Five Elements Calculator
Find your Chinese element from your birth date: your BaZi Four Pillars, your Day Master, and how much Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water your chart holds. Free, no sign-up.
Free · no sign-up · calculated in your browser — your birth date is not stored.
How the calculator works
- Your birth moment becomes four pillars. Year, month, day and hour are each written as a pair: one of ten Heavenly Stems over one of twelve Earthly Branches. Four pairs, eight characters — that is what BaZi (“eight characters”) means.
- The calendar is solar-term based. The year turns at Li Chun (around 4 February) and each month turns on its own solar term, not on the 1st and not at Lunar New Year. The calculator handles this for you.
- Every character belongs to one element. The tables below show which. The calculator counts the elements of all eight characters (six if you leave out the hour).
- The Day Master stands for you. It is the stem of the Day pillar. Everything else in a reading is described relative to it.
The arithmetic follows the standard Chinese calendar and is fully reproducible. Our longer write-up of sources and limits is on the method page.
The five elements at a glance
| Element | Colours | Season | Direction | Stones in that colour family |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood 木 | greens | spring | east | prehnite, green phantom quartz, aventurine |
| Fire 火 | reds, purples and pinks | summer | south | amethyst, strawberry quartz, garnet |
| Earth 土 | yellows and browns | the turn of each season | centre | citrine, tiger's eye, smoky quartz |
| Metal 金 | white, silver and metallic tones | autumn | west | clear quartz, blue moonstone, gold rutilated quartz |
| Water 水 | blues and blacks | winter | north | aquamarine, obsidian, kyanite |
The elements move in two cycles. In the generating cycle Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal carries Water, and Water nourishes Wood. In the controlling cycle Wood parts Earth, Earth dams Water, Water quenches Fire, Fire melts Metal, and Metal cuts Wood. This is why a scarce element can be supported directly, or through the element that feeds it. The full stone list is on our five elements and their stones page.
Which element is each character?
Ten Heavenly Stems
- 甲 Jia — Wood
- 乙 Yi — Wood
- 丙 Bing — Fire
- 丁 Ding — Fire
- 戊 Wu — Earth
- 己 Ji — Earth
- 庚 Geng — Metal
- 辛 Xin — Metal
- 壬 Ren — Water
- 癸 Gui — Water
Twelve Earthly Branches
- 子 Zi (Rat) — Water
- 丑 Chou (Ox) — Earth
- 寅 Yin (Tiger) — Wood
- 卯 Mao (Rabbit) — Wood
- 辰 Chen (Dragon) — Earth
- 巳 Si (Snake) — Fire
- 午 Wu (Horse) — Fire
- 未 Wei (Goat) — Earth
- 申 Shen (Monkey) — Metal
- 酉 You (Rooster) — Metal
- 戌 Xu (Dog) — Earth
- 亥 Hai (Pig) — Water
Branches are counted by their main element here. Detailed readings also look at the “hidden stems” inside each branch; this calculator keeps to the main element so that the tally stays easy to check by hand.
From chart to bracelet
We are Qi Yi Crystal, a natural-crystal studio in Taichung, Taiwan. We use the five elements the way a designer uses a palette: the chart suggests a colour family, you choose the stones you actually like, and we string the bracelet by hand to your wrist size. If you want to see what your chart looks like as a bracelet, the BaZi bracelet designer takes the same birth date and lays out a bead-by-bead design you can edit freely. Prefer to start from a mood rather than a birthday? Try design by intention.
In short
Enter a birth date and hour; the calculator derives the Four Pillars from the solar-term calendar, shows your Day Master and counts Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. It is calendar arithmetic offered as a cultural lens — not prediction, and not health or financial advice.
Five elements calculator — FAQ
What is a five elements calculator?
It converts your birth date and hour into the Four Pillars of the Chinese calendar (BaZi) — eight characters, each belonging to Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water — and counts how many of each element your chart contains. This one is free, needs no sign-up and runs in your browser.
How do I find out which Chinese element I am?
In BaZi, 'your' element is the Day Master: the Heavenly Stem of the day you were born. The calculator highlights it in the Day pillar. It is different from the popular 'element of your birth year', which only looks at the year and is shared by everyone born in those twelve months.
My chart is missing an element. Is that bad?
No. Most charts are uneven and many have an element that does not appear at all. Traditional readings do not simply add whatever is missing — they look for the 'favourable element' by weighing the birth season and the strength of the Day Master. The tally is a starting point, not a verdict.
Do I need my exact birth time?
The hour decides the fourth pillar — two of the eight characters. Without it the calculator counts six characters and tells you so. Chinese hours are two-hour blocks, so an approximate time is usually enough. Use the local clock time of your birthplace.
Why does my zodiac animal differ from other websites?
BaZi years begin at Li Chun, the 'Start of Spring' solar term around 4 February, while popular zodiac tables switch at Lunar New Year, which moves between late January and mid-February. If you were born in that window, the two methods can give different animals. This calculator follows the solar-term rule used in BaZi.
Which crystals go with each element?
By colour tradition: Wood with greens (prehnite, green phantom quartz), Fire with reds, purples and pinks (amethyst, strawberry quartz), Earth with yellows and browns (citrine, tiger's eye), Metal with white and metallic tones (clear quartz, moonstone), Water with blues and blacks (aquamarine, obsidian). These are cultural colour correspondences, not claims about effects.
Is this fortune-telling? Who reads my chart?
Nobody reads it — there is no fortune-teller here. The chart is pure calendar arithmetic and the same input always gives the same result. We are a crystal jewellery studio in Taichung, Taiwan, and we use the five elements as a design language for choosing colours. We make no predictions and no health, wealth or luck claims.
Curious about sources and limits? See our method
A real shop in Taichung, Taiwan
Not a drop-shipper, not just a form. Every bracelet is strung by hand in our own shop after you order, then shipped from Taiwan — the photos below are from our workbench.
