Ba Zi/Luck Pillar

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Luck Pillar

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The Luck Pillar (大运, Ta Yun) of a person's Ba Zi chart gives an indication of a person's luck in periods of 10 years each. The Luck Pillar is plotted based on the following:

Heavenly Stem of the Year Pillar

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S/N Heavenly
Stem
of Year
Notation Chinese
Pinyin
Simplified
Chinese
Yin/Yang
(阴阳)
Five
Elements
(五行)
Cycle
Direction
of Male
Cycle
Direction
of Female
1 Jia HS1 jiǎ Yang Wood Forward Reverse
2 Yi HS2 Yin Wood Reverse Forward
3 Bing HS3 bǐng Yang Fire Forward Reverse
4 Ding HS4 dīng Yin Fire Reverse Forward
5 Wu HS5 Yang Earth Forward Reverse
6 Ji HS6 Yin Earth Reverse Forward
7 Geng HS7 gēng Yang Metal Forward Reverse
8 Xin HS8 xīn Yin Metal Reverse Forward
9 Ren HS9 rén Yang Water Forward Reverse
10 Gui HS10 guǐ Yin Water Reverse Forward

Earthly Branch of the Month Pillar

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There are 12 Earthly Branches as follows:

S/N Time
(时辰)
Notation Chinese
Pinyin
Earthly Branch
in
Simplified
Chinese
(地支)
12 Animal
Mnemonics
(十二支)
Yin/Yang
(阴阳)
Five
Elements
(五行)
1 11pm - 1am EB1 Rat Yang Water
2 1am - 3am EB2 chǒu Ox Yin Earth
3 3am - 5am EB3 yín Tiger Yang Wood
4 5am - 7am EB4 mǎo Rabbit Yin Wood
5 7am - 9am EB5 chén Dragon Yang Earth
6 9am - 11am EB6 Snake Yin Fire
7 11am - 1pm EB7 Horse Yang Fire
8 1pm - 3pm EB8 wèi Goat Yin Earth
9 3pm - 5pm EB9 shēn Monkey Yang Metal
10 5pm - 7pm EB10 yǒu Rooster Yin Metal
11 7pm -9pm EB11 Dog Yang Earth
12 9pm - 11pm EB12 hài Pig Yin Water

Using the Monthly Pillar of a Ba Zi chart, the first luck pillar will be the next Stem & Branch of the above charts, in either the forward or reverse cycle.

For example, a male born in a Yang year (or a female born in a Yin year) will follow the forward cycle, and if his Month Pillar is HS8 and EB6, then his first Luck Pillar will be HS9 and EB7.

Similarly, if a female is born in a Yang year (or a male born in a Yin year), her luck will follow the reverse cycle, and her first Luck Pillar will be HS7 and EB5, if her Monthly Pillar is HS8 and EB6.

Starting Age of the First Luck Pillar

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Each Luck Pillar lasts 10 years. The first five years are covered by a Heavenly Stem, and the next five years by an Earthly Branch, and this is repeated for each subsequent Luck Pillar. The starting age of the Luck Pillar is based on the date of birth in the Hsia Calendar. The following variables are used to derive the Luck Pillar:

  1. The gender of the person
  2. The Yin or Yang of the Heavenly Stem of the year of birth
  3. The Monthly Pillar of the Ba Zi of the person
  4. The number of days to the preceding or following Hsia Season, from the date of birth


There are two possibilities, (A) and (B), as given below:

(A)

For a male born in a Yang year (that is, the Heavenly Stem of the Year Pillar is Yang), the method is to look up his date of birth in the Hsia Calendar, count forward, and obtain the number of days from his date of birth to the next Hsia Season, where Early Spring is represented by 1, Mid Spring by 2, Late Spring by 3, ... etc. For example, if Joe is born on 28th August 2000 (where the Monthly Pillar is HS1 and EB9), then the first day of the following Hsia Season is 7th Sep 2000, and the number of days is 10.

The starting age will be 10 divided by 3, rounded to the nearest integer, which is 3. The Heavenly Stem of Joe's first five years will be from 3 to 7, and the Earthly Branch of his next five years will be from age 8 to age 12. The Luck Cycle or Luck Pillar is plotted from right to left, as the age increases, beginning from the next (in increasing order) Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of his Monthly Pillar.

The above calculation also applies for a female born in a Yin year.

