Your Day Master is the heavenly stem of your day pillar (see what the Day Master is). If yours is 丁, you are a Yin Fire Day Master. Not sure? The free calculator shows it at the top of your chart.
| Stem | 丁 Ding |
|---|---|
| Element · polarity | Fire · Yin |
| Sibling stem | 丙 Bing Fire (yang) |
| Strongest season | summer (巳 午 months) |
| Birth · Peak · Tomb | 酉 · 巳 · 丑 (twelve life stages) |
| Combines with | 壬 — the pair is said to transform into wood (combinations) |
| Clashed by | 癸 |
The classical verse
The Di Tian Sui (滴天髓), the most quoted text on the ten stems, gives 丁 a verse of eight four-character lines:
丁火柔中，內性昭融，抱乙而考，合壬而忠，旺而不烈，衰而不窮，如有嫡母，可秋可冬。“Ding fire is gentle and centred, bright and warm within. Holding Yi, it is filial; combining with Ren, it is loyal. Strong, it is not fierce; weak, it is not exhausted. If it has its true mother, it does well in autumn and in winter.”— 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
The commentary calls Ding the warming fire, yin and therefore soft yet centred:
丁為溫煖之火，其性雖烈而屬陰，則柔而得其中矣“Ding is a warming fire; though its nature is fierce, it belongs to yin, and so it is soft and achieves the centre.”— 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.
“Holding Yi, it is filial.” 乙 wood is Ding’s mother (Direct Resource). The commentary says Ding protects 乙 from 辛 metal, unlike 丙, which can burn the 甲 that feeds it.
“Combining with Ren, it is loyal.” 壬 water is Ding’s Direct Officer, its “ruler”. 丁 and 壬 combine (丁壬合, said to transform into wood). The commentary reads this as Ding quietly protecting its ruler.
“Strong, not fierce; weak, not exhausted.” Born in summer, the flame does not become a blaze; in autumn or winter, given one 甲 wood, it is not snuffed out:
生於秋冬，得一甲木，雖衰不至於窮，故曰可秋可冬“Born in autumn or winter, with one Jia wood, though weak it does not reach exhaustion; therefore it says it does well in autumn and winter.”— 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.
The “true mother” of the last line is that 甲 wood: firewood for a lamp.
Ding in the four seasons
- Spring: wood is strong and feeds the flame; usually well supported.
- Summer: in season but, per the verse, not overly fierce; water and moist earth balance it.
- Autumn: metal (Ding’s wealth) is strong; 甲 wood is the key support.
- Winter: water controls fire; again 甲 is the classic remedy.
The ten gods for a 丁 Day Master
Every other stem in your chart takes a role relative to 丁. This is the ten gods table worked out for Ding Fire; hidden stems inside the branches (see hidden stems) use the same table.
| Stem | Element | Ten god | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 Jia | Yang Wood | 正印 | Direct Resource |
| 乙 Yi | Yin Wood | 偏印 | Indirect Resource |
| 丙 Bing | Yang Fire | 劫财 | Rob Wealth |
| 丁 Ding | Yin Fire | 比肩 | Companion |
| 戊 Wu | Yang Earth | 伤官 | Hurting Officer |
| 己 Ji | Yin Earth | 食神 | Eating God |
| 庚 Geng | Yang Metal | 正财 | Direct Wealth |
| 辛 Xin | Yin Metal | 偏财 | Indirect Wealth |
| 壬 Ren | Yang Water | 正官 | Direct Officer |
| 癸 Gui | Yin Water | 七杀 | Seven Killings |
Strong or weak?
Whether a 丁 Day Master is strong or weak depends on the whole chart, above all the month branch. Ding’s season is summer (巳 午). Fire roots in the branches and wood, especially 甲, strengthen it; water, metal and heavy earth weaken it. In the yin-backward table Ding is born in 酉 and peaks in 巳. 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 丁 behaves in different seasons and next to other elements, and the same 丁 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
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.