Yang Metal Monkey (Geng Shen, 庚申) day pillar
A Yang Metal day master, the Sword, 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 Geng Shen day.
Its sound element: Pomegranate Wood (Shi Liu Mu, 石榴木)
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:
Pomegranate flower; likes summer, and does not suit autumn or winter.
榴花，喜夏，不宜秋冬
What the Monkey 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 Metal (Geng, 庚), the main one — Friend (Bi Jian, 比肩). Same element, same polarity as you. A peer: someone standing where you stand, competing for the same thing and equally able to share the load.
- Yang Water (Ren, 壬) — Eating God (Shi Shen, 食神). What you produce, same polarity. Output that comes easily: making, feeding, expressing, without strain.
- Yang Earth (Wu, 戊) — 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).
In San Ming Tong Hui’s section on where each stem is born and dies, the Monkey is the seat of Yang Metal’s salary (Lu, 禄), where it is strongest.
A Geng 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 Geng Shen 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)
a Monkey (申) month, born where Earth (土) is thick, noble. Dragon (辰) and Goat (未) in year or month running a western Metal period, then favourable. A Metal Snake (辛巳) month, cruel punishment. A Metal Pig (辛亥) month, solitary and short-lived.
申月，生土厚地方，贵。辰未年月，行西运金，方吉。辛巳月，凶刑。辛亥月，孤夭。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Fire Ox (Ding Chou, 丁丑)
an Ox (丑) month with Metal and Fire periods, the highest grade. Dragon (辰), Snake (巳), Horse (午), Goat (未) and Dog (戌) months, officer and Resource (印) both strong, noble. Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉), the self too strong, and it must run Wood and Fire. Tiger (寅) and Rabbit (卯), the wealth too strong, and it must run Metal and Water. Pig (亥) and Rat (子), the Metal cold and the Water chill, and it must run Fire and Earth periods, noble.
丑月，金火运，极品。辰巳午未戌月，官印两旺，贵。申、酉，身太旺，须行木火。寅、卯，财太旺，须行金水。亥子，金寒水冷，须行火土运，贵。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Earth Tiger (Wu Yin, 戊寅)
hour and day clash together — grief over wife and children. Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯) and Dragon (辰) months with Fire and Metal periods, marquis or earl. A spring month with a southwestern period, greatly noble. A Tiger month, conspicuously noble but not for long. One account says punished first and favourable after.
时日并冲，忧伤妻子。寅卯辰月、火金运。侯伯。春月、西南运，大贵。寅月，贵显不久。一云先刑后吉。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Earth Rabbit (Ji Mao, 己卯)
a Rabbit (卯) month, the wealth-star pattern; if not noble then wealthy. Ox (丑) and Snake (巳) in year or month, the academy, pure and noble, office to vice-minister. One account says poor when young, a small calamity in middle age, harming the wife and few children.
卯月，财星格，不贵即富。丑巳年月，翰林清贵，官至亚卿。一云少贫，中年有小灾，克妻少子。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Metal Dragon (Geng Chen, 庚辰)
Rat (子) and Monkey (申) in year or month enter the Well Railing Fork (井栏叉). Where pillars and period do not meet Yang Fire (丙), Yin Fire (丁), Snake (巳) or Horse (午), noble. Pure Metal Monkey (庚申) and Metal Dragon (庚辰) running northwestern and eastern periods, a military office of the highest grade.
子、申年月入井栏叉。柱、运不逢丙丁巳午字，贵。纯庚申、庚辰，行西北东运，武职极品。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Metal Snake (Xin Si, 辛巳)
punishment. Snake (巳), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑) months, outstanding. Spring and summer, Wood and Fire strong, wealth and officer getting their ground, favourable. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox and Goat (未), Direct Resource (印绶), running a southern period, noble.
刑。巳酉丑月，特达。春夏，木火旺，财官得地，吉。辰戌丑未，印绶，行南运，贵。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Water Horse (Ren Wu, 壬午)
The prosperity star (禄) and horse in the same country, best of all. As with Horse (午) and Goat (未) in year or month, a position reaching the terrace pavilions. Rabbit (卯), Dragon (辰) and Snake (巳), noble. A Dog (戌) month running Fire and Earth periods, a pure, empty and cold post.
禄马同乡，最吉。如午未年月，位至台阁。卯辰已，贵。戌月、行火土运，清虚冷职。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Water Goat (Gui Wei, 癸未)
a Rooster (酉) month, military nobility, stripped of authority in the early years. Where year and month have Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌) and Monkey (申), Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) — the two frames — mingled together, noble.
酉月，武贵，初年剥权。年月寅午戌、申子辰二局相参，贵。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Wood Monkey (Jia Shen, 甲申)
noble. With no Rabbit (卯), Horse (午), Goat (未), Dog (戌), Yang Fire (丙) or Yin Fire (丁) character, noble. Rat (子) and Ox (丑) months with Metal and Water periods, literary nobility. For the rest see Metal Monkey (庚申) and Wood Monkey (甲申): the sole the prosperity star (禄) and the returned the prosperity star. Hard Metal cannot be forged without Fire, so those born in Snake (巳), Horse or Dog months are mostly noble. There are seven ways of reading the returned the prosperity star; do not take it as a thing disliked. A wealth month is best of all.
贵。无卯午未戌丙丁字，贵。子丑月，金水运，文贵。余见庚申、甲申，专禄归禄。坚金非火不能锻炼，故巳午戌月生者，多贵。看归禄有七法，勿以为嫌。财月最吉。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Wood Rooster (Yi You, 乙酉)
true punishment. Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌), greatly noble. Snake (巳), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑), middling nobility. Monkey (申), Rat (子) and Dragon (辰), wealthy. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未), withered and falling; one account says wealth, favourable.
真刑。寅午戌，大贵。巳酉丑，中贵。申子辰，富。亥卯未，凋零，一云财吉。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Fire Dog (Bing Xu, 丙戌)
Dog (戌) and Pig (亥) in year or month with a southeastern period, noble. A Monkey (申) month, greatly noble.
戌亥年月，东南运，贵。申月，大贵。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai, 丁亥)
born in autumn with a southern period, conspicuously noble; a northern period, ordinary.
秋生，南运，贵显；北运，平常。
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 Shen day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
The eight of one substance
The day pillar is Wood Tiger (甲寅), Wood Rabbit (乙卯), Metal Monkey (庚申) or Metal Rooster (辛酉). The section lists more days whose stem and branch share an element, then names these four as the proper ones — The proper ones (为正) — so only those four are judged.
六十甲子，独此干支同类，内甲寅、乙卯、庚申、辛酉四日自专禄旺为正。
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 Geng Shen days: 12 December 2026, 10 February 2027, 11 April 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Geng Shen day
- Jeff Bezos Founder, Amazon
- Yuan Longping Agronomist · developed the first hybrid rice
The Yang Metal day master · Before it: Ji Wei · After it: Xin You · All sixty day pillars