The Ten Gods in BaZi: A Map of Relationships to the Day Master

The ten gods in BaZi are a map of relationships to the day master. Each other stem receives one name based on two facts: how its element sits against the day master’s element, and whether its polarity matches. The map has five relationships and a split inside each, which is why there are ten names and not five. The names are professional guidance about a chart. They are not job titles, not criminal charges, and not an order to become someone else.

Key facts

The day stem is only the reference. No ten-god label is aimed back at that stem.
Peer row: matching polarity is Companion (比肩); the other polarity is Rob Wealth (劫财). Both share the day master’s element.
Output row: the child element. Matching polarity is Eating God (食神). The other polarity is Hurting Officer (伤官).
Wealth row: the element restrained by the day master. Matching polarity is Indirect Wealth (偏财). The other is Direct Wealth (正财).
Officer row: the element that restrains the day master. Matching polarity is Seven Killings (七杀). The other is Direct Officer (正官).
Resource row: the parent element. Matching polarity is Indirect Resource (偏印). The other is Direct Resource (正印). A blank hour simply omits the hour stem.

How to use the map without memorizing folklore

Pick the day master. Name its element and polarity. Take the next stem. If it is the same element, you are in the peer row. If the day master produces it, you are in the output row. If the day master controls it, you are in the wealth row. If it controls the day master, you are in the officer row. If it produces the day master, you are in the resource row. Then look at polarity. Match and mismatch choose the column. That is the entire map. What BaZi is shows this once in the introduction. The four pillars tell you the stem might be on the year, the month, or the hour, and that the room matters when you talk about the god. The map itself does not change by room. The story you are tempted to tell does.

English glosses are a help and a trap. Officer sounds like a boss. Wealth sounds like a balance. Rob Wealth sounds like theft. Hurting Officer sounds like injury. Seven Killings sounds like violence. The glosses are conventional. The calculation underneath is element and polarity. When you teach the map, teach the calculation in the same sentence as the gloss, or the gloss will run away with the class. The disclaimer is the standing limit on what a scary gloss may decide. It may not decide health, guilt, or money.

Visible stems are the first layer, and the light chart stops there for the god labels, together with element balance and the useful-element sketch. Hidden stems inside branches can carry gods too. That is why a branch can “contain” a relationship the top character does not show. The full chart is where those stored gods are part of the longer reading. You do not need them to understand the map. You need them when you want the map applied to every stored stem.

What the five rows are for

Peers are the same element as the day master. The reading talks about colleagues, competition, and standing beside oneself, in symbolic language. Output is what the day master produces. The reading talks about expression, craft, and making. Wealth is what the day master controls. The reading talks about what can be handled or acquired, still without a number. Officer is pressure and structure, the element that checks the day master. Resource is what feeds the day master: study, shelter, documents, care, in the same symbolic register. If the resource row shows up twice, that chart is not the same picture as one where the officer row shows up twice, even with an unchanged day stem. Noticing which row repeats is the first useful pass. Counting to ten as if all gods should appear is not. Most charts show a few.

Strength decides which rows the useful element prefers. A stronger day master is usually steered toward output, wealth, and officer. A thinner one toward resource and peers. The map names the rows. The season decides the emphasis. Neither step assigns a profession. A month stem that falls in the officer row does not mean the person must hold a civil-service post. It means the month stem’s element checks the day master and the polarity picked one of the two officer names.

A portfolio review at 16:00

A designer has Direct Officer as the month stem and says, “The map says I must become a civil servant.” Their actual next commitment is a portfolio review at 16:00 with a design director, in the job they already have. Direct Officer is the opposite-polarity name for the element that controls the day master. It can be read as structure and visible rules in the month’s climate. It cannot resign them from a design job or appoint them to a ministry. They should take the 16:00 review and discuss the work. The map can be opened later at BaZi if they want every stem labeled. The director is not waiting for a ten-god translation.

If two meeting times were offered and both were optional, a date tool could rank them. Pick a Good Day does not read ten gods. Natal labels and civil day officers are different maps. Using one as if it were the other is how a 16:00 review becomes a superstition.

Polarity is the column, not a compliment

Same polarity is not “the good column.” On our calculation, same polarity gives Companion, Eating God, Indirect Wealth, Seven Killings, and Indirect Resource. Opposite polarity gives Rob Wealth, Hurting Officer, Direct Wealth, Direct Officer, and Direct Resource. Direct is not a moral prize. Indirect is not a stain. The full chart applies the same columns to hidden stems. BaZi Four Pillars separates that layer from the light chart. Prices, when listed, are $12.99 and $19.99.

Adults only. Do not map a child’s stems into gods that sound like jobs or faults. We do not cast minors.

A study order

Name the day master. Label the visible stems with rows before you use the Chinese. Check polarity second if the row is clear and the column is fuzzy. Only then read hidden stems. If a gloss scares you, translate it back to the row: “this is officer, same polarity,” and drop the thriller noun until you can say it calmly. The useful-element sentence comes after, not before, so you do not pick a favorite god and call it useful.

What this is not

This is not a career assignment, a charge sheet, or a family tree. It is not entertainment. The ten gods are a relationship map to the day master, used as professional guidance. Five element ties, two polarities, ten names. The 16:00 review is a design meeting. The month stem does not chair it.

Label the stems, then close the map

Opening the chart does not charge you. Use the map on the stems you have, keep the glosses tied to the calculation, and let the work meeting be about the work. Help answers what an unknown hour does to the map: one less stem, not a guessed god.