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五行 · visible chart characters

Five Elements Calculator: Your Bazi Chart Element Count

Today’s example at 13 Oct 2026, 15:12 CST (UTC+8) contains Wood 1, Fire 2, Earth 2, Metal 3, Water 0 across 8 visible characters. Enter your birth date and time to count your own chart; a date alone gives a six-character count.

Five woodblock medallions joined in a cycle for Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water
木 · 火 · 土 · 金 · 水Five phases circulate through every stem and branch coordinate.

Birth moment → six or eight visible characters

Count what the chart visibly carries

Without a birth time, the year, month and day pillars supply six characters. Add the time for the hour pillar and a complete eight-character count.

Adds the two visible hour-pillar characters.

Used for Li Chun and solar-term boundaries; for example +08:00, -05:00 or +05:30.

19 February 1901–8 February 2100 · visible stems and branches only

Worked example · today, not your birth chart

Five Elements in today’s eight characters

Year
丙午 Yang Fire Horse
Month
戊戌 Yang Earth Dog
Day
庚申 Yang Metal Monkey
Hour
甲申 Yang Wood Monkey

Wood 1, Fire 2, Earth 2, Metal 3, Water 0. Each visible stem and branch contributes one count. Zero means that phase is absent from these eight visible characters.

Read the counts beside the Yang Metal Day Master: its own phase is Peer, the phase it produces is Output, the phase it controls is Wealth, and the phases controlling or producing it are Officer and Resource.

Explore the generating and controlling cycles →

From visible count to chart structure

Read visible and hidden element counts separately

Each calculated pillar contributes one visible stem phase and one branch phase. The hidden-stem inventory opens each branch to name its inner stems and their relationship to your Day Master.

  1. 01

    Calculate the pillars

    Li Chun and the solar terms locate the year and month; the cycle locates day and optional hour.

  2. 02

    Count both characters

    Every visible stem and branch contributes its fixed phase to the five-row register.

  3. 03

    Compare the branch interiors

    Look for phases that appear inside a branch but not among the visible characters. Count each occurrence without turning its role into a percentage.

Five different relationships to the Day Master

The same number can play a different structural role

Phase relation is fixed by the generating and controlling cycles, but its interpretation still depends on the chart around it.

  1. 01木 Wood

    Spring · East

    Full Wood record →
  2. 02火 Fire

    Summer · South

    Full Fire record →
  3. 03土 Earth

    The turn of each season · Centre

    Full Earth record →
  4. 04金 Metal

    Autumn · West

    Full Metal record →
  5. 05水 Water

    Winter · North

    Full Water record →