Phases, not substances
五行 wǔxíng is usually translated “five elements”, but 行 means “to move” or “to go”, and many scholars prefer “five phases” or “five agents”. The point is that wood, fire, earth, metal and water are not chemical substances; they are names for kinds of change — growth, expansion, stabilisation, contraction and storage — that follow one another through the year. San Ming Tong Hui puts the cycles at the base of the entire calendar system:
五行相生相克，其理昭然。十干十二支、五运六气、岁月日时皆自此立，更相为用“The mutual generation and control of the five elements is a clear principle. The ten stems and twelve branches, the five movements and six qi, the year, month, day and hour are all established from it and serve one another.”— San Ming Tong Hui 《三命通會》, 卷一 · 论五行生克. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
The generating cycle (相生)
Wood feeds fire; fire produces earth (ash); earth bears metal; metal carries water (condensation, or water found in rock); water nourishes wood. In Bazi each element is said to be the “mother” of the next and the “child” of the one before. The same chapter gives each element a direction, a season and an etymology, beginning with wood:
木主于东；应春。木之为言触也，阳气触动，冒地而生也。“Wood rules the east and corresponds to spring. The word for wood means “to touch”: yang energy stirs and pushes up through the ground into life.”— San Ming Tong Hui 《三命通會》, 卷一 · 论五行生克. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
The controlling cycle (相克)
Wood parts earth (roots break soil); earth dams water; water puts out fire; fire melts metal; metal cuts wood. Control is not simply bad: in classical writing, a well-controlled element is a useful one. The text even describes a “revenge” relationship, where the child of the controlled element turns on the controller:
木克土，土之子金反克木；金克木，木之子火反克金“Wood controls earth, and earth’s child, metal, turns back to control wood; metal controls wood, and wood’s child, fire, turns back to control metal.”— San Ming Tong Hui 《三命通會》, 卷一 · 论五行生克. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
互能相生，乃其始也；互能相克，乃其终也。“Generating one another is how things begin; controlling one another is how things end.”— San Ming Tong Hui 《三命通會》, 卷一 · 论五行生克. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
Too much of a good thing
A theme running through all the classical texts is that balance matters more than any single element. Yuan Hai Zi Ping has a famous passage listing what each element needs and how excess spoils it. Two lines of it:
金旺得火，方成器皿；火旺得水，方成相济；水旺得土，方成池沼；土旺得木，方能疏通；木旺得金，方成栋樑。“Strong metal that meets fire becomes a vessel; strong fire that meets water achieves balance; strong water that meets earth becomes a pond; strong earth that meets wood is loosened; strong wood that meets metal becomes a beam.”— Yuan Hai Zi Ping 《淵海子平》, 论五行生剋制化各有所喜所害例. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
金赖土生，土多金埋；土赖火生，火多土焦；火赖木生，木多火炽；木赖水生，水多木漂；水赖金生，金多水浊。“Metal relies on earth to be born, but too much earth buries metal; earth relies on fire, but too much fire scorches earth; fire relies on wood, but too much wood makes fire blaze; wood relies on water, but too much water sets wood adrift; water relies on metal, but too much metal muddies water.”— Yuan Hai Zi Ping 《淵海子平》, 论五行生剋制化各有所喜所害例. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
This is why a high count of one element in a chart is not automatically “good”, and why we label the five-element bars in our calculator as a count rather than a verdict.
Seasonal strength: prosperous, assisted, resting, confined, dead
The single most important idea for judging elements is that their strength changes with the season. Classical texts use five words — 旺 prosperous, 相 assisted, 休 resting, 囚 confined, 死 dead — and assign them by the generating and controlling cycles. In spring wood is prosperous; fire, its child, is assisted; water, its mother, rests because its work is done; metal, which would normally control wood, is confined; and earth, which wood controls, is dead.
盛德乘时曰旺。如春木旺，旺则生火，火乃木之子，子乘父业，故火相“When flourishing virtue rides its season, that is called prosperous. In spring wood is prosperous; prosperous wood generates fire; fire is the child of wood and takes up its father’s work, and so fire is assisted.”— San Ming Tong Hui 《三命通會》, 卷二 · 论五行旺相休囚死并寄生十二宫. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
| Season (month branches) | Prosperous 旺 | Assisted 相 | Resting 休 | Confined 囚 | Dead 死 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring (寅 卯) | Wood | Fire | Water | Metal | Earth |
| Summer (巳 午) | Fire | Earth | Wood | Water | Metal |
| Late summer / earth months | Earth | Metal | Fire | Wood | Water |
| Autumn (申 酉) | Metal | Water | Earth | Fire | Wood |
| Winter (亥 子) | Water | Wood | Metal | Earth | Fire |
The table follows San Ming Tong Hui, which places earth’s peak in the sixth month; many later writers instead treat the four storage branches 辰 未 戌 丑 — the last eighteen days or so of each season — as earth’s time. Both views are found in the literature.
The text ends this section with a reflection that is worth quoting because it shows the moral tone of the classical tradition: everything that peaks declines.
盖四时之序，节满即谢，五行之性，功成必复，故阳极而降，阴极而升，日中则昃，月盈则亏。此天之常道也。“In the order of the four seasons, each fades when its term is full; it is the nature of the five elements to return once their work is done. Yang at its extreme descends, yin at its extreme rises; the sun at noon begins to set, and the full moon wanes. This is the constant way of Heaven.”— San Ming Tong Hui 《三命通會》, 卷二 · 论五行旺相休囚死并寄生十二宫. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
How the elements are counted in a chart
Every stem and branch has an element, so the eight characters of a chart give a first, rough element profile. Our calculator shows two counts: the eight visible characters (each branch by its main element) and the hidden stems inside the branches. Practitioners go further and weigh each character by the season, by whether a stem has “roots” in the branches, and by combinations that may change an element. Different schools weigh these differently, and some use numeric scoring systems, but there is no single classical formula. That is why we show raw counts and explain the method, rather than printing a percentage that would look more precise than the tradition is.
Elements and the Day Master
Once you know the element of your Day Master, the five elements become five relationships: the element that is the same as you, the one you produce, the one you control, the one that controls you, and the one that produces you. Split by yin and yang, those five relationships become the ten gods. Most of what is called “reading” a chart is working out which of those relationships the chart has too much or too little of — the subject of the useful god page.
Keep learning
Classical quotations are copied from the public-domain texts on Wikisource; links let you check every line. English translations are our own. Traditional Bazi statements are reported as tradition, not as fact.