The 24 Small Patterns of BaZi — the complete classification system with pattern-breaking conditions • TIMEACTOR

The 24 Small Patterns of BaZi — the Complete Six-Category System with Pattern Selection and Breaking Principles

The 24 Small Patterns — six major categories spanning Direct Officer, Seven Killings, Wealth, Seal, Food Deity, and Hurting Officer

BaZi patterns fall into six major categories: Direct Officer, Seven Killings, Wealth, Seal, Food Deity, and Hurting Officer. Each category has four small patterns beneath it — 24 small patterns in total. Mastering the names, the configuration relationships, and the breaking conditions of all 24 is the foundation of systematic BaZi pattern study. This article lists all 24 small patterns, details the breaking conditions for each category, and summarizes the three fundamental principles of pattern selection.

Quick memory of the 24 small patterns: Direct Officer class (with Seal / favoring Wealth / abandoning Officer for Food / keeping Wealth over Officer). Seven Killings class (Killings and Seal intergenerate / Wealth feeds weak Killings / Killings invites Food restraint / Peer combines Killings). Wealth class (strong Wealth generates Officer / Wealth likes Food generation / using Wealth likes Seal / using Wealth likes Peer). Seal class (using Seal likes Officer / using Seal likes Food / using Seal likes Peer / abandoning Seal for Wealth). Food Deity class (Food generates Wealth / Food restrains Killings / using Food likes Peer / abandoning Food for Seal). Hurting Officer class (Hurting Officer wears Seal / Hurting Officer generates Wealth / Hurting Officer likes Officer / Hurting Officer abandons Officer). Four per category, twenty-four total.

1. Complete List of the 24 Small Patterns Across Six Categories

DIRECT OFFICER CLASS (4 small patterns): ① Direct Officer Wears Seal: Officer + Seal. Officer generates Seal, Seal feeds the Day Master. The pressure of discipline transforms into nourishment. The most classic noble pattern. ② Using Officer Favors Wealth: Officer + Wealth. Wealth generates Officer. Financial power underpins rank. Rich and noble. ③ Abandoning Officer for Food: Officer + Food Deity. Food Deity restrains Officer. Leaving the establishment path for free work or technical mastery. ④ Keeping Wealth Over Officer: Officer + Wealth but something attacks the Officer. Protecting wealth by sacrificing official rank. SEVEN KILLINGS CLASS (4 small patterns): ① Killings and Seal Intergenerate: Killings + Seal. Killings generates Seal, Seal feeds the Day Master. Brute force transformed into nurture. The making of generals. ② Wealth Feeds Weak Killings: weak Killings + Wealth. Wealth generates Killings to boost authority. Buying influence with money. ③ Killings Invites Food Restraint: Killings + Food Deity. Food Deity restrains Killings. Conquering with intelligence. ④ Peer Combines Killings: Killings + Rob Wealth. Rob Wealth merges with Killings. Using allies and comrades to neutralize danger. WEALTH CLASS (4 small patterns): ① Strong Wealth Generates Officer: strong Wealth + Officer. Wealth generates Officer. Riches converted into rank. ② Wealth Likes Food Generation: Wealth + Food Deity. Food Deity generates Wealth. Wealth with a continuous source — never runs dry. ③ Using Wealth Likes Seal: Wealth + Seal. Wealth attacks Seal but the Day Master is too weak and needs the Seal. Making money while preserving one's foundation. ④ Using Wealth Likes Peer: Wealth + Peer. Peer divides Wealth but the Day Master is too weak and needs Peer support. Sharing wealth to gather people power. SEAL CLASS (4 small patterns): ① Using Seal Likes Officer: Seal + Officer. Officer generates Seal. Power nourishing wisdom and reputation. ② Using Seal Likes Food: Seal + Food Deity. Seal restrains excess Food/Hurting. Using discipline to rein in indulgence. ③ Using Seal Likes Peer: Seal + Peer. Peer generates Seal. Peers and comrades helping academic and reputational growth. ④ Abandoning Seal for Wealth: Seal gets attacked by Wealth. Leaving academia and reputation behind to chase money. FOOD DEITY CLASS (4 small patterns): ① Food Deity Generates Wealth: Food + Wealth. Food Deity generates Wealth. Talent turned into money. ② Food Deity Restrains Killings: Food + Killings. Food Deity restrains Killings. Using skill to subdue pressure and authority. ③ Using Food Likes Peer: Food + Peer. Peer generates Food Deity. Comrades boosting creative output. ④ Abandoning Food for Seal: Food gets attacked by Seal. Leaving creative freedom behind to return to tradition and academia. HURTING OFFICER CLASS (4 small patterns): ① Hurting Officer Wears Seal: Hurting Officer + Seal. Seal restrains Hurting Officer. Wild talent disciplined into nobility. The most classic noble pattern of this class. ② Hurting Officer Generates Wealth: Hurting Officer + Wealth. Hurting Officer generates Wealth. Creativity converted directly into cash. ③ Hurting Officer Likes Officer: Hurting Officer + Officer. Challenging authority with a chance to replace it. Extremely high risk. ④ Hurting Officer Abandons Officer: Hurting Officer attacks Officer. Completely leaving the establishment track for a free path.

