Verified Luck-Pillar Records: First Three Examples

What Da Yun means: a worked timeline

Da Yun (大运) is the sequence of roughly ten-year luck pillars used in BaZi to describe changing periods of influence. The natal chart remains fixed at birth, while Da Yun supplies the decade-level context and Liu Nian (流年), the annual pillar, supplies the context for an individual year.

Each pillar contains a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch. Reading a luck period therefore involves both characters: the stem expresses one relationship to the Day Master, and the branch adds its own elements, hidden stems, and relationships with the natal chart.

Consider a hypothetical woman born on 1980-08-07 at 13:00. Her four natal pillars are:

Her Day Master is 壬, Yang Water, the Heavenly Stem of her day pillar. This remains the reference point for naming Ten Gods throughout her natal chart, luck periods, and annual pillars.

Her first three Da Yun periods are:

These dates identify successive contexts around the same natal chart. During 辛巳, for example, her natal month pillar remains 癸未; 辛巳 joins the reading as the active luck pillar.

A common misconception is that “luck” means a universally fortunate decade. Here, the word names a timing layer; its meaning comes from the relationships between the incoming pillar and the natal chart.

Ten God labels in her three luck periods

The Ten Gods classify relationships to the Day Master through element and yin–yang polarity. For this woman, every label is anchored to 壬 Water.

1991–2001: 壬午 — 壬 is 比肩, Peer. 壬 matches her Day Master in both element and polarity: Yang Water meeting Yang Water. 比肩 belongs to the peer category, traditionally associated with self-directed activity, equals, and shared participation. Compare this with 癸劫财, already visible in her natal month stem. 癸 is Yin Water: the same element as 壬, but the opposite polarity. Both are peer relationships, distinguished as 比肩 and 劫财 by polarity.

2001–2011: 辛巳 — 辛 is 正印, Direct Resource. Metal generates Water, so Metal stems belong to the Resource category for 壬. 辛 is Yin Metal, opposite in polarity to Yang Water, making it 正印. Traditional interpretation connects Direct Resource with receiving instruction, established knowledge, protection, and support. Her natal year stem 庚 also belongs to Resource, giving a useful comparison within her own chart.

2011–2021: 庚辰 — 庚 is 偏印, Indirect Resource. 庚 is Yang Metal. It generates 壬 Water and shares its yang polarity, so its label is 偏印. Indirect Resource is associated with specialized understanding, selective learning, and less conventional forms of support. Thus 辛正印 and 庚偏印 share the Metal-generates-Water relationship while expressing different polarity relationships.

The stem label describes one part of each pillar. 午 contains 丁 and 己; 巳 contains 丙, 庚, and 戊; 辰 contains 戊, 乙, and 癸. Ask two separate questions: What relationship does the visible stem introduce, and what additional relationships are carried inside the branch?

Reading natal, luck, and annual layers together

Use her 2006 丙戌 annual pillar, which falls within the 2001–2011 辛巳 luck period, to keep the three layers distinct:

• Natal foundation: 庚申、癸未、壬子、丁未.
• Decade context: 辛巳, with 辛正印 visible above 巳.
• Annual context: 丙戌, with 丙偏财 visible above 戌.

For 壬 Water, Fire is Wealth because Water controls Fire. 丙 is Yang Fire, sharing 壬’s polarity, so it is 偏财, Indirect Wealth. Her natal hour stem 丁 is Yin Fire and therefore 正财, Direct Wealth. This gives a precise comparison between an annual relationship and an existing natal relationship.

The annual 丙偏财 operates within the decade’s 辛正印 context. Meanwhile, 巳 already contains 丙, so the annual stem brings into view a relationship also present among the decade branch’s hidden stems. 戌 contains 戊, 辛, and 丁, adding Seven Killings, Direct Resource, and Direct Wealth relative to 壬.

Useful reading questions follow naturally: Which relationships recur across layers? Which appear openly as stems, and which remain within branches? Which natal stems or branches receive a new counterpart from the decade or year? Keep 壬 as the reference throughout, and distinguish each relationship’s timing layer before interpreting their interaction.

To locate your own starting point, enter your birth date and hour in the free BaZi chart calculator to obtain your four natal pillars.