Yang Wood Dog (Jia Xu, 甲戌) day pillar
A Yang Wood day master, the Great Tree, 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 Jia Xu day.
Its sound element: Fire on the Mountain (Shan Tou Huo, 山头火)
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:
Where fire lodges; likes spring and summer.
火所宿处，喜春及夏
What the Dog 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 Earth (Wu, 戊), the main one — Indirect Wealth (Pian Cai, 偏财). What you control, same polarity. Wealth that comes sideways rather than by salary — the uneven kind.
- Yin Metal (Xin, 辛) — Direct Officer (Zheng Guan, 正官). What controls you, opposite polarity. Authority in its orderly form: office, rule, the structure you fit into.
- Yin Fire (Ding, 丁) — 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 Jia 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 Jia Xu 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.
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Wood Ox (Yi Chou, 乙丑)
fields stretching one into the next, the granaries rotting with grain — but an earlier punishment is not escaped. With Tiger (寅) in year or month, father and son are both conspicuous. In a Rat (子) month with a western period, gold and purple.
田连阡陌，贯朽粟陈，但未免先刑。寅年月，父子俱显。子月，西方运，金紫。劫财羊刃忌时垣，宫内财官锁闭门；辰未相逢为大吉，如无随意度晨昏。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Fire Tiger (Bing Yin, 丙寅)
with Earth in year or month, wealthy; with Metal, reversals. If there is Metal, it must be born in a Pig (亥) or Rat (子) Resource (印) month to be noble; in other months not.
年月有土则富；有金反复。如有金，须生亥子印月方贵，余月则否。甲丙相邀入虎乡，福星坐禄显文章；运逢四柱无伤害，早晚陛迁至宪堂。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Fire Rabbit (Ding Mao, 丁卯)
meeting a Pig (亥) month, talent and learning, conspicuously noble. The Yang Blade (羊刃) is the worst of it: the making of it must have something to check or bind it before it is favourable. Where the self is weak there is no ill; if year and month are pure Killings (煞) and the Yang Wood (甲) is born in autumn, it governs an early death.
逢亥月，有才学，贵显。羊刃最坏，造化须有制合方吉；身弱无凶，若年月纯煞，甲木秋生，主夭折。甲旬六日逢丁卯，重重叠叠怕冲刑；运行背禄无官贵，到老穷经不许名。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Earth Dragon (Wu Chen, 戊辰)
greatly wealthy; where year and month support and bind it, also noble. Tiger (寅) and Pig (亥) in year or month, third or fourth grade. But hour and day clash and injure together, so the early years are solitary and the blessing comes in middle age.
大富，年月扶合亦贵。寅亥年月，三四品贵。但时日并冲克，早年身孤，中年发福。时上偏财不用多，干枝内外细搜罗；运通财旺官生至，运拙身衰恐受磨。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Earth Snake (Ji Si, 己巳)
the noble pattern of the wealth spirit, name and profit both complete. Rat (子) and Dog (戌) in year or month, rank of the fifth grade or above.
财神贵格，名利两全。子戌年月，五品以上贵。甲己中央作土神，时逢辰已脱埃尘；局中岁运趋炎火，显远功名富贵人。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Metal Horse (Geng Wu, 庚午)
born in a Dragon (辰) or Dog (戌) month, generous and thick, if not noble then wealthy. An Ox (丑) month running Fire and Earth periods, gold and purple and the censorate; a Tiger (寅) month, purely noble.
生辰戌月，敦厚，不贵则富。丑月行火土运，金紫风宪，寅月清贵。午时庚申是偏官，制伏相宜不等闲；身弱煞强无食见，平生谋望主艰难。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Metal Goat (Xin Wei, 辛未)
punishment first and nobility after. Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑) in year or month, noble; Rat (子) and Monkey (申) in year or month, a position conspicuously noble.
先刑后贵。寅卯酉丑年月贵，子申年月，位至贵显。甲逢辛未是财官，平步青云路不难；不比退毛鸡化凤，得时飞上彩云路。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Water Monkey (Ren Shen, 壬申)
Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, brocade robes and something achieved; a Pig (亥) month, the hall of learning; a Tiger (寅) month, the established the prosperity star (禄) — all noble. Horse (午) and Rooster (酉) months shorten the life, and if not that then poor and low.
辰戌丑未月，衣锦有成；亥月学堂；寅月建禄；俱贵。午酉月寿促，不然贫贱。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Water Rooster (Gui You, 癸酉)
Rat (子) and Dog (戌) in year or month, conspicuous in writing and noble. Rat and Horse (午) months, if not noble then wealthy.
子戌年月，文章显贵。子午月，不贵即富。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Wood Dog (Jia Xu, 甲戌)
turning from the prosperity star (禄) and chasing the horse — ordinary. Born in autumn, officer and Killings (煞) have their qi, noble. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, favourable. A Rabbit (卯) month, ill. If Fire Tiger (丙寅) or Wood Horse (甲午) stand in year or month, three Yang Wood (甲) feeding on two Yang Fire (丙), and the Yang Fire getting its season in summer and dwelling in Tiger (寅) at its long life, the Yang Wood comes to the food and sees its prosperity star — wealth and rank.
背禄逐马，平常。秋生，官煞有气，贵。辰戌丑未月，吉。卯月凶。若丙寅、甲午年月，三甲食二丙，丙夏得时，居寅长生，甲就食见禄，主富贵。时逢甲戌比肩逢，库有天禄火气冲；鸡鸭同鸣皆聚散，到头心志不相同。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Wood Pig (Yi Hai, 乙亥)
born in spring or winter, wealthy; where Earth (土) is thick, conspicuously noble. In summer, labouring without gathering money. In autumn, ordinary.
春冬生，富，土厚地方显贵。夏，劳力不聚财。秋平常。
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 Jia Xu days: 27 October 2026, 26 December 2026, 24 February 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Jia Xu day
- Bruce Lee Martial artist
- Nicholas Tse Singer, actor and chef
The Yang Wood day master · Before it: Gui You · After it: Yi Hai · All sixty day pillars