---
type: BaZi Concept
title: "Annual Fortune (流年)"
description: "Reading a single year in BaZi: the year stem as a Ten God, and the year branch against the four natal branches."
resource: https://localpapa.com/tools/bazi.html
category: "BaZi · Annual"
tags: [bazi, four-pillars, liunian, annual, time]
timestamp: 2026-06-21T00:00:00Z
---

# Annual Fortune · 流年

A year is read on two things: the **Ten God** of the year’s stem relative to the Day Master (whether this year’s energy arrives as wealth, authority or resource), and the **relations between the year’s branch and the four natal branches** — clash, harmony, trine, punishment, harm or destruction. The first is the same for everyone born in a given year; **what differs is the second** — whether it lands on your Year, Month, Day or Hour pillar decides which part of life moves.

## Year branch against the natal branches

- **Same branch (同柱同氣)** — the year repeats that pillar’s branch — everything it governs is amplified; on the Year pillar this is the zodiac year
- **Harmony (相合)** — the year harmonises with that pillar — smoother going and easier support there
- **Trine (三合)** — a trine with that pillar — allies and momentum; a year to push that area forward
- **Clash (相沖)** — a clash with that pillar — upheaval and change there; adapt rather than dig in
- **Punishment (相刑)** — a punishment — friction from close ties or existing partnerships; say it up front
- **Harm (相害)** — a harm — a quiet drain where good intentions are misread; guard against obligation piling up
- **Destruction (相破)** — a destruction — settled plans shift midway; advance in stages and keep a fallback

## Which pillar it lands on

- **Year pillar** — roots, ancestry and the early years
- **Month pillar** — parents, and the ground the career stands on
- **Day pillar** — the self and the marriage
- **Hour pillar** — children and the later years

The Ten God of the year stem is the same for everyone born in that year. **Which pillar the branch strikes is what tells people apart.**

Step through years for a birth date at <https://localpapa.com/tools/bazi.html>.

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*[Decade luck & strength](./luck.md) · [The Ten Gods](./tengods/index.md) · [BaZi knowledge base](./index.md)*