The Classics

The four texts that define BaZi

Every serious BaZi lineage, whatever its differences, reasons from the same small shelf of classical texts. Four matter most. 《渊海子平》 Yuan Hai Zi Ping is the foundation — the Song-dynasty codification of the Day-Master method everything else assumes. 《滴天髓》 Di Tian Sui is the poetic core — terse verses on qi, strength and flow that masters have argued over for centuries. 《子平真诠》 Zi Ping Zhen Quan is the clearest statement of structure (格局) doctrine. 《穷通宝鉴》 Qiong Tong Bao Jian is the seasonal specialist — every Day Master read through every month of the year.

Read them in that order of ideas (foundation → qi → structure → climate), and know what each is for before quoting any of them: the classics disagree with each other in places, and knowing which text a rule comes from is the difference between learning BaZi and collecting slogans.

These pages tell you what each text is, what it contributed, and one famous idea from each — in plain English. What they can't do is transmit the texts: the classics were written to be unpacked by a teacher, line by line, against real charts. That living transmission is what a lineage school does — Yixin Academy teaches in exactly this tradition (Wei Qianli line).

Maintained by Yixin Academy — teaching in the Wei Qianli lineage these texts belong to.