BaZi Chart Structures: Finding a Chart's Backbone from the Month Branch
"What structure am I?" is one of the first questions people ask when they start learning BaZi. A structure, ge ju (格局), is the backbone of a chart: what holds the person up, and what their life keeps coming back to. The classical way to find it is precise. Look at the month command, the Earthly Branch of the birth month, and see whether any of the stems hidden inside it shows on the chart.
How the structure is taken
- Find the month branch. This is the branch of the month pillar, Yin for example. Every branch hides one to three stems, called in order the Main Qi, Middle Qi and Residual Qi (Yin hides Jia, Bing and Wu). See hidden stems.
- Check whether the month branch is the self. If its Main Qi is the same element as the Day Master, the month branch stands for the Day Master itself, and the chart is read separately as a Jian Lu, Yang Blade or Month Rob Wealth Structure.
- See which stem shows. Going through the Main, Middle and Residual Qi in order, find the first whose exact stem appears on the year, month or hour stem, and take the structure from its Ten God relative to the Day Master (Friend and Rob Wealth are skipped).
- If none shows, take the structure from the Main Qi's Ten God.
How we counted: using this site's structure rules, our engine cast one chart for every day from 1960 to 2005, with the birth hour drawn by a fixed-seed random sample, 16,802 charts in all. This describes how chart structures are distributed; it says nothing about how far anyone will go.
In four charts out of ten, not one of the month branch's hidden stems shows. The rule then takes the Main Qi, but the structure's "force" is not as clear as when a stem shows. Online, people are often told "you are such-and-such structure" in a sentence or two; in reality most charts do not have a sharply defined structure.
The ten structures
| Structure | Used by | Making factors (helping gods) | Breaking factors | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct Officer (正官格) | Supporting | Wealth feeds the Officer; Officer and Resource in sequence | Hurting Officer meets the Officer; Officer and Killings mixed | 10.3% |
| Seven Killings (七殺格) | Restraining | Eating God controls the Killings; Killings transformed by Resource | Wealth feeds unchecked Killings; Officer and Killings mixed | 10.2% |
| Direct Wealth (正財格) | Supporting | Output produces Wealth; Wealth produces the Officer | Peers rob Wealth | 9.6% |
| Indirect Wealth (偏財格) | Supporting | Output produces Wealth; Wealth produces the Officer | Peers rob Wealth | 9.6% |
| Direct Resource (正印格) | Supporting | Officer produces Resource; strong Day Master uses Wealth | Wealth breaks Resource ("greed for wealth spoils the seal") | 10.8% |
| Indirect Resource (偏印格) | Restraining | Officer produces Resource; strong Day Master uses Wealth | The Owl steals the food; Wealth breaks Resource | 10.7% |
| Eating God (食神格) | Supporting | Eating God produces Wealth; Eating God controls the Killings | The Owl steals the food | 9.4% |
| Hurting Officer (傷官格) | Restraining | Hurting Officer wears Resource; Hurting Officer produces Wealth | Hurting Officer meets the Officer | 9.3% |
| Jian Lu, Yang Blade, Month Rob Wealth | Read separately | Using the Officer or Killings; using Wealth | No Wealth or Officer to use; an unchecked Blade | 19.9% |
"Supporting" and "restraining" come from the Zi Ping Zhen Quan. Wealth, the Direct Officer, Resource and the Eating God are benevolent stars, used by supporting them: give them a source and protection. Seven Killings, the Hurting Officer, the Owl (Indirect Resource) and the Yang Blade are harsh stars, used by restraining them: control them or convert them. That is why the same Wealth on a stem helps a Direct Officer Structure (Wealth feeds the Officer) and can break a Direct Resource Structure (Wealth breaks Resource).
Structure, strength and favorable elements are three different questions
| The question | Where to read it | |
|---|---|---|
| Chart structure | What is the chart built around, and what holds it up? | This page |
| Strong or weak | Can the Day Master carry its load? | Strong or weak Day Master |
| Favorable elements | What to add and what to avoid | Favorable elements |
The three get mixed up all the time. Two people with the same Direct Officer Structure can feel it very differently: the strong one carries the responsibility, the weak one feels pressed on every side. And a making factor is not necessarily a favorable element. The classical "structure school" takes the useful god from the month branch; our favorable elements start from supporting and suppressing, then add climate and illness-and-remedy. The two methods ask different questions and can be read side by side. One more note: the "Talent Star" on our home-page chart is the Ten God of the month pillar's Heavenly Stem, which shows your outward working style; a structure reads the stems hidden in the month branch, so the two can differ.
