Your Day Master is the heavenly stem of your day pillar (see what the Day Master is). If yours is 甲, you are a Yang Wood Day Master. Not sure? The free calculator shows it at the top of your chart.
| Stem | 甲 Jia |
|---|---|
| Element · polarity | Wood · Yang |
| Sibling stem | 乙 Yi Wood (yin) |
| Strongest season | spring (寅 卯 months) |
| Birth · Peak · Tomb | 亥 · 卯 · 未 (twelve life stages) |
| Combines with | 己 — the pair is said to transform into earth (combinations) |
| Clashed by | 庚 |
The classical verse
The Di Tian Sui (滴天髓), the most quoted text on the ten stems, gives 甲 a verse of eight four-character lines:
甲木參天，脱胎要火，春不容金，秋不容土，火熾乘龍，水蕩騎虎，地潤天和，植立千古。“Jia wood reaches to the sky; to shed its womb it needs fire. In spring it does not tolerate metal; in autumn it does not tolerate earth. When fire blazes, it rides the Dragon; when water floods, it mounts the Tiger. With moist ground and harmonious heaven, it stands planted for a thousand ages.”— 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
“Reaches to the sky.” The commentary calls Jia the wood of “root and trunk”, purely yang, tall and strong:
甲為根幹之木，純陽之本，參天雄壯“Jia is the wood of root and trunk, the base of pure yang, reaching to the sky, mighty and strong.”— 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.
“To shed its womb it needs fire.” Fire is the child of wood — what wood produces. A strong Jia that has fire to express itself through “flourishes all the more”. In ten-gods language, fire is Jia’s Eating God (丙) and Hurting Officer (丁), the outlet for its energy.
“In spring it does not tolerate metal; in autumn it does not tolerate earth.” Born in spring, Jia is already in season and helps fire, so metal, which would cut it, cannot get a footing. Born in autumn, metal is in command and Jia, helping metal, has no strength to spare for earth (its wealth):
生於春，則助火而不能容金也，生於秋則助金而不能容土也“Born in spring, it helps fire and cannot tolerate metal; born in autumn, it helps metal and cannot tolerate earth.”— 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.
“When fire blazes, it rides the Dragon; when water floods, it mounts the Tiger.” The Dragon is the branch 辰, the Tiger is 寅. If the chart has a lot of fire (寅午戌, 丙丁), Jia sitting on 辰 — a damp earth branch that stores water — can absorb it. If it has a lot of water (申子辰, 壬癸), Jia sitting on 寅, its own root, can take it in. The commentary adds:
辰為水庫，能制火滋木“Chen is the storehouse of water; it can restrain fire and nourish wood.”— 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.
“Moist ground and harmonious heaven.” When earth is not parched and water is not exhausted, the tree lives long. The ideal Jia chart, in this reading, is balanced: some fire to express itself, some water and moist earth to keep its roots alive.
Jia in the four seasons
- Spring (寅 卯 辰 months): in season. Usually strong; tradition looks first for fire to vent it, and metal is hard to use.
- Summer (巳 午 未): wood feeds fire and is drained. Water and moist earth become important.
- Autumn (申 酉 戌): metal rules and controls wood. Jia is usually weaker; earth (wealth) is a burden.
- Winter (亥 子 丑): water is strong and wood is cold. 亥 is Jia’s Birth branch, but too much cold water can float the tree; fire for warmth is valued.
The ten gods for a 甲 Day Master
Every other stem in your chart takes a role relative to 甲. This is the ten gods table worked out for Jia Wood; hidden stems inside the branches (see hidden stems) use the same table.
| Stem | Element | Ten god | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 Jia | Yang Wood | 比肩 | Companion |
| 乙 Yi | Yin Wood | 劫财 | Rob Wealth |
| 丙 Bing | Yang Fire | 食神 | Eating God |
| 丁 Ding | Yin Fire | 伤官 | Hurting Officer |
| 戊 Wu | Yang Earth | 偏财 | Indirect Wealth |
| 己 Ji | Yin Earth | 正财 | Direct Wealth |
| 庚 Geng | Yang Metal | 七杀 | Seven Killings |
| 辛 Xin | Yin Metal | 正官 | Direct Officer |
| 壬 Ren | Yang Water | 偏印 | Indirect Resource |
| 癸 Gui | Yin Water | 正印 | Direct Resource |
Strong or weak?
Whether a 甲 Day Master is strong or weak depends on the whole chart, above all the month branch. For Jia the strongest months are 寅 and 卯, where it has its Coming to Office and Peak stages; 亥 is its Birth branch. Roots in the branches (寅, 卯, the 乙 hidden in 辰 and 未, the 甲 hidden in 亥) and support from water (its resource) add strength. Metal, and a lot of earth or fire, take strength away. 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 甲 behaves in different seasons and next to other elements, and the same 甲 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.