Palaces of the BaZi Chart
Updated October 26, 2026
Each of the four pillars of a BaZi chart is not only a date written in characters but also a "palace" (宫): an area of life to which the tradition ties its contents. Palaces answer the question "where": in which area of life a given relationship to the Day Master is more likely to show up. The Ten Gods answer the question "what". Together they turn a list of characters into a meaningful description. How the pillars themselves are built is covered in The Four Pillars.
The four palaces: a table
| Pillar | Palace | What the tradition links to it | Stage of life |
|---|---|---|---|
| year | palace of family background | parents and lineage, family background, outer context, society | early years |
| month | palace of environment | the environment in which a person is formed, career, siblings, colleagues | youth |
| day | stem — the person; branch — the spouse palace | the Day Master; partnership and close relationships, personal space | maturity |
| hour | palace of children | children, students, projects and ventures, later plans | later life |
Schools differ slightly in the details: some link the month above all to the parents, others to career and environment. In the Bazi.uz methodology the month is environment and career, and the year is parents, lineage and outer context. The stages of life are a loose marking rather than age limits: how the chart unfolds over time is described more precisely by the Luck Pillars.
It is important to note what palaces do not do. They do not describe specific people and do not allow conclusions about one's parents, partner or children. A palace shows through which area of life a person tends to live out a particular theme of their chart. A Bazi.uz reading uses palaces in exactly this way and makes no forecasts about marriage, children or family.
Stem and branch within a palace
Each pillar has two storeys. The stem is what is visible: how the palace's theme shows up outwardly. The branch is the foundation: what lies in the depths, what the area rests on.
The day pillar is a special case. Its stem is the Day Master itself, the centre of the chart against which all Ten Gods are counted. The day branch is the spouse palace (夫妻宫): the place closest to the Day Master, "what it sits on". In the tradition this is the area of partnership and the closest relationships and, more broadly, of personal space, home and whatever a person lets in.
Hidden Stems — the contents of the palaces
A branch is not a single element but a set of Hidden Stems. The main qi sets the palace's core character, and the secondary stems add nuances. Each Hidden Stem is one of the Ten Gods in relation to the Day Master. So the question "what is in the palace" is answered like this: take the branch, list its Hidden Stems and determine what each one is to the Day Master.
| What is in the palace | How it is usually read |
|---|---|
| Friend or Rob Wealth | an area with a lot of self, independence, partnership on equal terms |
| Eating God or Hurting Officer | an area of expression, creativity, the spoken and written word |
| Wealth | an area of practical results, resources, management |
| Power (Direct Officer, Seven Killings) | an area of demands, responsibility, discipline |
| Resource | an area of support, learning, grounding |
For example, Wealth in the month palace is usually read as an inclination towards work where practical results and managing resources matter; Resource in the hour palace as an interest in learning and passing on knowledge within long projects. This describes types of tasks and tendencies, not a forecast of events.
Day Master:甲Jia, Yang WoodStrength: leaning weak
In the example the day branch is 申 (Shen), the spouse palace. It holds Geng (Seven Killings, main qi), Ren (Indirect Resource) and Wu (Indirect Wealth); the spouse palace clashes with the hour branch 寅.
Example: the spouse palace 申
In the reference example the pillars are 丙寅 (hour), 甲申 (day), 辛巳 (month) and 庚午 (year); the Day Master is 甲, Yang Wood. The day branch 申 is the spouse palace. Here is what it holds:
- 庚 Geng, main qi — Seven Killings. Metal, which controls Wood. In the tradition Seven Killings in the spouse palace describes an area of close relationships with a lot of intensity, demands, responsibility and directness. This characterises the atmosphere of the area, not any particular person.
- 壬 Ren — Indirect Resource. Water, which nourishes Wood: the same area also holds support and room for an unconventional view. For a Day Master assessed as leaning weak, Water is a favourable element.
- 戊 Wu — Indirect Wealth. Earth: the practical side, shared resources and joint affairs.
The other palaces of the example: in the hour 丙寅 — Eating God in the stem and the Day Master's root (Jia, the main qi of 寅); in the month 辛巳 — Direct Officer in the stem and Eating God as main qi; in the year 庚午 — Seven Killings in the stem and Hurting Officer as main qi. Even from this it is clear that the theme of demands and responsibility (Power) runs through the year, month and day palaces, while the theme of expression (Eating God, Hurting Officer) runs through the year, month and hour.
How the palaces connect
Palaces are not read in isolation. The tradition pays attention to three links.
A stem's support in its own branch. If a visible stem finds its own element among the Hidden Stems of its branch, it is said to "sit on a root": the palace's theme shows up steadily. If the branch controls the stem, the theme is visible but holds less firmly.
Adjacency. Neighbouring palaces influence each other more than distant ones. Month and day are the pair usually read first: environment and career next to the person and their personal space.
The place of a god. In the tradition some gods are considered especially well placed in certain palaces: for example, Direct Officer or Resource in the month palace is described as an inclination towards working in stable structures with clear rules. But this is always a refinement, not a verdict: the final reading depends on the Day Master's strength and the favourable elements.
A clash between palaces
When the branches of two pillars form a clash, the tradition reads it as tension or mobility between two areas. In the example the day branch 申 clashes with the hour branch 寅: the spouse palace and the palace of children and projects. The usual description is that the personal sphere and one's own long-term ventures tend to compete for time and energy, and the spouse palace itself is mobile. The support is touched as well: 寅 holds the Day Master's root.
The same rule works over time. If the branch of an annual pillar or a Luck Pillar stands opposite the branch of a palace, the tradition says that palace "is set in motion" during that period. A Bazi.uz reading takes clashes within the chart into account; matching them against the year and the Luck Pillar is a developing part of the methodology.
If the birth time is unknown
Without a birth time there is no hour pillar, and therefore no palace of children and later plans. In that case the reading states plainly that the chart is incomplete and draws no conclusions about the hour palace. See Unknown Birth Time.
How to read the palaces of your chart
- For each pillar, identify the god of the visible stem.
- List the Hidden Stems of the branch and their gods, main qi first.
- Look separately at the spouse palace — the day branch.
- Check whether the branches of the palaces clash with each other.