In part 1, we learned the basics of BaZi chart types as well as the basic five steps of reading your own BaZi.

How to read your own BaZi – Part 1

Steps 1 & 2 are covered in part 1, and in this post, we will cover the rest of the three steps.

1. Write out your birth chart, then identify your day master (celestial stem of the day you were born);
2. Evaluate the elemental strength in your chart to determine your chart type. Are you strong body type, weak body type, balanced type, follower chart type, dominant chart type, or transformation harmony type? Vast majority of people are either strong or weak body types. Only a handful of people are follower or balanced types. Even fewer people are dominant or transformation harmony type;
3. With your chart type and your day master’s attributes, you can now find your favorable elements and adverse elements, and then map out the ten deities on your chart. Analyze their location and strength;
4. Look for specific combinations (meetings, clash, harmony, penalties, harm, and break) and analyze their presence;
5. Organize these findings, analyze for trends.

And of course, I will use simple and intuitive language to explain these concepts. No fluff, no intentional complication, just logic and methodology.

Step 3: Once you have your chart type, locate your favorable elements and adverse elements; map out ten deities and analyze location & strength

Every character in your BaZi birth chart has two qualities: Yin or Yang, and one of the five elements. With your day master as the central point, we can then draw out ten different relationships:

We call these ten relationships ten deities or ten gods, and the names are really just labels. They each represent something and based on their elemental strength in chart as well as their respective location, there are different interpretations. Below is a quick table for your reference.

Ten Deity	Element Relation to Day Master	Indications	Balanced Expression
Friend Star (比肩)	Same element & same polarity	Siblings, friends	Support as well as competition
Rob Wealth (劫财)	Same element & opposite polarity	Competitors, loss of assets	Resource grabbing, impulsive spending
Eating God (食神)	I generate & same polarity	Talent, children, food	Gentle creativity, artistic flair, good appetite
Hurting Officer (伤官)	I generate & opposite polarity	Rebellion, innovation, lawsuits	Dazzling talent but invites dispute
Direct Wealth (正财)	I restrain & opposite polarity	Steady income, wife	Down-to-earth earning, stable marriage
Indirect Wealth (偏财)	I restrain & same polarity	Windfall, father	Speculative profit, paternal matters
Direct Officer (正官)	Restrains me & opposite polarity	Career, husband, rules	Duty, pressure, social status
Seven Killings (七杀)	Restrains me & same polarity	Stress, risk, rivals	Co-existing challenge and opportunity
Direct Resource (正印)	Generates me & opposite polarity	Mother, scholarship, protection	Learning, elders’ help
Indirect Resource (偏印)	Generates me & same polarity	Stepmother, fringe skills	Solitary research, unconventional avenues

This step is really nothing complicated. It’s essentially a tedious look up process where you match your ten-deity label against a giant dictionary and compare. Below is a simplified table showing what the ten deities mean in different locations:

Deity & Pillar	Year Pillar	Month Pillar	Day Pillar	Hour Pillar
Direct Officer (正官)	M: blessed ancestors; F: strict upbringing	M: smooth career start; F: meets right partner early	M spouse virtuous; F husband upright yet controlling	M respected in old age, obedient children; F children successful, peaceful retirement
Seven Killings (七杀)	M martial heritage or controversy; F turbulent childhood	M competitive entrepreneurship; F emotional twists	M spouse capable but forceful; F marital pressure	M toils in old age, rebellious children; F strong-willed children, much worry
Direct Resource (正印)	M scholarly family, smooth schooling; F elders’ shelter	M strong mother figure, good studies; F helped by patrons	M spouse caring and home-loving; F steady marriage	M secure late life, filial children; F clever children, blessed retirement
Indirect Resource (偏印)	M distant elders, early self-reliance; F solitary thinker	M weak bond with mother, autodidact; F studies niche fields	M spouse reclusive; F lukewarm marriage, possible separation	M lonely old age, distant children; F independent children, little reliance
Direct Wealth (正财)	M commercial family, affluent; F thrifty, low material desire	M stable salary youth; F frugal	M wife virtuous, harmonious marriage; F strong money management	M comfortable nest-egg; F children money-savvy
Indirect Wealth (偏财)	M capable father or windfall youth; F father absent	M speculative gains, unstable income; F avid shopper, love swings	M sociable spouse, possible affair; F strong romantic luck	M many opportunities, late-life wealth; F generous children yet money slips away
Eating God (食神)	M charitable ancestors; F carefree childhood, popular	M talent recognized, suits art; F great cook, popular	M gentle spouse, peaceful home; F plain but satisfying marriage	M obedient children, enjoys family; F filial children, happy old age
Hurting Officer (伤官)	M talented but contentious elders; F rebellious youth	M dazzling talent but offends; F picky in romance, late marriage	M clever but forceful spouse; F marital conflict, divorce-prone	M unruly children; F talented yet willful offspring
Friend Star (比肩)	M many uncles, family rivalry; F early independence	M start-ups with peers; F fierce workplace competition	M independent spouse, equal marriage; F self-driven, not reliant on husband	M self-sufficient children; F career-minded children, distant ties
Rob Wealth (劫财)	M ancestral loss of fortune; F early financial stress	M money loss in youth, messy romance; F petty colleagues, unstable income	M extravagant spouse; F love triangle possibilities	M fluctuating finances in old age; F wasteful children, much concern

The table should serve as a generic guide for new learners to understand what each of the ten deities mean.

