Yang Water Monkey (Ren Shen, 壬申) day pillar
A Yang Water day master, the Ocean, sitting on the Monkey.
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 Shen day.
Its sound element: Metal of the Sword’s Edge (Jian Feng Jin, 剑锋金)
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:
Spear and halberd; greatly likes the Rat, Horse, Rabbit and Rooster.
戈戟，大喜子午卯酉
What the Monkey 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 Metal (Geng, 庚), the main one — Indirect Resource (Pian Yin, 偏印). What produces you, same polarity. Support of an indirect kind — the tradition treats it as nourishment that can also crowd out the Eating God (食神).
- Yang Water (Ren, 壬) — 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 Earth (Wu, 戊) — 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.
In San Ming Tong Hui’s section on where each stem is born and dies, the Monkey is where Yang Water is born (Chang Sheng, 长生).
A Ren Shen 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 Shen 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)
poor, punishment. A Goat (未) month, mixed-qi wealth and officer, running a period where wealth is strong, conspicuously noble, hard first and easy after. Dragon (辰), gathering as Water too strong, and it must run Fire and Earth periods, favourable. Ox (丑) and Dog (戌), wealth, officer and Direct Resource (印绶), all favourable. Spring and winter ordinary; autumn and summer, favourable and glad. It dislikes a Wood Snake (乙巳) month, taking punishment, early death; Fire Rooster (丁酉), early death; a Wood Pig (乙亥) month, solitude and self-punishment.
贫、刑。未月，杂气财官，行财旺运贵显，先难后易。辰，会水太旺，须行火土运，吉。丑、戌，财官印绶，俱吉。春冬平常，秋夏吉庆。忌乙巳月受刑，夭；丁酉，夭；乙亥月孤，自刑。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Metal Ox (Xin Chou, 辛丑)
Tiger (寅), Rabbit (卯), Pig (亥) and Goat (未) in year or month, a graduate and the censorate, office to the second grade, with risings and fallings at the end. Dragon (辰) and Dog (戌), ample and sufficient. Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉), enjoying it naturally, and running a northern period also noble.
寅卯亥未年月，进士风宪，官至二品，终有起倒。辰戌，富足。申酉，享用自然，行北运亦贵。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Water Tiger (Ren Yin, 壬寅)
Snake (巳), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑) months, a military office of the third grade. Metal Rabbit (辛卯) and Dog (戌) months, also noble. Rat (子) and Tiger (寅), greatly noble. One account says poor and then it comes out, and not for long either.
巳酉丑月，武职三品。辛卯、戌月，亦贵。子寅，大贵。一云贫而发，亦不久。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Water Rabbit (Gui Mao, 癸卯)
Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯), Goat (未) and Tiger (寅) months, Hurting Officer (伤官) injured to the full, the wife worthy and the children filial, a noble destiny where Earth (土) is thick. Pure Dragon (辰), medicine and divination. A Rat (子) month, Water and Wood, noble.
亥卯未寅月，伤官伤尽，妻贤子孝，土厚贵命。纯辰，医卜。子月水木，贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Wood Dragon (Jia Chen, 甲辰)
calamity of Water and Fire. Ox (丑) and Tiger (寅) in year or month, letters practised and military authority. Pure Rat (子) with Metal and Fire periods, a regional post.
水火灾，丑寅年月，文行武权。纯子，金火运，方面。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Wood Snake (Yi Si, 乙巳)
the self sits on long life and the hall of learning; money advances and retreats, name and profit driven along. A Wood month running a northern period, noble. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌) and Ox (丑), all favourable.
身坐长生学堂，财帛进退，名利驱驰。木月，行北运，贵。辰戌丑，俱吉。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Fire Horse (Bing Wu, 丙午)
carrying a month of Metal and Water qi, noble; not carrying it, abandoning the destiny and going to wealth, it governs riches; otherwise extremely poor and low.
通金水月气，贵；不通，弃命就财，主富，不然，极贫下。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Fire Goat (Ding Wei, 丁未)
greatly wealthy. Snake (巳) and Horse (午) in year or month, or Yang Earth (戊) and Yin Earth (己) showing, wealth and rank both complete.
大富。巳午年月，或透戊己，富贵双全。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Earth Monkey (Wu Shen, 戊申)
the Yang Water (壬) at its long life dwelling on Monkey (申), the Killings (煞) strong and the self robust; and born in a Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) or Goat (未) month besides, the Seven Killings (偏官) held in check, favourable.
壬水长生，居申，煞旺身强，更生亥卯未月，偏官有制，吉。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Earth Rooster (Ji You, 己酉)
officer and Resource (印) come to the gate; with nothing in the frame to clash or break it, the prosperity star (禄) and horse both complete — if not noble then wealthy. Born in a Dog (戌) month with a southeastern quarter period, gold at the waist and purple robes.
官印临门，局中无冲破，禄马双全，不贵即富。戌月生，东南方运，腰金衣紫。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Metal Dog (Geng Xu, 庚戌)
carrying a month of Fire and Wood qi, wealth and rank; not carrying it, running a period that runs through is also good. Ox (丑) and Dog (戌) in year or month, greatly noble.
通火木月气，富贵；不通，行通运，亦好。丑戌年月，大贵。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Metal Pig (Xin Hai, 辛亥)
noble. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未), mixed-qi wealth and officer, favourable. With no Yin Earth (己) at the stems of year or month, it enters the day’s prosperity star (日禄) pattern; a Rooster (酉) month and a Monkey (申) or Rabbit (卯) year, running a northeastern period, conspicuously noble.
贵。辰戌丑未，杂气财官，吉。年月干无己土，入日禄格，酉月申卯年，行东北运，显贵。
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 Shen day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
The ten unpardonable days
The day pillar is one of the ten whose prosperity star (禄) falls in its own decade's Void (空亡). The passage is explicit that it is not simply bad — 况犯者未必皆凶，若内有吉神相扶，贵气相辅，当为吉论 — so it is reported and not graded.
六甲旬中十个日值禄人空亡，如甲辰、乙巳，甲以寅为禄，乙以卯为禄，甲辰旬以寅卯为空亡……余如丙申、丁亥、庚辰、戊戌、癸亥、辛巳、乙丑等日皆仿此。命中犯者，当以日上见之为是，其余不论
The Monkey 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
- Tiger
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Snake
- In a trine with
- Rat, Dragon
- Punishment with
- Tiger, Snake
- Harms
- Pig
- Breaks
- Snake
The next Ren Shen days: 24 December 2026, 22 February 2027, 23 April 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Ren Shen day
- Run Run Shaw Film and television producer · Shaw Brothers, TVB
The Yang Water day master · Before it: Xin Wei · After it: Gui You · All sixty day pillars