Yin Water Pig (Gui Hai, 癸亥) day pillar
A Yin Water day master, the Mist, sitting on the Pig.
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 Gui Hai day.
Its sound element: Water of the Great Sea (Da Hai Shui, 大海水)
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:
A hundred rivers; likes Metal, Earth and Fire.
百川，喜金土火
What the Pig holds, and what it is to Yin Water
Each branch holds one to three stems. The ones under your own day master are the closest things to you in the chart.
- Yang Water (Ren, 壬), the main one — 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.
- Yang Wood (Jia, 甲) — 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 Gui Hai 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 Gui Hai day; what it says about the other five Yin Water days is on the Yin Water day master page. Hours are true solar time, not clock time.
Rat hour 23:00–01:00 · Yang Water Rat (Ren Zi, 壬子)
noble. Born in a Pig (亥) month, the Flying Prosperity Horse (飞天禄马), passing the examinations and taking the first degree, greatly noble. Also Yin Water (癸)'s prosperity star (禄) resides at Rat (子) and Yang Water (壬)'s prosperity star at Pig — day and hour exchanged, third or fourth grade, noble. It dislikes an Earth Tiger (戊寅) month, dying without a whole body; an Earth Monkey (戊申) month, solitary and poor; an Earth Rooster (己酉) month, solitary and bitter.
贵。亥月生，飞天禄马，登科甲第，大贵。又癸禄居子，壬禄居亥，日时互换，三四品贵。忌戊寅月，死不全尸；戊申月孤贫；己酉月孤苦。日禄归时局中得，食神喜遇怕刑冲；伤官莫道伤财运，官不加兮财不丰。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Water Ox (Gui Chou, 癸丑)
the Flanked Prosperity (拱禄) pattern; it fears clash, breaking and being filled in solid; where the pillars have no Rat (子), Snake (巳), Horse (午) or Goat (未) character, greatly noble. Tiger (寅), Horse and Dog (戌) months with a southern period, sixth or seventh grade.
拱禄格，怕冲破、填实，柱无子巳午未字，大贵。寅午戌月，南方运，六七品。阴水重重时库收，少年难发莫强求；将(?)来受过中年后，安坐高堂任白头。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Wood Tiger (Jia Yin, 甲寅)
Rat (子), Ox (丑), Goat (未) and Monkey (申) months, a graduate; the period running Metal and Water, the censorate. Rabbit (卯) and Dog (戌) in year or month, the branches in six harmony (六合), noble.
子丑未申月，进士，运行金水，风宪。卯戌年月，地支六合，贵。甲寅
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Wood Rabbit (Yi Mao, 乙卯)
Dragon (辰) and Yin Earth (己) months, the censorate.
辰己月，风宪。乙癸相逢旺食支，天工造物本无私；运行自有高人荐，手攀丹桂上云逵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Fire Dragon (Bing Chen, 丙辰)
where the pillars have no Yang Wood (甲) to break and damage the officer vault, noble, and the period southern.
柱无甲木破损官库，贵，运南。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Fire Snake (Ding Si, 丁巳)
punishment and harm. Born in a spring or summer month, good. Autumn, Direct Resource (印绶), favourable. Winter ordinary. A Metal Tiger (庚寅) year or month, military nobility.
刑害。春夏月生，好。秋，印绶，吉。冬，平常。庚寅年月，武贵。巳时禄马同争先，造化无私产大贤；刑冲减半无空克，运至声名扬九天。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Earth Horse (Wu Wu, 戊午)
noble. A Goat (未) month with an eastern period; a Metal month with control — both conspicuously noble.
贵，未月，东方运；金月有制，俱贵显。将星扶禄命高低，见爱于人是与非；得志退毛鸡化凤，虎卧平坡被兔欺。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Earth Goat (Ji Wei, 己未)
noble. Born in a Goat (未) month, loyal and filial, doubly of gold, office reaching the censorate. If Killings (煞) and officer are mixed together, the end is likely to be spent away from home. Pig (亥) in year or month, noble.
贵。未月生，忠孝双金，官至风宪。如煞官混杂，恐终在外。亥年月，贵。偏官暗鬼库中埋，险难惊忧不聚财；丑戌相逢钥匙吉，旺中癸福定无灾。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Metal Monkey (Geng Shen, 庚申)
the nature level, the self solitary. Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未) months, full of learning, a noble destiny. Monkey (申), also noble. Rat (子) and Monkey, close attendance with authority.
性平身孤。卯未月，饱学，贵命。申，亦贵。子申，近侍有权。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Metal Rooster (Xin You, 辛酉)
a Dog (戌) month running a south-eastern period, gold and purple; north-eastern, the censorate. A Rat (子) month at Established Prosperity (建禄), the year meeting wealth and officer, greatly noble.
戌月，行东南运，金紫；东北，风宪。子月建禄，年遇财官，大贵。天元是癸时申酉，用尽心机度日忙；官印相生逢印合，胸中便富且如常。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Water Dog (Ren Xu, 壬戌)
born in spring, the Hurting Officer (伤官) seeing the officer; summer the wealth strong; autumn and winter favourable, name and profit coming to something. Dog (戌) and Dragon (辰) months running a Pig (亥) or Rat (子) period, noble. A Rat month running a south-western period, gold and purple.
春生，伤官见官，夏财旺，秋、冬吉，名利有成。戌辰月，行亥子运，贵。子月，行西南运，金紫。天乙壬癸戌时排，库内财官等钥开；不遇刑冲空锁闭，少年难发更生灾。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Water Pig (Gui Hai, 癸亥)
the nature clever and free-floating, great wealth in middle age. Born in a winter month, the Flying Prosperity Horse (飞天禄马); with no Yang Earth (戊), Snake (巳) or Rat (子) character to fill it in solid or entangle it, conspicuously noble; otherwise solitary and harmed, a monk or a Daoist, though it still governs the pure and high. Dragon (辰) and Pig (亥) in year or month with Yin Metal (辛) and Yang Water (壬) showing at the stems and no Snake character filling it in solid, he has wisdom and measure, greatly noble. A Rabbit (卯) month, gold and purple. Snake and Ox (丑), also noble.
性聪飘逸，中年大富。冬月生，飞天禄马，无戊巳子字填实惹绊，贵显；不然，孤克为僧道，亦主清高。年月辰亥，干透辛壬，无填实巳字，有智量，大贵。卯月，金紫。巳丑亦贵。阴水重重透海波，少年未遇且蹉跎；困龙得志方能化，不遇时来虎卧坡。
Named days in Yuan Hai Zi Ping (渊海子平)
These are decided by the day pillar alone, so everyone born on a Gui Hai day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
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 Pig 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
- Snake
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Tiger
- In a trine with
- Rabbit, Goat
- Punishment with
- Pig (itself)
- Harms
- Monkey
- Breaks
- Tiger
The next Gui Hai days: 15 December 2026, 13 February 2027, 14 April 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Gui Hai day
- Andy Lau Actor and singer
- Brigitte Lin Actor · Swordsman II, Chungking Express
The Yin Water day master · Before it: Ren Xu · After it: Jia Zi · All sixty day pillars