Yang Fire Horse (Bing Wu, 丙午) day pillar
A Yang Fire day master, the Sun, sitting on the Horse.
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 Wu day.
Its sound element: Water of the Heavenly River (Tian He Shui, 天河水)
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:
The disc of the moon; likes night and autumn, when Water is strong.
月轮，喜夜及秋，水旺也
Of the thirty pairs in this section, twenty-nine give both pillars the same element and only Fire Horse (丙午)/Fire Goat (丁未) does not — and the Fire Goat entry itself reads same as above (同上), pointing back at Fire Horse. The calendar makes both Water of the Heavenly River (天河水). Three things against one, so the corpus is read as wrong here. Recorded rather than corrected; a second disagreement would mean the parse slipped.
What the Horse 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.
- Yin Fire (Ding, 丁), the main one — Rob Wealth (Jie Cai, 劫财). Same element, opposite polarity. A peer who takes rather than shares — the tradition reads it as what draws on your resources through people close to you.
- Yin Earth (Ji, 己) — Hurting Officer (Shang Guan, 伤官). What you produce, opposite polarity. Output with an edge on it. The name means it injures the Direct Officer (正官), which is why the tradition reads it as talent that does not sit well with authority.
A Bing Wu 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 Wu 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 Horse (丙午) is the blade on the day (日刃) pattern and wants officer or Killings (煞) to check and bind it. Born in Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) or Goat (未) months, greatly wealthy. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯), Goat and Tiger (寅) in year or month, greatly noble; Monkey (申) and Snake (巳), civil nobility of the third grade, military nobility not lasting. Pure Rat (子) makes the Rat and Horse double enclosure (子午双包) noble pattern. It dislikes a Fire Snake (丁巳) month, a bad death; a Fire Pig (丁亥) month, a bad death by self-punishment; a Metal Ox (辛丑) month, solitude.
丙午为日刃格，要官煞制合。生辰戌丑未月，大富。亥卯未寅年月，大贵，申巳，文贵三品，武贵不永。纯子，为子午双包贵格。忌丁巳月，恶死；丁亥月，自刑恶死；辛丑月，孤独。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Earth Ox (Ji Chou, 己丑)
a spring month running Fire and Metal periods, office of the highest grade. Summer middling, autumn wealthy, winter noble; wife and children hard to keep. Horse (午) and Rooster (酉) in year or month, fifth or sixth grade — this month proves the prosperity star (禄) producing wealth.
春月，行火金运，官至极品。夏平，秋富，冬贵，难为妻子，午酉年月，五六品，此月禄生财之验。丙申日巳丑时，血疾。申月，文学儒官成。卯贵。子辰会官，寅卯会印，俱吉。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Metal Tiger (Geng Yin, 庚寅)
with no Yang Water (壬), Yin Water (癸), Rat (子), Goat (未) or Snake (巳) in year or month, the Flying Prosperity Horse (飞天禄马) — noble. Snake, Rooster (酉), Ox (丑) and Monkey (申), it governs letters, if not noble then wealthy. A Goat month, Hurting Officer (伤官). A Dragon (辰) month, poor first and rich after. A Pig (亥) month running a western period, conspicuously noble.
年月无壬癸子未巳字，飞天禄马，贵。巳酉丑申，主文学，不贵即富。未月，伤官。辰月，先贫后富。亥月，行西运，贵显。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Metal Rabbit (Xin Mao, 辛卯)
where year and month get Yin Water (癸) as the officer star to take the blade away, favourable. A Rat (子) month, injury and harm to wife and children. Tiger (寅) and Rooster (酉), the temper hard and strong, not to be struck at, third or fourth grade. Horse (午) and Dog (戌) running a southeastern period; a Rabbit (卯) month running a northwestern period — both noble.
年月中得癸水官星去刃则吉。子月，伤克妻子，寅酉，性格刚强，不受击触，三四品贵。午戌，行东南运；卯月，行西北运，俱贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Water Dragon (Ren Chen, 壬辰)
noble; the self strong and the Killings (煞) shallow. In Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) or Goat (未) months, the Seven Killings (偏官) held in check, noble; unchecked, ordinary.
