The Sixty Day Pillars of BaZi

The sixty, by stem and branch

Ten stems against twelve branches would suggest 120 pairings; only sixty are valid. A yang stem (Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng, Ren) pairs only with a yang branch (Zi, Yin, Chen, Wu, Shen, Xu), and a yin stem only with a yin branch — which is why this is two 5×6 blocks rather than one 10×12 table. The same parity rule is why the sixty-jiazi cycle returns to its start after sixty steps and not a hundred and twenty.

The sixty, by seat relation

The day branch holds the day stem in one of five ways. Across all sixty pillars these five relations divide exactly evenly — twelve pillars each, the tidiest of the three groupings on this page and a direct consequence of the parity rule.

Distribution across the five seat relations: 12 · 12 · 12 · 12 · 12

The sixty, by nayin element

Each nayin image is shared by two consecutive pillars, so thirty names cover the whole set. Grouped by the element inside the name, the sixty divide exactly evenly: twelve pillars each.

The sixty, by twelve stage

A day master can only occupy branches of its own parity — six of the twelve — so six stages are unreachable for any given stem. Across all sixty pillars the twelve stages fill unevenly: 长生 Birth, 冠带 Attiring, 帝旺 Prosperity, 病 Illness, 墓 Tomb and 胎 Conception take six pillars each, while 沐浴 Bathing, 临官 Official Post, 衰 Decline, 死 Death, 绝 Extinction and 养 Nourishment take four (6×6 + 4×6 = 60). One concrete consequence: Jia, Yi, Geng and Xin can never sit on their own Prosperity branch — Jia peaks on 卯 and Geng on 酉 (both yin branches), Yi peaks on 寅 and Xin on 申 (both yang) — the parity rule leaves those cells empty in all sixty.

Find your own day pillar

Birth date alone is enough — the day pillar never needs a birth time. The calculation runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.

Frequently asked

How many day pillars are there in BaZi?

Sixty. Ten stems and twelve branches combine into sixty day pillars, in the same order as the sixty-jiazi cycle: it starts at Jia Zi and ends at Gui Hai. Each of the sixty has its own page on this site.

Ten stems over twelve branches should give 120 combinations — why only sixty?

Because of parity: a yang stem pairs only with a yang branch and a yin stem only with a yin branch. Five yang stems × six yang branches = 30, and five yin stems × six yin branches = 30, making 60. The same rule is why the cycle returns to Jia Zi at step sixty rather than step one hundred and twenty.

How do I find my own day pillar?

Use the lookup on this page, or the full chart calculator. Birth date alone is enough — the day pillar does not depend on a birth time. It is the third of the four pillars.

Does the day pillar describe my personality?

Not on its own. The popular "sixty day pillars, sixty personality types" tables are a modern simplification, not a claim the system itself makes. A day pillar states a structural position: who sits where, on what ground, with which hidden stems. Without the month command and the other six characters no meaningful judgement exists.

What is nayin?

A two-thousand-year-old classification that gives each PAIR of pillars a symbolic element-image — Jia Zi and Yi Chou, for instance, both belong to "Gold in the Sea". Thirty names, two pillars each, cover all sixty. This site publishes it as a classical gloss layer alongside the structural facts, never instead of them.

Reference index

Every enumerable component of ba zi has its own page here. Each page is computed by the same engine and can be checked item by item — none of it is a personality table.

• Chinese zodiac · 27 pages
• The twelve branches · 12 pages
• The twelve stages · 12 pages
• Ten gods by position · 30 pages
• The 64 hexagrams · 64 pages
• The 36 shen sha · 36 pages
• The 30 scenario pages · 30 pages
• The ten day masters · 10 pages
• The 8 stem & branch relations · 8 pages
• The five elements · 5 pages