I recently built Bazi Calculator, a free online tool for Chinese Four Pillars (八字) destiny analysis. Here's a quick overview of the tech stack and what I learned.
What is Bazi?
Bazi (八字), or Four Pillars of Destiny, is a Chinese metaphysical system that uses your birth date and time to create a chart of eight characters. Each character maps to one of the Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) and reveals insights about personality, career, and life patterns.
Tech Stack
- Next.js 14 with App Router for SSR and SEO
- TypeScript for type safety across the codebase
- AI-Powered Readings using LLM APIs for personalized interpretations
- Tailwind CSS for responsive design
- Vercel for deployment
Key Challenges
1. Chinese Calendar Conversion
The hardest part was implementing the Lunar-Solar calendar conversion. Bazi requires converting a Gregorian date into the Chinese sexagenary cycle (天干地支). I used a lookup table approach for accuracy.
2. AI Integration
Instead of hardcoded interpretations, I integrated AI to generate personalized readings based on the chart. This makes each reading unique and contextually rich.
3. SEO for a Niche Topic
Ranking for "bazi calculator" required proper schema markup, meta tags, and content structure. Next.js SSR helped significantly with this.
Open Source
The project is open source on GitHub. Feel free to check it out, star it, or contribute!
Try It Out
👉 Bazi Calculator - Enter your birth date and get a free AI-powered Four Pillars reading.
I'd love to hear your feedback or questions about the implementation. Has anyone else worked with Chinese metaphysical systems or calendar conversions?
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