The Luck Cycle : H2-E10, Age 3, Forward

73-77 63-67 53-57 43-47 33-37 23-27 13-17 3-7 Age
HS9 HS8 HS7 HS6 HS5 HS4 HS3 HS2 Heavenly Stem
78-82 68-72 58-62 48-52 38-42 28-32 18-22 8-12 Age
EB5 EB4 EB3 EB2 EB1 EB12 EB11 EB10 Earthly Branch

(B)

However, for a male born in a Yin year, or a female born in a Yang year, the counting is in a backward sequence. The counting starts from the date of birth backwards to the preceding Hsia Season. For example, if Joe is born in a Yin year, the counting will start from 28th August 2000 backwards to 6th August 2000, giving a total of 22 days. In this case, the starting age will be 22 divided by 3, which is 7 (rounded to the nearest integer). The Heavenly Stem of Joe's first five years will be from 7 to 11, and the Earthly Branch of his next five years will be from age 12 to age 16.

The Luck Cycle or Luck Pillar is plotted from right to left, as the age increases, beginning from the next (in decreasing order, since Joe is a male born in a Yin year) Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of his Monthly Pillar.

The Luck Cycle : H10-E8, Age 7, Reverse

77-81 67-71 57-61 47-51 37-41 27-31 17-21 7-11 Age
HS3 HS4 HS5 HS6 HS7 HS8 HS9 HS10 Heavenly Stem
82-86 72-76 62-66 52-56 42-46 32-36 22-26 12-16 Age
EB1 EB2 EB3 EB4 EB5 EB6 EB7 EB8 Earthly Branch

List of Luck Pillars

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In A Forward Direction

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H1-E1 H2-E1 H3-E1 H4-E1 H5-E1 H6-E1 H7-E1 H8-E1 H9-E1 H10-E1
H1-E2 H2-E2 H3-E2 H4-E2 H5-E2 H6-E2 H7-E2 H8-E2 H9-E2 H10-E2
H1-E3 H2-E3 H3-E3 H4-E3 H5-E3 H6-E3 H7-E3 H8-E3 H9-E3 H10-E3
H1-E4 H2-E4 H3-E4 H4-E4 H5-E4 H6-E4 H7-E4 H8-E4 H9-E4 H10-E4
H1-E5 H2-E5 H3-E5 H4-E5 H5-E5 H6-E5 H7-E5 H8-E5 H9-E5 H10-E5
H1-E6 H2-E6 H3-E6 H4-E6 H5-E6 H6-E6 H7-E6 H8-E6 H9-E6 H10-E6
H1-E7 H2-E7 H3-E7 H4-E7 H5-E7 H6-E7 H7-E7 H8-E7 H9-E7 H10-E7
H1-E8 H2-E8 H3-E8 H4-E8 H5-E8 H6-E8 H7-E8 H8-E8 H9-E8 H10-E8
H1-E9 H2-E9 H3-E9 H4-E9 H5-E9 H6-E9 H7-E9 H8-E9 H9-E9 H10-E9
H1-E10 H2-E10 H3-E10 H4-E10 H5-E10 H6-E10 H7-E10 H8-E10 H9-E10 H10-E10
H1-E11 H2-E11 H3-E11 H4-E11 H5-E11 H6-E11 H7-E11 H8-E11 H9-E11 H10-E11
H1-E12 H2-E12 H3-E12 H4-E12 H5-E12 H6-E12 H7-E12 H8-E12 H9-E12 H10-E12

In A Reverse Direction

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H1-E1 H2-E1 H3-E1 H4-E1 H5-E1 H6-E1 H7-E1 H8-E1 H9-E1 H10-E1
H1-E2 H2-E2 H3-E2 H4-E2 H5-E2 H6-E2 H7-E2 H8-E2 H9-E2 H10-E2
H1-E3 H2-E3 H3-E3 H4-E3 H5-E3 H6-E3 H7-E3 H8-E3 H9-E3 H10-E3
H1-E4 H2-E4 H3-E4 H4-E4 H5-E4 H6-E4 H7-E4 H8-E4 H9-E4 H10-E4
H1-E5 H2-E5 H3-E5 H4-E5 H5-E5 H6-E5 H7-E5 H8-E5 H9-E5 H10-E5
H1-E6 H2-E6 H3-E6 H4-E6 H5-E6 H6-E6 H7-E6 H8-E6 H9-E6 H10-E6
H1-E7 H2-E7 H3-E7 H4-E7 H5-E7 H6-E7 H7-E7 H8-E7 H9-E7 H10-E7
H1-E8 H2-E8 H3-E8 H4-E8 H5-E8 H6-E8 H7-E8 H8-E8 H9-E8 H10-E8
H1-E9 H2-E9 H3-E9 H4-E9 H5-E9 H6-E9 H7-E9 H8-E9 H9-E9 H10-E9
H1-E10 H2-E10 H3-E10 H4-E10 H5-E10 H6-E10 H7-E10 H8-E10 H9-E10 H10-E10
H1-E11 H2-E11 H3-E11 H4-E11 H5-E11 H6-E11 H7-E11 H8-E11 H9-E11 H10-E11
H1-E12 H2-E12 H3-E12 H4-E12 H5-E12 H6-E12 H7-E12 H8-E12 H9-E12 H10-E12