Basics · the ring of five
The famous diagram is a ring of five with two sets of arrows on it. Every relation between two elements reduces to a step on that ring: one step forward to generate, two steps to control. Nothing else exists, which is why the whole relation table closes at 25 cells.
The output counts the elements across your eight characters, then lists the relation between every pair of elements that actually appears.
Both generating and controlling are defined on the same sequence: wood, fire, earth, metal, water.
| Relation | Step on the ring | The five pairs |
|---|---|---|
| generating | +1 (one step) | 木→火 火→土 土→金 金→水 水→木 |
| controlling | +2 (two steps) | 木→土 火→金 土→水 金→木 水→火 |
Draw the two rings together and it is clear why they never cancel: generating and controlling leave the same point in the same direction, at two different step sizes. Two elements therefore hold exactly one relation, never both.
The sequence itself, wood fire earth metal water, is a published table and is reproduced as such. Steps of one and two are a direct consequence of it.
The row is the first element and the column the second. The table has 25 cells and exactly 20 of them are not same-element.
| Element | 木 Wood | 火 Fire | 土 Earth | 金 Metal | 水 Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 木 Wood | same | generates b | controls b | controlled by b | generated by b |
| 火 Fire | generated by b | same | generates b | controls b | controlled by b |
| 土 Earth | controlled by b | generated by b | same | generates b | controls b |
| 金 Metal | controls b | controlled by b | generated by b | same | generates b |
| 水 Water | generates b | controls b | controlled by b | generated by b | same |
| Same element | 5 |
|---|---|
| Generating, both directions | 10 |
| Controlling, both directions | 10 |
| Total cells | 25 |
Element relations are neither symmetric nor reversible.
First, what generates me and what I generate are two different things. Wood generates fire and water generates wood, so wood stands on both sides. The 25-cell table keeps the two directions apart instead of merging them into one word.
Second, controlling is not generating run backwards. Wood generates fire, while fire controls metal and metal controls wood; one step forward generates and two steps forward control, both in the same direction, so there is no reverse reading.
Third, same-element pairs neither generate nor control, but they take up 5 cells, so the real pairs are ten generating and ten controlling, twenty in all. That closes the table at 25 without gaps or double counting, and it is asserted at build time.
These are the questions specific to this page; broader conventions live on the methodology page.
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.