2. Pattern-Breaking Conditions by Category — when a pattern fails to form

OFFICER PATTERN BREAKING CONDITIONS: ① Hurting Officer attacks the Officer with no Seal to rescue — Hurting Officer meeting Officer, the most severe break. ② Officer and Killings mixed — Direct Officer and Seven Killings both present at comparable strength. Nobility impure. ③ Punishment or clash hits the Officer with no rescue — the Officer's root is structurally damaged. ④ Officer too numerous becomes Killings — too many Officers, too strong. Discipline turns into oppression. WEALTH PATTERN BREAKING CONDITIONS: ① Strong Peer or Rob Wealth steals Wealth — Peer outpowers Wealth with no Officer or Killings to restrain Peer. ② Seven Killings drains Wealth — Wealth generates Killings, Killings attacks the Day Master. Money brings disaster. ③ Wealth star gets combined away — Wealth merged and functionally lost. ④ Wealth too strong, Day Master too weak to bear it. SEAL PATTERN BREAKING CONDITIONS: ① A lone Seal gets attacked and destroyed by Wealth — a single Seal star under Wealth attack with no Officer-Killings to bridge. ② Seal too heavy, Day Master too strong — over-thick Seal makes the Day Master dependent and passive. ③ Seal star gets combined away — its nourishing function vanishes. FOOD DEITY PATTERN BREAKING CONDITIONS: ① A lone Food Deity gets stolen by the Owl — the single Food Deity is suppressed by Indirect Seal (Owl stealing Food). ② Food generates Wealth, then Killings appears — Food to Wealth to Killings. Talent triggers a chain leading to disaster. ③ Food Deity gets combined away — creative output blocked. KILLINGS PATTERN BREAKING CONDITIONS: ① Wealth feeds Killings but no Food to restrain or Seal to transform — Wealth to Killings to attack the Day Master. Vicious cycle. ② Killings swarm and attack the Day Master with no rescue — massed Killings besiege the Day Master, no resolution. ③ Killings gets combined into a burden. HURTING OFFICER PATTERN BREAKING CONDITIONS: ① Hurting Officer meets Officer (except Metal-Water Hurting Officer) — Hurting Officer seeing Officer breaks the pattern. The sole exception: Metal-Water Hurting Officer, which actually likes seeing Officer. ② Hurting Officer generates Wealth, then Killings appears — Hurting to Wealth to Killings. Talent brings disaster. ③ Hurting Officer Wears Seal but Day Master is strong and Seal is thick — Seal over-restrains Hurting Officer. Talent suppressed. ④ Hurting Officer exhausts completely but the pattern is impure — the Officer star still has a root, so the exhaustion is incomplete. BLADE PATTERN BREAKING: No Officer or Killings to restrain the blade — a Ram Blade unchecked runs wild. JIAN LU PATTERN BREAKING: No Wealth or Officer for use, but instead Killings and Seal appear — a Jian Lu chart with no Wealth-Officer utility, but Killings and Seal leak out.

