BaZi Strength Terms: Strong or Weak, Favorable Elements, Climate and Life Stages

The terms for deciding what a chart needs all live here: first judge the Day Master’s strength, then set the favorable and unfavorable elements, with climate adjustment, illness and remedy, and bridging as further methods.

Index of this group

• Strong or weak
• Being in season
• Rooting
• Revealing
• Favorable elements
• Unfavorable element
• Climate adjustment
• Illness and remedy
• Bridging element
• Qiong Tong Bao Jian
• Twelve life stages
• Yang forward, yin backward
• The Day Master's own seat

13 terms

Strong or weak 身強身弱

Strong or weak asks which side of a chart weighs more: what supports the Day Master, or what drains it. Support ahead is strong, drain ahead is weak, near-even is balanced. It is not good or bad, but the first step to the favourable element. Read more →

Being in season 得令

Being in season (de ling) means the Day Master is born in a month whose main energy is its own element or the element that feeds it, that is, Peers or Resource. It is one of the three main signs of a strong Day Master. Read more →

Rooting 通根

Rooting (tong gen) means a Heavenly Stem finds its own element among the hidden stems of the branches, as Jia Wood does in Yin, Mao or Hai. A rooted stem stands firm; a rootless one floats and shifts easily. Read more →

Revealing 透干

Revealing (tou gan) means an element hidden inside a branch also appears among the year, month or hour stems. A revealed element acts openly and can be put to use; one that stays hidden works more quietly. Read more →

Favorable elements 喜用神

In BaZi, the favorable elements are what a chart needs most to regain balance. The useful god (yong shen) leads and the joyful god feeds it; the elements working against them are unfavorable. Read more →

Unfavorable element 忌神

The unfavorable element (ji shen) works against the Day Master and deepens the chart’s imbalance: more support for a strong Day Master, more drain for a weak one. In a luck pillar or year that brings it, steady beats bold. Read more →

Climate adjustment 調候用神

Climate adjustment (tiao hou) picks a useful god from the birth season and how cold, hot, damp or dry a BaZi chart runs: winter charts want Fire for warmth, summer charts want Water to cool them. Read more →

Illness and remedy 病藥用神

In BaZi, illness and remedy (bing yao) applies when one Ten God group grows so dominant that it unbalances the chart: that excess is the illness, and the element that controls or drains it becomes the useful god, the remedy. Read more →

Bridging element 通關用神

In BaZi, the bridging element (tong guan) is used when two evenly matched elements attack each other: the element between them, fed by one and feeding the other, turns the clash into a chain of production. Read more →

Qiong Tong Bao Jian 《窮通寶鑑》

The Qiong Tong Bao Jian (窮通寶鑑, also called Lan Jiang Wang) is a Qing-era BaZi classic that lists the climate useful god for each of the ten Day Masters in each of the twelve months. Read more →

Twelve life stages 十二長生

The twelve life stages (chang sheng) describe a stem's qi across the twelve branches as a life cycle: Birth, Bath, Cap and Belt, Taking Office, Peak, Decline, Sickness, Death, Tomb, Extinction, Conception and Nurture. Read more →

Yang forward, yin backward 陽順陰逆

Yang forward, yin backward is the mainstream way to count the life stages: yang stems move forward from their Birth branch and yin stems move backward. A rival school, "yin and yang share Birth," gives each yin stem its yang partner's cycle. Read more →

The Day Master's own seat 日主自坐

The Day Master's own seat (zi zuo) is the life stage the day stem reaches on its own day branch, such as Jia-Yin in Taking Office or Jia-Wu in Death. The day branch is also the spouse palace. Read more →

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