Find your chart structure: from the month branch, with every making and breaking factor
Enter your date of birth to see how your structure is taken under the Zi Ping Zhen Quan rule of reading the month branch, and which factors on the stems help make it or break it. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Uses your Gregorian birth date, with the day changing at 11 p.m. Without a birth hour, the hour stem cannot take part in finding the structure or judging its factors.
Special structures
Everything above is an ordinary structure. There is also a class of "outer" or special structures: follow structures, where an extremely weak Day Master goes with the dominant force (Follow-Wealth, Follow-Authority, Follow-Output); dominant-element structures, where the Day Master is overwhelmingly strong; and transformation structures, where a stem combination succeeds in transforming. The bar for all of them is high, and most people do not qualify. Our engine accepts only hard evidence, and fewer than one chart in a hundred is judged a follow structure; see the follow-structure pages under strong or weak Day Master for each element.
Three common misunderstandings
Your structure decides whether you will be rich or poor, high or low.
The classics do say so, but that reflects old values: the Direct Officer and Direct Resource stood for the imperial exams and office, so naturally they were praised as noble structures. Today a structure is closer to "where your backbone lies," and the originality of a Hurting Officer Structure or the nerve of a Seven Killings Structure is worth more than Officer and Resource in many fields.
Special and follow structures are better than ordinary ones.
A follow structure is just another shape of chart, with the favorable set flipped; it is not a higher grade. The test is also very strict, and in our sample fewer than 1% qualify. If someone tells you "you are a follow structure," first ask what standard they are using.
Any making factor means the structure holds; any breaking factor means it is broken.
In our sample, many charts carry both making and breaking factors on their stems at once; for Direct and Indirect Wealth Structures, about four in ten have both. Whether a structure holds has to be weighed across the whole chart, along with strength and luck periods, which is why our checker lists the factors and does not pass a verdict.
The nine structures: how each is made and broken
A straight word: a structure is a chart's theme, not a label of rank
The classics often equate a structure that "holds" with wealth and rank, and a "broken" one with poverty and low standing. A reading closer to today is this: the structure tells you what a chart is built around, what holds it up, and where it is most easily thrown off. A structure that holds does not promise an easy life, and a broken one is not failure. Plenty of broken charts grow their real strengths in the work of mending the break. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment.
How does your structure play out across your life?
The in-depth reading combines your structure, strength and favorable elements into concrete tendencies for career, money and relationships, read decade by decade through your luck periods.
BaZi chart structure FAQ
How do I find my BaZi chart structure?
Look at the hidden stems of the month branch (the branch of the month pillar). Going through the Main, Middle and Residual Qi in order, find the first whose exact stem shows on the year, month or hour stem, and take the structure from its Ten God; if none shows, take the Main Qi. When the month branch's Main Qi is the same element as the Day Master, the chart is read separately as a Jian Lu, Yang Blade or Month Rob Wealth Structure.
How is a chart structure different from a strong or weak Day Master?
A structure asks what the chart is built around; strength asks whether the Day Master can carry its load. The same structure feels very different to a strong and a weak Day Master, so the two are read separately.
What do "making" and "breaking" a structure mean?
A structure is made when helping gods support it, such as Wealth or Resource showing alongside a Direct Officer. It is broken when it is attacked, mixed or clashed, such as the Hurting Officer meeting the Officer, the Officer and Killings mixed, or the month branch clashed. We list only the making and breaking factors on the stems; whether the structure holds still needs a whole-chart judgment.
What do "supported" and "restrained" structures mean?
The Zi Ping Zhen Quan calls Wealth, the Direct Officer, Resource and the Eating God benevolent stars, used by supporting them (feeding and protecting them); Seven Killings, the Hurting Officer, the Owl and the Yang Blade are harsh stars, used by restraining them (controlling or converting them).
Does my chart structure change with age?
The natal structure is fixed at birth. What changes are the luck periods and years: a period that brings the helping gods lifts the structure up, and one that brings breaking factors puts it to the test.