(For example, when Day Master is “Yi” , “Ji” is its “Indirect wealth”, Geng is its “Direct Officer”, and so forth.)
You can become truly aware and enjoy every bit of life only if you are constantly aware that you are mortal.
-- Sadguru --
起出八字盤之後，我們首先要熟習一些八字的核心元素：陰陽、五行、十天干、十二地支、地支藏干（人元），這些教學資料可以在網上很容易找到。如果大家看不明白，可以來信告訴我，我會根據大家不明白的地方，寫一些文章作補充。
After setting up the bazi, we must first familiarize ourselves with some of the core elements of bazi: Yin and Yang, the five elements, the ten stems, the twelve branches, and the hidden stems in the branches. These teaching materials can be easily found on the Internet. If you don’t understand, you can write to me, and I will write some supplementary materials.
不過為了看明白電腦起出來的八字，我把他們的英文翻譯文字，以表格形式顯示出來。
However, in order to help understand the bazi generated by the computer, I have displayed their English translations in tabular form below.
Yin / Yang：陰 / 陽
Five elements: Wood(木) / Fire(火) / Earth(土) / Metal(金) / Water(水)
Sexagenary: composed by one Heavenly Stem upon one Earthly Branch
Yin Yan can be compiled with Five elements into such as Yin Wood, Yan Fire, and so forth.
(For example, when Day Master is “Yi” , “Ji” is its “Indirect wealth”, Geng is its “Direct Officer”, and so forth.)
八字有十個神，這些神並不是宗教上的神，只是十個代名詞，代表十種不同的性格。它們分別是：「比肩」、「劫財」、「食神」、「傷官」、「偏財」、「正財」、「偏官」、「正官」、「偏印」、「正印」。其中「偏官」又稱為「七殺」，「偏印」又稱為「梟神」。
There are Ten Deities in bazi. A more popular name is Ten Gods. These gods are not religious gods, but ten pronouns, representing ten different personalities. They are: 「比肩」or “Friend”、「劫財」or “Rob Wealth”、「食神」or ”Eating God”、「傷官」or ”Hurting Officer”、「偏財」or ”Indirect Wealth”、「正財」or ”Direct Wealth”、「偏官」or ”Indirect Officer”、「正官」or ”Direct Officer”、「偏印」or ”Indirect Resources”、「正印」or ”Direct Resources”。其中「偏官」or “Indirect Officer” ia also known as「七殺」or 7K and「偏印」Indirect Resources ias also known as「梟神」Owl God.
( 一個八字例式 ) An example of a bazi
日元代表命主本人（命主是指這個八字出生的人），所以「己土」代表她。很多八字教科書，都對十個天干有性格描述，例如甲木性情憨直，乙木則較嬌柔，丙火則剛健勇猛等。但通常不太靈驗，因為影響日干的特性的因素很多，一般來說，日干的性質會加重或減輕十神的分析結果，而不是優先性的，所以我們先不談日干的性情，我們先談回本篇的主旨：十神。
The Day Master represents the Destiny Holder (the Destiny Holder refers to the person who was born with this set of bazi), so "己 Ji earth" represents her.
Many existing literature on bazi have character descriptions of the ten stems. For example, “甲 Jia wood” has a straightforward temperament, “乙 Yi wood” is more delicate and soft, and “丙 Bing Fire” is strong and brave.
But these descriptions are generally not very reflective, because there are too many factors that affect the characteristics of the Day Master. Generally speaking, the nature of Day Master will increase or reduce the impact of the ten gods. Instead of first discussing the nature of the Day Master, let’s first discuss the theme of this article: The Ten Gods.
上面這八個字，除了日元之外，其他都配有十神，地支更配有多於一個十神，那些是地支中的藏干的十神。舉例說，年干癸水的十神是「偏財」，月支的的藏干有「庚、壬、戊」，十神分別是「傷官」、「正財」和「劫財」。
Except for the Day Master, each of the above eight characters have a corresponding ten god, and each of the branches are equipped with more than one ten god. Those are the ten gods represented by the hidden stems in the branches.
For example, the ten god of “癸 Gui water” in year stem is "Indirect Wealth", the hidden gods of the month branch are "庚 metal、壬 water、戊 earth", and the ten gods are "Hurting Officer", "Direct Wealth" and "Rob Wealth" respectively.
留意，藏干之中，有一個是地支的「主氣」，它的五行與地支相同，是當中最強的。例如這個月令「申」屬金，而它的三個藏干中的「庚」也屬金，所以「庚」便是「申」的主氣。
八個字當中，月支是力量特別大的一個字，八字學中被稱為「月令」，它所屬的十神，很大程度影響了八字的性格取向。大家可參考我在一個論壇上寫的文章 (https://fivearts.info/fivearts/index.php?topic=19738.0)。由於它對八字影響較大，我們稱那個十神為「格局之神」或簡稱「格神」。
Note that among the hidden stems for each branch, there is one that is the "main energy / qi". Its element is the same as that of the branch it resides. For example, the month branch "申" is of metal element, and the "庚" in its three hidden stems also belong to metal, and so "Geng" is the main energy / qi of "Shen". (Refer to https://fivearts.info/fivearts/index.php?topic=19738.0 to revisit importance of the Month Commander). Because of its greater influence on the bazi, we call this Ten God the "God of the Structure" or simply "Structure God".
以這個八字例子，月支的主氣「庚」便是「格神」，它所帶着的「十神」所代表的性格，便是命主其中一個主要的性格。在這個八字裏，庚的十神是「傷官」，即是命主帶有「傷官」的性格。所以這個八字也就稱為「傷官格」。這時我們可以查看「傷官」的性格是甚麼，作為論述這個八字的入手處。
For this bazi, "庚" is the main energy / qi in the Month branch and is the Structure God for the bazi of the Destiny Holder. In this bazi, the Ten God of Geng is the "Hurting Officer", which means that the Destiny Holder is characterised by "Hurting Officer” and we can call this bazi "Hurting Officer" structure. At this time, we can look at the characteristics of "Hurting Officer" as a starting point to discuss this bazi.
十個神有十種性格，但這種性格有沒有強烈地表現在命主的行為上，便要看「格局」是否足夠「純正」，格局純正，性格就分明，格局不純，性格就駁雜。
The ten gods have ten different kinds of personalities / characteristics, but whether this is strongly manifested in the behavior of the Destiny Holder would depend on whether the "structure" is sufficiently "pure". If the structure is pure, the personality is distinct, and the structure is impure, and the personality could be less distinct and could include elements of other personalities.
上例這個八字的格局是「傷官格」，這格局夠不夠清純呢？如何才算格局純正？傷官格是吉是凶？請看下回分解。
The bazi structure above is the "Hurting Officer" structure. Is this structure pure enough? Is this structure considered pure? Is the “Hurting Officer” structure good or bad? Please for the analysis in the next installment.
Yan Chan 陳一言
chanyiyan@gmail.com