Yang Fire Dragon (Bing Chen, 丙辰) day pillar
A Yang Fire day master, the Sun, sitting on the Dragon.
Your day pillar is the pair of characters for the day you were born. The top one, the stem, is your day master — you. The bottom one, the branch, is what it sits on. The sixty pillars come round in turn, one a day, so about one person in sixty was born on a Bing Chen day.
Its sound element: Earth in the Sand (Sha Zhong Tu, 沙中土)
The sixty pillars go in pairs, and each pair carries a sound element (Na Yin, 纳音) — an image, separate from the element of the stem. The classic San Ming Tong Hui (三命通会) describes each pillar by it:
A riverbank; likes Metal and Wood.
堤岸，喜金及木
What the Dragon holds, and what it is to Yang Fire
Each branch holds one to three stems. The ones under your own day master are the closest things to you in the chart.
- Yang Earth (Wu, 戊), the main one — Eating God (Shi Shen, 食神). What you produce, same polarity. Output that comes easily: making, feeding, expressing, without strain.
- Yin Wood (Yi, 乙) — Direct Resource (Zheng Yin, 正印). What produces you, opposite polarity. Straightforward support: what teaches, shelters and backs you.
- Yin Water (Gui, 癸) — Direct Officer (Zheng Guan, 正官). What controls you, opposite polarity. Authority in its orderly form: office, rule, the structure you fit into.
A Bing Chen day at each birth hour: San Ming Tong Hui (三命通会)
Two volumes of this classic go hour by hour, and at each hour say something about this exact day pillar. These are its sentences on a Bing Chen day; what it says about the other five Yang Fire days is on the Yang Fire day master page. Hours are true solar time, not clock time.
Rat hour 23:00–01:00 · Yang Earth Rat (Wu Zi, 戊子)
Fire Dragon (丙辰) is the Virtuous Day (日德) pattern and is glad to see the officer star. If born in a Dog (戌) month, the self strong suits it best — military nobility. A Tiger (寅) month running Metal and Water periods, middling nobility. A Monkey (申) month, the triad binding the Killings (煞) with a Resource (印), noble. It dislikes an Earth Snake (己巳) month, a cruel death; an Earth Pig (己亥) month, death by self-punishment; a Water Ox (癸丑) month, breaking the ancestors and a bad death.
丙辰为日德格，喜见官星。若生戌月，身旺最宜，武贵。寅月，行金水运，中贵。申月三合，合煞有印，贵。忌己巳月，凶死；己亥月，自刑死；癸丑月，破祖恶死。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Earth Ox (Ji Chou, 己丑)
Monkey (申) and Pig (亥) in year or month, transforming to Water, favourable; not transforming, the life is short. A Dog (戌) month clashes the vault, and there is no one it does not bring out. Tiger (寅) and Horse (午) make the self strong, forming the high Fire pattern — greatly noble.
申亥年月，化水则吉；不化寿促，戌月冲库，无人不发。寅午身旺，成火上格，大贵。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Metal Tiger (Geng Yin, 庚寅)
born in Tiger (寅), Horse (午), Dog (戌) or Goat (未) in year or month, the wife worthy and the children filial, wealth and rank both complete. Monkey (申) and Rat (子) running a northern period, greatly noble. Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑), wealthy.
生寅午戌未年月，妻贤子孝，富贵双全。申子，行北运，大贵。酉丑，富。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Metal Rabbit (Xin Mao, 辛卯)
born in Tiger (寅) or Dog (戌) months, the high (天月二德). A Snake (巳) month running a northern period, noble. Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑) also noble. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未), greatly noble.
生寅戌月，天月二德，高。巳月，行北方运，贵。酉丑亦贵。亥卯未，大贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Water Dragon (Ren Chen, 壬辰)
the self solitary with wealth, governing a bad death. Born in spring running a northern period; summer, an eastern period — both noble. Autumn, a southern period, office to the third grade.
身孤有财，主恶死。春生，行北运；夏，东运，俱贵。秋，南运，官至三品。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Water Snake (Gui Si, 癸巳)
unfavourable to the ancestors. Rooster (酉), Dog (戌), Tiger (寅) and Ox (丑) in year or month, the Kui Gang days (魁罡) pattern; running through with the self strong, noble.
