Yin Metal Ox (Xin Chou, 辛丑) day pillar
A Yin Metal day master, the Jewel, sitting on the Ox.
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 Xin Chou day.
Its sound element: Earth on the Wall (Bi Shang Tu, 壁上土)
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 grave mound; likes Wood, Fire and spring.
坟墓，喜木及火与春
What the Ox holds, and what it is to Yin Metal
Each branch holds one to three stems. The ones under your own day master are the closest things to you in the chart.
- Yin Earth (Ji, 己), 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).
- Yin Water (Gui, 癸) — Eating God (Shi Shen, 食神). What you produce, same polarity. Output that comes easily: making, feeding, expressing, without strain.
- Yin Metal (Xin, 辛) — 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.
A Xin Chou 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 Xin Chou day; what it says about the other five Yin Metal days is on the Yin Metal day master page. Hours are true solar time, not clock time.
Rat hour 23:00–01:00 · Yang Earth Rat (Wu Zi, 戊子)
an Ox (丑) month, mixed-qi wealth and officer, noble. Pure Ox, a Confucian post. Pure Dragon (辰) running a western period, the chief censor. A Rooster (酉) month with a northeastern period, noble. It dislikes a Metal Tiger (庚寅) month, the branded face, ill; a Water Goat (癸未) month, taking punishment; a Water Ox (癸丑) month, ruin, solitude and ill.
丑月，杂气财官，贵。纯丑，儒职。纯辰、行西运，都宪。酉月，东北运，贵。忌庚寅月，刺面，凶。癸未月，受刑。癸丑月。破败孤凶。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Earth Ox (Ji Chou, 己丑)
solitary, turbid and halting in life. Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉) months, the Metal strong, and running to a country of Fire it is loosened through, with punishment and injury to wife and children; as a monk or priest, noble. Pure Ox (丑) with a southwestern period, greatly noble.
孤浊滞生。申酉月，金旺，运行火乡，疏通，刑伤妻子；为僧道，贵。纯丑，西南运，大贵。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Metal Tiger (Geng Yin, 庚寅)
spring noble; summer, the officer strong; autumn, coming to prominence; winter favourable. An Ox (丑) month with a southern period, the censorate or military nobility. One account says it comes out and then wind ailments. Where year and month are Rooster (酉) and Monkey (申) Metal with no Fire qi, poor and short-lived.
春贵；夏官旺；秋显达；冬吉。丑月、南运，风宪或武贵。一云发即风疾。年月酉、申金，无火气、贫夭。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Metal Rabbit (Xin Mao, 辛卯)
born in spring or summer where Earth (土) is thick, wealth and rank. Autumn, harming the wife and punishing the children. Winter, hardship. Tiger (寅), Snake (巳) and Horse (午) months, close to the throne, noble. A Wood Dog (甲戌) year or month with Wood and Fire periods, the censorate.
春、夏生土厚地方，富贵。秋，克妻刑子。冬、艰辛。寅巳午月，近待，贵。甲戌年月、木火运，风宪。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Water Dragon (Ren Chen, 壬辰)
spring, the wealth strong, the wife worthy and the children filial. Summer, Hurting Officer (伤官) seeing the officer — yet many are wealthy too. Autumn favourable. Winter, solitary and harmed, mostly noble.
春，财旺，妻贤子孝。夏，伤官见官，然亦多富。秋吉。冬，孤克，多贵。辛巳日在辰时，春、显达；夏，平常；有名利，主暴虐。酉月、行东运，贵。戌未，四库全，最贵。纯未，杂气财印。丑未，冲开，主有权贵。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Water Snake (Gui Si, 癸巳)
ill, parted from the parents and blessing comes out. Spring and summer favourable. Autumn and winter, cruel and violent. One account says transforming to nobility, and he should abstain from wine.
凶，别父母发福。春夏，吉。秋冬，凶暴。一云化贵、戒酒。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Wood Horse (Jia Wu, 甲午)
Goat (未) and Monkey (申) in year or month, and the four pillars holding profit and harm — though wealthy, an early death. Carrying Metal, though noble it does not last.
未申年月，四柱有利害，虽富寿夭。通金，虽贵不永。辛卯目甲午时，卯月，武贵。寅戌，破祖；不然，残夭。巳午七、八品贵。运同。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Wood Goat (Yi Wei, 乙未)
punishment. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯), Goat (未) and Tiger (寅) months, wealth strong producing the officer; if not noble then wealthy. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Rat (子), all favourable.
。刑。亥卯未寅月，财旺生官不贵则富。辰戌丑子，俱吉。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Fire Monkey (Bing Shen, 丙申)
transforming, noble. Halting and stripped in youth, conspicuously noble in the middle. A Pig (亥) month, read as the transformed qi, favourable. Tiger (寅), Horse (午), Yang Earth (戊), Snake (巳) and Goat (未) months, the officer star having qi; spring, the wealth strong — both favourable.
化贵。少年蹇剥，中贵显。亥月，作化气看。吉。寅午戊巳未月，官星有气；春，财旺，俱吉。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Fire Rooster (Ding You, 丁酉)
high, level and settled. A Rooster (酉) month with Earth and Wood periods, a regional post. Dog (戌), Pig (亥), Rat (子), Snake (巳) and Goat (未) in year or month, greatly noble.
高平稳。酉月、土木运，方面。戌亥子巳未年月，大贵。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Earth Dog (Wu Xu, 戊戌)
punishment and harm. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未), Direct Resource (印绶), running a southern period, greatly noble. Tiger (寅) and Snake (巳), Direct Officer (正官), noble. Rat (子), Horse (午), Rabbit (卯) and Rooster (酉), a military office and the censorate.
刑害。辰戌丑未，印绶，行南运，大贵。寅巳，正官，贵。子午卯酉，武职风宪。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Earth Pig (Ji Hai, 己亥)
born in Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑), Goat (未), Tiger (寅) or Rabbit (卯) months, it makes the Flying Prosperity Horse (飞天禄马), noble. A Goat month with Metal and Water periods, gold and purple, a regional post.
辰戌丑未及寅卯月生，作飞天禄马，贵。未月，金水运，金紫方面。
The Ox 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
- Goat
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Rat
- In a trine with
- Snake, Rooster
- Punishment with
- Goat, Dog
- Harms
- Horse
- Breaks
- Dragon
The next Xin Chou days: 23 November 2026, 22 January 2027, 23 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Xin Chou day
- Yo-Yo Ma Cellist
The Yin Metal day master · Before it: Geng Zi · After it: Ren Yin · All sixty day pillars