Yang Metal Dragon (Geng Chen, 庚辰) day pillar
A Yang Metal day master, the Sword, 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 Geng Chen day.
Its sound element: White Wax Metal (Bai La Jin, 白蜡金)
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:
Tin and pewter; likes autumn, and a little Wood.
锡蜡，喜秋及微木
What the Dragon holds, and what it is to Yang Metal
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 — Indirect Resource (Pian Yin, 偏印). What produces you, same polarity. Support of an indirect kind — the tradition treats it as nourishment that can also crowd out the Eating God (食神).
- Yin Wood (Yi, 乙) — Direct Wealth (Zheng Cai, 正财). What you control, opposite polarity. Wealth held steadily — earned, kept, accounted for.
- Yin Water (Gui, 癸) — 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 Geng 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 Geng Chen day; what it says about the other five Yang Metal days is on the Yang Metal day master page. Hours are true solar time, not clock time.
Rat hour 23:00–01:00 · Yang Fire Rat (Bing Zi, 丙子)
where the month carries Wood and Fire qi and it runs a western period, excellent. A Wood Snake (乙巳) month, ruin, punishment. A Fire Rooster (丁酉) month, punishment in the midst of strength, ill. An Earth Ox (己丑) month, ruin, ill.
月通木火气，行西运，妙。乙巳月，破败，刑。丁酉月，旺中刑，凶。己丑月，破败，凶。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Fire Ox (Ding Chou, 丁丑)
an Ox (丑) month, wealthy and the life short. Yin Earth (己), close to the throne, greatly noble. Carrying a month where Fire is strong and Earth produced, noble; not getting it, meeting it in the period is still wealthy, with a name and repute.
丑月，富而寿促。己，近侍，大贵。通火旺土生月，贵；不得，运遇亦富，有名誉。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Earth Tiger (Wu Yin, 戊寅)
born in spring or summer with Yang Fire (丙) or Yin Fire (丁) showing at the stems, running a period where the self is strong, noble.
春夏生，干透丙丁，运行身旺，贵。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Earth Rabbit (Ji Mao, 己卯)
solitary. Where year and month carry Wood qi and there is something to lean on, noble.
孤。年月通木气及有倚托者，贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Metal Dragon (Geng Chen, 庚辰)
the Kui Gang days (魁罡); with no wealth or officer and no Dog (戌) character in year or month, noble; clashed and broken, wealthy. Monkey (申) and Rat (子) in year or month make the Well Railing Fork (井栏叉), and running a southwestern period, favourable. Pure Metal Dragon (庚辰), or Metal Monkey (庚申), or Wood Rooster (乙酉) transforming to Metal and running through with no Fire qi — a cruel sort, a small man. One account says punishment.
魁罡，年月不见财官并戌字，贵；冲破者富。申子年月作井栏叉，行西南运，吉。纯庚辰，庚申或乙酉化金通无火气，凶徒小人。一云刑。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Metal Snake (Xin Si, 辛巳)
halting to the end. With no wealth in year or month, high. Carrying Wood qi and running a southwestern period; Goat (未) and Monkey (申) with a northeastern period — both noble. One account says nothing first and something after.
巳酉丑月，身旺，贵。煞旺身弱月，贫。纯申年月，大贵悠久。亥月，东南运、主有权贵。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Water Horse (Ren Wu, 壬午)
the Eating God (食神) strong, good at eating and drinking, with self-command — it comes out and then dies.
食神旺，善饮食，有操持，发即死。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Water Goat (Gui Wei, 癸未)
a Kui Gang days (魁罡) day. Within Dragon (辰) there is Earth to check the Yin Water (癸); with no Yin Fire (丁) in year or month, noble. A Rabbit (卯) month with Metal and Water periods, seventh grade, noble.
魁罡日。辰中有土制癸。年月无丁；贵。卯月，金水运，七品贵。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Wood Monkey (Jia Shen, 甲申)
the day is the Kui Gang days (魁罡) and it returns the prosperity star (禄) besides, and neither is glad of wealth or officer; with no Tiger (寅), Horse (午), Dog (戌), Yang Fire (丙), Yin Fire (丁) or Snake (巳) character in the pillars, noble.
日魁罡，又归禄，俱不喜财官、柱无寅午戌丙丁巳字，贵。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Wood Rooster (Yi You, 乙酉)
punishment. Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯) and Horse (午) in year and month, second grade, authority and rank. Dog (戌) and Pig (亥), greatly noble. The Shen Bai Jing (神白经) says: transforming to Metal governs a thick blessing.
刑。寅卯午年等月，二品权贵。戌亥大贵。《神白经》云：化金，主福厚。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Fire Dog (Bing Xu, 丙戌)
hour and day clash — grief over wife and children. Where the month carries Metal and Water qi, noble. Wood and Fire qi heavy, hardship, poor and short-lived, or crippled.
时日相冲，忧伤妻子。月通金水气，贵。木火气重者，艰辛，贫夭或残疾。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai, 丁亥)
pure Goat (未), coming to prominence. Snake (巳) and Horse (午) with a northwestern period, the censorate, gold and purple. Pig (亥) and Rabbit (卯), gold and purple, with authority. A Monkey (申) month, the Established Prosperity (建禄), best of all.
纯未，显达。已午，西北运，风宪、金紫。亥卯、金紫，有权。申月，建禄，最吉。
Named days in Yuan Hai Zi Ping (渊海子平)
These are decided by the day pillar alone, so everyone born on a Geng 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 Kui Gang (魁罡) days
The day pillar is one of Water Dragon (壬辰), Metal Dog (庚戌), Earth Dog (戊戌) or Metal Dragon (庚辰).
夫魁罡者有四：壬辰、庚戌、戊戌、庚辰日是也；如日位加临者众，必是福。运行身旺，发福百端；一见财官，祸患立至。
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 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 Geng Chen days: 2 November 2026, 1 January 2027, 2 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Geng Chen day
- Teresa Teng Singer
The Yang Metal day master · Before it: Ji Mao · After it: Xin Si · All sixty day pillars