Yang Wood Rat (Jia Zi, 甲子) day pillar
A Yang Wood day master, the Great Tree, sitting on the Rat.
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 Zi day.
Its sound element: Gold in the Sea (Hai Zhong Jin, 海中金)
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:
A treasure; likes places where Metal and Wood are strong.
为宝物，喜金木旺地
What the Rat 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 Water (Gui, 癸), the main one — Direct Resource (Zheng Yin, 正印). What produces you, opposite polarity. Straightforward support: what teaches, shelters and backs you.
A Jia Zi 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 Zi 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)
strung in a row and bound — the wife is worthy and the children noble. Born in a spring month the self is strong and money is scattered. In summer Yang Wood (甲) declines, the Metal Spirit (金神) is held in check, noble. Born in autumn, the nobility of one who attends the throne. An Ox (丑) month is best; Pig (亥) and Rat (子) bring much ill.
连珠得合妻贤子贵。春月身旺，财帛破散。夏月甲衰，金神有制，贵。秋生，近侍之贵。丑月最吉，亥、子多凶。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Fire Tiger (Bing Yin, 丙寅)
the day's prosperity star (禄) residing at the hour — the blue cloud road is open. With no Yang Metal (庚) or Yin Metal (辛) in year or month, noble; carrying Wood and Fire qi, extremely noble. A Horse (午) month running a northeastern period gives rank of the fifth or sixth grade. A Monkey (申) month is the prosperity star returning and meeting the Killings (煞), and governs great authority; a Water frame is ordinary. Where year and month match the day and hour, greatly noble.
日禄居时，青云得路，年月无庚辛金，贵；通木火气极贵。午月行东北方运，五六品贵。申月，归禄逢煞，主大权贵；水局平常。若年月与日时同，大贵。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Fire Rabbit (Ding Mao, 丁卯)
grasping and mean, advancing and retreating in its dealings, punishment or injury to wife and children not escaped, or death in another country. Born in Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) or Goat (未) months, noble. A Rabbit (卯) month is ill; if the pillars hold an officer or Killings (煞) to check it, favourable.
克剥悭吝，作事进退，不免刑伤妻子，或死他乡。生辰戌丑未月，贵。卯月凶，柱有官煞制亦吉。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Earth Dragon (Wu Chen, 戊辰)
governs moving the root and changing the leaves, changing surname and altering lineage; the wife worthy and the children filial — read as a high destiny. A Goat (未) month running a northern period, noble. A Rooster (酉) month with a northern period, greatly noble.
主移根换叶，改姓易宗，妻贤子孝，作高命论。未月，行北方运，贵。酉月，北方运，大贵。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Earth Snake (Ji Si, 己巳)
poor first and rich after; the ancestral estate slight, the wife diligent and the children wilful. Born with Tiger (寅), Goat (未), Snake (巳) or Ox (丑) in year or month, noble though illness must be guarded against. Monkey (申), Rat (子), Dragon (辰) and Dog (戌), greatly noble.
先贫后富，祖业轻微，妻勤子拗。生寅未巳丑年月，虽贵防疾。申子辰戌，大贵。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Metal Horse (Geng Wu, 庚午)
hour and day clash — grief over wife and children, ordinary. If Rat (子) and Horse (午) stand in year and month, or born in a Tiger (寅) or Dog (戌) month, running a northwestern period, gold and purple and the censorate.
时日相冲，忧伤妻子，平常。若子午年月及寅戌月生，行西北方运，金紫风宪。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Metal Goat (Xin Wei, 辛未)
Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑), Goat (未) and Yin Earth (己) or Rooster (酉) months, Earth and Metal ground — conspicuous in letters and rank.
辰戌丑未及己酉月，土金地方，文贵显达。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Water Monkey (Ren Shen, 壬申)
Monkey (申), Rat (子), Dragon (辰) or Pig (亥) months — Water floods and the Wood drifts, moving the root and changing the leaves, the nobility of the jade hall and the golden horse. Water and Earth periods, ill.
申子辰亥月，水泛木漂，移根换叶，玉堂金马之贵。水土运，凶。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Water Rooster (Gui You, 癸酉)
born in spring the Wood is strong; a Rooster (酉) month with the officer unmixed, noble. If it is muddled with the Killings (煞), or the Killings is many and the pillars have no Fire qi at all, ill.
春生木旺；酉月官纯，贵。若混之以煞，或煞多，柱中全无火气，凶。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Wood Dog (Jia Xu, 甲戌)
long life in spring, violence in summer, nobility in autumn; in winter, moving the root and changing the leaves. Where the pillars show pure Pig (亥) held between them, noble but ill at the end. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) — mixed-qi wealth and officer, also favourable.
春寿，夏暴，秋贵，冬，移根换叶，柱见纯亥夹角，虽贵终凶。辰戌丑未，杂气财官，亦吉。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Wood Pig (Yi Hai, 乙亥)
it makes the Heading for Qian (趋乾) pattern, noble. If born in a Monkey (申) month, the Killings (煞) strong and binding the blade, authority and rank. A Rooster (酉) month is Direct Officer (正官), and with a little Earth in the pillars to help, greatly noble. Dragon (辰), Snake (巳), Ox (丑), Goat (未) and Dog (戌) months all favourable. Pure Rabbit (卯) in year and month, the blade strong and it is ill.
成趋乾格，贵。如生申月，煞旺合刃，权贵。酉月正官，柱稍得土助，大贵。辰巳丑未戌月俱吉。年月纯卯，刃旺则凶。
The Rat 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
- Horse
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Ox
- In a trine with
- Dragon, Monkey
- Punishment with
- Rabbit
- Harms
- Goat
- Breaks
- Rooster
The next Jia Zi days: 16 December 2026, 14 February 2027, 15 April 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Jia Zi day
- Soong Ching-ling Politician · Honorary President of the People's Republic of China
The Yang Wood day master · Before it: Gui Hai · After it: Yi Chou · All sixty day pillars