Glossary of Tử Vi, Four Pillars and five-element terms
Tử Vi charts, the Four Pillars and Vietnamese Mệnh readings are full of Sino-Vietnamese terms such as can chi, cục or vô chính diệu. This glossary explains 42 terms you will meet on this site, in order: the basics, the Four Pillars, Mệnh, Tử Vi, zodiac matches and the daily fortune. Each entry gives the traditional meaning first and then, where it applies, how this site uses the term in its calculations.
Heavenly stems (Thiên can)
The ten characters Giáp, Ất, Bính, Đinh, Mậu, Kỷ, Canh, Tân, Nhâm and Quý (Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui in Chinese). They belong in pairs to Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, the first of each pair being yang and the second yin. Every year, month, day and hour carries one stem. The pairs Giáp–Kỷ, Ất–Canh, Bính–Tân, Đinh–Nhâm and Mậu–Quý are called stem combinations, and the site adds points for them in zodiac matches.
Earthly branches (Địa chi)
The twelve characters Tý, Sửu, Dần, Mão, Thìn, Tỵ, Ngọ, Mùi, Thân, Dậu, Tuất and Hợi, which match the twelve zodiac animals from Rat to Pig. In Vietnam Sửu is the buffalo and Mão is the cat, where China and Korea have the ox and the rabbit. Branches also name the months, the compass directions and the twelve two-hour periods of the day. Trios, pairs, clashes and harms in zodiac matching are all relationships between branches.
Stem-branch pairs and the 60-cycle (Can chi)
Pairing one stem with one branch gives a stem-branch, such as Giáp Tý or Ất Sửu. Because the 10 stems and 12 branches turn together, the sequence runs for 60 pairs, ending at Quý Hợi before returning to Giáp Tý. Years, months, days and hours are all counted in this unbroken 60-cycle. That is why the stem-branch of your birth year comes round again only once every 60 years.
Lunar calendar (Âm lịch)
A calendar whose months follow the phases of the moon, with the first day of each month on the new moon. The East Asian lunar calendar is really lunisolar: it is kept in step with the sun's solar terms, so every few years a month is repeated as a leap month. The site works out the lunar date in the time zone of your country of birth (Vietnam UTC+7, China +8, Korea and Japan +9), so Tết or the first of a month can fall a day apart between countries. If you were born in a leap month, you can choose between two ways of counting it for your chart.
Solar terms (Tiết khí)
The 24 points that divide the sun's yearly path into 15° steps, with names such as Lập Xuân (Start of Spring) and Kinh Trập (Awakening of Insects). Twelve of them open a month, and the Four Pillars use these, not the lunar new moon, to divide the months. So the month pillar changes at the exact moment a solar term begins. The site sets your month pillar from the sun's position at the moment you were born.
Lập Xuân (Start of Spring)
The first solar term of the year, when the sun reaches 315° of longitude, around 4 February. The Four Pillars treat Lập Xuân as New Year, so the year pillar changes on this day. Your zodiac sign and Mệnh, however, change at Tết, so if you were born between Tết and Lập Xuân, your year pillar and your sign can belong to different years. Both are correct within their own system.
Two-hour periods (canh giờ)
The traditional day is divided into twelve periods of two hours each, named after the branches from the Rat (Tý) hour to the Pig (Hợi) hour. The Rat hour runs from 11 pm to 1 am, so the site treats a birth after 11 pm as the Rat hour of the next day when it builds the day pillar and the Tử Vi chart. Before choosing the period, it also converts clock time to local mean solar time using your country's time zone, any daylight saving time and the capital's longitude. If you were born near the edge of a period, check the hour shown in your result.
Five elements (Ngũ hành)
Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water (Mộc, Hỏa, Thổ, Kim, Thủy) are the basis of almost every East Asian fortune method. Stems, branches, Nạp Âm names and stars are each assigned an element, and readings look at whether those elements support or restrain one another. The elements are less about materials than about five kinds of movement: growing, spreading, steadying, gathering and sinking. The site's daily fortune takes its base score from how the day's Nạp Âm element relates to your Mệnh element.
