Yang Wood Monkey (Jia Shen, 甲申) day pillar
A Yang Wood day master, the Great Tree, 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 Jia Shen day.
Its sound element: Water in the Spring (Quan Zhong Shui, 泉中水)
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 sweet well; likes spring and summer.
甘井，喜春及夏
What the Monkey holds, and what it is to Yang Wood
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 — Seven Killings (Qi Sha, 七杀). What controls you, same polarity. Pressure with nothing softening it: demand, risk, and whatever you answer to whether you chose it or not.
- Yang Water (Ren, 壬) — 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).
- Yang Earth (Wu, 戊) — Indirect Wealth (Pian Cai, 偏财). What you control, same polarity. Wealth that comes sideways rather than by salary — the uneven kind.
A Jia 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 Jia Shen day; what it says about the other five Yang Wood days is on the Yang Wood day master page. Hours are true solar time, not clock time.
Rat hour 23:00–01:00 · Yang Wood Rat (Jia Zi, 甲子)
Yang Wood (甲) in its conception meets the Resource (印), and the Resource transforms the Killings (煞) — noble. Mandarin ducks doubled over: children are hard to come by. Running a southeastern period, it holds office between the civil and the military. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯), Goat (未), Dragon (辰), Ox (丑) and Monkey (申) months are all noble. A Wood Rabbit (乙卯) month dies young. A Fire Snake (丁巳) month dies without a whole body.
甲胎逢印印化煞，贵。鸳鸯重叠，子嗣难为。若行东南方运，文武职居间。亥卯未辰丑申等月，俱贵。乙卯月夭。丁巳月，死不全尸。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Wood Ox (Yi Chou, 乙丑)
carrying illness, ordinary. Born in a Rat (子) month with a southern period, noble. Born in autumn it transforms the Killings (煞), and with a Direct Resource (印绶) showing at the stems, more noble still.
带疾平常。子月生，南方运，贵。秋生化煞，天干透印绶，尤贵。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Fire Tiger (Bing Yin, 丙寅)
hour and day clash together — grief over wife and children. Where year and month match, greatly noble; Snake (巳) and Pig (亥), second or third grade; Dragon (辰) and Rat (子) in year or month gather Water and turn the Killings (煞) into a Resource (印), favourable; a Goat (未) month is the wealth storehouse, also favourable.
时日并冲，忧伤妻子。若年月日同，大贵；巳、亥二三品；辰、子年月，会水以煞化印，吉；未月财库，亦吉。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Fire Rabbit (Ding Mao, 丁卯)
governs a military office, the censorate, authority and rank. A Rooster (酉) month with Fire and Wood periods, middling nobility. Tiger (寅) or Horse (午) in year or month, greatly noble.
主武职，风宪权贵。酉月，火木运，中贵。寅、午年月大贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Earth Dragon (Wu Chen, 戊辰)
governs solitude — a monk or priest, pure and high. An Ox (丑) month, wealth and rank. A Tiger (寅) month, more noble still.
主孤，僧道清高。丑月富贵。寅月尤贵。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Earth Snake (Ji Si, 己巳)
generous, thick and clever, good at deciding; the self solitary and purely noble, though breaking and punishment are not escaped.
敦厚聪明，善于决断，身孤清贵，不免破刑。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Metal Horse (Geng Wu, 庚午)
Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) in year or month gather as the Resource (印). Pig (亥) and Rabbit (卯) in year or month make the self strong. Both noble. Tiger (寅) and Dog (戌) gathering, the Hurting Officer (伤) checks the Killings (煞) and Yang Wood (甲) finds somewhere to lodge — also noble, and the period likes Metal and Water.
子辰年月会印。亥卯年月身旺，俱贵。寅戌会伤制煞，甲得寄托，亦贵，运喜金水。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Metal Goat (Xin Wei, 辛未)
favourable in spring, toilsome in summer, conspicuous in autumn; in winter it establishes its footing apart and is noble. Rat (子) and Ox (丑) months, greatly noble.
春吉，夏辛苦，秋显达，冬根基别立贵。子丑月大贵。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Water Monkey (Ren Shen, 壬申)
a Tiger (寅) month, self and Killings (煞) in balance; a Rabbit (卯) month, the blade binding the Killings — both noble. Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) in year or month turn the Killings into a Resource (印); Snake (巳) and Horse (午) Fire months hold the Killings in check — both favourable. What it fears most is the Killings strong and the self weak: greatly ill.
寅月，身煞两停；卯月，以刃合煞，俱贵。子辰年月，以煞化印；巳午火月，七煞有制，俱吉。最怕煞旺身弱，大凶。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Water Rooster (Gui You, 癸酉)
ordinary. A month carrying Fire qi, running a southern period, wealth and rank. Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉) in year or month, often an early death. With Water to transform the Metal's poison it is read simply as officer and Resource (印), not as the Metal Spirit (金神), and is favourable — but it governs an early retirement.
平常。通火气月，行南运，富贵。申酉年月，多夭。有水化金毒，只作官印论，不作金神亦吉，但主退早。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Wood Dog (Jia Xu, 甲戌)
Rooster (酉) held between them as officer and noble, but the self is solitary and what it rises to does not last long. Born in spring, running Wood and Earth periods, noble.
夹酉官贵，但身孤，发亦不久。春生，木土运，贵。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Wood Pig (Yi Hai, 乙亥)
a Pig (亥) month, learning brought to something, noble in the censorate. Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉) months, poor first and rich after. A Rat (子) month running Water and Fire periods, gold and purple. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) — mixed-qi wealth and officer; a Tiger (寅) month, the established the prosperity star (禄); all favourable.
亥月，学问有成，贵为风宪。申酉月，先贫后富。子月，行水火运，金紫。辰戌丑未，杂气财官；寅月建禄，俱吉。
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 Jia Shen days: 6 November 2026, 5 January 2027, 6 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Jia Shen day
- Elon Musk CEO, Tesla and SpaceX
The Yang Wood day master · Before it: Gui Wei · After it: Yi You · All sixty day pillars