Yang Wood Horse (Jia Wu, 甲午) day pillar
A Yang Wood day master, the Great Tree, 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 Jia Wu day.
Its sound element: Gold in the Sand (Sha Zhong Jin, 沙中金)
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:
Fine metal refined a hundred times; likes Water, Wood and Earth.
百炼精金，喜水木土
What the Horse 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.
- Yin Fire (Ding, 丁), 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.
- Yin Earth (Ji, 己) — Direct Wealth (Zheng Cai, 正财). What you control, opposite polarity. Wealth held steadily — earned, kept, accounted for.
In San Ming Tong Hui’s section on where each stem is born and dies, the Horse is where Yang Wood dies (Si, 死).
A Jia 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 Jia Wu 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)
hour and day clash together — grief over wife and children; where the month carries Wood qi, conspicuously noble. Pure Rat (子) and Horse (午) in year and month, or Pig (亥), Goat (未) or Rooster (酉) months, all noble.
时日并冲，忧伤妻子，月通木气者显贵。纯子午年月，或亥未酉月，俱贵。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Wood Ox (Yi Chou, 乙丑)
The Metal Spirit (金神) enters a Fire frame — the self weak, poor and short-lived. Tiger (寅) and Dog (戌) gathering as Fire is one Wood meeting Fire positions over and over, which is unfavourable. With Tiger or Dog alone, or in Monkey (申), Rooster (酉) or Pig (亥) months, rank of the fourth or fifth grade.
金神入火局，身弱贫夭。寅戌会火，是一木叠逢火位，不吉。若单寅单戌，或申酉亥月，四五品贵。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Fire Tiger (Bing Yin, 丙寅)
the self sits on ground of cutting-off — ordinary. Where a Water month runs through and the Wood is nourished, favourable; a Fire month shortens life, though a companion at the stems does no harm.
身居绝地，主平。若通水月，木得滋养，吉；火月寿夭，天干比助无妨。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Fire Rabbit (Ding Mao, 丁卯)
the self sits on ground of cutting-off — punishment and ill. If born in autumn or winter, short-lived. Spring and summer, wealth and rank. A Wood Horse (甲午) month, greatly noble, and the period should be northeastern.
身坐绝地，凶刑。若生秋冬，寿夭。春夏富贵。甲午月，大贵，运宜东北方。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Earth Dragon (Wu Chen, 戊辰)
much wealth, made and lost; the heart gives up early. Pig (亥), Rat (子), Ox (丑), Rabbit (卯), Horse (午) and Goat (未) in year or month, greatly noble. A Rooster (酉) month is also noble.
财多成败，早岁灰心。亥子丑卯午未年月大贵。酉月亦贵。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Metal Horse (Geng Wu, 庚午)
breaks the ancestral estate and makes money; the prosperity star (禄) through wealth does not come to a good end. Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌) in year or month, noble.
破祖业发财，禄因财不得善终。寅午戌年月，贵。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Metal Goat (Xin Wei, 辛未)
favourable in spring, ill in summer; in autumn the self is weak and cannot bear the officer's prosperity star (禄); in winter, noble.
春吉，夏凶，秋身弱难任官禄，冬贵。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Water Monkey (Ren Shen, 壬申)
Monkey (申), Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) months — changing surname and altering lineage, a generous and thick destiny. A Horse (午) month, noble.
申子辰月，改姓更宗，敦厚之命。午月贵。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Water Rooster (Gui You, 癸酉)
governs solitude. Born in Tiger (寅), Horse (午) or Dog (戌) months and running a northeastern period, a junior office.
主孤。生寅午戌月，行东北方郎官。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Wood Dog (Jia Xu, 甲戌)
born in spring, the noble support him. In summer, turning from the prosperity star (禄) and chasing the horse. In winter, the Direct Resource (印绶) — favourable. Pure Tiger (寅) in year and month, noble and close to the throne.
春生，贵人扶持。夏，背禄逐马。冬，印缓，吉。纯寅年月，近侍贵。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Wood Pig (Yi Hai, 乙亥)
a Rabbit (卯) month is the Yang Blade (羊刃), punishing flesh and blood; the self weak, it does not come to a good end. Born in spring, noble as a chief minister. Monkey (申), Rat (子), Dog (戌) and Horse (午) in year or month, running Water and Fire periods, office among the six ministers.
卯月羊刃，刑骨肉，身弱不得善终。春生，贵为宰辅。申子戌午年月，行水火运，官至六卿。
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 Jia Wu days: 16 November 2026, 15 January 2027, 16 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Jia Wu day
- Jawaharlal Nehru First Prime Minister of India, 1947–1964
The Yang Wood day master · Before it: Gui Si · After it: Yi Wei · All sixty day pillars