The Four Pillars of Destiny, the core of traditional Chinese fortune-telling, contain a rich cultural heritage and the wisdom of the ancients.
They consist of four pillars representing the year, month, day, and hour. Each pillar contains one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch, making up a total of eight characters. Based on a person's year, month, day, and hour of birth, the combinations of stems and branches reflect information about their destiny.
Each pillar has its own significance. The Year Pillar represents the year of birth and is associated with one's ancestors and parents, forming the foundation of the family. It also influences one's early fortunes and innate personality. The Month Pillar corresponds to the birth month and is linked to the season. It reveals relationships with siblings, fortunes in youth, and personality traits, and is crucial for determining the relative strength of the Five Elements. The Day Pillar consists of the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of the birthday and is the core of the chart. Its Heavenly Stem represents the person themselves, while its Earthly Branch represents the spouse palace, reflecting one's inner world and marital circumstances. The Hour Pillar relates to the time of birth and determines fortunes in later life, one's children, and ultimate achievements. It also reflects the outcome of one's social standing and relationships.
The four pillars are interconnected. Their interactions can be analyzed through theories such as the generating and overcoming cycles of the Five Elements and the Ten Gods, allowing one to infer information about the course of one's life, personality, career, marriage, and more. There are several methods of analysis, including analysis of the Five Elements, the Ten Gods, and auspicious and inauspicious stars. The Four Pillars of Destiny embody the ancients' profound understanding of the universe, nature, and human life, express the idea of “harmony between heaven and humanity,” and are a treasure of traditional culture.
The birth date horoscope, also known as the "four pillars", uses the heavenly stems and earthly branches to represent the year, month, day and hour of a person's birth. Each pillar has two characters, eight characters in total. It plays an important role in traditional numerology, folklore and other fields. The following is its detailed introduction: - Year: The heavenly stems and earthly branches of the year are determined according to the traditional Chinese sixty-year calendar. For example, 2024 is the year of Jiachen, and 2025 is the year of Yisi. There are ten heavenly stems, namely A, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui; there are twelve earthly branches, namely Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai. The heavenly stems and earthly branches are matched in sequence to form sixty basic units. The two cooperate with each other in a fixed order and cycle back and forth to record the years. - Month: The earthly branches of the month are fixed. The first month is the Yin month, the second month is the Mao month, the third month is the Chen month, and so on. The heavenly stems are determined based on the heavenly stems of the year. There is a formula: "C is the first in the year of Jia and Ji, and Wu is the head in the year of Yi and Geng. Bing and Xin will definitely look for Geng to rise. Ding, Ren, and Ren will follow the flow. Where does Wu and Gui come from? It is easy to pursue Jia and Yin." For example, 2025 is the year Yisi, the first month of year B is Wuyin month, and the second month is Jimao month. -Date: The celestial stems and earthly branches of the date need to be queried through tools such as a perpetual calendar. Because the arrangement of the stems and branches of the date is relatively complicated and is determined based on factors such as the solar terms and synodic phases of the lunar calendar, there is no simple calculation formula. - Hours: A day is divided into twelve hours, each hour corresponds to two current hours. Zi hour is from 23 o'clock to 1 o'clock, Chou hour is from 1 o'clock to 3 o'clock, Yin hour is from 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock, and so on. The earthly branches of the hour are fixed, and the heavenly stems are also calculated based on the heavenly stems of the day. The formula is: "Jia Ji is added to A, Yi Geng Bing is the beginning, Bing Xin starts from Wu, Ding Ren and Gengzi live. Where does Wu Gui come from? Ren Zi is the true path." For example, the zi hour of day A or day ji is the hour of jiazi, and the hour of ugliness is the hour of yichou. Suppose a person is born at 9 a. M. On February 6, 2025. 2025 Is the year of Yisi, and February 6 corresponds to the seventeenth day of the first lunar month. By querying the perpetual calendar, we know that this day is Jiashen day, and 9 a. M. Is Si hour. According to "Yi Geng Bing is the beginning", and Yi day Si hour is Xinsi hour, then the person's birth date is Yisi, Wuyin, Jiashen, and Xinsi.
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