Yin Wood Goat (Yi Wei, 乙未) day pillar
A Yin Wood day master, the Vine, sitting on the Goat.
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 Wei day.
Its sound element: Gold in the Sand (Sha Zhong Jin, 沙中金)
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:
Metal left among the furnace coals; likes great Fire, and Earth.
炉炭余金，喜大火及土
What the Goat 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 Fire (Ding, 丁) — Eating God (Shi Shen, 食神). What you produce, same polarity. Output that comes easily: making, feeding, expressing, without strain.
- Yin Wood (Yi, 乙) — 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 Yi Wei 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 Wei 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)
ordinary. If Rat (子) or Pig (亥) stand in year or month, greatly noble, and the year period likewise. It dislikes Snake (巳) and Goat (未) months, punishment and injury; a Fire Monkey (丙申) month dies without a whole body; an Earth Ox (己丑) month breaks the ancestors and dies badly.
平。若子亥年月，大贵，岁运同。忌巳未月，刑伤，丙申月，身不完死；己丑月，破祖恶死。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Fire Ox (Ding Chou, 丁丑)
Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months, wealthy. Spring, long life; autumn, name and profit; summer, poor and low; winter, ordinary. Monkey (申) in year or month, a military office of the third grade.
辰戌丑未月，富。春寿长，秋名利，夏贫下，冬平常，申年月，武职三品。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Earth Tiger (Wu Yin, 戊寅)
born in spring, long life. Autumn, conspicuously noble. Summer, ordinary; winter, reversals. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌) and Goat (未) are all favourable, and the year period likewise.
春生有寿。秋贵显。夏平常，冬反复。辰戌且未，俱吉。岁运同。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Earth Rabbit (Ji Mao, 己卯)
with no Yang Metal (庚) or Yin Metal (辛) in year or month, noble. Born in autumn, look to whether the ground is thick or thin; born in a Water Dog (壬戌) year or month, third or fourth grade.
年月不见庚辛金，贵。秋生，看地厚薄，如生壬戌年月，三四品贵。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Metal Dragon (Geng Chen, 庚辰)
Pig (亥) and Rabbit (卯) make the self strong; Snake (巳) and Monkey (申), the officer strong; with Killings (煞) and Resource (印) showing at the stems, all noble. Ox (丑) and Rooster (酉) as pure Killings, with Fire in the pillars to check it, also favourable. Dog (戌) and Ox in year or month, the four vaults complete — greatly noble.
亥卯身，身旺；巳申，官旺，天干透煞印，皆贵。丑酉纯煞，柱有火制，亦吉。戌丑年月，四库全，大贵。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Metal Snake (Xin Si, 辛巳)
a Horse (午) month with strong stems, a military office and a name. Pig (亥) and Rat (子) as Direct Resource (印绶), favourable.
午月干强，武职，有名誉。亥子印绶，吉。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Water Horse (Ren Wu, 壬午)
Tiger (寅) and Rabbit (卯) make the self strong, Pig (亥) and Rat (子) make the Resource (印) strong, an Ox (丑) month gives wealth, officer and Resource as three marvels — all govern conspicuous nobility. A Monkey (申) month is Direct Officer (正官), better still. If Metal Horse (庚午) or Fire Pig (丁亥) stand in year or month, the Eating God (食神) shares one nest, and coming to the food it sees its prosperity star (禄) — wealth and rank.
寅卯身旺，亥子印旺，丑月财官印三奇，俱主贵显。申月正官，尤吉，若庚午、丁亥年月，食神同窠，就食见禄，富贵。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Water Goat (Gui Wei, 癸未)
spring, the self strong, punishment and injury. Autumn, officer and Killings (煞) strong, a share in the examination lists. Winter, settled. Summer, ordinary.
春，身旺刑伤。秋，官煞旺，科名有分。冬安稳。夏平常。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Wood Monkey (Jia Shen, 甲申)
born in Goat (未), Rooster (酉) or Pig (亥) months, clever, handsome and outstanding, office to the second or third grade. Yang Fire (丙), Yin Fire (丁), Tiger (寅), Horse (午), Rabbit (卯) and Rooster in year or month, Hurting Officer (伤) and Eating God (食) checking the Killings (煞) — authority and rank.
生未酉亥月，聪俊特达，官至二三品。丙丁寅午卯酉年月，伤食制煞，权贵。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Wood Rooster (Yi You, 乙酉)
the Flanked Nobility (拱贵) pattern; with nothing punishing or breaking it, noble — with a Monkey (申) filling it in solid, not so. Pig (亥) and Rabbit (卯) months running a western period, noble.
拱贵格，无刑破者贵，有申填实则非。亥卯月，行西运，贵。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Fire Dog (Bing Xu, 丙戌)
ill at the place of strength. Rabbit (卯), Horse (午), Goat (未) and Dog (戌) in year or month, conspicuously noble.
旺处凶。卯午未戌年月，贵显。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai, 丁亥)
noble. Rat (子) and Pig (亥) in year or month, duke or marquis. Born in spring, running a western period, a junior office. Rooster (酉), solitary, noble. Wood and Fire in year or month govern success in the high examinations. Where Water, Earth and Metal bind with the day stem and transform to use, all favourable.
贵，子亥年月，公侯。春生，行西运，郎官。酉孤，贵。年月木火，主发高科。水土金与日干合化有用者，俱吉。
The Goat 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
- Ox
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Horse
- In a trine with
- Rabbit, Pig
- Punishment with
- Ox, Dog
- Harms
- Rat
- Breaks
- Dog
The next Yi Wei days: 17 November 2026, 16 January 2027, 17 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Yi Wei day
- Mahathir Mohamad Prime Minister of Malaysia, 1981–2003 and 2018–2020
- Wong Kar-wai Film director · In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express
The Yin Wood day master · Before it: Jia Wu · After it: Bing Shen · All sixty day pillars