You've probably seen this kind of calculation: enter your birth date, and a line pops up saying "Your fate is 4 taels and 2 mace," followed by a cryptic verse. This is the thousand-year-old Bone Weighing Song, commonly known as "how many taels and mace." Many people have calculated it once and remembered the result, but never knew how that number came about, let alone how to verify it themselves.
This article provides the complete year, month, day, and hour reference tables of Yuan Tiangang's Bone Weighing Method all at once, and teaches you the three steps to calculate your own "bone weight." After reading, you can determine your own weight on the spot without any tools, and you'll also understand how it differs from true BaZi.
Bottom Line First
"How many taels and mace" comes from the Bone Weighing Song by Tang dynasty fortune teller Yuan Tiangang. The algorithm is simple: convert the lunar year, month, day, and hour of your birth into a "weight" (in taels), add the four numbers, and that's your "bone weight," e.g., 3 taels 6 mace, 4 taels 2 mace. Then, match this weight to a verse to get a judgment on your life pattern.
Remember three things:
- It's a lookup, not a calculation. The year uses the Stem-Branch (干支), the month uses the lunar month, the day uses the lunar day, and the hour uses the twelve two-hour periods. Just look up the four tables and add them up—no reasoning involved.
- Heavier bone doesn't necessarily mean better fate. The weight simply corresponds to different verses. Light weights don't necessarily mean bad fate, and heavy weights don't necessarily mean wealth and nobility—it depends on what the verse says.
- Bone weighing is a "one-sentence judgment for life," while BaZi is a "dynamic view of yearly cycles." Bone weighing gives you a single conclusive statement; BaZi changes with Luck Cycles (大運) and Annual Cycles (流年), allowing you to see ups and downs at different life stages. For serious fortune analysis, return to BaZi.
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Start free analysisWhat Exactly Is "How Many Taels and Mace"?
The Bone Weighing Method is said to have been created by Yuan Tiangang of the Tang Dynasty, using the metaphor of "weighing bones": imagine a person's fate as something with weight; the heavier the bone, the greater the fortune and status in life. It assigns a weight to each of the four time dimensions of birth, and the sum is the "bone weight for life."
It's important to clarify: The Bone Weighing Method is not a simplified version of BaZi; they are two independent systems. BaZi examines the interactions (Generating and Overcoming Cycles) between Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, while Bone Weighing simply maps time to fixed numbers and then looks up a verse. For a detailed discussion on "whether bone weighing is accurate and whether it's a simplified BaZi," we have a dedicated article with research and analysis: Bone Weighing vs. BaZi: How Accurate Is the Weight?. This article focuses on teaching you "how to calculate it yourself."
One prerequisite to remember: The Bone Weighing Method uses only the lunar calendar. The year must be converted to a Stem-Branch (e.g., Jia Zi, Yi Chou...), the month and day must use lunar month and day, and the hour must use the twelve two-hour periods. If you only know your Gregorian birthday, you must first convert it to lunar before looking up the tables.
Three Steps to Calculate Your Bone Weight
The entire process is just three steps. I'll walk you through an example.
Example: A person born in the lunar year Geng Wu, month 5, day 8, at noon (Wu hour).
- Step 1: Look up the Year Pillar. Convert the birth year to a Stem-Branch, then look it up in the "Year Pillar Weight Table" below. Geng Wu year = 0.9 taels. The year part is directly related to the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch. If you're not familiar with them, you can first read the basics of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
- Step 2: Look up the Month Pillar. Lunar month 5 = 0.5 taels.
- Step 3: Look up the Day Pillar and Hour Pillar. Lunar day 8 = 1.6 taels; Wu hour (11 AM–1 PM) = 1.0 taels.
Add the four: 0.9 + 0.5 + 1.6 + 1.0 = 4.0 taels, i.e., "exactly 4 taels." Finally, match "4 taels" to the bone weight verse.
That's it. Below are the four complete reference tables—just look them up.
Complete Reference Tables
All units are in "taels." 1 tael = 10 mace, so 0.9 taels is "nine mace," and 1.6 taels is "one tael six mace."
