The Four Pillars of Destiny is an important
component of Chinese fortune telling. The 'four pillars' refers to the year,
month, day and hour pillars of a birthday and birth hour in Chinese solar
calendar. It is also known as the 'eight characters of birth time', the
Chinese term ”八字“ which
means "eight characters" is represented by four pairs of
characters respectively saying the year, month, day and hour of a birth time.
Two characters in each pair are made up of one character from the Heavenly
Stems (天干)and one from the Earthly Branches (地支).
Traditionally match-makers would ask for
"8 characters" of the marriageable girl & boy, have them
evaluated to see whether these two make a good match. If it turns out that they
do not match, very likely the marriage arrangement would fail under opposition
of parents of both.
Above picture shows the 12 two-hour periods into which the day was
traditionally divided, each 2-hours is called Shichen (时辰), and each being given the name of one of the 12 Earthly
Branches. This is the hour info in the "8 Characters".
It has only eight characters, but the
relation of the eight characters is very complicated. According to the four
pillars' representation theory, year pillar represents ancestors and parents;
month pillar represents brothers and sisters; day stem represents oneself; day
branch represent spouse; hour pillar represents offspring. In addition, the
heavenly stems have their own characteristics which are related to the Five Elements (五行). The missing element in a baby's 'eight characters of birth time'
will be usually added into its name as an action of compensation. Among the ten
heavenly stems, there are compatible and opposite relations. While among the
earthly branches, the relations are more complex, combination, clash,
restriction, harm, etc. Abundant relationships may have accurate explanation on
the luck of one self or relatives.