In ancient China, both Chinese Taoists and astrologers told people's destiny with it.

Bazi plays an important role in Chinese folk customs. A pair of stem and branch is known as a pillar and Eight Characters consist of year pillar, month pillar, day pillar and hour pillar accordingly, thus Bazi is also called Four Pillars or Four Pillars Eight Characters. The stem-branch calendar consists of eight characters, namely year stem, year branch, month stem, month branch, day stem, day branch, hour stem and hour branch. Four Pillars of Destiny, known as 'BaZi', literally Birth Time Eight Characters, is actually a person's birth date based on the Ganzhi (stem-branch) calendar - a traditional Chinese calendar that accurately records year, month, day and hour by using heavenly stems and earthly branches.