Yin Fire Rooster (Ding You, 丁酉) day pillar
A Yin Fire day master, the Candle, sitting on the Rooster.
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 You 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:
The echo of spirits: fire that has no form; likes the Dragon, Dog, Ox and Goat.
鬼神之灵响，火无形者，喜辰戌丑未
What the Rooster 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 Metal (Xin, 辛), 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.
In San Ming Tong Hui’s section on where each stem is born and dies, the Rooster is where Yin Fire is born (Chang Sheng, 长生).
A Ding You 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 You 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)
Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, firm, clear and outstanding, noble. Dragon and Snake (巳) in year or month, honoured in the ministers' offices. It dislikes a Wood Tiger (甲寅) month, ruin and a bad death; a Water Snake (癸巳) month, leaving the home village and a bad death; a Wood Rooster (乙酉) month, death by punishment.
辰戌丑未月，刚明特达，贵。辰巳年月，贵尊相府。忌甲寅月，破败恶死；癸巳月，离乡恶死；乙酉月刑死。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Metal Ox (Xin Chou, 辛丑)
Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯), Snake (巳) and Horse (午), the self strong with something to lean on, it governs a high literary name and nobility, favoured out of the ordinary. Monkey (申), Rooster (酉) and Dog (戌), the wealth strong and following it, best of all. Pig (亥) and Rat (子), the officer strong, also favourable.
寅卯巳午，身旺有托，主文名高贵，宠遇非常。申酉戌，财旺从之，最吉。亥子，官旺亦吉。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Water Tiger (Ren Yin, 壬寅)
Pig (亥), Goat (未), Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯), Monkey (申) and Rat (子) in year or month, clever, wealthy and noble, the censorate at the highest grade. Snake (巳) and Horse (午), a chief minister. A Dragon (辰) month running Metal and Water periods; a Dog (戌) month with an eastern period — both noble.
亥未寅卯申子年月，聪明富贵，风宪极品。巳午，宰相。辰月，行金水运；戌月，东方运，俱贵。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Water Rabbit (Gui Mao, 癸卯)
day and hour both sit on nobility — best of all. Spring and summer, the self strong, the ghost turns into the officer; autumn and winter, the self declining, diligence and hardship. Snake (巳) and Dog (戌) months, noble. Pure Horse (午) and Ox (丑) in year and month with Yang Metal (庚) and Yin Earth (己) showing at the stems, pure and noble.
日时俱坐贵，最吉。春夏身旺，化鬼为官；秋冬身衰，勤苦。巳戌月，贵。纯午丑年月，干透庚己，清贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Wood Dragon (Jia Chen, 甲辰)
middling; with no Dog (戌) character in year or month, the day master's glory and nobility pattern. Born in spring with a southern period, noble; a northern period, greatly noble. Where the year Horse (午) and the month branch bind into a frame, the man-and-horse transformed pattern — more noble still.
平，年月不见戌字，日主荣贵格。春生，南运，贵；北运，大贵。年午月支合局，人马化格，尤贵。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Wood Snake (Yi Si, 乙巳)
wealth broken and the Overturned Meal (倒食); if it carries Metal (金) and Water in year or month and runs Metal and Water periods, favourable.
破财倒食，若通金水年月，行金水运，吉。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Fire Horse (Bing Wu, 丙午)
middling, unfavourable to sons and grandsons. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未) in year or month, noble. Snake (巳), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑), middling. Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌), wealthy.
平，不利子孙。亥卯未年月，贵。巳酉丑，平。寅午戌，富。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Fire Goat (Ding Wei, 丁未)
the Noble Day (日贵) pattern. If born in Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯), Goat (未) or Tiger (寅) months, clothing and the prosperity star (禄) generous and thick; a Tiger month with Metal and Water periods, gold and purple and the censorate.
日贵格。若亥卯未寅月生，衣禄敦厚，寅月，金水运，金紫风宪。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Earth Monkey (Wu Shen, 戊申)
born in Tiger (寅), Horse (午), Dog (戌), Ox (丑), Dragon (辰) or Goat (未) months, Hurting Officer (伤官) injured to the full is remarkable, and the Noble Day (日贵) pattern besides — it governs passing the examinations, and running Metal and Water periods, gold at the waist and purple robes.
寅午戌丑辰未月生，伤官伤尽为奇，又日贵格，主登科第，运行金水，腰金衣紫。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Earth Rooster (Ji You, 己酉)
punishment, harm, solitude and ill; carrying a month of Wood and Fire, favourable.
刑害孤恶，通木火月，吉。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Metal Dog (Geng Xu, 庚戌)
the Noble Day (日贵) pattern, close to nobility, understanding crafts and trades, with plan and scheme in him. Rooster (酉) and Dog (戌), the six harms (六害) — flesh and blood without feeling. An autumn month, fifth or sixth grade.
日贵格，近贵，晓艺业，有机谋。酉戌，六害，骨肉无情，秋月，五六品贵。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Metal Pig (Xin Hai, 辛亥)
the noble one holds up the Resource (印) — noble. A Rat (子) month with an eastern period, the censorate. Where the pillars have Snake (巳) and Ox (丑) gathering as wealth, Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未) gathering as Resource, and wealth, officer and Resource showing at the stems, greatly noble.
贵人捧印，贵。子月，东方运，风宪。柱有巳丑会财，卯未会印，天干透财官印者，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 Ding You day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
Honour on the day
The day pillar is one of Fire Rooster (丁酉), Fire Pig (丁亥), Water Snake (癸巳) or Water Rabbit (癸卯). The work adds that it most fears punishment, clash, breaking and harm; that part is not judged here.
日贵者何？即甲戊兼牛羊之类。止有四日：丁酉、丁亥、癸巳、癸卯耳；最怕刑冲破害。
The Rooster 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
- Rabbit
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Dragon
- In a trine with
- Ox, Snake
- Punishment with
- Rooster (itself)
- Harms
- Dog
- Breaks
- Rat
The next Ding You days: 19 November 2026, 18 January 2027, 19 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Ding You day
- Mao Zedong Founding leader of the People's Republic of China
- Xi Jinping General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party since 2012; President of China since 2013
The Yin Fire day master · Before it: Bing Shen · After it: Wu Xu · All sixty day pillars