This page explains XuanSeal's charting and interpretation principles so you can understand why results are stable, how to apply them, and where the boundaries are.
- Required: birth date and birthplace.
- Optional: exact birth time (unknown-time mode is available).
- Optional: true solar time adjustment when location and timezone context are complete.
- Chart generation follows fixed calculation rules, not randomization.
- The same valid input should produce the same chart output.
- Derived fields (stems, branches, hidden stems, and interactions) are computed under the same ruleset.
For readers who follow specific schools, these are the exact rules the engine applies:
- Year pillar switches at Li Chun (立春, the solar-term start of spring), not at Lunar New Year or January 1.
- Late Zi hour (23:00–23:59): the hour pillar enters the Zi hour, and the day pillar stays with the current day — the day only switches at midnight. This is the "late Zi keeps the day" convention.
- Luck pillar (Da Yun) start age counts the distance from the birth day to the preceding or following jie (节, the month-boundary solar terms — not the mid-month qi): forward for yang-year males and yin-year females, backward for yin-year males and yang-year females; when gender is not provided, the engine uses the male direction. The distance is measured in whole days and two-hour periods and converted discretely — three days per year, one day per four months, one two-hour period per ten days — with remainders carried by those units, not by minutes. Each luck pillar spans ten years.
- Hidden stems (藏干) are computed per branch with their Ten God relation to the Day Master, and the Book of Fate and Fortune Book readings receive them as chart evidence.
Chart calculation and interpretation prose are two separate layers:
- The chart layer is deterministic math — stems, branches, hidden stems, Ten Gods, and luck pillars come from fixed rules.
- The prose layer is generated by a large language model under structured BaZi prompts. The prompts constrain the model to your chart's actual facts, and every paid reading section states which chart evidence it is based on.
- If a reading misses, we regenerate once for free; refunds are available within 7 days if it still is not a fit.
XuanSeal organizes interpretation into practical modules, usually including:
- yearly focus (what to prioritize in this phase),
- rhythm guidance (when to push vs stabilize),
- next actions (concrete, reviewable steps).
Treat interpretation as a decision framework and combine it with your real constraints: time, budget, commitments, and risk tolerance.
The chart layer is checkable:
- The same birth data returns the same four pillars, hidden stems, Ten Gods, and luck pillars every time, under the conventions listed above — Li Chun for the year pillar, the jie solar terms for the month pillar and the luck start, and "late Zi keeps the day" for births between 23:00 and 23:59. If you recompute a chart elsewhere with the same conventions, you should get the same result.
The interpretation layer is a framework, not a forecast:
- Interpretation organizes pressure, leverage, and timing so a decision can be argued about with evidence. It does not predict events, dates, job titles, or relationship outcomes.
- There is no scientifically validated predictive accuracy rate for BaZi interpretation, and we do not claim one — not on this site, and not inside any paid reading.
- How far an uncertain birth time reaches depends on the range it spans. If the range crosses neither midnight nor the exact Li Chun or jie (节) moment, only the hour pillar is affected — and a birth between 23:00 and 23:59 still stays on the current day under the late-Zi convention above. A range that crosses midnight changes the day pillar as well; one that crosses Li Chun changes the year pillar, and one that crosses a jie changes the month pillar.
- Any reading built on an approximate pillar inherits that uncertainty, and the chart output says so. A birth whose exact time is known is not an approximation.
- When supporting and draining forces in a chart are close enough that neither side dominates, we name no favorable element and no unfavorable element for it, and therefore no lucky direction, colour, or number either. What you get instead is a description of the chart's actual Five Element distribution and its seasonal balance.
- Schools disagree on how to judge favorable elements and chart structure (格局). This site applies the rules listed under "Calculation Conventions" above and does not arbitrate between traditions; a practitioner following another school may reach a different verdict on the same chart.
Standing limits:
- Content is for cultural and personal reflection.
- It is not medical, legal, financial, or mental health advice.
- Incomplete or inaccurate input can lead to interpretation mismatch.