Generating and controlling cycles (tương sinh, tương khắc)
In the generating cycle each element feeds the next: Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal gathers Water and Water nourishes Wood. In the controlling cycle each element restrains another: Wood breaks up Earth, Earth dams Water, Water puts out Fire, Fire melts Metal and Metal cuts Wood. Control is not simply bad, because a little restraint trims what is excessive. In the daily fortune, a day whose element feeds yours scores highest and a day whose element controls yours scores lowest.
Yin and yang (Âm dương)
The idea that everything has two complementary sides: yang is bright, active and outward, yin is dark, still and inward. The stems Giáp, Bính, Mậu, Canh and Nhâm are yang and Ất, Đinh, Kỷ, Tân and Quý are yin; the branches Tý, Dần, Thìn, Ngọ, Thân and Tuất are yang and the other six are yin. In Tử Vi, the yin or yang of your birth-year stem together with your gender decides whether your 10-year periods move forwards or backwards. In the Four Pillars, sharing or not sharing the day master's yin or yang splits each ten-god group in two.
Four Pillars and eight characters (Tứ trụ, Bát tự)
The Four Pillars are your year, month, day and hour of birth, each written as a stem-branch pair. Four pillars of two characters make eight characters, which is why the system is also called Bát Tự in Vietnamese and saju palja in Korean. A Four Pillars reading is mainly about how these eight characters balance the five elements. If you do not enter a birth time, the site shows only the year, month and day pillars.
Day master (day stem)
The stem of your day pillar, which stands for you yourself in a Four Pillars chart; in Vietnamese it is called nhật chủ or nhật can. The other seven characters are read by how they relate to it, so a Giáp day master, for example, is pictured as a tall tree of Wood. This is why two people born in the same year can have very different charts. The site uses the element of your day master as the reference point for strength and the ten gods.
Strong and weak day master (thân vượng, thân nhược)
This describes how much support your day master gets in the chart. Many characters of the same element (Companion) or of the element that feeds it (Resource) make it strong; few make it weak. Traditional readers also weigh the season of birth and the stems hidden inside each branch, so schools sometimes reach different conclusions. The site uses a simple count: if at least half of the characters other than the day master support it, it is strong, and the month branch is counted twice.
Ten gods (Thập thần)
Ten names for how each character relates to the day master, falling into five groups. The same element is Companion (Friend and Rob Wealth), the element you produce is Output (Eating God and Hurting Officer), the element you control is Wealth (Indirect and Direct Wealth), the element that controls you is Authority (Seven Killings and Direct Officer), and the element that produces you is Resource (Indirect and Direct Resource). Within each group, whether the character shares the day master's yin or yang decides which of the two names it takes. The site counts only the five groups, without the yin-yang split, to show your most prominent energy and any group that is missing.
Useful element (Dụng thần)
The element that best balances your chart, or put simply, the element that works like medicine for you. The basic rule is to drain what is excessive and top up what is lacking. In practice, readers also consider the climate of your birth season and how characters combine or clash, so two readers may choose differently. The site simplifies this into "balancing elements": the Output and Wealth elements for a strong day master, and the Resource and Companion elements for a weak one.
Mệnh
In everyday Vietnamese, your mệnh is the Nạp Âm element of your birth year, as in "I am mệnh Kim (Metal)". It comes from the stem-branch of your birth year, so everyone born in the same lunar year shares it, and it changes at Tết rather than on 1 January. Note that in Tử Vi the word Mệnh also names the Life palace, which is a different idea. The site uses your Nạp Âm Mệnh for the daily fortune and for zodiac match scores.