M = Male; F = Female, and typically:

• Year Pillar (年柱): grandparents, early years
• Month Pillar (月柱): parents, teens & twenties
• Day Pillar (日柱): spouse, thirties & forties
• Hour Pillar (时柱): children, later years

Let’s use Direct Officer as an example. Below is a quick overview of its attributes:

• Relationship with the Day Master – The element that restrains the Day Master, opposite polarity.
• Symbolic Energy – Order, rules, official rank, responsibility.
• Typical Manifestations – A solid Direct Officer makes one principled and respectful of rules, with leadership potential. Too much can turn into rigidity and strained relationships.

And this is what the bigger, more detailed table would look like considering the four different energy levels:

Direct Officer Location	Weak / Restrained (弱/受克)	Balanced (共性)	Excessive (过旺)	Excess with Control (有制)
Year Pillar (年柱)	Childhood lacked authoritative guidance; easily lost	Strong sense of duty; constrained by ancestors	Conservative and rigid; heavy pressure	Supported by elders; early reputation
Month Pillar (月柱)	Unstable career foundation; limited authority	High career starting point; rule-oriented	Workplace pressure high; decisions rigid	Help from patrons; career breakthrough
Day Pillar (日柱)	Many marital quarrels; spouse lacks ability	Spouse dignified and virtuous; family steady	Spouse over-controlling; tense relationship	Mutual support; harmonious marriage
Hour Pillar (时柱)	Ordinary children; lonely later years	Obedient children; respected in old age	Rebellious children; toil in later life	High-achieving children; comfortable retirement

Typically, a good chart has many “balanced” or “excess with control” relationships. Balanced is self-explanatory. The overall energy level is naturally balanced.

Excess with control is a bit more complicated because it depends on location. For example, an element might be too strong. However, if the element that counters it is placed right next to it, above it, or below it, the excess is controlled.

Let’s say your fire is too strong in your birth chart. If there is water directly on top of or below your fire in the year pillar, the water counters the fire. That makes this part of the chart excess with control.

Step 4 & 5: Look for combinations and analyze their presence.

In addition to ten deities, your BaZi characters can also form special combinations. Famous combinations include: 会 (often called meetings)；合 (often called harmony or combinations); 冲 (often called clash or friction);刑 (often called punishments)；害 (often called harm); 破 (often called break).

The English translation for these terms are really messy. I have seen people use them interchangeably without knowing exactly what they are referencing to. That’s why I also included the Chinese.

These combinations, much like the ten deities, have different interpretations as well. And of course, their location matters.

Take Zi Wu Clash (子午冲) as an example. When you have both Zi and Wu in your terrestrial branch, this is what it typically suggests.

Keywords: major shifts, travel/relocation, relationship friction, heart/blood system, hot–cold imbalance; Typical manifestations: moving home, going overseas, dramatic job/industry pivots; father–son or spousal standoffs; “Water–Fire imbalance” correlating with hypertension, cardiac or urinary issues.

Location also matters:

• Year Pillar: Ties to family and early environment. Parents may travel far; the whole family may move with the times – changes on the “big canvas.”
• Month Pillar: Swings often show in young–mid adulthood. From roughly your 20s to mid-30s, you may relocate for study/work; your organization may go through major personnel reshuffles; mother’s health may fluctuate accordingly.
• Day Branch (Spouse): Impacts marriage and partnerships. Mild: short separations or hectic moving; severe: marital separation or serious rifts with business partners.
• Hour Branch: Focus on children and later-life plans. e.g., a child going abroad, or settling in another place for retirement.

Timing layers (ignore if you are not familiar with Da Yun and Liu Nian):

• If the Clash appears in a 10-Year Luck Pillar, that decade tends to be defined by movement – relocations, job switches, even changing industries, with few truly “quiet” years.
• If it’s triggered in Annual Luck, expect a flashpoint in that specific year: moving house, relationship splits often surface right then, concentrating all the signs of “movement.”

“Is a Clash always bad? Is Harmony always good?”

Not necessarily. The key is whether the interaction supports your Favorable Element (喜用神) or agitates your Adverse Element (忌神).

• A Clash hitting an Adverse Element can turn misfortune into opportunity.
• A Clash striking a Favorable Element calls for caution. The same logic applies to Harmony.

Example: Suppose your Favorable Elements are Fire and Wood, while Water, Earth, and Metal are Adverse. Your chart shows a Zi–Wu Clash, and Water in your chart is weak (Zi is Yang Water). Because the weaker, adverse side is the one being “hit,” the result can be beneficial. Zi–Wu frequently signals movement—leaving home may open big opportunities, such as emigrating, studying abroad, or working in export-heavy fields.

At this point, I think you get how the whole BaZi reading works. It’s just like looking up information in a giant dictionary. Once you have enough knowledge about how to read combinations and calculate elemental strengths, it’s just a look-up game 

And this is also why I keep telling people, BaZi is tendency, not fatalism. No matter how knowledgeable you are in this subject, methodologically speaking, it can only go as far as these directions. No book ever wrote: if X combination showed up, then Y will happen on Z Day. That is simply not how the system works.