Yang Water Dragon (Ren Chen, 壬辰) day pillar
A Yang Water day master, the Ocean, sitting on the Dragon.
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 Ren Chen day.
Its sound element: Long-flowing Water (Chang Liu Shui, 长流水)
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:
Dragon water; likes thunder and lightning, and spring and summer.
龙水，喜雷电及春夏
What the Dragon holds, and what it is to Yang Water
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 — 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.
- Yin Wood (Yi, 乙) — 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 Water (Gui, 癸) — Rob Wealth (Jie Cai, 劫财). Same element, opposite polarity. A peer who takes rather than shares — the tradition reads it as what draws on your resources through people close to you.
A Ren Chen 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 Ren Chen day; what it says about the other five Yang Water days is on the Yang Water day master page. Hours are true solar time, not clock time.
Rat hour 23:00–01:00 · Yang Metal Rat (Geng Zi, 庚子)
if born in a Tiger (寅) or Horse (午) month, the wealth star strong; Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未), the officer strong — both favourable. Pure Dragon with Yang Metal (庚) and Yang Water (壬) showing makes the Yang Water riding the dragon’s back (壬骑龙背) pattern, greatly noble. It dislikes a Fire Dragon (丙辰) month, an early death with the body not whole; a Fire Goat (丁未) month, breaking the ancestors, solitude; a Metal Ox (辛丑) month, great ruin, punishment.
若寅午月生，财星旺；辰戌丑未，官旺，俱吉。纯辰，透庚壬，作壬骑龙背格，大贵。忌丙辰月，夭死，尸不全；丁未月破祖，孤；辛丑月大破，刑。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Metal Ox (Xin Chou, 辛丑)
Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未), mixed-qi wealth, officer and Direct Resource (印绶), all favourable. Spring middling, summer wealth and the prosperity star (禄), autumn favourable with ill within it. Winter, the self strong, and it must run a southern period to show.
辰戌丑未，杂气财官印绶，俱吉。春平，夏财禄，秋吉，中有凶。冬身旺，须行南运方显。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Water Tiger (Ren Yin, 壬寅)
pure Dragon (辰), the Yang Water riding the dragon’s back (壬骑龙背) pattern; with no Yang Fire (丙), Yin Fire (丁), Yang Earth (戊) or Yin Earth (己) at the head of the stems, running a Friend (比肩) period, greatly noble. Pure Tiger (寅), greatly wealthy. Rabbit (卯) and Dog (戌) months with Wood and Metal periods, third to fifth grade, noble. A Horse (午) month, ordinary.
纯辰，壬骑龙背格，干头无丙丁戊己，运行比肩，大贵。纯寅大富。卯戌月，木金运，三五品贵。午月，平常。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Water Rabbit (Gui Mao, 癸卯)
carrying a month where the self is strong, seeing Earth and Metal to break the blade, running a wealth period, noble.
通身旺月，见土金破刃，行财运，贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Wood Dragon (Jia Chen, 甲辰)
born in a Dragon (辰) month, Yang Water riding the dragon’s back (壬骑龙背), greatly noble. A Tiger (寅) month, if not noble then wealthy. A Dog (戌) month, mixed-qi wealth and officer, clashing open the Dragon vault, a high destiny. A Rat (子) month, cutting the root and damaging the leaves, made and unmade, unsettled. A Goat (未) month with Metal and Water periods, noble.
辰月生，壬骑龙背，大贵。寅月，不贵即富。戌月，杂气财官，冲开辰库，高命。子月，断根损叶，成败不定。未月，金水运，贵。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Wood Snake (Yi Si, 乙巳)
spring middling, summer wealth, autumn settled and solid, winter with no help or rescue, it governs poverty and bitterness.
春平，夏财，秋稳实，冬无助救，主贫苦。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Fire Horse (Bing Wu, 丙午)
Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌) months, the wealth strong, greatly noble.
寅午戌月，财旺，大贵。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Fire Goat (Ding Wei, 丁未)
born in a Dragon (辰) month, the Yang Water riding the dragon’s back (壬骑龙背) frame, conspicuously noble. A Tiger (寅) month, the wife taken twice and the children glorious. The triad binding a Water frame, the self strong with nothing to lean on, mostly poor and harming the wife.
辰月生，壬骑龙背局，贵显。寅月，妻重子荣。三合水局，身旺无倚，多贫克妻。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Earth Monkey (Wu Shen, 戊申)
born in a Dog (戌) month, early success in the examinations, office to a regional post. Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯), Ox (丑), Monkey (申), Rat (子) and Horse (午) in year or month, extremely noble, a military office of the first grade.
戌月生，早登科甲，官至方面。寅卯丑申子午等年月，极贵，武职一品。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Earth Rooster (Ji You, 己酉)
high; where the month matches the day, Yang Water riding the dragon’s back (壬骑龙背), greatly noble. A Snake (巳) month running a northeastern period, noble.
高，月同日，壬骑龙背，大贵。巳月，行东北运，贵。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Metal Dog (Geng Xu, 庚戌)
a summer month, if not wealthy then noble; spring middling, autumn settled, winter hard toil and labour, or a monk or priest, with wealth broken and punished.
夏月，不富则贵，春平，秋稳，冬辛勤劳苦，或为僧道，有财破刑。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Metal Pig (Xin Hai, 辛亥)
fine and noble, and a bad death. A Horse (午) month with no Yin Earth (己) at the head of the stems, the blue cloud road is open; if there is a Yang Wood (甲) binding, it is putting away the officer and keeping the Killings (煞), third or fourth grade, noble. A Rooster (酉) month also noble.
秀贵、恶死，午月，干头无己土，青云得路，若有甲合，为去官留煞，三四品贵。酉月亦贵。
Named days in Yuan Hai Zi Ping (渊海子平)
These are decided by the day pillar alone, so everyone born on a Ren Chen day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
The Kui Gang (魁罡) days
The day pillar is one of Water Dragon (壬辰), Metal Dog (庚戌), Earth Dog (戊戌) or Metal Dragon (庚辰).
夫魁罡者有四：壬辰、庚戌、戊戌、庚辰日是也；如日位加临者众，必是福。运行身旺，发福百端；一见财官，祸患立至。
The Dragon 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
- Dog
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Rooster
- In a trine with
- Rat, Monkey
- Punishment with
- Dragon (itself)
- Harms
- Rabbit
- Breaks
- Ox
The next Ren Chen days: 14 November 2026, 13 January 2027, 14 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Ren Chen day
- Lee Kuan Yew Founding Prime Minister of Singapore
The Yang Water day master · Before it: Xin Mao · After it: Gui Si · All sixty day pillars