Nạp Âm
A system that groups the 60 stem-branches into 30 consecutive pairs and gives each pair an element with its own image. Giáp Tý and Ất Sửu, for example, are Metal in the Sea (Hải Trung Kim), while Bính Dần and Đinh Mão are Fire in the Furnace (Lư Trung Hỏa). So two Metal people can be read differently: Metal in the Sea is not the same as Sword-edge Metal (Kiếm Phong Kim). Days have stem-branches too, so each day also has a Nạp Âm element, which the site compares with your Mệnh every day.
Element bureau (Cục)
The elemental frame of a Tử Vi chart, which comes in five kinds: Water 2, Wood 3, Metal 4, Earth 5 and Fire 6 (Thủy Nhị Cục to Hỏa Lục Cục). It is found from the Nạp Âm of the stem-branch of your Life palace, and its number, from 2 to 6, is the age at which your first 10-year period begins. Together with your lunar birth day, it also fixes where the Zi Wei star sits. The site lists your element bureau with your chart details.
Tử Vi chart (lá số)
A map built from your lunar year, month, day and hour of birth and your gender, made of twelve cells (palaces) arranged around a frame, each standing for one area of life. People born on the same day but at a different hour, or of a different gender, get different charts. The site draws the chart only when you enter a birth time and gender; the Life palace has a red border and your current 10-year period is shaded yellow.
Palaces and the 12 palaces (cung)
Each cell of the chart is a palace, and each is fixed to one branch. The twelve palaces are Life, Siblings, Spouse, Children, Wealth, Health, Travel, Friends, Career, Property, Wellbeing and Parents, covering yourself, brothers and sisters, your partner, children, money, health, life outside the home, friends and colleagues, work, home, peace of mind and parents. Which palace lands in which cell depends on your birth month and hour. When reading any palace, always look at the palace opposite it as well.
Life palace (cung Mệnh)
The most important palace, describing your inborn character and the main direction of your life. To place it, count forward from the Dần cell as the first month to your birth month, then treat that cell as the Rat hour and count backward to your birth hour. The main stars in the Life palace are the key to the whole reading. The site's interpretation also starts from them.
Body palace (cung Thân)
A second reference point read alongside the Life palace. It is found from the birth month in the same way but by counting forward through the hours, so it always coincides with one of six palaces: Life, Spouse, Wealth, Travel, Career or Wellbeing. A common saying is that the Life palace is what you are given, while the Body palace is where you put your effort, especially from middle age on. On the site's chart it is marked "Body".
Main stars (chính tinh)
The fourteen principal stars of Tử Vi, in two groups. The Zi Wei group is Zi Wei, Tian Ji, Sun, Wu Qu, Tian Tong and Lian Zhen; the Tian Fu group is Tian Fu, Moon, Tan Lang, Ju Men, Tian Xiang, Tian Liang, Qi Sha and Po Jun (in Vietnamese Tử Vi, Thiên Cơ, Thái Dương and so on). Once Zi Wei is placed, the others follow at fixed distances. The site places all 14 and has a separate article on each.
Supporting stars (phụ tinh)
Smaller stars that sit beside the main stars and either strengthen or unsettle them. Traditional charts use many of them, but the ones most often discussed are Zuo Fu and You Bi (help), Wen Chang and Wen Qu (study and writing), Lu Cun (wealth), Qing Yang and Tuo Luo (friction), Di Kong and Di Jie (loss) and Tian Ma (movement). These ten are exactly the supporting stars shown on the site's chart.
Four transformations (Tứ hóa)
Depending on the stem of your birth year, four stars transform into Hóa Lộc, Hóa Quyền, Hóa Khoa and Hóa Kỵ (shown on the site as Lu, Quan, Ke and Ji). Lộc stands for money and opportunity, Quyền for power and initiative, Khoa for reputation and learning, and Kỵ for obstacles and attachment. Which star takes which transformation differs slightly between schools. The site follows the formula common in Vietnam; in Nhâm years, for example, Tian Fu takes Khoa rather than Zuo Fu as in some Chinese schools.