贵，身旺煞浅，若辰戌丑未月，偏官有制，贵；无制，平常。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Water Snake (Gui Si, 癸巳)
Ox (丑) and Dragon (辰) months, mixed-qi wealth and officer, conspicuously noble. A Tiger (寅) month is Yang Fire (丙)'s long life; a Snake (巳) month its Established Prosperity (建禄); with wealth and Resource (印) showing at the stems, greatly noble — and he should abstain from wine. Rat (子), the officer strong; Rooster (酉), the wealth strong — both favourable.
丑辰月，杂气财官，贵显。寅月，丙长生；已月，丙建禄，天干透财印者大贵，宜戒酒。子，官旺；酉，财旺，俱吉。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Wood Horse (Jia Wu, 甲午)
Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌) months are read as the Reverse Clash (倒冲), second or third grade. A Rat (子) month with a southern period, eighth or ninth grade. A Tiger month with a southern period, gold and purple. A Horse month with an eastern period, close to the throne.
寅午戌月，作倒冲论，二三品贵。子月，南运，八九品贵。寅月，南运，金紫贵。午月，东方运，近侍贵。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Wood Goat (Yi Wei, 乙未)
if not noble then wealthy. Horse (午) and Dog (戌) in year or month, a post in the censorate. Monkey (申), Rat (子) and Dragon (辰), the officer star checking the blade; Pig (亥), Resource (印) and Goat (未), the Direct Resource (印绶) transforming the blade — both favourable.
不贵则富。午戌年月，职居风宪。申子辰，官星制刃；亥印未，印绶化刃，俱吉。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Fire Monkey (Bing Shen, 丙申)
it governs calamity of blood and fire, and afterwards comes out greatly. If born in a Snake (巳) month with Yang Metal (庚) and Yin Metal (辛) showing, the wealth-star pattern, military nobility.
主血火厄，后大发。若巳月生，庚辛透露，财星格，武贵。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Fire Rooster (Ding You, 丁酉)
born in Snake (巳), Horse (午) or Dog (戌) months, a good destiny for a monk or priest; a Rooster (酉) month, noble; Pig (亥), Rat (子), Ox (丑), Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯) and Dragon (辰) as officer and Resource (印) in year or month, greatly noble.
生巳午戌月，僧道命好；酉月贵；亥子丑寅卯辰官印年月，大贵。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Earth Dog (Wu Xu, 戊戌)
The Yang Blade (羊刃) and Eating God (食神) hale and strong, name and profit come out suddenly. Pig (亥), Goat (未), Dragon (辰) and Dog (戌) in year or month with a western period, the censorate.
羊刃食神健旺，名利骤发，亥未辰戌年月，西方运，风宪。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Earth Pig (Ji Hai, 己亥)
military nobility. Born in Tiger (寅), Snake (巳) or Horse (午) months, the wife taken twice and the children late; if not noble then wealthy. Autumn and winter, name and profit advance and retreat. Rooster (酉), Horse and Dog (戌), greatly noble.
武贵。寅巳午月生，妻重子晚，不贵即富。秋冬，名利进退，酉午戌，大贵。
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 Wu day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
The blade on the day
The day pillar is one of Earth Horse (戊午), Fire Horse (丙午) or Water Rat (壬子).
日刃与阳刃同。日刃有戊午、丙午、壬子也，与阳刃同法。
The Horse 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
- Rat
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Goat
- In a trine with
- Tiger, Dog
- Punishment with
- Horse (itself)
- Harms
- Ox
- Breaks
- Rabbit
The next Bing Wu days: 28 November 2026, 27 January 2027, 28 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Bing Wu day
- Lim Goh Tong Founder, Genting
- Liang Qichao Scholar and reformer · the Hundred Days' Reform of 1898
The Yang Fire day master · Before it: Yi Si · After it: Ding Wei · All sixty day pillars