Your Day Master is the heavenly stem of your day pillar (see what the Day Master is). If yours is 乙, you are a Yin Wood Day Master. Not sure? The free calculator shows it at the top of your chart.
| Stem | 乙 Yi |
|---|---|
| Element · polarity | Wood · Yin |
| Sibling stem | 甲 Jia Wood (yang) |
| Strongest season | spring (寅 卯 months) |
| Birth · Peak · Tomb | 午 · 寅 · 戌 (twelve life stages) |
| Combines with | 庚 — the pair is said to transform into metal (combinations) |
| Clashed by | 辛 |
The classical verse
The Di Tian Sui (滴天髓), the most quoted text on the ten stems, gives 乙 a verse of eight four-character lines:
乙木雖柔，刲羊解牛，懷丁抱丙，跨雞乘猴，虛濕之地，騎馬亦憂，籐蘿繫甲，可春可秋。“Yi wood, though soft, can cut the Goat and loosen the Ox. Holding Ding and embracing Bing, it can ride the Rooster and mount the Monkey. On damp and empty ground, even riding the Horse brings worry. A vine tied to Jia does well in spring and in autumn.”— Di Tian Sui (Drops from Heaven’s Marrow) 《滴天髓》, 天干論. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
Reading the verse line by line
The commentary begins by defining Yi as the wood of branches and leaves, soft like flowering plants:
乙為枝葉之木，柔如花卉“Yi is the wood of branches and leaves, soft like flowers and plants.”— Di Tian Sui (Drops from Heaven’s Marrow) 《滴天髓》, 天干論. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
“Cut the Goat and loosen the Ox.” The Goat is 未 and the Ox is 丑, both yin earth. Though soft, yin wood can still control yin earth, so Yi sitting on 丑 or 未 is not overwhelmed by them.
“Holding Ding and embracing Bing, it can ride the Rooster and mount the Monkey.” The Rooster (酉) and Monkey (申) are the metal months of autumn, when wood is weakest. With fire in the chart to restrain the metal, Yi is not afraid even there:
只要有一丙丁，則雖申酉之月，亦不畏怯“As long as there is one Bing or Ding, then even in a Shen or You month it is not afraid.”— Di Tian Sui (Drops from Heaven’s Marrow) 《滴天髓》, 天干論. Original text: Wikisource · also on ctext.org (different edition). Translation: bazimethod.
“On damp and empty ground, even riding the Horse brings worry.” The Horse is 午, a fire branch, normally good for warming wood. But if Yi is born in the cold water month 子 with 辛, 壬 or 癸 showing, one 午 cannot save it; fire is outnumbered by water, and 午 also drains Yi.
“A vine tied to Jia.” If the chart has plenty of 甲 or 寅, Yi climbs them like wisteria climbing a tall tree, and does well in both spring and autumn. In ten-gods terms 甲 is Yi’s Rob Wealth; here it is read as support.
Yi in the four seasons
- Spring: in season and flourishing; fire to let it bloom is welcome.
- Summer: fire drains wood and dries the soil; water is valued.
- Autumn: metal is strong; per the verse, fire is the key, and 甲 or 寅 to lean on helps.
- Winter: cold and wet; warmth from 丙 fire matters most.
The ten gods for a 乙 Day Master
Every other stem in your chart takes a role relative to 乙. This is the ten gods table worked out for Yi Wood; hidden stems inside the branches (see hidden stems) use the same table.
| Stem | Element | Ten god | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 Jia | Yang Wood | 劫财 | Rob Wealth |
| 乙 Yi | Yin Wood | 比肩 | Companion |
| 丙 Bing | Yang Fire | 伤官 | Hurting Officer |
| 丁 Ding | Yin Fire | 食神 | Eating God |
| 戊 Wu | Yang Earth | 正财 | Direct Wealth |
| 己 Ji | Yin Earth | 偏财 | Indirect Wealth |
| 庚 Geng | Yang Metal | 正官 | Direct Officer |
| 辛 Xin | Yin Metal | 七杀 | Seven Killings |
| 壬 Ren | Yang Water | 正印 | Direct Resource |
| 癸 Gui | Yin Water | 偏印 | Indirect Resource |
Strong or weak?
Whether a 乙 Day Master is strong or weak depends on the whole chart, above all the month branch. In the yin-backward arrangement Yi has its Peak at 寅 and its Birth at 午, but most practitioners simply count wood roots — 寅, 卯, and wood hidden in 辰, 未 and 亥 — plus water (resource) as support. Metal, earth and heavy fire weaken it. The general method is on the Day Master and useful god pages.
A word on personality descriptions
Many websites give each Day Master a fixed personality. The classical texts do not work that way: the verse above describes how 乙 behaves in different seasons and next to other elements, and the same 乙 reads very differently in a summer chart and a winter chart. We give the traditional images as tradition, for cultural study, not as a description of any real person.
All ten Day Masters
甲 Jia Wood · 乙 Yi Wood · 丙 Bing Fire · 丁 Ding Fire · 戊 Wu Earth · 己 Ji Earth · 庚 Geng Metal · 辛 Xin Metal · 壬 Ren Water · 癸 Gui Water
Calculate your chart to find your Day Master, its strength factors and your luck pillars.
Keep learning
More in Day Masters, plus core guides — or go back to the Bazi calculator home page.
Classical quotations are copied from the public-domain texts on Wikisource; links let you check every line. English translations are our own. Traditional Bazi statements are reported as tradition, not as fact.