The four pillars and where they are cut
The four pillars are not a calendar date copied into eight characters. Year, month, day, and hour each have their own edge. Move an edge and the characters move.
Editorial review: 2026-09-22 · Reviewed by fateshow · Editorial method
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How the four pillars are cut
How the four pillars are cut
BaZi cuts a birth into four stem-branch pairs: year, month, day, and hour. The four cuts are not the same line, so a calendar date is not yet a chart.
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Day boundary and true solar time
The day boundary and true solar time
The chart records when the day pillar turns, and whether longitude pushes the hour pillar into the next cell. Zi Wei’s late-Zi rule does not stand in for this one.
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Four cuts, four different edges
The year pillar watches Beginning of Spring, not New Year’s Day. The month pillar watches the solar term, not the calendar month. The day pillar is one day in a continuous count. The hour pillar is about two hours. Separate the four before reading ten gods.
Use the boundaries on the report
If true solar time, the day boundary, or the historical timezone changes, the pillars can change with them. fateshow keeps the settings that were in force on the chart. Copy those before you compare.
The day before a solar term
Illustration: the date is the day before Beginning of Spring. The year pillar still belongs to the previous year. The calendar year having turned does not rewrite the year stem. The month pillar likewise waits for the term, not for the first of the month. This is not a comparison of two lives.
Common mistakes
- Treating all four edges as midnight.
- Comparing charts without the switches printed on them.
- Translating the pillars into twelve palaces.
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Frequently asked questions
Why does the month pillar often not match the birth month?
The month pillar follows solar terms. Those terms often fall around the fourth to the eighth of a calendar month, so “March” is not yet a pillar.
Is Beginning of Spring the same as the BaZi day change?
No. Beginning of Spring cuts the year. The day change cuts the day pillar, and the chart may use 23:00 or 00:00. Read them separately.
Can a historical timezone change the characters?
Yes. If the birthplace used a different standard time that year, restoring it can move the hour pillar and sometimes the day pillar. Use the correction on the chart.
Sources and editorial basis
- 1. fateshow chart rule snapshot
Each generated report stores the engine settings that produced it. Compare those settings before treating two charts as the same calculation.
- 2. fateshow interpretation dictionary
Plain-language tendencies used in reports. They describe conditions and cautions, not fixed personality or inevitable outcomes.