Ba Zi/Heavenly Stems

Heavenly Stems

There are ten Heavenly Stems (represented by the acronyms "H" or "HS") used in the construction of the Four Pillars of Ba Zi (四柱八字), a method of Chinese Divination based on a person's date and time of birth. For example, both the acronyms "HS1" and "H1" represent the first Heavenly Stem, namely "Jia" (Yang Wood), as shown in the tables below.

S/N	Heavenly Stem (天干)	Notation	Chinese Pinyin	Simplified Chinese	Yin/Yang (阴阳)	Five Elements (五行)	Zang/Fu (organ)
1	Jia	HS1	jiǎ	甲	Yang	Wood	Gall Bladder
2	Yi	HS2	yǐ	乙	Yin	Wood	Liver
3	Bing	HS3	bǐng	丙	Yang	Fire	Small Intestine
4	Ding	HS4	dīng	丁	Yin	Fire	Heart
5	Wu	HS5	wù	戊	Yang	Earth	Stomach
6	Ji	HS6	jǐ	己	Yin	Earth	Spleen
7	Geng	HS7	gēng	庚	Yang	Metal	Large Intestine
8	Xin	HS8	xīn	辛	Yin	Metal	Lung
9	Ren	HS9	rén	壬	Yang	Water	Urinary Bladder
10	Gui	HS10	guǐ	癸	Yin	Water	Kidney

Heavenly Stem Combinations and Clashes

HS	H1	H2	H3	H4	H5	H6	H7	H8	H9	H10
H1					Clash Element	5Com Earth	Clash Direction
H2						Clash Element	5Com Metal	Clash Direction
H3							Clash Element	5Com Water	Clash Direction
H4								Clash Element	5Com Wood	Clash Direction
H5	Clash Element								Clash Element	5Com Fire
H6	5Com Earth	Clash Element								Clash Element
H7	Clash Direction	5Com Metal	Clash Element
H8		Clash Direction	5Com Water	Clash Element
H9			Clash Direction	5Com Wood	Clash Element
H10				Clash Direction	5Com Fire	Clash Element

Notes:

In the above table, "5Com" means the 5 Combinations of two adjacent Heavenly Stems. These combinations result in a good structure of a person's Ba Zi
"Clash" means that the Heavenly Stems clash with each other in the Ba Zi, when they are next to each other. Clashes will result in a poor structure of a person's Ba Zi.
If there is a Clash of two adjacent Stems, as well as a Combination with another Stem, the Clash will not occur, as Combinations take precedence over Clashes.