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五行

wǔ xíng · Five Elements

The Five Elements (五行, wǔ xíng) — wood, fire, earth, metal and water — are the categories BaZi uses to classify the stems and branches of a chart and to describe how they act on one another. Two fixed cycles govern them: generation (wood→fire→earth→metal→water→wood) and control (wood→earth→water→fire→metal→wood). Neither cycle is good or bad in itself.

Deep Oracle Editorial Team · 2026-08-07 · 2 min read

Reference tables

ElementProducesProduced byControlsControlled by
木火水土金
火土木金水
土金火水木
金水土木火
水木金火土

A phase's strength in a chart is not a count. It is read first from the month branch — the 旺相休囚死 scale below — and then from whether a stem is rooted in the branches. A phase that holds the month can outweigh one that appears more often but is out of season.

Element \ Month子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥
木相囚旺旺囚休休囚死死囚相
火死休相相休旺旺休囚囚休死
土囚旺死死旺相相旺休休旺囚
金休相囚囚相死死相旺旺相休
水旺死休休死囚囚死相相死旺

Worked example

Worked example (solar 1985-01-05 4:00, male, computed by this site's engine):

YearMonthDayHour
Stems甲 (比肩)丙 (食神)甲 (DM)丙 (食神)
Branches子子辰寅

Pattern: 正印格 · Strength: 偏旺 (engine verdicts)

Four wood/water-heavy pillars with no metal at all. The engine reads the Day Master as on the strong side and the pattern as Direct Seal. The absence of one element is descriptive, not a verdict: what matters is whether the chart's dominant force has an outlet, not whether all five boxes are filled.

Related terms

阴阳 · 天干 · 地支 · 日主强弱

Classical sources cited

  • 《子平真诠·论十干十二支》
  • 《尚书·洪范》
  • 《渊海子平》
  • 《三命通会》

Lookup tables are generated from this site's chart engine; quotations are verified against the cited works.

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The Five Elements (Wu Xing) — Production and Control