不利祖宗。酉戌寅丑年月，魁罡格，通身旺，贵。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Wood Horse (Jia Wu, 甲午)
Tiger (寅) and Rabbit (卯), the Resource (印) helping; Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉), the Resource strong; Snake (巳) and Horse (午), the self strong; Pig (亥) and Rat (子), the officer strong — all favourable. But Fire and Earth weigh most, and without them the blessing is thin. Goat (未), Dog (戌), Dragon (辰) and Ox (丑) seen, favourable.
寅卯印助，申酉印旺，巳午身旺，亥子官旺，俱吉。然以火土为重，无则福薄。未戌辰丑见，吉。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Wood Goat (Yi Wei, 乙未)
spring favourable, summer settled, autumn toilsome, winter conspicuously noble. Snake (巳) and Horse (午) months running a northwestern period, sixth or seventh grade.
春吉，夏平稳，秋劳碌，冬贵显。巳午月，行西北运，六七品贵。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Fire Monkey (Bing Shen, 丙申)
a Tiger (寅) month running a southern period, noble. Rat (子), the triad binding an officer frame with the Resource (印) showing at the stems, greatly noble. Born in Pig (亥) with Yang Water (壬) showing, often an early death. Dog (戌) and Goat (未), ordinary.
寅月，行南运，贵。子，三合官局，天干透印，大贵。亥生透壬，多夭。戌未，平常。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Fire Rooster (Ding You, 丁酉)
Tiger (寅), Horse (午), Dog (戌) and Snake (巳) in year or month with Killings (煞) and Resource (印) showing at the stems, noble. Monkey (申) and Rat (子) gathering as officer, with Resource and Friend (比) showing at the stems, noble. If year and month are Fire and Earth, it should see wealth and then it is favourable.
寅午戌巳年月，干透煞印者贵。申子会官，干透印比者贵。如年月火土，宜见财则吉。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Earth Dog (Wu Xu, 戊戌)
a Horse (午) month, the Yang Fire (丙) has qi and the Earth is thick — fifth or sixth grade. A Pig (亥) month with Metal and Fire periods, the censorate.
午月，丙火有气，土厚地方，五六品贵。亥月，金火运，风宪。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Earth Pig (Ji Hai, 己亥)
the Virtuous Day (日德) pattern. Born in a Tiger (寅) month, favourable; a Dragon (辰) month, a monk or priest and it governs wealth, in a common man solitude and harm. A Dog (戌) month clashing Dragon, a Snake (巳) month clashing Pig (亥), the Yang Fire (丙) strong in its vault — all favourable. Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未) gathering, running Metal and Water periods; Monkey (申) and Rat (子) gathering, running Wood and Fire periods — both noble.
日德格。寅月生，吉，辰月，为僧道主富，平人孤克。戌月冲辰，巳月冲亥，丙旺库，俱吉。卯未会，行金水运，申子会，行木火运，俱贵。
Named days in Yuan Hai Zi Ping (渊海子平)
These are decided by the day pillar alone, so everyone born on a Bing Chen day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
Virtue on the day
The day pillar is one of Wood Tiger (甲寅), Earth Dragon (戊辰), Fire Dragon (丙辰), Metal Dragon (庚辰) or Water Dog (壬戌).
日德有五：甲寅、戊辰、丙辰、庚辰、壬戌日是也。其福要多，而忌刑冲破害，恶官星，憎财旺；加临会合，但空亡而忌魁罡。
The Dragon and the other animals
When the day branch meets these — in a year, a ten-year luck period, or someone else’s chart — the classics read it by these relationships.
- Clashes with
- Dog
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Rooster
- In a trine with
- Rat, Monkey
- Punishment with
- Dragon (itself)
- Harms
- Rabbit
- Breaks
- Ox
The next Bing Chen days: 8 December 2026, 6 February 2027, 7 April 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Bing Chen day
- Ye Jianying Marshal of the People's Liberation Army · Chairman of the National People's Congress
The Yang Fire day master · Before it: Yi Mao · After it: Ding Si · All sixty day pillars