Yin Wood Rooster (Yi You, 乙酉) day pillar
A Yin Wood day master, the Vine, sitting on the Rooster.
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 You day.
Its sound element: Water in the Spring (Quan Zhong Shui, 泉中水)
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:
Water in a shaded gully; likes the east, and the south.
阴壑水，喜东方及南
What the Rooster 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 Metal (Xin, 辛), 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.
A Yi You 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 You 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)
noble, the self solitary, rising and falling over and over; where the month carries Water qi and no Yin Metal (辛) or Horse (午) is seen, also noble. It dislikes an Earth Tiger (戊寅) month, greatly ill; a Fire Snake (丁巳) month breaks the ancestors and is poor; an Earth Rooster (己酉) month dies on the Metal blade.
贵，身孤，反复起倒，月通水气，不见辛午亦贵。忌戊寅月，大凶；丁巳月，破祖贫；己酉月，金刃死。
Ox hour 01:00–03:00 · Yin Fire Ox (Ding Chou, 丁丑)
where it carries Wood qi and has something to lean on, conspicuously noble. Monkey (申) and Ox (丑) in year or month are also good; Tiger (寅) and Pig (亥) better still.
若通木气有倚托者，显贵。申丑年月亦好，寅亥尤佳。
Tiger hour 03:00–05:00 · Yang Earth Tiger (Wu Yin, 戊寅)
born in spring, wealthy; summer, middling; autumn, noble but short-lived; winter, favourable.
春生富，夏平、秋贵、寿促，冬吉。
Rabbit hour 05:00–07:00 · Yin Earth Rabbit (Ji Mao, 己卯)
fine. The early years break the ancestral estate, the middle years make money; a Goat (未) year brings solitude and punishment.
秀，初年破祖，中主发财，未年孤刑。
Dragon hour 07:00–09:00 · Yang Metal Dragon (Geng Chen, 庚辰)
Pig (亥) and Rat (子) in year or month with Yang Earth (戊) and Yin Water (癸) showing at the stems, noble. Tiger (寅), Snake (巳) and Horse (午) months, officer and Killings (煞) held in check, favourable. Pure Rooster (酉) transforming to Metal governs a thick blessing.
亥子年月，干透戊癸，贵。寅巳午月，官煞有制，吉。纯酉化金，主厚福。
Snake hour 09:00–11:00 · Yin Metal Snake (Xin Si, 辛巳)
if born in a Goat (未) month, the self sits on what checks it and is favourable. Autumn Seven Killings (偏官), noble. A Rooster (酉) month running a southern period, poor — or else crippled.
若未月生，身坐制伏则吉。秋偏官，贵。酉月，行南方运，贫，不然残疾。
Horse hour 11:00–13:00 · Yang Water Horse (Ren Wu, 壬午)
spring favourable; autumn and summer ordinary. Where the pillars are pure Wood Rooster (乙酉) with Yang Metal (庚) showing and binding to transform, or a Resource (印) seen to help, greatly noble.
春吉。秋夏平常。柱纯乙酉，透庚合化，或见印助，大贵。
Goat hour 13:00–15:00 · Yin Water Goat (Gui Wei, 癸未)
the self sits on the Killings (煞). Spring, the self strong, favourable. Summer, the self weak and the Killings in decline, poor. Autumn, the Killings strong and the self able to follow the transformation, noble. Winter, middling. Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox (丑) and Goat (未) months with Yang Metal (庚) or Yin Metal (辛) showing, running a Metal period, noble. Once it reaches a blade period, office is lost and the post given up.
身坐煞，春，身旺，吉。夏，身弱煞衰，贫。秋，煞旺，身能从化，贵。冬平。辰戌丑未月，透庚辛，行金运，贵。一到刃运，退官罢职。
Monkey hour 15:00–17:00 · Yang Wood Monkey (Jia Shen, 甲申)
officer and Killings (煞) mixed together; if the pillars hold Yin Fire (丁) to check the Killings and keep the officer, favourable. Pig (亥), Rabbit (卯), Goat (未) and Rooster (酉) in year or month, a military office of the highest grade, though not for long; running a southeastern period, greatly noble.
官煞混杂，若柱丁火制煞留官则吉。亥卯未酉年月，武职极品；不久；行东南方运，大贵。
Rooster hour 17:00–19:00 · Yin Wood Rooster (Yi You, 乙酉)
self-punishment at the place of strength; with Fire and Earth heavy in year and month it governs calamity. If the month qi runs through with Resource (印) and Eating God (食) showing, running Fire and Wood periods, greatly noble. The branches pure Rooster (酉) transform into a Metal image, and carrying a Direct Resource (印绶) besides, the nobility is beyond words. What it fears most is meeting the officer in the year or period.
旺处自刑，年月火土重，主灾。若通月气，透出印食，行火木运，大贵。地支纯酉，化成金象，但带印绶，贵不可言。最怕岁运遇官。
Dog hour 19:00–21:00 · Yang Fire Dog (Bing Xu, 丙戌)
spring, the self strong; winter, the Resource (印) strong — greatly noble. Summer with Snake (巳) or Horse (午), autumn with Rooster (酉) or Dog (戌) — both noble. Look also to what the stems are. Fire Goat (丁未) and Wood Dragon (甲辰), a hard living; noble met with all one's life. An Ox (丑) month, punishment. Dog, favourable.
春身旺，冬印旺，大贵。夏巳午，秋酉戌，俱贵。亦看天干如何？丁未、甲辰，生计辛苦；一生遇贵。丑月刑。戌吉。
Pig hour 21:00–23:00 · Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai, 丁亥)
the month carrying a Metal frame, running a Water period, greatly noble. Carrying Wood qi, it comes out. Earth qi, it answers to the wish.
月通金局，行水运，大贵。通木气，发达。土气，称意。
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 You day is in them. The work attaches conditions to most of them; the passage is given whole.
The womb meeting the Direct Resource
The day pillar is one of Metal Tiger (庚寅), Metal Rabbit (辛卯), Fire Monkey (丙申) or Wood Rooster (乙酉). The passage also wants the month command to be a Direct Resource (印绶); only the four day pillars it names are judged here.
经云：胞胎逢印绶，禄享千锺。如庚寅、辛卯、丙申、乙酉等，日时月令逢印绶之地，主贵
The Rooster 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
- Rabbit
- Pairs with (six harmony)
- Dragon
- In a trine with
- Ox, Snake
- Punishment with
- Rooster (itself)
- Harms
- Dog
- Breaks
- Rat
The next Yi You days: 7 November 2026, 6 January 2027, 7 March 2027. It returns every sixty days.
Famous people born on a Yi You day
- Jay Chou Singer-songwriter
- Beyoncé Singer
- Oprah Winfrey Television host and producer
The Yin Wood day master · Before it: Jia Shen · After it: Bing Xu · All sixty day pillars