Yang Metal Dog (Geng Xu, 庚戌) day pillar
A Yang Metal day master, the Sword, sitting on the Dog.
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 Xu day.
Its sound element: Hairpin Metal (Chai Chuan Jin, 钗钏金)
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:
What is left of a blade; likes a little Fire, and Wood.
刃剑之余，喜微火及木
What the Dog 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 Metal (Xin, 辛) — Rob Wealth (Jie Cai, 劫财). Same element, opposite polarity. A peer who takes rather than shares — the tradition reads it as what draws on your resources through people close to you.
- Yin Fire (Ding, 丁) — Direct Officer (Zheng Guan, 正官). What controls you, opposite polarity. Authority in its orderly form: office, rule, the structure you fit into.
A Geng Xu 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 Xu 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)
born in spring or summer with a southwestern period; an autumn month with Wood and Fire periods — both noble. It dislikes a Wood Snake (乙巳) month, ill and breaking; a Wood Pig (乙亥) month, much official calamity and cruel punishment; an Earth Ox (己丑) month, ruin, ill; an Earth Dog (戊戌) month, a bad death.
春夏生。西南运；秋月、木火运，俱贵。忌乙巳月，凶、破。乙亥月，官灾多，凶刑。己丑月，破败，凶。戊戌月，恶死。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Fire Ox (Ding Chou, 丁丑)
spring, the wealth strong; summer, the officer strong; autumn, thin and plain; winter, without force.
春财旺；夏官旺；秋平淡；冬无力。庚丁相合丑时全，好象明蟾耀碧天；不遇刑克真稀奇，财官兴旺更长年。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Earth Tiger (Wu Yin, 戊寅)
noble. A Dog (戌) month, mixed-qi wealth, officer and Direct Resource (印绶), noble. A Metal Dragon (庚辰) year with an Earth Rabbit (己卯) month, marquis or earl.
贵。戌月，杂气财官印绶，贵。庚辰年，己卯月者，侯伯。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Earth Rabbit (Ji Mao, 己卯)
solitary young and the mother low, noble in middle age. Rabbit (卯), Rooster (酉), Dragon (辰) and Ox (丑) months, office to duke or minister.
少孤母贱，中年贵。卯酉辰丑月，官至公卿。天元庚己卯时连，禄见文书富贵全；四柱无刑冲克破，贵人接引上青天。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Metal Dragon (Geng Chen, 庚辰)
the Kui Gang days (魁罡); where Earth (土) is thick, office high and the prosperity star (禄) weighty. A Rat (子) month with a southwestern period, noble. Tiger (寅) and Dragon (辰) in year or month, ordinary.
魁罡，土厚地方，官高禄重。子月、西南运，贵。寅辰年月，平常。六康时辰仔细推，辰中印库钥匙开；四柱若有冲刑字，安然福禄自天来。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Metal Snake (Xin Si, 辛巳)
with wealth met in year or month, favourable. Horse (午) and Goat (未) running a southeastern period, a civil office holding authority — but it is feared there is no good end. Tiger (寅) and Monkey (申), the academy and a chief minister; and if it runs a Fire period, it is likewise hard to end well.
年月遇财，吉。午未，行东南运，文职操权，恐无好终。寅申、翰林宰辅；若行火运，亦难善终。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Water Horse (Ren Wu, 壬午)
a Rabbit (卯) month, Direct Wealth (正财), favourable. A Goat (未) month, mixed-qi wealth and officer, noble. Dragon (辰) and Ox (丑) months the same.
卯月，正财，吉。未月，杂气财官，贵。辰丑月同。壬庚会合临午，无破无冲福自来；从此名利皆有望，贵人举荐上天阶。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Water Goat (Gui Wei, 癸未)
a Dog (戌) month with an eastern period, noble. A Dragon (辰) month and a Rabbit (卯) year, greatly noble. Born in autumn, best of all. Summer, it must run a northwestern period to be favourable.
戌月、东方运，贵。辰月卯年，大贵。秋生最吉。夏，须行西北运。方吉。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Wood Monkey (Jia Shen, 甲申)
Tiger (寅), Snake (巳), Horse (午) and Dog (戌) months, the wife worthy and the children filial, noble. The Shen Bai Jing (神白经) says: Metal and Water carrying the Resource (印) govern a pure and easeful blessing.
寅巳午戌月，妻贤子孝，贵。《神白经》运：金水带印，主清闲之福。日禄居时喜遇申，柱中嫌巳丙和寅；时来若遇高人荐，柳红桃红万里春。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Wood Rooster (Yi You, 乙酉)
it comes out after punishment. Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌), the officer star bright and clear, noble. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未), wealthy, or sixth or seventh grade, noble. Snake (巳), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑), the blade strong holding authority, and it governs rising on the frontier field — best for a military minister, and a civil minister also governs holding military authority; in the end it takes the calamity of the Yang Blade (羊刃).
刑后发。寅午戌，官星明朗，贵。亥卯未，富或五、六品贵。巳酉丑刃旺持权，主发迹于疆场，武臣最宜，文臣亦主掌兵权，究竟受羊刃之祸。天元化合酉时生，生月之中见土亨；荣遇财官皆显达，功名利禄沐恩荣。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Fire Dog (Bing Xu, 丙戌)
Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未), the Direct Resource (印绶) producing and helping, favourable. Monkey (申), Rat (子) and Dragon, the Seven Killings (偏官) held in check, noble. Where the month carries Metal qi and no Yang Water (壬) character shows, running a northern period, noble.
辰戌丑未、印绶生助，吉。申子辰，偏官有制，贵。月通金气，不透壬字，行北运，贵。戌时官库最为魁，丑戌相刑库自开；初主中年无显达，没年晚景称心怀。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai, 丁亥)
Dragon (辰), Snake (巳) and Horse (午) months — though officer and Killings (煞) are muddled, it still governs military nobility. An Ox (丑) month with a western period, a junior office. A Dragon month with a northwestern period, a regional post.
辰已午月，官煞虽混，亦主武贵。丑月，西运，郎官。辰月，西北运，方面。丁亥时逢
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 Xu day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
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 Dog 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
- Dragon
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Rabbit
- In a trine with
- Tiger, Horse
- Punishment with
- Ox, Goat
- Harms
- Rooster
- Breaks
- Goat
The next Geng Xu days: 2 December 2026, 31 January 2027, 1 April 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Geng Xu day
- Hua Guofeng Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, 1976–1981
The Yang Metal day master · Before it: Ji You · After it: Xin Hai · All sixty day pillars