What does eight characters mean?

In fact, eight characters are not just eight words, which are mainly divided into two categories: heavenly stems and earthly branches.

Tiangan: A, B, C, D, E, Ji, G, Xin, Ren and Gui.

Dizhi: Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai.

Eight characters can be arranged in four columns, and eight characters can be arranged in different years. For example, next year, 2020 will be the year of the boxer, and the heavenly stems will be the year of the boxer, and the earthly branches will be the year of the boxer. If we arrange it in order, the year after next will be a year of dry weather and ugly soil support. The same principle applies to other moon columns, sun columns and time columns, so the eight characters can be arranged in four columns.

Extended data

Birthday plays an important role in Han folk beliefs, and ancient Han astrologers calculate people's fate accordingly. Eight-character prediction is developing continuously in practice. From Li's tripartite confrontation to Li's tripartite confrontation, and then to the four pillars of the sun, the moon and the moon, every step of progress contains the hard work of scholars and social practice activists in past dynasties.

In order to get the correct birth time, the ancient Han people thought that the sundial instrument was the most accurate measurement during the day. When the clock time is the artificial average time and the regional standard, it is necessary to calculate the "apparent solar time difference" according to the solar terms (ecliptic) and the "local longitude time difference" according to the place of birth, so as to get the real astronomical birth time.