Your Day Master is the heavenly stem of your day pillar (see what the Day Master is). If yours is 丙, you are a Yang Fire Day Master. Not sure? The free calculator shows it at the top of your chart.
| Stem | 丙 Bing |
|---|---|
| Element · polarity | Fire · Yang |
| Sibling stem | 丁 Ding Fire (yin) |
| Strongest season | summer (巳 午 months) |
| Birth · Peak · Tomb | 寅 · 午 · 戌 (twelve life stages) |
| Combines with | 辛 — the pair is said to transform into water (combinations) |
| Clashed by | 壬 |
The classical verse
The Di Tian Sui (滴天髓), the most quoted text on the ten stems, gives 丙 a verse of eight four-character lines:
丙火猛烈，欺霜侮雪，能煆庚金，逄辛反怯，土眾成慈，水猖顯節，虎馬犬鄉，甲來焚滅。“Bing fire is fierce; it scorns frost and mocks snow. It can forge Geng metal, yet meeting Xin it turns timid. Among much earth it becomes kind; when water runs wild it shows its integrity. In the land of Tiger, Horse and Dog, if Jia arrives, it burns itself out.”— Di Tian Sui (Drops from Heaven’s Marrow) 《滴天髓》, 天干論. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
Reading the verse line by line
“Scorns frost and mocks snow.” As pure yang fire, Bing does not fear autumn or winter:
丙為焚烈之火，純陽之性，故不畏秋而欺霜，不畏冬而侮雪“Bing is a blazing fire of pure yang nature; therefore it does not fear autumn and scorns frost, does not fear winter and mocks snow.”— Di Tian Sui (Drops from Heaven’s Marrow) 《滴天髓》, 天干論. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
“It can forge Geng metal, yet meeting Xin it turns timid.” Geng (yang metal) is Bing’s Indirect Wealth; strong fire can work it. Xin (yin metal) combines with Bing — the 丙辛 combination — and the commentary says Bing, bound in the combination, becomes weaker.
“Among much earth it becomes kind; when water runs wild it shows its integrity.” Earth is fire’s child, and with plenty of 戊己 Bing shows a “kind” quality; water is its “ruler”, and against strong 壬癸 it shows loyalty rather than being extinguished. These moral images are characteristic of the Di Tian Sui.
“In the land of Tiger, Horse and Dog, if Jia arrives, it burns itself out.” 寅午戌 is the fire three-harmony frame. If Bing already sits in a fire frame and 甲 wood appears to feed it, the fire becomes too dry and violent.
Bing in the four seasons
- Spring: wood feeds fire; usually well supported.
- Summer: in season, often too hot; water (壬 above all) is the classic balancing element.
- Autumn: fire is resting; it still “scorns frost”, but wood support becomes valuable.
- Winter: water controls fire; the sun in winter is prized, but needs wood or roots.
The ten gods for a 丙 Day Master
Every other stem in your chart takes a role relative to 丙. This is the ten gods table worked out for Bing Fire; hidden stems inside the branches (see hidden stems) use the same table.
| Stem | Element | Ten god | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 Jia | Yang Wood | 偏印 | Indirect Resource |
| 乙 Yi | Yin Wood | 正印 | Direct Resource |
| 丙 Bing | Yang Fire | 比肩 | Companion |
| 丁 Ding | Yin Fire | 劫财 | Rob Wealth |
| 戊 Wu | Yang Earth | 食神 | Eating God |
| 己 Ji | Yin Earth | 伤官 | Hurting Officer |
| 庚 Geng | Yang Metal | 偏财 | Indirect Wealth |
| 辛 Xin | Yin Metal | 正财 | Direct Wealth |
| 壬 Ren | Yang Water | 七杀 | Seven Killings |
| 癸 Gui | Yin Water | 正官 | Direct Officer |
Strong or weak?
Whether a 丙 Day Master is strong or weak depends on the whole chart, above all the month branch. Bing is strongest in the 巳 and 午 months, with Birth at 寅 and Tomb at 戌. Fire roots (巳, 午, and fire hidden in 寅, 未 and 戌) and wood (resource) add strength; water, metal and earth reduce it. Because it is such a strong stem, many readers find Bing charts easily become too hot. The general method is on the Day Master and useful god pages.
A word on personality descriptions
Many websites give each Day Master a fixed personality. The classical texts do not work that way: the verse above describes how 丙 behaves in different seasons and next to other elements, and the same 丙 reads very differently in a summer chart and a winter chart. We give the traditional images as tradition, for cultural study, not as a description of any real person.
All ten Day Masters
甲 Jia Wood · 乙 Yi Wood · 丙 Bing Fire · 丁 Ding Fire · 戊 Wu Earth · 己 Ji Earth · 庚 Geng Metal · 辛 Xin Metal · 壬 Ren Water · 癸 Gui Water
Calculate your chart to find your Day Master, its strength factors and your luck pillars.
Keep learning
More in Day Masters, plus core guides — or go back to the Bazi calculator home page.
Classical quotations are copied from the public-domain texts on Wikisource; links let you check every line. English translations are our own. Traditional Bazi statements are reported as tradition, not as fact.