Four Pillars of Destiny

Term: Birth Chart
Chinese name
Chinese生辰八字
Hanyu Pinyinshēngchén bāzì
Cantonese Yalesāangsàhn baatjih
Literal meaningBirth Time Eight Characters
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinshēngchén bāzì
Bopomofoㄕㄥ ㄔㄣˊ ㄅㄚ ㄗˋ
Wade–Gilessheng1 ch'en2 pa1 tzu4
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanizationsāangsàhn baatjih
Jyutpingsaang1san4 baat3zi6
Southern Min
Hokkien POJSeng-sîn Poeh-jī
Tâi-lôSing-sîn Pueh-jī
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetSinh thần Bát tự
Chữ Hán生辰八字
Term: Four Pillars
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese四柱命理學
Simplified Chinese四柱命理学
Hanyu Pinyinsì zhù mìnglǐ xué
Cantonese Yalesei chyúh mehngléih hohk
Literal meaning"Four Pillars of Life" Studies
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinsì zhù mìnglǐ xué
Wade–Gilesszu4 chu4 ming4 li3 hsüeh2
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanizationsei chyúh mehngléih hohk
Jyutpingsei3 cyu5 meng6 lei5 hok6
Southern Min
Hokkien POJSì-chū Bēng-lí-ha̍k
Tâi-lôSì-tsū Bīng-lí-ha̍k
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese子平命理
Hanyu Pinyinzipíng mìnglǐ
Cantonese Yalejípìhng mehngléih
Literal meaningMethod Divination
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinzipíng mìnglǐ
Wade–Gilestzup'ing2 ming4 li3
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanizationjípìhng mehngléih
Jyutpingzi2 ping4 meng6 lei5
Southern Min
Hokkien POJChú-pêng Bēng-lí
Tâi-lôTsú-pîng Bīng-lí
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetTứ trụ mệnh lý
Chữ Hán四柱命理
Korean name
Hangul사주
Hanja四柱
Literal meaningFour Pillars Eight Characters
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationSaju
McCune–ReischauerSaju
Japanese name
Kanji四柱推命
Hiraganaしちゅうすいめい
Transcriptions
RomanizationShichū Suimei

The Four Pillars of Destiny, as known as "Ba-Zi", which means "eight characters" or "eight words" in Chinese, is a Chinese astrological concept that a person's destiny or fate can be divined by the two sexagenary cycle characters assigned to their birth year, month, day, and hour. This type of cosmological astrology is also widely used in South Korea, Japan and Vietnam.