GanZhi Calendar Integration (干支曆法與七政四餘)
The GanZhi (干支) sexagenary cycle — the system of 10 Heavenly Stems (天干) and 12 Earthly Branches (地支) combined into 60-unit cycles — provides the temporal foundation for QZSY chart construction. While QZSY's distinctive feature is its use of real planetary positions, the calendar framework that defines the birth moment is shared directly with BaZi and other Chinese metaphysical systems.
The Four Pillars in QZSY Context
A QZSY chart begins with the same four GanZhi pillars used in BaZi: Year Pillar (年柱), Month Pillar (月柱), Day Pillar (日柱), and Hour Pillar (時柱). Each pillar consists of one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch, encoding the cyclical quality of that time unit. The Day Branch is particularly important in QZSY because it determines the starting point for Life Palace (命宮) calculation when combined with the Hour Branch.
Heavenly Stems and Their Associations
| Stem | Chinese | Element | Polarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jia | 甲 | Wood | Yang |
| Yi | 乙 | Wood | Yin |
| Bing | 丙 | Fire | Yang |
| Ding | 丁 | Fire | Yin |
| Wu | 戊 | Earth | Yang |
| Ji | 己 | Earth | Yin |
| Geng | 庚 | Metal | Yang |
| Xin | 辛 | Metal | Yin |
| Ren | 壬 | Water | Yang |
| Gui | 癸 | Water | Yin |
Na Yin — The Melodic Element
The Na Yin (納音) system assigns a secondary Five Element quality to each of the 60 Stem-Branch combinations. For example, 甲子 and 乙丑 are both 'Metal in the Sea' (海中金). In QZSY, the Na Yin of the Year Pillar provides a supplementary layer of constitutional information about the native, adding nuance to the primary planetary analysis. Classical QZSY texts frequently reference Na Yin when describing the overall elemental character of a chart.
The 24 Solar Terms (二十四節氣)
The 24 Solar Terms divide the tropical year into 24 segments of approximately 15 days each, marking the Sun's progress through the ecliptic. In QZSY, the Solar Terms serve two critical functions: (1) they define the boundaries of the 12 monthly pillars (the month changes at each Jie 節 term, not at the lunar new moon), and (2) they provide a seasonal context for interpreting planetary configurations. A planet's influence is modified by the season — Mars in midsummer (Fire season) has amplified Fire energy, while Mars in midwinter (Water season) is restrained.
Shared Infrastructure with BaZi
The GanZhi calculation engine is shared infrastructure between QZSY and BaZi chart construction. Both systems require identical calendar conversion routines: Gregorian date → Chinese lunar calendar → GanZhi pillars → Solar Term boundaries. This shared foundation means that a software platform supporting BaZi already has much of the computational infrastructure needed for QZSY — the additional requirement is the astronomical ephemeris computation for actual planetary positions.