No main star (vô chính diệu)
A palace with none of the 14 main stars. Because 14 stars share 12 palaces and some sit together, most charts have a few palaces without a main star. When the Life palace is empty, the stars of the opposite Travel palace are borrowed to read it, and such people are often said to be strongly shaped by their surroundings. The site borrows the opposite palace's stars in the same way for an empty Life palace or 10-year palace.
Three directions, four squares (tam phương tứ chính)
The four palaces that should be read together: the palace itself, the palace opposite it, and the two palaces four cells away on either side that form a trio with it. For the Life palace these are Life, Wealth, Career and Travel. So when you read character, you also see money and work at the same time. Not judging a chart from a single palace is a basic habit in Tử Vi.
10-year period (đại hạn)
The ten-year stages of luck in a Tử Vi chart. The first one starts in the Life palace at the age given by the element bureau (Metal 4 starts at 4, for example); yang-year men and yin-year women move forwards through the palaces, while yin-year men and yang-year women move backwards. The palace a period passes through sets the main theme of those ten years. The site counts age East Asian style, with the birth year as age 1, to find your current period and shades it yellow.
Yearly minor period (tiểu hạn)
A one-year cycle that is more detailed than the 10-year period. Its starting palace depends on which harmony trio your birth-year branch belongs to, and it then moves one palace a year, forwards for men and backwards for women. If the 10-year period is the weather of a whole season, the minor period is the forecast for each year. The site's chart does not calculate it yet.
Flowing year (lưu niên)
The luck of a particular year, which changes every year. Readers usually take the palace whose branch matches that year as its focus and lay that year's four transformations, based on its stem, over the birth chart. Reading the 10-year period, minor period and flowing year together shows which area of life is moving this year. Instead of a flowing-year reading, the site offers a fortune for each day.
Star brightness (Miếu, Vượng, Hãm)
The same star works more or less strongly depending on which branch cell it sits in, which is often described as its brightness. The levels run from Miếu (brightest) through Vượng, Đắc and Bình to Hãm (dimmest). A bright star shows its good side clearly, while a dim one expresses the same nature in a rougher or weaker way. Brightness tables differ between books, so the site's chart does not mark brightness yet.
Zodiac match (Hợp tuổi)
Checking whether two people get on well, traditionally done before a marriage or a business partnership. The classic method looks at the relationship between the branches (trio, pair, clash or harm), whether the stems combine or control each other, and whether the two Nạp Âm elements generate or control each other. The site's match score uses only the two lunar birth years, weighs these three factors and shows a result between 55% and 99%. It is a fun reference; a relationship is what two people build together.
Harmony trio (Tam hợp)
Three branches four places apart that join into one element: Thân, Tý and Thìn make Water; Dần, Ngọ and Tuất make Fire; Hợi, Mão and Mùi make Wood; and Tỵ, Dậu and Sửu make Metal. Signs in the same trio tend to share goals and a working rhythm, so joint projects go smoothly. The site gives a trio the biggest bonus in zodiac matches and also raises the daily score on days in a trio with your sign.
Six-harmony pair (Lục hợp)
Six pairs of branches that attract each other: Tý–Sửu, Dần–Hợi, Mão–Tuất, Thìn–Dậu, Tỵ–Thân and Ngọ–Mùi. If a trio is a team, a pair is closer to a best friend, so it is especially valued for marriage and partnerships. The site adds points for a pair in zodiac matches and raises the daily score, love in particular, on days that pair with your sign.
Clash (Xung) and the four clashing signs
Two branches directly opposite each other, six places apart: Tý–Ngọ, Sửu–Mùi, Dần–Thân, Mão–Dậu, Thìn–Tuất and Tỵ–Hợi. Vietnamese groups them into three sets of four clashing signs (tứ hành xung): Dần Thân Tỵ Hợi, Tý Ngọ Mão Dậu and Thìn Tuất Sửu Mùi. A clash means friction and change, though opposites can also make up for each other's gaps. The site takes the most points off for a clash in zodiac matches and, on a day that clashes with your sign, reminds you to take care when travelling and with your words.