3. The Three Principles of Pattern Selection — the priority order

Principle One: When an Officer or Killings is present, discuss it first. Without an Officer or Killings, then discuss other useful gods. Whenever Direct Officer or Seven Killings appears in a chart, start pattern analysis from the Officer-Killings. Officer-Killings represent power, social standing, and discipline — the core indicators of social level. When Officer-Killings exist, first determine whether the Officer-Killings pattern forms or breaks. Only if no Officer-Killings exist do you move on to other Ten God patterns. Principle Two: The month-branch outline carries the most weight. The month branch is the primary source of the pattern. After the month-branch Ten God sets the broad direction, refine using surface-stem details: ① Exposed stem first — a hidden stem from the month branch that surfaces takes the pattern. ② Multiple exposures, take the strongest. ③ Nothing exposed, take the month's dominant qi. Principle Three: When change occurs, take what it changed into. If the month branch has shifted its five-element nature through combinations, select the transformed pattern. Example: Shen month is originally Metal, but the branches form Shen-Zi-Chen, a three-combination Water frame — the month branch shifts from Metal to Water. No longer select Metal patterns. Select Water patterns instead. Same logic for stem combinations: if a surfaced hidden stem gets transformed by a stem combination, take the transformed element's pattern. These three principles have a clear priority order: Principle One → Principle Two → Principle Three.

4. Practical Highlights — quick personality and life-path sketches for each small pattern

Direct Officer class core traits: Direct Officer Wears Seal — the optimal setup for scholarly lineage and institutional advancement. Officer and Seal intergenerate, career path is steady. Using Officer Favors Wealth — business people entering government, or establishment figures holding economic resources. Abandoning Officer for Food — quitting officialdom for technical or freelance work. Keeping Wealth Over Officer — protecting assets by staying out of the establishment. Seven Killings class core traits: Killings and Seal Intergenerate — the great pattern for both literary and martial talent. Wartime-hero configuration. Wealth Feeds Weak Killings — buying power or feeding influence with resources. A patron behind you. Killings Invites Food Restraint — winning through skill and intelligence. Peer Combines Killings — team combat, relying on allies to withstand pressure. Wealth class core traits: Strong Wealth Generates Officer — the classic path from rich to noble. Big money inevitably pulls you into politics. Wealth Likes Food Generation — wealth with a source. The stable, sustaining type of rich. Using Wealth Likes Seal — balancing money with cultivation. Using Wealth Likes Peer — needing partnerships to hold onto wealth. Seal class core traits: Using Seal Likes Officer — dual excellence in study and career. Best configuration for exams and civil service. Using Seal Likes Food — academic research type. Using Seal Likes Peer — gaining academic opportunities through peers. Abandoning Seal for Wealth — dropping out to do business. Food Deity class core traits: Food Deity Generates Wealth — turning skill into money. Food Deity Restrains Killings — using professional ability to conquer difficulty. Using Food Likes Peer — technical backbone player in a team. Abandoning Food for Seal — leaving creative work for academia. Hurting Officer class core traits: Hurting Officer Wears Seal — the most talented configuration that can actually exercise restraint. Hurting Officer Generates Wealth — creativity straight to cash. Hurting Officer Likes Officer — the rare few who challenge authority and win. Hurting Officer Abandons Officer — freelancers, artists.

Multi-Dimensional Breakdown

Career & Wealth

Each of the 24 small patterns maps to a different career path and wealth model. Direct Officer Wears Seal → steady institutional advancement. Hurting Officer Wears Seal → technical executive or academic star. Food Deity Generates Wealth → tech entrepreneurship or professional services. Killings and Seal Intergenerate → military, law enforcement, or corporate leadership. Strong Wealth Generates Officer → business-turned-political, or officials with economic power. Picking the right pattern is picking the right life track — pattern judgment that's accurate means career direction won't go far wrong.

Love & Relationship

Patterns and marriage: Direct Officer Wears Seal (female chart) → husband is learned with steady career, high marriage quality. Killings and Seal Intergenerate (female chart) → capable but dominant husband. She needs her own Seal to transform the pressure. Strong Wealth Generates Officer (male chart) → wife boosts fortune, good economic conditions. Food Deity Generates Wealth (male chart) → attracts partners through talent, natural romantic appeal. Every small pattern carries a relationship signature. Once the pattern is set, the broad direction of love life has an outline.

Personality

Patterns directly shape personality. Direct Officer types: disciplined, principled. Seven Killings types: decisive, bold. Wealth types: pragmatic, calculating. Seal types: scholarly, somewhat conservative. Food Deity types: gentle, creative. Hurting Officer types: clever but rebellious. Within each category, the small pattern adds finer shading — Hurting Officer Wears Seal types have Hurting Officer's cleverness plus Seal's steadiness, far more mature than bare Hurting Officer. Pattern is the skeleton of personality. Other factors are the flesh.

