Your Day Master is the heavenly stem of your day pillar (see what the Day Master is). If yours is 庚, you are a Yang Metal Day Master. Not sure? The free calculator shows it at the top of your chart.
| Stem | 庚 Geng |
|---|---|
| Element · polarity | Metal · Yang |
| Sibling stem | 辛 Xin Metal (yin) |
| Strongest season | autumn (申 酉 months) |
| Birth · Peak · Tomb | 巳 · 酉 · 丑 (twelve life stages) |
| Combines with | 乙 — the pair is said to transform into metal (combinations) |
| Clashed by | 甲 |
The classical verse
The Di Tian Sui (滴天髓), the most quoted text on the ten stems, gives 庚 a verse of eight four-character lines:
庚金帶煞，剛強為最，得水而清，得火而銳，土潤則生，土乾則脆，能勝甲兄，輸於乙妹。“Geng metal carries a killing edge, the hardest of all. With water it becomes clear; with fire it becomes sharp. Moist earth gives it life; dry earth makes it brittle. It can defeat elder brother Jia, but loses to younger sister Yi.”— 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
庚乃陽金，是太白之精，帶煞而剛健“Geng is yang metal, the essence of Taibai; it carries a killing edge and is hard and vigorous.”— 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.
“With water it becomes clear; with fire it becomes sharp.” Water lets Geng’s energy flow (water is its Eating God and Hurting Officer); fire refines it (fire is its Officer and Seven Killings). Both are ways of turning raw hardness into something useful.
“Moist earth gives it life; dry earth makes it brittle.” Earth is metal’s resource, but only earth with water in it helps; earth full of fire makes the metal brittle.
“Defeats elder brother Jia, loses to younger sister Yi.” Metal controls wood, so Geng can cut 甲. With 乙 the relationship is different: 乙 and 庚 combine (乙庚合), so Geng is bound rather than victorious. This is the same story as in San Ming Tong Hui, where Jia marries his sister Yi to Geng.
Geng in the four seasons
- Spring: wood (wealth) is strong, metal is weak; earth and metal support help.
- Summer: fire is strong; moist earth and water protect Geng.
- Autumn: in season and very hard; fire to forge it and water to clear it are the classic needs.
- Winter: water drains metal and the metal is cold; fire for warmth is valued.
The ten gods for a 庚 Day Master
Every other stem in your chart takes a role relative to 庚. This is the ten gods table worked out for Geng Metal; hidden stems inside the branches (see hidden stems) use the same table.
| Stem | Element | Ten god | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 Jia | Yang Wood | 偏财 | Indirect Wealth |
| 乙 Yi | Yin Wood | 正财 | Direct Wealth |
| 丙 Bing | Yang Fire | 七杀 | Seven Killings |
| 丁 Ding | Yin Fire | 正官 | Direct Officer |
| 戊 Wu | Yang Earth | 偏印 | Indirect Resource |
| 己 Ji | Yin Earth | 正印 | Direct Resource |
| 庚 Geng | Yang Metal | 比肩 | Companion |
| 辛 Xin | Yin Metal | 劫财 | Rob Wealth |
| 壬 Ren | Yang Water | 食神 | Eating God |
| 癸 Gui | Yin Water | 伤官 | Hurting Officer |
Strong or weak?
Whether a 庚 Day Master is strong or weak depends on the whole chart, above all the month branch. Geng is strongest in 申 and 酉, born in 巳 and stored in 丑. Metal roots (申, 酉, metal hidden in 巳, 丑 and 戌) and moist earth strengthen it; fire, water and wood reduce it. 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 庚 behaves in different seasons and next to other elements, and the same 庚 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.