BaZi Pillar Palaces: Who Sits in the Year, Month, Day and Hour
The four pillars of a BaZi chart record the year, month, day and hour of birth, but they also work like a four-story house: each floor is home to different family members and matches a different stage of life. When reading family, the star tells you how a person shows up, and the palace tells you which floor they live on.
Who each pillar stands for
| Palace | Heavenly Stem | Earthly Branch | Stage of life |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year pillar | Ancestors, elders | Ancestors, elders; parents too | Childhood |
| Month pillar | Parents, siblings | Parents, siblings (the month command, the strongest position) | Youth |
| Day pillar | You (the Day Master) | Spouse (the Spouse Palace) | Middle age |
| Hour pillar | Children, the younger generation | Children, the younger generation | Later life |
The day pillar is special: its stem is you, and its branch is your partner, so the day branch is called the Spouse Palace, or the Marriage Palace. For what the Spouse Palace looks like in each day pillar, see the Sixty Jiazi.
Reading palace and star together
| Combination | Common reading |
|---|---|
| Mother star (Direct Resource) in the month pillar | The mother's influence is clear while you are growing up |
| Peers showing on the month stem | Siblings or peers weigh heavily in your teenage years |
| Spouse star in the day branch | You and your partner are closely bound; marriage is one of the centers of your life |
| Children star in the hour pillar | A deep bond with your children and close contact in later years |
| A family star far from its own palace | That bond shows most clearly in a different stage of life |
These are tendencies, not conclusions. The same star reads differently depending on whether it is favorable or unfavorable, and whether it shows on a stem or only hides in a branch.
The Spouse Palace's clashes and combinations with other palaces
| Relation | Common reading | Share of charts |
|---|---|---|
| Day branch clashes month branch | The household you build and the family you grew up in move at different paces; some adjusting and boundaries help | 8.4% |
| Day branch clashes hour branch | The couple are likely to see parenting differently; talk it through | 8.5% |
| Day branch combines with hour branch | The family's center of gravity tends to settle on the children | 8.4% |
How we counted: 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.
There are twelve Earthly Branches, so each pairing turns up in roughly one chart in twelve. Put another way, any particular clash or combination is shared by about one person in every dozen or so around you; it is a perfectly ordinary structure. In BaZi a "clash" describes pace and tension, not someone coming to harm. For how branch clashes and combinations work, see the branch relations.
Look up your six relations: where each star sits, how the palaces interact
Enter your Gregorian birth date and sex (the spouse and children stars differ for men and women) to see where the stars for your parents, siblings, spouse and children sit in the Four Pillars, whether each is favorable, and how the pillar palaces clash or combine with your Spouse Palace. 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 pillar (the Children Palace) cannot be read.
A straight word: the six relations show the shape of a bond, not a verdict
In BaZi, the six relations describe how present a family member is in your chart, how the two of you tend to interact, and which issues that relationship is more likely to run into. A chart cannot tell you what kind of people your parents are, and it cannot decide whether you and your family will get along; that comes down to choices and effort on both sides. If you are facing a hard family situation, turn first to people you trust or to professional help. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment.
Want to see each palace in your own chart?
Enter your birth date and sex to see the Ten God in each pillar palace, and whether each one clashes or combines with your Spouse Palace.
Pillar palaces FAQ
What does each of the Four Pillars stand for in BaZi?
The year pillar stands for ancestors and elders, the month pillar for parents and siblings; the day stem is you and the day branch your spouse; the hour pillar stands for children and the younger generation. In order they also match childhood, youth, middle age and later life.
What is the Spouse Palace?
The Earthly Branch of the day pillar. The day stem stands for you and the day branch for your partner, so the day branch is called the Spouse Palace, or Marriage Palace.
Is it bad if my day branch clashes the month or hour branch?
It is not a bad omen. A clash describes two palaces moving at different paces, such as your own household and the family you grew up in, or a couple and their views on parenting. Each clash appears in roughly one chart in twelve, a very common structure.
Which matters more, the palace or the family star?
Read them together. The star tells you how a person shows up and whether the bond is a help or needs work; the palace tells you where in your life they sit and which stage the bond shows most clearly.