Yin Wood Ox (Yi Chou, 乙丑) day pillar
A Yin Wood day master, the Vine, 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 Yi Chou 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:
Raw ore; likes Fire, and days and hours of the south.
为顽矿，喜火及南方日时
What the Ox holds, and what it is to Yin 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 Earth (Ji, 己), the main one — Indirect Wealth (Pian Cai, 偏财). What you control, same polarity. Wealth that comes sideways rather than by salary — the uneven kind.
- Yin Water (Gui, 癸) — 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 Metal (Xin, 辛) — 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.
A Yi 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 Yi Chou day; what it says about the other five Yin Wood days is on the Yin Wood day master page. Hours are true solar time, not clock time.
Rat hour 23:00–01:00 · Yang Fire Rat (Bing Zi, 丙子)
the self weak, ordinary; with no Horse (午) piercing or clashing, worthy, virtuous, warm and thick. Monkey (申) and Rooster (酉) in year or month, the censorate. Tiger (寅) and Rat (子), conspicuously noble. It dislikes Fire Tiger (丙寅), Earth Goat (己未), Wood Dog (甲戌) and Earth Ox (己丑) months, which govern cruel punishment and a bad death.
身弱平常，无午穿冲，贤德温厚。申酉年月，风宪。寅子，贵显。忌丙寅、己未、甲戌、己丑等月，主凶刑恶死。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Fire Ox (Ding Chou, 丁丑)
born in autumn, authority, and it governs carrying illness; summer favourable, winter middling, spring strong — noble and long-lived.
秋生有权；主带疾；夏吉，冬平；春旺，贵寿。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Earth Tiger (Wu Yin, 戊寅)
high; born in a Rat (子) year or Dog (戌) month, wealth and rank. Dragon (辰) and Dog running Wood and Fire periods, awe and authority.
高，生子年戌月者，富贵。辰戌，行木火运，威权。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Earth Rabbit (Ji Mao, 己卯)
high, and great blessing in middle age. Born in spring the self is too strong and solitary. Summer, poor. Autumn, carrying illness. Winter, warm and thick. Where the pillars show no Yin Metal (辛), favourable. In Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) or Goat (未) months, gold and purple nobility.
高，中年大福。春生，身太旺，孤。夏贫。秋有疾。冬温厚。柱不见辛金，吉。若辰戌丑未月，金紫贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Metal Dragon (Geng Chen, 庚辰)
breaks the ancestors and harms the father; the self weak and troubled by illness; where the month qi runs through, noble. Rat (子) and Monkey (申) in year or month with Yang Wood (甲) and Yang Earth (戊) showing at the stems, the three marvels bound together — greatly noble.
破祖克父，身弱忌疾，通月气者，贵。子申年月，天干透甲戊，合三奇，大贵。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Metal Snake (Xin Si, 辛巳)
mixed first and pure after. Born in a Tiger (寅), Horse (午), Yang Fire (丙) or Yin Fire (丁) year or month, the Seven Killings (偏官) is held in check — read as a high destiny. Snake (巳), Monkey (申), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑) months, officer and Killings (煞) doubled over, often carrying illness and following the Killings — also favourable. Only where the self is strong does it govern military authority and a name.
先杂后纯，生寅午丙丁年月，偏官有制，作高命看。巳申酉丑月，官煞重叠，多带疾从煞，亦吉。惟身强主兵权，有名誉。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Water Horse (Ren Wu, 壬午)
spring and summer, mostly wealth and rank. Autumn and winter, officer and Resource (印), or pure Killings (煞) showing at the stems — better still.
春夏多富贵。秋冬官印，或纯煞透干，尤吉。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Water Goat (Gui Wei, 癸未)
cruel punishment and solitude; where year and month carry Earth qi, favourable.
凶刑孤独，年月通土气，吉。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Wood Monkey (Jia Shen, 甲申)
high. Pure Rat (子) and Dragon (辰) in year and month, running a southeastern period, greatly noble. Snake (巳), Rooster (酉) and Ox (丑), noble, though ill must be guarded against within it. Pure Horse (午) and Goat (未), favourable. Pig (亥) and Rabbit (卯) also favourable. Other months are middling.
高，纯子辰年月，行东南运，大贵。巳酉丑，贵；中防凶。午未纯，吉。亥卯亦吉。余月平平。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Wood Rooster (Yi You, 乙酉)
high; born in Snake (巳), Rooster (酉) or Ox (丑) months binding a Metal frame, and running a western period besides, greatly noble. Tiger (寅), Horse (午) and Dog (戌) months, poor and low. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯) and Goat (未) months, favourable. Pure Rat (子) in year and month running a southern period, first or second grade. A Tiger month, Fire and Metal, seventh grade. A Monkey (申) month, Water and Wood, gold and purple.
高，生巳酉丑月，合金局，更行西运，大贵。寅午戌月，贫下。亥卯未月，吉。纯子年月，行南运，一二品贵。寅月火金，七品贵。申月水木，金紫贵。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Fire Dog (Bing Xu, 丙戌)
spring, the self strong, favourable. Summer, the Hurting Officer (伤官) too heavy. Autumn, toil and hardship. Winter with Pig (亥) or Rat (子), Direct Resource (印绶) carrying Hurting Officer — extremely noble. A Dog (戌) month with Wood and Fire periods, seventh grade. Pure Dog in year and month with Yang Metal (庚) and Yang Fire (丙) showing at the stems, greatly noble. Tiger (寅) and Horse (午) binding as Fire, early death.
春身旺，吉。夏，伤官太重。秋，劳力辛苦。冬亥子，印绶带伤官，极贵。戌月，木火运，七品贵。纯戌年月，天干透庚丙者，大贵。寅午合火者夭。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai, 丁亥)
fine; born in Yang Water (壬), Rat (子), Monkey (申), Goat (未) or Rabbit (卯) months with wealth and Resource (印) showing at the stems, talent and virtue both complete, a post in the censorate. Where the stems and branches of year and month are pure Metal, the self declining and the Killings (煞) strong, it governs a cruel death.
秀，生壬子申未卯月，干透财印者，才德兼全，职在风宪。年月干支纯金，身衰煞旺，主凶死。
Named days in Yuan Hai Zi Ping (渊海子平)
These are decided by the day pillar alone, so everyone born on a Yi Chou 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 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 Yi Chou days: 17 December 2026, 15 February 2027, 16 April 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Yi Chou day
- Lei Jun Founder, Xiaomi
The Yin Wood day master · Before it: Jia Zi · After it: Bing Yin · All sixty day pillars