Health

The dominant element of a pattern affects health. Officer-Killings patterns (Metal-Wood clashes) → watch liver, gallbladder, respiratory system. Wealth patterns (Earth heavy, Wood broken) → watch spleen, stomach, digestion. Food-Hurting patterns (Fire-Earth scorched) → watch cardiovascular system. Seal patterns (Water heavy, Wood floating) → watch kidneys, endocrine system. When breaking conditions trigger, the corresponding health issues intensify — Food Deity pattern broken by Owl stealing Food means digestive troubles are inevitable. Pattern health tip: whichever Ten God is weakest in the chart, the corresponding organ system deserves extra care.

Classical References

Practical Application

Step 1: Determine which of the six major categories the chart belongs to : Look at the month-branch Ten God. Yin Mao month → Wood → check the Ten God relationship with the Day Stem. Si Wu month → Fire. Shen You month → Metal. Hai Zi month → Water. Chen Xu Chou Wei month → exposed-stem priority → then determine the pattern. The month-branch Ten God determines the major category — Direct Officer month = Direct Officer class, Seven Killings month = Seven Killings class, and so on.
Step 2: Match the specific small pattern within the four of that category : Major category set → check which other Ten Gods in the chart form a cooperative relationship with the pattern. The cooperative relationship determines the small pattern: Officer + Seal = Direct Officer Wears Seal. Officer + Wealth = Using Officer Favors Wealth. Officer + Food = Abandoning Officer for Food. Officer + Wealth under attack = Keeping Wealth Over Officer. Killings + Seal = Killings and Seal Intergenerate. Killings + Wealth = Wealth Feeds Weak Killings. Killings + Food = Killings Invites Food Restraint. Killings + Rob Wealth = Peer Combines Killings. Every small pattern is pattern + cooperating Ten God.
Step 3: Run through the breaking-condition checklist : Pattern identified → must check all breaking conditions. Officer pattern → is there a Hurting Officer attacking it? Are Officer and Killings mixed? Wealth pattern → is there strong Peer or Rob Wealth stealing Wealth? Seal pattern → is Wealth destroying the Seal? Food Deity pattern → is there Owl stealing Food? Killings pattern → is Wealth feeding Killings with no restraint? Hurting Officer pattern → is Hurting Officer meeting Officer (non-Metal-Water)? Run a net over every item. Better to downgrade a pattern judgment than to falsely confirm a broken pattern.
Step 4: Use the three principles to double-check the selection order : Verify your pattern-selection process against the three-principle priority order: ① Officer first → does the chart have Officer or Killings? If yes, was it prioritized? ② Month-branch outline → was the month-branch Ten God correctly identified? Exposed stem → strongest among multiple → dominant qi when none exposed — was this order strictly followed? ③ Change takes the transformed → did the month branch change element through combinations? Did a stem combination successfully transform the pattern? The three-principle double-check is the final defense against pattern-selection errors.

Common Questions

Q: What if my chart doesn't fit any of the 24 small patterns?

Not every chart can be precisely matched to the 24 small patterns. They are a summary of the most common configurations. Real charts contain many mixed and transitional setups. In such cases: ① first categorize by the six major classes. ② then judge which small pattern it comes closest to. ③ if none really fit, describe the chart using 'pattern + cooperating Ten God relationships' without forcing a small-pattern label. Patterns are descriptive tools, not answer keys.

Q: Can one chart fit multiple small patterns?

Yes, but generally one dominates. Example: a chart has both Officer + Seal (Direct Officer Wears Seal) and Officer + Wealth (Using Officer Favors Wealth). Which cooperation is stronger? Seal has a root and sits close to the Day Master → Direct Officer Wears Seal is dominant. Wealth has a root and surfaces prominently → Using Officer Favors Wealth is dominant. Take the strongest cooperation as dominant and describe the rest as secondary.

Q: If a pattern is broken, is the chart definitely bad?

Not at all. Broken pattern ≠ bad life. 'Broken' only means this specific pattern configuration does not hold, or its quality is reduced. Plenty of people break the Officer pattern but the Wealth pattern holds — no rank but wealthy. Break the Wealth pattern but the Food Deity pattern holds — not rich but exceptionally talented. Break the Seal pattern but the Hurting Officer pattern holds — no academic pedigree but wildly creative. The key question isn't whether a pattern is broken. It's whether, once this one breaks, another one holds. A chart always has an outlet. Find the real pattern — that's the goal.