Year Pillar Weight Table (Sixty Stem-Branches)
Look up by the Stem-Branch of the birth year. One decade per row, six rows total:
- Jia Zi Decade: Jia Zi 1.2, Yi Chou 0.9, Bing Yin 0.6, Ding Mao 0.7, Wu Chen 1.2, Ji Si 0.5, Geng Wu 0.9, Xin Wei 0.8, Ren Shen 0.7, Gui You 0.8
- Jia Xu Decade: Jia Xu 1.5, Yi Hai 0.9, Bing Zi 1.6, Ding Chou 0.8, Wu Yin 0.8, Ji Mao 1.9, Geng Chen 1.2, Xin Si 0.6, Ren Wu 0.8, Gui Wei 0.7
- Jia Shen Decade: Jia Shen 0.5, Yi You 1.5, Bing Xu 0.6, Ding Hai 1.6, Wu Zi 1.5, Ji Chou 0.7, Geng Yin 0.9, Xin Mao 1.2, Ren Chen 1.0, Gui Si 0.7
- Jia Wu Decade: Jia Wu 1.5, Yi Wei 0.6, Bing Shen 0.5, Ding You 1.4, Wu Xu 1.4, Ji Hai 0.9, Geng Zi 0.7, Xin Chou 0.7, Ren Yin 0.9, Gui Mao 1.2
- Jia Chen Decade: Jia Chen 0.8, Yi Si 0.7, Bing Wu 1.3, Ding Wei 0.5, Wu Shen 1.4, Ji You 0.5, Geng Xu 0.9, Xin Hai 1.7, Ren Zi 0.5, Gui Chou 0.7
- Jia Yin Decade: Jia Yin 1.2, Yi Mao 0.8, Bing Chen 0.8, Ding Si 0.6, Wu Wu 1.9, Ji Wei 0.6, Geng Shen 0.8, Xin You 1.6, Ren Xu 1.0, Gui Hai 0.6
Month Pillar Weight Table (Lunar Months)
| Month | Weight | Month | Weight | Month | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 0.6 | 2nd | 0.7 | 3rd | 1.8 |
| 4th | 0.9 | 5th | 0.5 | 6th | 1.6 |
| 7th | 0.9 | 8th | 1.5 | 9th | 1.8 |
| 10th | 0.8 | 11th | 0.9 | 12th | 0.5 |
Day Pillar Weight Table (Lunar Days 1–30)
| Day | Weight | Day | Weight | Day | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.5 | 11 | 0.9 | 21 | 1.0 |
| 2 | 1.0 | 12 | 1.7 | 22 | 0.9 |
| 3 | 0.8 | 13 | 0.8 | 23 | 0.8 |
| 4 | 1.5 | 14 | 1.7 | 24 | 0.9 |
| 5 | 1.6 | 15 | 1.0 | 25 | 1.5 |
| 6 | 1.5 | 16 | 0.8 | 26 | 1.8 |
| 7 | 0.8 | 17 | 0.9 | 27 | 0.7 |
| 8 | 1.6 | 18 | 1.8 | 28 | 0.8 |
| 9 | 0.8 | 19 | 0.5 | 29 | 1.6 |
| 10 | 1.6 | 20 | 1.5 | 30 | 0.6 |
Hour Pillar Weight Table (Twelve Two-Hour Periods)
Each two-hour period corresponds to two hours. If you're unsure which period you belong to, check the time in parentheses:
| Period | Time | Weight | Period | Time | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zi | 23–01 | 1.6 | Wu | 11–13 | 1.0 |
| Chou | 01–03 | 0.6 | Wei | 13–15 | 0.8 |
| Yin | 03–05 | 0.7 | Shen | 15–17 | 0.8 |
| Mao | 05–07 | 1.0 | You | 17–19 | 0.9 |
| Chen | 07–09 | 0.9 | Xu | 19–21 | 0.6 |
| Si | 09–11 | 1.6 | Hai | 21–23 | 0.6 |
Add the numbers from the four tables to get your bone weight. The bone weight range is approximately 2 taels 1 mace to 7 taels 2 mace.
