Yang Metal Rat (Geng Zi, 庚子) day pillar
A Yang Metal day master, the Sword, sitting on the Rat.
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 Zi day.
Its sound element: Earth on the Wall (Bi Shang Tu, 壁上土)
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:
Earth with a hollow inside — a house; likes Wood and Metal.
土中空者，屋宇也，喜木及金
What the Rat 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 Water (Gui, 癸), the main one — 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.
In San Ming Tong Hui’s section on where each stem is born and dies, the Rat is where Yang Metal dies (Si, 死).
A Geng Zi 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 Zi 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. With Rat (子) again in year or month and a clash besides, the Yin Fire (丁) within Horse (午) is officer and the Yin Earth (己) is Resource (印) — the Flying Prosperity Horse (飞天禄马) pattern; with no wealth or officer in the pillars to fill it in solid, it governs nobility; as a monk or priest, not a speck of dust upon him and all methods complete; as a common man, name and profit, with punishment and injury to wife and children. One account says poor first and rich after. It dislikes an Earth Snake (己巳) month, breaking, punishment, poverty; a Water Goat (癸未) month, solitude; Snake (巳) and Pig (亥) months, punishment.
贵。年月再子，并冲，午中丁为官，己为印，人飞天禄马格；柱无财官填实，主贵；为僧道，一尘不染，万法皆成；为常人，有名有利，刑伤妻子。一说先贫后富。忌己巳月，破刑，贫。癸未月，孤单。巳亥月、刑。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Fire Ox (Ding Chou, 丁丑)
spring and summer, noble; autumn ordinary; winter solitary and harmed.
春夏，贵；秋平常；冬孤克。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Earth Tiger (Wu Yin, 戊寅)
Tiger (寅) and Horse (午) in year or month, passing the examinations and coming to prominence. Pure Monkey (申), third or fourth grade, noble. An Ox (丑) month with Metal and Fire periods, duke or minister.
寅午年月，登科显达。纯申，三、四品贵。丑月、金火运，公卿。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Earth Rabbit (Ji Mao, 己卯)
Rat (子) and Rabbit (卯) punish each other — grief over wife and children; a Rat year or month, noble. Ox (丑) and Goat (未), office to the third grade. One account says breaking the ancestors and losing the Earth (土), the land, greatly noble.
子卯相刑，忧伤妻子，子年月，贵。丑未，官至三品。一云破祖失土，大贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Metal Dragon (Geng Chen, 庚辰)
born in a Monkey (申) month, the Well Railing Fork (井栏叉) pattern. Where the pillars and the period show no Yang Fire (丙), Yin Fire (丁), Snake (巳), Horse (午), Tiger (寅) or Dog (戌) character, noble. Pure Rabbit (卯) in year and month, a position reaching duke or marquis.
申月生，井栏叉格。柱并运不见丙丁巳午寅戌字，贵。纯卯年月，位至公侯。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Metal Snake (Xin Si, 辛巳)
spring wealthy; summer and autumn noble; winter poor. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) in year or month, Direct Resource (印绶), running a southwestern period, noble.
春富；夏、秋贵；冬贫。辰戌丑未年月，印绶，行西南运，贵。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Water Horse (Ren Wu, 壬午)
hour and day clash together — grief over wife and children. Carrying Metal qi, noble. Fire qi, greatly noble, but much grief, toil and the prosperity star (禄).
时日并冲，忧伤妻子。通金气，贵。火气，大贵，但多忧劳禄。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Water Goat (Gui Wei, 癸未)
with no Yin Fire (丁) showing in year or month and a Yin Earth (己) to check the Yin Water (癸), noble.
年月无丁透露，有己土制伏癸水者，贵。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Wood Monkey (Jia Shen, 甲申)
the hour offends the day's prosperity star (禄) and sees the wealth star; with no Snake (巳), Tiger (寅) or Yang Fire (丙) in the pillars, wealth and rank both complete. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) Earth can produce Metal, favourable. Tiger, Horse (午) and Dog, ordinary. Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉) running Fire and Wood periods, noble. Tiger and Pig (亥), third or fourth grade, noble. Rabbit (卯), punishment. Rat (子), much ill.
时犯日禄，见财星，柱无巳寅丙，富贵双全。辰戌丑未土能生金，吉。寅午戌，平常。申酉，行火木运、贵。寅亥，三、四品，贵。卯，刑。子，多凶。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Wood Rooster (Yi You, 乙酉)
it governs wealth. Where the month carries Fire qi, noble; not carrying it, ordinary, and a period that runs through also answers the wish. Rabbit (卯) and Pig (亥) in year or month, a commander of a garrison. One account says breaking the ancestors, punishment and ill.
主富。月通火气，贵：不通，平常，运通亦称意。卯亥年月，帅阃。一云破祖刑凶。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Fire Dog (Bing Xu, 丙戌)
spring, the Seven Killings (偏官) using wealth, favourable. Summer, the Killings (煞) strong and the self declining, cruel and violent. Autumn, self and Killings both strong. Snake (巳), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑) months with a western period, gold at the waist and purple robes. Tiger (寅), Pig (亥) and Rat (子) months, the Metal cut off, ill and dead, mostly poor and low. One account says deafness, dumbness, and injury by dog and wolf.
春，偏官用财，吉。夏，煞旺身衰，凶暴。秋，身煞俱旺。巳酉丑月，西方运，腰金衣紫。寅亥子月，金绝病死，多贫贱。一云聋哑、犬狼伤。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai, 丁亥)
noble. Monkey (申), Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) months, Hurting Officer (伤官), toil. A Rabbit (卯) month with Metal and Fire periods, fifth or sixth grade, noble.
贵。申子辰月，伤官、劳碌。卯月、金火运、五六品贵。
The Rat 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
- Horse
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Ox
- In a trine with
- Dragon, Monkey
- Punishment with
- Rabbit
- Harms
- Goat
- Breaks
- Rooster
The next Geng Zi days: 22 November 2026, 21 January 2027, 22 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Geng Zi day
- Leung Chun-ying Chief Executive of Hong Kong, 2012–2017
The Yang Metal day master · Before it: Ji Hai · After it: Xin Chou · All sixty day pillars