The twelve life stages (十二长生)

The twelve stages

San Ming Tong Hui lists the stages in order and calls them a cycle without end:

五行寄生十二宫：长生、沐浴、冠带、临官、帝旺、衰、病、死、墓、绝、胎、养，循环无端，周而复始

“The five elements lodge in twelve palaces: Birth, Bathing, Cap and Belt, Coming to Office, Emperor’s Peak, Decline, Sickness, Death, Tomb, Extinction, Conception and Nurturing — circling without end, beginning again when complete.”

— 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.

The same chapter quotes an older text, San Ming Ti Yao, that explains each stage by analogy with a human life. Two examples:

四曰长生，万物发生向荣，如人始生而向长也

“The fourth is called Birth: all things sprout and flourish, as a person is first born and begins to grow.”

— 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.

十二曰墓，又曰库，以万物成功而藏之库，如人之终而归墓也。

“The twelfth is called Tomb, or Storehouse: when all things have completed their work they are stored away, as a person at the end returns to the tomb.”

— 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.

(That older text counts from Extinction as the first stage, so Birth is its fourth; the order of the cycle is the same.)

Where each stem is born

The cycle starts in a different branch for each stem. The table below gives the standard modern arrangement, in which yang stems go forward through the branches and yin stems go backward — the 阳顺阴逆 rule that the Di Tian Sui discusses in its chapter on branches.

Two features are debated. First, earth: most modern tables, including this one, let 戊 follow fire and 己 follow fire’s yin partner, but some older authors made earth follow water. Second, the yin stems: San Ming Tong Hui explains them with the principle “yang is born where yin dies” (阳生阴死), so that 乙 wood is born in 午 where 甲 dies:

故甲木死于午。经云：木不南奔。正谓此也。

“Therefore Jia wood dies in Wu. The classic says, “Wood does not run south.” This is exactly what it means.”

— San Ming Tong Hui 《三命通會》, 卷二 · 论天干阴阳生死. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.

故稻花开于午时，乙木生于午地。

“That is why rice flowers open at the Wu hour, and Yi wood is born in the Wu place.”

— San Ming Tong Hui 《三命通會》, 卷二 · 论天干阴阳生死. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.

The Di Tian Sui, on the other hand, warns against applying “yang born, yin dies” rigidly:

陽順陰逆，其理固殊，陽生陰死，其論勿執。

“Yang goes forward and yin goes backward — the principle is indeed different; but do not cling to the theory that where yang is born, yin dies.”

— Di Tian Sui (Drops from Heaven’s Marrow) 《滴天髓》, 地支論. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.

Many modern practitioners follow the Di Tian Sui here and judge yin stems mainly by the season of their element rather than by their own separate cycle.

How the stages are used

• Strength of the Day Master. A Day Master at Coming to Office or Emperor’s Peak in the month branch is in season and strong; at Death or Extinction it is out of season. This is one way of expressing the seasonal strength described on the five elements page.
• Roots. A stem sitting on its Birth or Peak branch is well rooted.
• Tombs as storehouses. The four tomb branches 辰 戌 丑 未 store an element, which can be released by a clash — see combinations and clashes.

Not a list of good and bad

The labels sound dramatic, but San Ming Tong Hui explicitly warns against reading them as fortune:

凡推造化，见生旺者未必便作吉论，见休囚死绝未必便作凶言。如生旺太过，宜乎制伏，死绝不及，宜乎生扶，妙在识其通变。

“In reckoning fate, when you see Birth or Peak, do not necessarily call it auspicious; when you see Rest, Confinement, Death or Extinction, do not necessarily call it inauspicious. If Birth and Peak are excessive, they should be restrained; if Death and Extinction are insufficient, they should be supported. The art lies in recognising change.”

— 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.

A stem at “Death” is simply out of season, not doomed; a stem at its “Peak” in a chart that already has too much of that element may be the problem rather than the solution.

A worked example

Take a 甲 wood Day Master. Its cycle starts at 亥 (Birth) and runs forward: 子 Bathing, 丑 Cap and Belt, 寅 Coming to Office, 卯 Emperor’s Peak, 辰 Decline, 巳 Sickness, 午 Death, 未 Tomb, 申 Extinction, 酉 Conception, 戌 Nurturing. If this Day Master is born in a 寅 or 卯 month, it is at Coming to Office or Peak: in season and strong. Born in a 申 month, it is at Extinction, out of season — but if the chart has 亥 or 卯 in other branches, it still has roots, and if the year and hour stems are water, it has support. The life stage of the month is one input among several, not the verdict.

The stages and the hidden stems agree

The twelve stages also explain the hidden stems table. Each of the four “growth” branches holds the stem that is born there (寅 holds 丙, 申 holds 壬, 巳 holds 庚, 亥 holds 甲). Each storage branch holds the element whose tomb it is (辰 holds 癸 water, 戌 holds 丁 fire, 丑 holds 辛 metal, 未 holds 乙 wood). Once you know one system, the other is easy to remember.

Common questions

Why do yin stems run backward?

Because, in the theory recorded by San Ming Tong Hui, yin and yang are born and die in opposite places. Not every author accepts this, as the Di Tian Sui quotation above shows; some modern practitioners use only the five yang cycles and apply them to both stems of each element.

Do the stages apply to luck pillars?

Yes. Practitioners look up the Day Master’s stage in the branch of each luck pillar as one way of describing whether that decade supports it.

In your chart

Look up your Day Master in the table and find the stage of each of your four branches, starting with the month. For a yang Day Master, Birth, Coming to Office or Peak in the month means it is in season. For yin stems the yin-backward stages do not line up with the seasons in the same way (乙 is “born” in 午, in summer), so most practitioners judge season by the element of the month instead. We plan to add the twelve stages to the calculator output; until then, the calculator gives you the branches to look up.

Keep learning

More in Bazi basics, plus core guides — or go back to the Bazi calculator home page.

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.