The History of BaZi: From Oracle-Bone Calendars to the Classic Texts
BaZi grew out of one of the world's oldest calendar systems. Here's its history, from stems and branches on Shang-dynasty oracle bones to Li Xuzhong, Xu Ziping, the classic texts and its spread to Korea and Japan.
The history of BaZi stretches back more than three thousand years. Its building blocks — the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches — were already used to record days on oracle bones in the late Shang dynasty. The method of describing a person from the year, month and day of their birth took shape in the Tang dynasty, gained its fourth pillar and its modern focus in the Song, was refined in later classic texts, and spread to Korea and Japan.
This guide walks through that history in order, using published sources. For what BaZi is and how a chart works, start with our guide to what BaZi is.
The calendar comes first
BaZi is built on the traditional Chinese calendar, so its story starts there. The calendar labels time with pairs of characters: one of ten Heavenly Stems and one of twelve Earthly Branches. Together they form a repeating cycle of sixty pairs.
That cycle is very old. It was used to record days on oracle bones — inscribed bones and shells from the court of the late Shang dynasty, around 1250 to 1050 BC. Using the same cycle to count years came much later, from around the middle of the third century BC.
So long before anyone used it to describe a person, the stem–branch cycle was simply a way of keeping time.
Yin, yang and the five phases
The second ingredient is a way of thinking about change. Yin and yang describe complementary qualities, and the five phases — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — describe how things grow, change and balance one another.
The philosopher Zou Yan (c. 305–240 BC) is associated with early five-phase thought, in which each phase has its own character or "virtue". The theory was brought together into a single system during the Han dynasty, in the second or first century BC. From then on, stems and branches were linked to the five phases and to yin and yang — the link that later made BaZi possible.
The Tang dynasty: Li Xuzhong and three pillars
The person traditionally credited with turning the calendar into a method for describing people is Li Xuzhong, an official of the Tang dynasty. We know about him partly because the famous writer Han Yu wrote his epitaph.
Han Yu says Li Xuzhong was "most deeply versed in the books of the five phases", and that he worked from the stems and branches of the year, month and day of a person's birth, weighing how they produced and checked one another. Han Yu also notes that people who tried to learn the method found it convincing at first, then could not hold on to it. Li Xuzhong died in 813 at the age of 52.
His method used three pillars — year, month and day. The hour of birth was not yet part of it.
The Song dynasty: Xu Ziping and the fourth pillar
The next major step is credited to Xu Ziping, usually dated to the Song dynasty (960–1279). He is said to have added the hour of birth as the fourth pillar, giving the eight characters that BaZi is named after. In many accounts, he also moved the centre of interpretation to the stem of the day pillar — what we now call the Day Master.
That's why BaZi is also known as the Ziping method. The Yuanhai Ziping (淵海子平), a collection compiled in the Song and revised in the Ming, became one of its foundational texts.
The Ming dynasty: two classic texts
Two Ming-dynasty works are still widely cited today:
- *The Sanming Tonghui (三命通會).* A twelve-volume work by the scholar Wan Minying, it brought together the older methods from before the Song and the later Ziping method.
- *The Ditian sui (滴天髓).* A short text in verse, traditionally attributed to Liu Ji (1311–1375), the famous adviser to the first Ming emperor. The original is so terse and cryptic that it needed commentaries to be understood.
The Qing dynasty: the great commentaries
The Ditian sui became influential through its commentaries:
- *The Ditian sui jiyao (滴天髓輯要)* by Chen Su'an, a 17th-century official, was the first commentary on the text.
- *The Ditian sui chanwei (滴天髓闡微)* by Ren Tieqiao (born 1773), published after 1820, expanded on it greatly and included 512 example charts.
Commentaries like these are how the tradition was taught and passed on: each generation explained the older texts in its own words.
Beyond China: Korea and Japan
BaZi also travelled. In Korea it's known as saju (四柱, "four pillars") and has been practised since at least the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392). In Japan it's called shichū suimei (四柱推命). Each tradition adapted the method in its own way while keeping the same calendar at its core.
Today BaZi is still widely used in Chinese communities around the world.
What the history tells us — and what it doesn't
BaZi's long history shows how carefully generations of scholars observed and described people. It doesn't settle the question of accuracy. There's no scientific evidence that BaZi can predict specific events. Many people use it instead as a structured framework for self-reflection. Our guide on whether BaZi is accurate looks at that question in more detail.
Frequently asked questions
How old is BaZi?
Its calendar of stems and branches goes back more than 3,000 years, to the late Shang dynasty. The method of describing a person from their birth date dates from the Tang dynasty, and the full four-pillar form from the Song.
Who invented BaZi?
No single person. Li Xuzhong of the Tang dynasty is traditionally credited with the three-pillar method, and Xu Ziping of the Song with adding the hour pillar and centring it on the Day Master.
Why is BaZi called the Ziping method?
After Xu Ziping, who is credited with the four-pillar form that is used today.
What are the classic BaZi texts?
The Yuanhai Ziping, the Sanming Tonghui and the Ditian sui, together with its commentaries, are among the most often cited.
Is BaZi used outside China?
Yes. It's known as saju in Korea and shichū suimei in Japan.
See your Four Pillars in Dewen
Dewen is an AI life advisor, and we mainly use BaZi to help you understand yourself. In Dewen you can see your Four Pillars and your Day Master, then talk through what fits, what doesn't and what it suggests about how you decide and relate to others. The final call is always yours. See your Four Pillars in Dewen.