Starting Age For The First Luck Pillar in Four Pillars of Destiny Bazi Chart

There are two ways to work out the starting age for the first luck pillar, or decade pillar in Chinese Astrology Four Pillars of Destiny.

The first way is easy and simple. We all love simple and easy way of doing things. Just count the number of days between the birthday and the next or previous Jit. Then use the total number of days divided by 3 (each day equals four months). The quotient is the starting age for the first luck pillar.

For your information, some traditional masters will plus another year to the starting age. It is because the 10 months in the Mother’s tummy count as one year. In my experience, I found that the actually age is easier for clients to understand.

You may ask there is a remainder 1 or 2 when a number is divided by 3, How to deal with them?

For remainder 1, it is to be rounded down.
For remainder 2, it is to be rounded up.

All in all, it will have four months time shift. However, if we are using a Four Pillar or Bazi software to calculate the natal chart in the future. We don’t need to worry about it. As I said earlier we need to know the procedures on how to create a 4 Four Pillars chart including Luck Pillars manually.

Normally, a number divided by 3, it will have a remainder of 1 or 2. So if the remainder is 1, just use the quotient as the starting age for the first luck pillar. For example 10 days divided by 3, the quotient is 3 and the remainder is 1. As a result, starting age 3 is to be used. (The actually starting age for the first luck pillar is 3 years & 4 months)

If the number of the days between the birthday and the previous or the next Jit is 11, then 11 divided by 3 = 3…R2. In this case, starting age 4 is used. (The actually starting age for the first luck pillar is 3 years & 8 months)

How do we know to count the number of days backward (to the previous Jit) or forward (to the next Jit)?

To count the day to the Next or Previous Jit, we look at the birth year and the gender of the person. It is the same way of working out the Luck Pillars directions.

The formula to work out the starting age for the first luck pillar:

The formula for the first Luck Pillar starting age to count forward (clockwise) or backward (anti-clockwise) are:

1. The Yang Male Yin Female (+Male –Female) the Luck Pillars go forward (clockwise).
2. The Yang Female Yin Male (+female –Male) the Luck Pillars go backward (anti-clockwise).

Using the example in the How to construct a Four Pillars Natal Chart!, 10pm 11th August, 1965. Let say this is a male chart.
He is a male. The birth year Yi wood is Yin. It meets the second condition. The direction of counting the total number of the days from the birth day goes backward (anti-clockwise).

The previous Jit is on the 8th August. It is 4 days in between inclusive. 4 divided by 3 = 1...R1. So the starting age for the first luck pillar of this example is 1 year old.

On the other hand, if the gender of the person for this example is a female, then we count the total number of the days from the birth day to the NEXT Jit.

The next Jit is on the 8th Sept. The total number of the days is 29 days.
29 / 3 = 9…r2. It is to be rounded up. We get the starting age for the first luck pillar is 10.
Luck Pillars control 10 years of luck. For this example, the first luck pillar controls the age from 10 – 19.