Yang Fire Monkey (Bing Shen, 丙申) day pillar
A Yang Fire day master, the Sun, sitting on the Monkey.
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 Shen day.
Its sound element: Fire below the Mountain (Shan Xia Huo, 山下火)
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:
White reeds burning in the wild; likes autumn and winter, and Wood.
白茅野烧，喜秋冬及木
What the Monkey 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 Metal (Geng, 庚), the main one — Indirect Wealth (Pian Cai, 偏财). What you control, same polarity. Wealth that comes sideways rather than by salary — the uneven kind.
- Yang Water (Ren, 壬) — Seven Killings (Qi Sha, 七杀). What controls you, same polarity. Pressure with nothing softening it: demand, risk, and whatever you answer to whether you chose it or not.
- Yang Earth (Wu, 戊) — Eating God (Shi Shen, 食神). What you produce, same polarity. Output that comes easily: making, feeding, expressing, without strain.
A Bing Shen 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 Shen 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)
Snake (巳) and Horse (午) in year or month running a northeastern period, the censorate. A Rat (子) month running Wood and Fire periods, third grade. Ox (丑), seventh grade. Rooster (酉) and Pig (亥), though nobility is met it turns to lowness. It dislikes a Water Snake (癸巳) month, punishment in middle age; a Wood Rooster (乙酉) month, ruin.
巳午年月，行东北运，风宪，子月，行木火运，三品。丑七品，酉亥，虽遇贵反贱。忌癸巳月，中年刑。乙酉月，破败。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Earth Ox (Ji Chou, 己丑)
blood complaints. A Monkey (申) month, letters and a Confucian office made. Rabbit (卯), noble. Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) gathering as officer, Tiger (寅) and Rabbit gathering as Resource (印) — both favourable.
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Metal Tiger (Geng Yin, 庚寅)
Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未), or Monkey (申), Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) — the two frames, officer and Resource (印) both strong, greatly noble. Snake (巳) and Ox (丑) as a wealth frame, favourable. Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌) as a Fire frame, middling.
亥卯未、申子辰二局，官印两旺，大贵。巳丑财局，吉。寅午戌火局，平。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Metal Rabbit (Xin Mao, 辛卯)
stagnant; it governs cleverness and a fondness for wine and women; the self strong and untransformed, noble. Spring favourable. Winter running a northern period, wealth and rank both complete. Snake (巳) and Ox (丑) in year or month running an eastern period, second grade; Horse (午) and Goat (未), third grade.
滞，主聪明好酒色，身旺不化者贵。春吉。冬，行北运，富贵双全。巳丑年月，行东运，二品，午未三品。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Water Dragon (Ren Chen, 壬辰)
calamity in the midst of strength. Spring middling, summer blessed, autumn wealthy, winter the life shortened. If Monkey (申), Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) form a Wood (木) frame with Resource (印) and Friend (比) showing at the stems to help, greatly noble; the Eating God (食) checking the Killings (煞) is also noble. It dislikes the Killings showing unchecked, and wealth siding with the Killings and making it strong — an early and unnatural death.
旺中灾。春平，夏福，秋富，冬寿促。若申子辰木局，干透印比助，大贵，食制煞亦贵。嫌煞透无制，财党煞强，夭死非命。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Water Snake (Gui Si, 癸巳)
the self sits on Seven Killings (偏官) and Indirect Wealth (偏财); if not noble then wealthy.
身坐偏官、偏财，不贵即富。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Wood Horse (Jia Wu, 甲午)
without Fire and Earth qi in sight the blessing is thin. Running Metal and Water periods, noble.
不见火土气者福薄。行金水运，贵。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Wood Goat (Yi Wei, 乙未)
not carrying Fire qi and with no wealth star in sight, read as a good destiny. Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) in year or month gathering as officer; Pig (亥) and Rabbit (卯) gathering as Resource (印) — both noble.
不通火气，不见财星，作好命论。年月子辰会官；亥卯会印，俱贵。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Fire Monkey (Bing Shen, 丙申)
high, fond of women. Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) in year or month with an eastern period, noble; otherwise crippled and short-lived. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未), favourable.
高，好色。子辰年月，东运，贵；不然，残疾寿促。亥卯未，吉。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Fire Rooster (Ding You, 丁酉)
carrying a month of Water and Wood qi and running Water and Wood periods, noble. Snake (巳) and Horse (午), the self strong. Pig (亥) and Rat (子), the officer strong. Where year and month have both complete, greatly noble.
通水木气月，行水木运贵。已午，身旺。亥子，官旺。年月两全者，大贵。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Earth Dog (Wu Xu, 戊戌)
a Pig (亥) month with an eastern period, noble. Tiger (寅) and Horse (午) make the self strong, and with wealth showing at the stems, favourable. Ox (丑) and Dragon (辰) punishing and clashing the Dog (戌) vault, it comes out in later years.
亥月，东方运，贵。寅午身旺，干透财，吉。丑辰刑冲戌库，发于晚年。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Earth Pig (Ji Hai, 己亥)
born in spring or summer, moving the root and changing the leaves, taking the wife and changing his blessing. Autumn and winter, ordinary. A Rooster (酉) month running a southeastern period, the censorate.
春夏生，移根换叶，就妻改福。秋冬平常。酉月，行东南运，风宪。
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 Shen day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
The womb meeting the Direct Resource
The day pillar is one of Metal Tiger (庚寅), Metal Rabbit (辛卯), Fire Monkey (丙申) or Wood Rooster (乙酉). The passage also wants the month command to be a Direct Resource (印绶); only the four day pillars it names are judged here.
经云：胞胎逢印绶，禄享千锺。如庚寅、辛卯、丙申、乙酉等，日时月令逢印绶之地，主贵
The ten unpardonable days
The day pillar is one of the ten whose prosperity star (禄) falls in its own decade's Void (空亡). The passage is explicit that it is not simply bad — 况犯者未必皆凶，若内有吉神相扶，贵气相辅，当为吉论 — so it is reported and not graded.
六甲旬中十个日值禄人空亡，如甲辰、乙巳，甲以寅为禄，乙以卯为禄，甲辰旬以寅卯为空亡……余如丙申、丁亥、庚辰、戊戌、癸亥、辛巳、乙丑等日皆仿此。命中犯者，当以日上见之为是，其余不论
The Monkey 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
- Tiger
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Snake
- In a trine with
- Rat, Dragon
- Punishment with
- Tiger, Snake
- Harms
- Pig
- Breaks
- Snake
The next Bing Shen days: 18 November 2026, 17 January 2027, 18 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Bing Shen day
- Tony Leung Chiu-wai Actor · In the Mood for Love
- Cai Yuanpei Educator · President of Peking University, 1917–1927
The Yang Fire day master · Before it: Yi Wei · After it: Ding You · All sixty day pillars