Bone Weight Reference: What Your Weight Represents
For each bone weight, the Bone Weighing Song provides a four-line verse. Below are representative samples from light to heavy to give you an overall sense (the complete song has over fifty verses; only representative ones are listed):
| Bone Weight | First Line of Verse (Traditional Text) | Plain Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 2 taels 2 | Body cold and bones bitter, lonely and miserable; this fate is that of a beggar | The lightest weights; traditionally indicate early hardship and starting from scratch |
| 3 taels 2 | In early years, fortune has not yet flourished; even if fame comes, it will be later | Early luck is mediocre; middle and old age gradually improve |
| 3 taels 6 | No need to toil through life; establishing a family alone brings no light blessing | Build a career and family on your own; blessings are not insignificant |
| 4 taels even | Lifetime clothing and salary are long-lasting; every matter is decided by your own mind | Food and clothing are sufficient; you can make your own decisions; bitter first, sweet later |
| 5 taels 2 | A lifetime of glory and success in all matters; wealth and nobility have always distinguished the family | Relatively heavy; traditionally seen as complete fortune and prosperity |
| 7 taels 1 | This fate is born with endless blessings; studying will surely distinguish the family | Close to the heaviest; traditionally considered a pattern of great wealth and nobility |
| 7 taels 2 | This pattern is one in a million in the world; piles of gold and jade fill the hall with spring | The heaviest fate in the Bone Weighing Method; traditionally said that wealth and nobility are heaven-determined |
From the pattern, the heavier the bone, the greater the traditional view of the life pattern. But a word of caution: the Bone Weighing Song is a deterministic view—it assumes a person's life is fixed at birth by a single sentence. In reality, modern life is far more influenced by education, choices, era, and effort than by a single verse. It's fine to treat it as a cultural curiosity or a topic of conversation, but don't let a "2 taels 2" result negate your own worth.
Another often overlooked point: for the same bone weight, the verses for men and women are sometimes separate in certain versions, and the numbers may vary slightly between different regions. So it's normal to get slightly different results from different websites—this also shows it's not a precise system.
Bone Weighing Song vs. BaZi: Why the Big Difference
Many people think "how many taels and mace" is a simplified version of BaZi, but they are two different things:
- Bone Weighing Method: Converts time into fixed numbers, adds them up, and looks up a single verse. Static, one-time judgment for life—it can't show the difference between age 30 and age 50.
- BaZi: Uses the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches of the four pillars and eight characters to examine Ten Gods, Five Element strengths and weaknesses, and then combines with Luck Cycles (大運) and Annual Cycles (流年). Dynamic—the same person experiences different fortunes in different cycles, with completely different outcomes.
Analogy: Bone weighing is like taking a black-and-white ID photo of you; BaZi is like a video that plays over time. An ID photo lets someone recognize your general outline at a glance, but it can't show yesterday's joys and sorrows or tomorrow's choices; a video records the ups and downs of the process. For questions like "Is this year suitable for changing jobs?" or "Will this relationship last?"—which change over time—bone weighing can't provide answers; you need BaZi to deduce step by step.
If you've calculated your bone weight and find it unsatisfying, and want to see a chart that changes with the years and can address specific life issues, you can directly use the free BaZi chart calculator to generate one for comparison—you'll find that BaZi can tell you much more than a single verse.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How to calculate the month pillar for a leap month? Traditionally, for a leap month, "the first half counts as the current month, the second half counts as the next month," but practices vary slightly. Since bone weighing itself has limited precision, the error from a leap month is not worth worrying about—just know the approximate bone weight.
Q: Should I use nominal age or actual age? Bone weighing looks up the Stem-Branch of the birth year, which has nothing to do with nominal or actual age. Just convert your birth year to the correct Stem-Branch year and look it up.
Q: Do men and women use the same table? The four weight tables (year, month, day, hour) are universal for men and women, and the addition method is the same. The only difference is when looking up the final verse; some versions have different wording for male and female fates, but the bone weight itself is consistent.
Conclusion
"How many taels and mace" is an interesting cultural entry point: it turns abstract fate into a number that can be "weighed," which is why it has survived for a thousand years. Now you have the complete four reference tables, so you can calculate for yourself, your family, and friends anytime.
But remember—it's just a static ID photo. If you truly want to see the ups and downs of your fortune at different stages, and the key points in relationships and career, you still need to return to the dynamic BaZi chart that flows with time. After calculating your bone weight, why not generate a BaZi chart and see what different stories the two systems tell you?