Yang Metal Horse (Geng Wu, 庚午) day pillar
A Yang Metal day master, the Sword, 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 Geng Wu day.
Its sound element: Earth by the Road (Lu Pang Tu, 路旁土)
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:
Dry earth by the road; likes Water, and spring.
路旁干土，喜水及春
What the Horse 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.
- Yin Fire (Ding, 丁), the main one — Direct Officer (Zheng Guan, 正官). What controls you, opposite polarity. Authority in its orderly form: office, rule, the structure you fit into.
- Yin Earth (Ji, 己) — Direct Resource (Zheng Yin, 正印). What produces you, opposite polarity. Straightforward support: what teaches, shelters and backs you.
A Geng 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 Geng Wu 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)
noble. Hour and day clash — grief over wife and children; the period is glad of southwest, and carrying a month of Fire and Wood qi, the censorate at the third or fourth grade. Born in autumn the Yang Fire (丙) has no qi and children are hard to come by. It dislikes an Earth Snake (己巳) month, breaking the ancestors, ill; an Earth Pig (己亥) month, robbed by thieves, ill; a Water Ox (癸丑) month, solitude.
贵。时日相冲，忧伤妻子，运喜西南，通火木月气，风宪三四品。秋生，丙火无气，难为子息。忌己巳月，破祖，凶。己亥月，被劫盗，凶。癸丑月，孤。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Fire Ox (Ding Chou, 丁丑)
carrying a month of Earth qi, noble; if not, still wealthy, with a name and repute.
通土月气，贵；不，亦富，有名声。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Earth Tiger (Wu Yin, 戊寅)
Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌) months, the Metal declining and the Fire strong, it must carry a disability. Pure Tiger, on the contrary it governs the highest nobility. Autumn, the Metal strong, mostly noble — but it dislikes the hour meeting the Loss Spirit (亡) and Rob Wealth (劫), which control the self and are ill.
寅午戌月，金衰火旺，当带残疾。纯寅，反主极贵。秋，金旺，多贵，但忌时遇亡劫，克身则凶。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Earth Rabbit (Ji Mao, 己卯)
punishment and breaking. Monkey (申), Rat (子), Dragon (辰), Yin Earth (己), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑) all running a southeastern period, noble. Tiger (寅), Horse (午), Dog (戌), Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未) must get a northwestern period to be fine.
刑破。申子辰己酉丑，俱行东南运，贵。寅午戌亥卯未，须得西北运为佳。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Metal Dragon (Geng Chen, 庚辰)
self-punishment, the Metal Spirit (金神) entering a Fire country. A Monkey (申) month running Fire and Wood periods, office to the sixth grade.
自刑，金神入火乡。申月，行火木运，官可六品。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Metal Snake (Xin Si, 辛巳)
Snake (巳), Horse (午) and Rabbit (卯) in year or month, a graduate and the censorate. Snake, Monkey (申), Rooster (酉) and Dog (戌) running Earth and Wood periods, marquis or earl.
巳午卯年月，进士风宪。巳申酉戌，行土木运，侯伯。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Water Horse (Ren Wu, 壬午)
Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌) months, the Metal soft and the Fire strong, shrinking back and crippled. Pig (亥), Rat (子) and Horse months running Wood and Fire periods, noble.
寅午戌月、金柔火旺，畏缩残疾。亥子午月、行木火运，贵。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Water Goat (Gui Wei, 癸未)
noble. Rooster (酉), Monkey (申), Snake (巳) and Pig (亥) in year or month, commanding the troops in chief, office to the second grade. Empty first and solid after.
贵。酉申巳亥年月，总领兵戎，官至二品。先虚后实。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Wood Monkey (Jia Shen, 甲申)
noble. Carrying a month where the self is strong, with no Yang Fire (丙), Snake (巳), Tiger (寅), Horse (午) or Yin Fire (丁) to injure and break it, noble.
贵。通身旺月，无丙巳寅午丁，伤破，贵。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Wood Rooster (Yi You, 乙酉)
punishment, middling nobility. Tiger (寅), Horse (午), Dog (戌) and Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯), Goat (未) — the two frames — noble. Snake (巳), also favourable.
刑，中贵。寅午戌亥卯未二局，贵。已，亦吉。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Fire Dog (Bing Xu, 丙戌)
Monkey (申), Rooster (酉), Pig (亥) and Ox (丑), wealthy and noble to the third grade. Snake (巳), Horse (午), Goat (未) and Monkey with a Yang Water (壬) character showing, running the Gen, the northeast (艮), Kan, the north (坎) and Qian, the northwest (乾) quarters, a minister with long life.
申酉亥丑、富，贵三品。已午未申，透出壬字，艮坎乾方运，卿相有寿。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai, 丁亥)
noble. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, the Earth can produce Metal, glory and conspicuousness. Monkey (申), Pig (亥) and Rooster (酉) months running Wood and Fire periods, the highest grade.
贵。辰戌丑未月，土能生金，荣显。申亥酉月，行木火运，极品。
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 Geng Wu days: 22 December 2026, 20 February 2027, 21 April 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Geng Wu day
- Li Ka-shing Founder, CK Hutchison
- Tsai Ing-wen President of Taiwan, 2016–2024
The Yang Metal day master · Before it: Ji Si · After it: Xin Wei · All sixty day pillars