Yin Fire Ox (Ding Chou, 丁丑) day pillar
A Yin Fire day master, the Candle, sitting on the Ox.
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 Ding Chou day.
Its sound element: Water in the Ravine (Jian Xia Shui, 涧下水)
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:
Water that does not flow, where it is clear; likes Metal, and summer.
水之不流清澈处，喜金及夏
What the Ox holds, and what it is to Yin 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 Earth (Ji, 己), the main one — Eating God (Shi Shen, 食神). What you produce, same polarity. Output that comes easily: making, feeding, expressing, without strain.
- Yin Water (Gui, 癸) — 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.
- Yin Metal (Xin, 辛) — Indirect Wealth (Pian Cai, 偏财). What you control, same polarity. Wealth that comes sideways rather than by salary — the uneven kind.
A Ding Chou 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 Ding Chou day; what it says about the other five Yin Fire days is on the Yin Fire day master page. Hours are true solar time, not clock time.
Rat hour 23:00–01:00 · Yang Metal Rat (Geng Zi, 庚子)
middling; carrying Wood and Fire qi, or running a period where the self is strong, noble. There are also noble ones with Pig (亥) or Rat (子) in year or month, because Yin Fire (丁) is yin and soft and does not fear a country of Water. Fire Rabbit (丁卯) at the Metal Rat (庚子) hour: poor; Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未), the Seven Killings (偏官) held in check; a Horse (午) month with strong stems; spring with the self strong — all favourable. Autumn and winter, ordinary. It dislikes a Water Snake (癸巳) month, breaking the ancestors and ill; an Earth Goat (己未) month, punishment and injury; a Wood Monkey (甲申) month, a death of the branded face and spilt blood.
平，通木火气，或行身旺运，贵。亦有亥子年月贵者，以丁火阴柔，不怕水乡故也。丁卯庚子时贫，辰戌丑未，偏官有制，午月干强，春身旺，俱吉。秋冬平常。忌癸巳月，破祖凶；己未月，刑伤；甲申月，刺面血光死。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Metal Ox (Xin Chou, 辛丑)
Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉) months, the wealth pattern, wealth strong producing the officer, noble. A Horse (午) month, Hurting Officer (伤) and wealth with the self strong, it governs office and the prosperity star (禄). Pure Rat (子) and Tiger (寅), military nobility of the third grade. A Water month, hardship and toil. A Dragon (辰) month, a noble relation.
申酉月，财格，财旺生官，贵。午月，伤财身旺，主官禄。纯子寅，武贵三品。水月，艰辛劳苦。辰月贵戚。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Water Tiger (Ren Yin, 壬寅)
transforming, noble. Born in a winter month, the officer strong, noble. Spring, Direct Resource (印绶), settled; summer favourable; autumn middling, and running an eastern period is good.
化贵。生冬月，官旺，贵。春，印绶，安稳，夏吉；秋平，行东运好。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Water Rabbit (Gui Mao, 癸卯)
Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, held in check to the mean, noble. A Horse (午) month with strong stems, noble. Monkey (申) and Ox, the censorate.
辰戌丑未月，制伏得中贵。午月干强，贵。申丑，风宪。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Wood Dragon (Jia Chen, 甲辰)
favourable. Pig (亥) and Rat (子) months, wealth and rank. A Monkey (申) month with an eastern period; a Horse (午) month with Metal and Water periods — both noble. Pure Tiger (寅), the censorate at the highest grade.
吉，亥子月，富贵。申月，东方运；午月，金水运，俱贵。纯寅，风宪极品。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Wood Snake (Yi Si, 乙巳)
spring wealthy, summer solitary, autumn favourable, winter noble.
春富，夏孤，秋吉，冬贵。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Fire Horse (Bing Wu, 丙午)
middling; Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯), Dog (戌) and Goat (未) in year or month, noble. Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑), using wealth, best of all. It dislikes Pig (亥) and Rat (子) as officer and Killings (煞).
平，寅卯戌未年月，贵。酉丑，用财最吉。忌亥子官煞。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Fire Goat (Ding Wei, 丁未)
Ox (丑) and Goat (未) punish and clash — it does not come to a good end. Dragon (辰) and Dog (戌) in year or month, the four vaults complete, noble to the highest grade. Monkey (申) and Goat, third grade, a post in the law courts, thin and easeful.
丑未刑冲，不得善终。年月辰戌，四库全，贵当极品。申未，三品，法司淡薄清闲。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Earth Monkey (Wu Shen, 戊申)
fine and noble. Goat (未) and Monkey (申) in year or month, noble; running a southeastern period, greatly noble. A Snake (巳) month with a northwestern period, an office among the six ministers.
秀贵。未申年月，贵；行东南运，大贵。巳月，西北运，六卿之职。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Earth Rooster (Ji You, 己酉)
Dragon (辰), Snake (巳), Horse (午), Goat (未), Monkey (申) and Dog (戌) in year or month, noble.
辰巳午未申戍年月贵。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Metal Dog (Geng Xu, 庚戌)
hour and day punish each other — grief over wife and children. If Tiger (寅), Pig (亥), Monkey (申) or Rooster (酉) stand in year or month, office to the third grade. Horse (午), Goat (未), Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) running Metal and Wood periods, also noble.
时日相刑，忧伤妻子。若寅亥申酉年月，官至三品。午未子辰，行金木运亦贵。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Metal Pig (Xin Hai, 辛亥)
autumn, the wealth strong; summer, the self strong; spring, the Resource (印) strong — conspicuously noble. Winter, officer and Killings (煞) too heavy, and the self weak may be unable to bear the blessing.
秋财旺，夏身旺，春印旺，贵显。冬，官煞太重，恐身弱不能胜任其福。
The Ox 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
- Goat
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Rat
- In a trine with
- Snake, Rooster
- Punishment with
- Goat, Dog
- Harms
- Horse
- Breaks
- Dragon
The next Ding Chou days: 30 October 2026, 29 December 2026, 27 February 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Ding Chou day
- Lee Chong Wei Badminton player; world No. 1 for 349 weeks
- Hu Shih Scholar and diplomat · the New Culture Movement
The Yin Fire day master · Before it: Bing Zi · After it: Wu Yin · All sixty day pillars