Harm (Lục hại)
Six pairs of branches that get in the way of each other's harmony pairs: Tý–Mùi, Sửu–Ngọ, Dần–Tỵ, Mão–Thìn, Thân–Hợi and Dậu–Tuất. A harm is not a head-on collision like a clash; it is more about small misunderstandings and resentments that build up. The site takes points off for a harm in zodiac matches, but fewer than for a clash.
Break and punishment (Phá, Hình)
A break is a relationship that spoils the other's plans: Tý–Dậu, Ngọ–Mão, Dần–Hợi, Tỵ–Thân, Thìn–Sửu and Tuất–Mùi. A punishment is one that causes hurt: the triple punishments Dần–Tỵ–Thân and Sửu–Tuất–Mùi, the mutual punishment Tý–Mão, and self-punishment when Thìn, Ngọ, Dậu or Hợi meets itself. Some pairs, such as Dần–Hợi and Tỵ–Thân, are both a harmony pair and a break, so it is best not to judge from one relationship alone. The site's match score leaves breaks and punishments out and uses only trios, pairs, clashes and harms.
Thái Tuế and your zodiac year (năm tuổi)
Thái Tuế is the deity said to govern each year, identified with that year's branch. The year whose branch matches your own sign, which comes round every twelve years, is called năm tuổi in Vietnamese and is traditionally seen as a year of change that calls for care. A year that clashes with your sign is also often said to offend Thái Tuế. Rather than something to fear, treat it as a reminder to avoid rushed decisions and to look after your health and paperwork.
Day stem-branch (Nhật thần)
The stem-branch of a given day. Days also run without a break through the 60-cycle, so the same day stem-branch returns every 60 days. People traditionally used it to choose dates for weddings, groundbreaking and journeys. The site's daily fortune looks at how the day's Nạp Âm element relates to your Mệnh and whether the day's branch forms a trio, a pair or a clash with your sign.
Peach Blossom (Đào hoa)
The star of charm, popularity and romance, named after the peach blossom. For Thân, Tý and Thìn signs it falls on Dậu; for Dần, Ngọ and Tuất on Mão; for Tỵ, Dậu and Sửu on Ngọ; and for Hợi, Mão and Mùi on Tý. A strong Peach Blossom brings admirers but can also make you easily swept up by feelings. The site marks a "Peach Blossom day" when the day's branch matches your sign's Peach Blossom and adds points to your love score.
Prosperity star (Lộc Tồn)
A supporting star of Tử Vi that stands for wealth and good fortune, placed by your birth-year stem: Giáp at Dần, Ất at Mão, Bính and Mậu at Tỵ, Đinh and Kỷ at Ngọ, Canh at Thân, Tân at Dậu, Nhâm at Hợi and Quý at Tý. The cell in front of it always holds Qing Yang (Kình Dương) and the cell behind it Tuo Luo (Đà La). It stands for money you save and keep, and together with Hóa Lộc it is read as a good sign for wealth. The site shows it on your chart as Lu Cun and adds points to your money score on days whose branch matches its position.
Travelling Horse (Dịch mã)
The star of movement, such as long trips, business travel, moving house or going abroad, named after the relay horses of old postal stations. In Tử Vi it is called Thiên Mã and is placed by your sign: Thân, Tý and Thìn at Dần; Dần, Ngọ and Tuất at Thân; Tỵ, Dậu and Sửu at Hợi; and Hợi, Mão and Mùi at Tỵ. People with a strong Horse tend to find opportunities on the move rather than by staying put. The site shows it on your chart as Tian Ma and adds points to your work score on your Travelling Horse days.