Yang Wood Tiger (Jia Yin, 甲寅) day pillar
A Yang Wood day master, the Great Tree, sitting on the Tiger.
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 Yin day.
Its sound element: Water of the Great Stream (Da Xi Shui, 大溪水)
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:
Rain; likes summer, and Fire.
雨也，喜夏及火
What the Tiger 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 Wood (Jia, 甲), the main one — Friend (Bi Jian, 比肩). Same element, same polarity as you. A peer: someone standing where you stand, competing for the same thing and equally able to share the load.
- Yang Fire (Bing, 丙) — Eating God (Shi Shen, 食神). What you produce, same polarity. Output that comes easily: making, feeding, expressing, without strain.
- 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.
In San Ming Tong Hui’s section on where each stem is born and dies, the Tiger is the seat of Yang Wood’s salary (Lu, 禄), where it is strongest.
A Jia Yin 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 Yin 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)
poor in spring, noble in autumn, wealthy in winter; in summer Fire holds the Metal Spirit (金神) in check — favourable.
春贫，秋贵，冬富，夏火制金神，吉。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Fire Tiger (Bing Yin, 丙寅)
with no Snake (巳), Rooster (酉), Yin Metal (辛) or Ox (丑) in year or month it is the Returning Prosperity (归禄) pattern, reaching the first or second grade. Pure Wood and Fire carrying Earth, wealth and rank both complete, an office among the six ministers. Fire Rat (丙子), Pig (亥), Goat (未) and Rabbit (卯) months give the fourth or fifth grade; running a southwestern period is best. There are also noble ones in Rooster and Ox months — look to what shows at the stems and what the year is.
年月无巳酉辛丑字，是归禄格，位至一二品。纯木火带土，富贵双全，六卿之职。丙子及亥未，卯月，四五品贵；行西南方运，最吉。亦有酉、丑月贵者，看干透及年何如。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Fire Rabbit (Ding Mao, 丁卯)
with Wood and Fire in balance in year and month it is an image of penetrating brightness, noble. The month command sitting on Ox (丑) or Goat (未), noble. In a Wood Pig (乙亥) month the writing crowns the age and office reaches the third grade; with Metal and Water complete at stems and branches, officer and Resource (印) both conspicuous and noble.
年月木火相停，通明之象，贵。月令坐丑、未贵。乙亥月，文章冠世，官至三品，干支金水全，官印双显贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Earth Dragon (Wu Chen, 戊辰)
the dragon-sings-tiger-roars pattern, noble. Pure Dragon (辰), middling nobility. Pure Tiger (寅), health and long life. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未) in a triad, wealth strong and the self robust, greatly noble. Rooster (酉), Ox (丑) and Monkey (申) in year or month are also favourable.
龙吟虎啸格，贵。纯辰，中贵。纯寅康寿。亥卯未三合，财旺身强，大贵。酉丑申年月亦吉。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Earth Snake (Ji Si, 己巳)
hour and day punish each other — grief over wife and children. Born with Fire in year or month, the talent of clear judgement and an office holding military authority. An Earth Rat (戊子) year or month inherits the ancestral shade and governs wealth.
时日相刑，忧伤妻子。生火年月，有明断之才，掌兵权之职。戊子年月，承袭祖荫，主富。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Metal Horse (Geng Wu, 庚午)
long life in a spring month. In summer, Hurting Officer (伤官) injured to the full, the source of money advancing and retreating. Monkey (申) gives authority, Rooster (酉) reversals. A winter month injures wife and children. Rat (子) and Goat (未) in year or month, the Killings (煞) helping and the Resource (印) producing — fourth grade.
春月有寿。夏月伤官伤尽，财源进退。申有权，酉反复。冬月伤妻子。子未年月煞助印生，四品。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Metal Goat (Xin Wei, 辛未)
Tiger (寅) and Monkey (申) months, noble. Pure Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑) in year and month, greatly noble.
寅申月贵。纯酉丑年月，大贵。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Water Monkey (Ren Shen, 壬申)
loss in the midst of strength. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, the Hook Array (勾陈) gets its position; Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog months, the Seven Killings (偏官) is held in check; an autumn month running a southeastern period — all noble.
旺中有失。辰戌丑未月勾陈得位；寅、午、戌月，偏官有制；秋月，行东南运，俱贵。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Water Rooster (Gui You, 癸酉)
born in spring, long life; in summer, reversals; in autumn the nature is unsettled and much is ill; in winter, ordinary. Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, noble.
春生寿，夏反复。秋性不定，多凶。冬平常。丑未月贵。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Wood Dog (Jia Xu, 甲戌)
Friend (比肩) contending for the prosperity star (禄), the Wood qi burned; after forty it is gradually not what it was. Yang Wood (甲), Yang Fire (丙), Monkey (申) and Rat (子) in year or month, greatly noble. Pure Dog (戌), the censorate; a Horse (午) month running Water and Fire periods, seventh or eighth grade.
比肩争禄，木气遭焚，四十后渐不如前。甲丙申子年月，大贵。纯戌风宪，午月，行水火运，七八品贵。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Wood Pig (Yi Hai, 乙亥)
Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, wealthy. Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉) months, noble. Winter, ordinary. If Tiger (寅) and Pig (亥) months, highly noble.
辰戌丑未月，富。申酉月，贵，冬，平常。若寅亥月，高贵。
Named days in Yuan Hai Zi Ping (渊海子平)
These are decided by the day pillar alone, so everyone born on a Jia Yin day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
Virtue on the day
The day pillar is one of Wood Tiger (甲寅), Earth Dragon (戊辰), Fire Dragon (丙辰), Metal Dragon (庚辰) or Water Dog (壬戌).
日德有五：甲寅、戊辰、丙辰、庚辰、壬戌日是也。其福要多，而忌刑冲破害，恶官星，憎财旺；加临会合，但空亡而忌魁罡。
The eight of one substance
The day pillar is Wood Tiger (甲寅), Wood Rabbit (乙卯), Metal Monkey (庚申) or Metal Rooster (辛酉). The section lists more days whose stem and branch share an element, then names these four as the proper ones — The proper ones (为正) — so only those four are judged.
六十甲子，独此干支同类，内甲寅、乙卯、庚申、辛酉四日自专禄旺为正。
The Tiger 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
- Monkey
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Pig
- In a trine with
- Horse, Dog
- Punishment with
- Snake, Monkey
- Harms
- Snake
- Breaks
- Pig
The next Jia Yin days: 6 December 2026, 4 February 2027, 5 April 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Jia Yin day
- Tu Youyou Pharmaceutical chemist · Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2015, for artemisinin
The Yang Wood day master · Before it: Gui Chou · After it: Yi Mao · All sixty day pillars