Should I Treat Bazi as Astrology?

There is a belief that Bazi has nothing to do with astrology since Bazi emphasizes the Five Elements as key contributors to the Bazi chart. It is as if the five elements are actors who perform a specific play in the theater of our lives.


But if we look more closely into Bazi and astrology, will we find any significant difference between these two? As a matter of fact, five elements were aligned with the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches much later than the Chinese Calendar was introduced.

Originally the primary subjects of Bazi were 10 Heavenly Stems:

甲 (Jia, Yang Wood), 乙 (Yi, Yin Wood), 丙 (Bing, Yang Fire), 丁 (Ding, Yin Fire), 戊 (Wu, Yang Earth, 己 (Ji, Yin Earth), 庚 (Geng, Yang Metal), 辛 (Xin, Yin Metal), 壬 (Ren, Yang Water), 癸 (Gui, Yin Water).

And 12 Earthly Branches (twelve Zodiac signs), which comprise the part of the astrological system:

Dragon (辰 – Chen), Snake (巳 – Si), Horse (午 – Wu), Goat (未 – Wei), Monkey (申 – Shen), Rooster (酉 – You), Dog (戌 – Xu), Pig (亥 – Hai), Rat (子 – Zi), Ox (丑 – Chou), Tiger (寅 – Yin), and Rabbit (卯 – Mao).

Simply put, 10 Heavenly Stems are 10 planets of the solar system, while 12 Earthly Branches are 12 sections representing specific constellations.

So, if we look at Bazi this way, we can conclude that it resembles Western astrology in a way since it has 10 planets of the solar system and 12 sections of the specific Zodiac signs at its core. The main difference is the five elements that were introduced later. Therefore, we can conclude that Bazi is a specific form of astrology – a tool to read destiny.

Even if the main subject of your interest is Feng Shui, you might have to learn some information on Bazi first to grasp the essence of this art. Would you like to know how these two are connected? Stay tuned for more articles!

In the meantime, discover some free Bazi features in an online web app at finastro.io.

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