How is the Day Master found?
It is the stem of your day pillar. Days follow the cycle of sixty stem and branch pairs, which has run without a break for centuries, so the pillar of any date can be counted from a fixed point and needs no table. The stems take turns, so every tenth day has the same Day Master.
The date is your local date by the clock where you were born. The hour from 23:00 to midnight is where schools differ: Auspica’s default keeps it in the day that is ending, and the other convention starts the new day at 23:00. True solar time, an option in the app, can also move a birth near midnight into the next or previous day. How Auspica calculates a chart sets out each rule, and What is BaZi? explains the rest of the chart.
The ten Day Masters
Each stem as a Day Master, with its element and polarity. Tap one for its glossary entry.
| Day Master | Element | Polarity | In a few words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲Yang Wood | 木 Wood | Yang | Tall timber: a tree, not a vine. Upright, steady, slow to bend. |
| 乙Yin Wood | 木 Wood | Yin | Living greenery: the vine, not the trunk. Adaptable, persuasive, quietly persistent. |
| 丙Yang Fire | 火 Fire | Yang | The sun: warmth for everyone, not a spotlight. Open, generous, hard to ignore. |
| 丁Yin Fire | 火 Fire | Yin | Firelight: the candle, not the sun. Attentive, warm, focused on a few. |
| 戊Yang Earth | 土 Earth | Yang | Solid ground: the mountain, not the field. Dependable, protective, hard to move. |
| 己Yin Earth | 土 Earth | Yin | Garden soil: ground that grows things. Nurturing, practical, quietly capable. |
| Yang Metal | 金 Metal | Yang | Raw metal: the axe, not the needle. Direct, decisive, loyal. |
| Yin Metal | 金 Metal | Yin | Refined metal: jewellery, not a sword. Precise, polished, quietly exacting. |
| 壬Yang Water | 水 Water | Yang | Open water: the river, not the dew. Resourceful, restless, far-seeing. |
| 癸Yin Water | 水 Water | Yin | Fine water: mist and rain, not the river. Intuitive, patient, quietly influential. |
Questions about the Day Master
What is my Day Master?
The heavenly stem of the day you were born, one of ten: Yang or Yin Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water. BaZi reads it as you, and reads the rest of your chart by how it relates to it.
How do I find my Day Master?
Look up the day pillar of your birth date; its stem is your Day Master. The lookup on this page does that in your browser. Only a birth between 23:00 and midnight needs the time, because schools differ on which day that hour belongs to.
Does the Day Master change?
No. It is fixed by your birth date. The years and the ten-year luck pillars change around it, and they are read by how they meet it.
What is the difference between the Day Master and my zodiac sign?
Your zodiac animal is the branch of your year pillar and is shared by everyone born that year. Your Day Master is the stem of your day pillar, which changes daily, and BaZi treats it as the centre of the chart.
How many people share my Day Master?
About one in ten. The ten stems take turns day by day, so every tenth day has the same Day Master. The rest of the chart is what makes it yours.