boundaries, cross-checked against authoritative sources for the stems, branches, clashes and symbolic stars. Content is for entertainment and cultural interest only.

The Day Master is the Heavenly Stem of the Day pillar — it represents you. The whole chart is read around it: its strength, and from there the Ten Gods and what the chart favours.

Three: the basic analysis report reads your pattern, favourable elements, temperament, family and spouse palace — one free a day; a pairing reads the bond between two charts — one free a day; the two-year outlook reads these two years month by month, US$9.99 per chart per edition, with an account’s first one 90% off (US$0.99). The Pro annual pass (US$39.99) makes basic reports, pairings and the outlook for every chart unlimited, subject to fair use. The web app charges in US dollars; inside the Android app, Google Play shows the price.

This app reads charts by Zi Ping Zhen Quan: the Day Master and the birth month set the pattern, and the favourable elements come from the structure that pattern forms. Strength (how much backing the Day Master gets) is, in that book, only a condition inside some pattern rules: on the Wealth pattern it says “if the body is light, it welcomes peers and resource”, for example. So the report explains it inside the Pattern section rather than giving a separate “weak” verdict, and weak does not simply mean “add your own element”. A weak Day Master is not bad luck either.

True Solar Time is clock time corrected for your birthplace’s longitude and the equation of time. BaZi sets the Hour pillar by true solar time, which can differ from clock time by tens of minutes — enough to change the Hour pillar.

Yes, and we handle it. Some cities kept a different standard time in the past (for example Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were UTC+7:30 before 1982, and Seoul was UTC+8:30 in 1954–1961). For these preset cities the app picks the standard time in force on your birth date automatically, then converts to true solar time — so just enter the clock time on your birth record. Daylight Saving (once used in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China) is a separate tick: “Daylight Saving was in effect”. For a custom location, the UTC offset you type is used as-is. Ürümqi defaults to Beijing time; if your family recorded Xinjiang local time, choose a custom location with UTC+6.

The day is divided into twelve two-hour 時辰 (子 begins 23:00–01:00). The branch is set from your true-solar-time 時辰, and the stem is derived from the Day stem by the 五鼠遁 rule.

神煞 are the traditional auspicious / inauspicious markers — the Nobleman, Peach Blossom, Travelling Horse, Blade and so on — derived by fixed rules between the stems and branches. Our lookups follow mainstream 子平 and the 三命通會.

The interface and every term are available in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and English; switch anytime and your choice is remembered.

No. It runs straight in the browser, and you can “Add to Home Screen” to install it as an app. Charts are computed on your device, so you don’t need to stay online.

BaZi is a traditional cultural and symbolic system. This app is for cultural learning and self-reflection; its content is for entertainment and reference only, and is not medical, legal, financial or any other professional advice.