BaZi Rules (Notes)

Strength of an element comes from

The season (i.e. water is strong in Autumn and prosperous in Winter)

Rooting (when a stem element matches a branch element it becomes strong enough to handle the interactions from combinations)

 Resource support (a branch’s main qi being the resource element for a stem), or

Combination support (A frivolous idea in my opinion, if a zodiac has the right element the element gets boosted, that’s all. i.e. Metal gets a boost from you-chou-si combination, or a partial combination thereof)

Strength and quality are the same. If an element is ‘weak’ it is also of poor quality.

One ‘uses’ an element by associating oneself with its attributes. (As described in photos)

Favourable and Unfavourable Elements

Are based on whether the Day Master is truly strong or weak, alongside the idea of a well-balanced chart. A well-balanced chart doesn’t have too much or too little of an element, so if there’s a very strong ‘favourable’ element, it is actually not that favourable because it is too strong. The key is balance.

Strong Day Masters

Output, Influence and Wealth elements are favourable; Resource and Companion are unfavourable

Weak Day Masters

Resource and Companion elements are favourable; Output, Influence, and Wealth are unfavourable

Useful God (The Balancer)

If the chart is ‘hot’ (in summer/spring with a strong fire presence), then a water element would be the useful god. If the chart is ‘cold’ (in winter/autumn with a strong water presence), then a fire element would be the useful god.

Elemental Strength Priority from Top to Bottom

Day Master Strength

Seasonally Strong elements

Rooted element

An element supported by its resource element

An element only appearing in the main qi of a branch

An element only appearing in the stems

Qualities:

Superior/Definitively Strong

(The element-in-question is the main qi of the season & rooting.)

The element-in-question is Superior in quality if…

-Stem rooted to the main qi of its branch and seasonal support (i.e. a month pillar Bing Wu in Summer)

-An element only found in a branch that matches the element of the season of birth (i.e. hour pillar yi hai in the month of chou, yang water only found in hai)

-The stem of the hour or year pillar is rooted to its own branch Contradiction 1

Good

(Roots)

The element-in-question is of Good quality if…

-A year stem matching the main qi of the month branch

- A month stem matching the main qi of the year branch

- A year, month or hour stem is the same as, rooted to, a sub-qi element from the month branch.

- A day or month pillar’s stem rooted to the main qi, or sub-qi of its own branch (i.e. a Jia Yin pillar)

-Stem rooted to main and sub-qi of branches and supported by a resource star (i.e. year stem ren, hour rat, day monkey)

-Seasonal Resource Support and resource star support (i.e. Ren and gui stems and rooster branches in autumn.)

Average

The element-in-question is of Average quality if…

- An hour, month, or year stem is rooted in the sub-qi of the year or hour branch, or both (unless the branch is the earth zodiac that finishes the stem’s elements cycle i.e. ding-wei, xin-xu, yi-chen or gui-chou) Contradiction 1

Poor

(Sub-qi & clashes)

The element-in-question is of Poor quality if…

-An element only appears in the year, month or hour stem, with or without a seasonal boost

- An element only appears in the sub-qi of the year, day or hour branch

- The sub-qi of the year, day and hour branches are not supported by the season

- A stem rooted by the sub-qi of an earth branch that finishes the stem’s elemental cycle (i.e. ding-wei, xin-xu, yi-chen & gui-chou)

-If stem and/or main qi of the branch clashes with a touching pillar (control cycle i.e. geng wu next to jia shen)